Teach English in Wujing Zhen - Shanghai Shi

Problems with learners in ChinaIntroduction I have chosen this topic ?Problems for learners in China? because it is highly relevant to me as I currently live in a small city in China and wish to teach here. So what are the problems will learners of english face in China? Well there are many reasons that could result in people from China having problems learning english, but cultural differences and grammatical differences play a big part. Grammar difficulties Difficulties faced by chinese people learning english are mainly due to vast differences between the two languages, grammatically and phonologically. It has been suggested that the greater the initial difference in a person?s mother tongue to that of the desired language being learned, the more acute the learning difficulties are (1).The differences between english and Mandarin are vast! For example, english is based around a Roman alphabet, whereas chinese has no alphabet at all, although ?pinyin? has gone some way to standardize this. This could result in some learners struggling to read english text or spell words correctly, especially adult learner who could have been educated when ?pinyin? was not long established into the educational system in 1958 (4). Most aspects of the english phonological system cause difficulties for chinese learners. Unlike english, chinese is a tonal language. This means that it uses the pitch to distinguish word meaning. In english, changes in pitch are used to emphasize or express emotion, not to give a different meaning to words. Because of this then chinese might have difficulties with english stresses and intonations, struggling to inflict personal expression or convey certain emotions when speaking. In english a great deal of information is implied through articles, verb tenses or modal verbs, none of which are as widely present, if at all, in the chinese language (5). Therefore chinese learners could find it difficult to communicate subtly when making suggestions or requests, instead coming across as abrupt and forceful. Another problem is Language interference, which means that due to a lack of knowledge of the learning language (english), students refer back to the grammatical structures of their own system and as mentioned above the differences in the two languages are vast, especially the rules on grammar (1). Cultural Issues The cultural differences between native english speaking countries and that of China are significant. With a history reaching back far greater than that of our own, these differences are fully ingrained into the psyche of the chinese people. So what are the differences and how might they effect learning english? Well, society in China is highly obedient and from an early age, children are brought up to respect their elders and people of a higher education or authority than them. This can cause very different cultural perceptions in the classroom. For example, a study looked at chinese ESL students and British teachers and found that the chinese learners did not see classroom discussion and interaction as important, but placed a heavy emphasis on teacher-directed lectures (2). This meant that chinese students found it difficult to contribute in open discussions or opinion giving when asked, and lessons are very much based on teacher centered activities where TTT is very high. Also in a lot of less developed cities in China, the teacher is the only source of authentic language they have, and exposure to this might happen only once a week. So the exposure to english and the possibilities of using it outside the classroom may be remote. With China still relatively new to the world stage and fast becoming a superpower, they have been forced to adopt the international language of business, english (3). This adoption has led to a rise of people wanting to learn english for business opportunities and placing a strong focus on the educational system to make english compulsory throughout schools. This desire to learn english for both business and educational advancement has led to a shortfall of TEFL qualified teachers in less developed parts of China. Therefore a problem some chinese learners of english might face is the quality of teachers available to them, if at all. References 1. Anon 2007: http://www.teflcorp.com/articles/46-tefl-problems-learning-english-different-countries/151-problems-for-learners-in-china.htm 2. McKay 2008: McKay, Sharon; Schaetzel, Kirsten CAELA Network Briefs, CAELA and Center for Applied Linguistics, July 2008 3. http://www.ehow.com/about_5432609_problems-chinese-people-learning-english.html 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin 5. http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/chinese.htm