Experiences of a Foreign Teaching Couple

THE Chinese government has made serious efforts in recent years to upgrade the standard of English language learning (a core subject) in its high schools. One measure has been to invite native speakers to China to teach oral English. Here is the story -along with a few thoughts and reflections- of a married teaching couple partway through a 12-month teaching contract in western Hunan Province.     

Memoirs of an English Teacher

The most common job amongst expats in Beijing,by far,is teaching English.Whether it is a full-time occupation or a way to earn some extra cash alongside studies or other work,many members of the expat community have experience working as teachers. A seemingly insatiable demand for English speakers to teach adults as well as children to speak the lingua franca of the international business world has produced an array of language centers and schools of highly varying degrees of reliability.All Chinese people learn basic English in school,yet the general level of oral English remains poor and is often restricted to a handful of words (though the younger generations are getting much better).English classes once put heavy emphasis on the written form,but over the past decade more attention has been paid to speaking skills as China's youth look for opportunities to study and work abroad.     

The Magic of Chinese

One of the world's oldest languages appears to have a vibrant futureClassical Greek and Latin, two languages that share an ancient history with Chinese, have been threatened with extinction, being used primarily in classic books or for special purposes. Chinese, on the other hand, is thriving as more and more people develop an interest in learning the language, and its charm has been noticed by linguists.     

On Chinese Media

正Southern Metropolis Weekly Issue No.27,published on July 28,2014Love It or Hate It,English Language Is Inescapable The popularity of English language learning has opened a new window for the Chinese,and advanced their integration with peoples of the world.The ability to speak and read English has changed many Chinese people’s fate.Meanwhile,English has become a staple on Chinese school curricula and is a main feature of the job market.Love it or hate it,therefore,English language learning in China is inescapable.     

Equality and Self-government For Ethnic Minorities

The Chinese Government has always been keen to promote human rights in the interest of the country's 55 ethnic minority groups, regarding this as vital to promote the country's human rights cause as a whole. Following is an interview with Li Dek Su, an ethnic Korean who serves as minister in charge of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission. We hope that the interview will help give a better idea of the country's policies toward ethnic minorities and the achievements made under such policies.     

A Legend Is Born

正A gate is opened to the world of Chinese wuxia as the first volume of Jin Yong’s Legends of the Condor Heroes is published in English for the first time ‘The Chinese The Lord of the Rings—now in English for the first time.""The series every Chinese reader has been enjoying for decades!"This is how A Hero Born,the first volume of the English edition of the Chinese martial arts     

论心理语言学对英语教师教学实践的影响(英文)

Psycholinguistics is a newly developed discipline at present.It is helpful for experts to study how knowledge of language is represented in the mind/brain of a fluent speaker/hearer,how this information is utilized in the comprehension and production of expressions,and how speakers/hearers acquire these abilities.Since psycholinguistics is playing a vital role in research on language,it also has a great influence on foreign language teaching.English teachers could use theory of psycholinguistics to guide their teaching.This thesis aims to discuss functions of psycholinguistics on English teaching through four types of English curriculums(listening,speaking,reading and writing).     

Galloping Ahead

DRAMATIC horsemanship and high speed made Tang Dynasty prosperity. Horsemanship has been inherited to become a fashion sport.＂ Though grammatically dubious, the slogan, written in English and Chinese, sums up the mission of the Qingdao Deray Riding Club. This flashy new equestrian club in Jimo City, an industrial hinterland of Qingdao, the prosperous sea-side metropolis of Shandong Province, consciously evokes China＇s equestrian past to solicit business from today＇s socially mobile elite, for whom riding is the epitome of class and sophistication.     

LETTERS

The article titled "High Score-Low Ability" in the April issue of 2007 made a deep impression on me. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm a "dumb" English speaker, even after studying the language for ten years. There are many people who have achieved a TEM 8 certificate, but they still cannot speak English fluently. But why does this phenomenon exist? It is a matter that deserves deep consideration.Furthermore, what about our own language? These days, students start to study English in kindergarten. We pay more attention to English than we do our own language. I suggest that people start to put the same amount of effort into studying Chinese as they do into their English classes.     

“ENGLISH TAXI”A fun ride to better English

In October 2003, at the Wangfujing Bookstore, Beijingers will be invited to a special launch event where they can pick up a free copy of English Taxi, an innovative new computer game developed by the British Council. Sponsored by Zhonghua toothpaste, English Taxi is the latest, creative way to practice everyday English and has been developed especially for the Chinese market.English Taxi has been produced as part of Think UK, which is bringing the best of British originality, creativity and     

Students and Lovers of Huangmei Opera

HUANGMEI Opera is native to Anhui Prov- ince, as is the group of young girls learn- ing it in the provin- cial capital of Hefei. At 15 years old, Hu Yuanyuan is the youngest but tallest in her class. She has been studying Huangmei Opera for two years. Before entering the school she had neither tried nor considered learning the opera, but now finds it an intense pleasure. Gong Jingjing, 16, disliked opera in the past. During slack farming seasons opera troupes would frequently come to he…     

An Opportunity

正A development plan for cooperation between Beijing,Tianjin and Hebei Province(Jing-Jin-Ji)has recently been submitted for approval by the State Council,indicating that a solid step is being made toward the unified development of the three locations.This will be a milestone for China’s regional economic development as well as representing one of the effective measures to control smoggy weather.     

绘画式辅助学习在少儿英语中的重要性(英文)

English has been taken seriously in more and more countries including China.English should be stressed from the childhood.Children’s English learning is very important.And a good learning method can get twice the result with half the effort.Thus,finding a good method is important in children’s English learning.This thesis aims to testify the drawing-assisted learning is helpful for the children’s English learning by expounding the relationship between the drawing-assisted learning and the balance development,creativity,imagination and memory and its application in children’s English learning.     

元认知学习策略研究(英文)

Meta-cognitive learning strategies hold an important position among learning strategies. It is self-evident that the researches on overall use of strategies should begin with the meta-cognitive strategies. This paper is aimed to investigate into the meta-cognitive strategies by, firstly, reviewing the definition and classification of meta-cognitive strategies; secondly, studying the factors affecting the use of learning strategies; thirdly, presenting the previous relevant researches which have been done at home and abroad; finally, giving recommendation for further research in this field.     

Bolstering the U.S. Middle Class

Making every attempt to boost the sluggish U.S.economy, U.S.President Barack Obama has pledged incentive programs including tax cuts for the middle class that have for generations,made our economy the envy of the world. But the program may not be a panacea as income inequality in the United States becomes entrenched.Zhang Monan,a researcher with the State Information Center,discussed this issue in an article recently published in the China Securities Journal.Edited excerpts follow.     

PEOPLE & POINTS

<正>ASTROPHYSICISTAPPOINTED ICRA PRESIDENT Scientist Wang Yu has been appointed as the new president of the Intemational Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA),making him the first Chinese citizen to hold the position at the center,which was founded in 1985.With a research focus on high-cnergy astrophysics,Wang has contnbuted a lot to machine learning for astrophysics as well as promoted international scientific exchanges,     

My Pantheon of Chinese Teachers

正On my Chinese language learning journey,I have encountered several invaluable teachers. When I first started learning Mandarin in my native United States, I took classes at an international language center near my home.My first teacher was Fiona, an immigrant from China’s Taiwan. Fiona made it her mission to fine-tune our ears to the phonetic pitfalls of Chinese. She had a beautiful soprano voice and taught us the Chinese phonetic alphabet song.The sheet music to the song had a cartoon of a little horse clutching a microphone and singing karaoke.     

Suzhou Silk Museum

SILK production in China has a history of 6,000 years. As early as the fifth century B.C., silk was exported to Asia, Europe and Africa along the Old Silk Road, making an outstanding contribution to world civilization. Suzhou has been a silk producer for centuries, and China's first silk museum was built in this ancient city.Suzhou Silk Museum is multi-functional, and combines exhibits with demonstrations of silk weaving. Exhibits on display in its various exhibition halls reflect the or…     

One Can Go Crazy over English Too

English-learning fever in China has been ongoing for 20 years, and China's entry into the WTO in 2001 brought with it a still greater impetus to learn English. This new surge is of an even broader scope than previously, extending to grandmothers in the ne…     

No Terror or Tension

One who has not been to Kashi has not been to Xinjiang, as a saying goes. Once a bus-tling trade hub on the Silk Road, today the city is a typical multiethnic community in the southwest of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.The city is close to China's border with India in the south and central Asia to its west. Marco Polo (1254-1324), one of the first Westerners to travel to China along the Silk Road, once described Kashi as the "Cairo of the East."A terrorist attack erupted on the morning of August 4 this year, when terrorists attacked a group of border policemen jogging in Kashi. Using a dump truck, homemade grenades and knives, they killed 18. Three months have passedsince August when nightmare haunted the city, and life is gradually brought to normal. Cheng Gang, a correspondent with the Beijing-based Global Times made a trip to Kashi in October. Below are excerpts from his account of the journey.