Doubts about Providing English Course Widely in China’s Primary Schools

Abstract:It is commonly believed that younger children are better learners than old ones, and the earlier starting age will exert more positive influence upon promoting the process and improving the proficiency of foreign language learning. However, the primary school students’ lower efficiency, the inadequacy of their teachers’ pronunciation and misconception of the critical period hypothesis oppose the overall provision of English course in China’s primary schools.

Keywords:lower efficiency,the critical period hypothesis,SLA

In order to facilitate the acquisition of English, the ministry of education has issued an order to start English learning from the third grade in all the cities’ and well-developed rural primary schools since 2001. However, it is not necessary and feasible to provide English course in China’s primary schools.

According to Ellis (1985:105), the age of the learner seems to make a strong impact on the rate and success of second language acquisition (SLA). The evidence claims that it is the older learners, not the younger ones, which are quite different from people’s thought, that enjoy higher efficiency. It is easy to cause learners to mix their mother tongue with other languages without their corresponding cognitive development. On the contrary, the meta-awareness in older learners may facilitate more efficient learning through their conscious study, which is proposed by Ellis (1985:109).

Ellis(1985:106)suggests that the starting age appears to greatly influence the success of SLA, particularly in pronunciation. Nevertheless, this is likely become a disadvantage in present-day Chinese context. That is because the poorer pronunciation on the teachers’ part, compared with their middle-school counterparts, will only provide an inadequate model for the students to imitate. So their advantage in pronunciation will become a negative factor to learn English well. China is in serious lack of qualified teachers. In addition, it may discourage learners’ enthusiasm to learn English.

Two reasons above can justify the opposition of the general provision of English courses in China’s primary schools. Among other things, there is one theoretical basis, the critical hypothesis. Ellis (1985:295-6) illustrates, “there is a period when language acquisition can take place naturally and effortlessly, but that after a certain age the brain is no longer able to process language input in this way”. It implies that after this period language can still be acquired in different ways. In fact, with more efforts and some skills, learners are likely to learn English successfully.

Moreover, the critical hypothesis would be just applicable to the language acquisition rather than the language learning. Although Ellis use “acquisition” and “learning” interchangeably in his relevant books, these two terms sometimes need to be distinguished from each other on the assumption that they are different processes. Rigorously speaking, “the term ‘acquisition’ refers to picking up a second language through exposure, whereas the term ‘learning’ is used to refer to the conscious study of a second language” (Ellis, 1985:6). Precisely speaking, learners in China are learning English. Accordingly, it is hardly likely for them to acquire English naturally and effortlessly. Undoubtedly, learners in China should devote more their efforts to English study.

Based on above-mentioned doubts, it can be found that it is justifiable to deny the necessity and feasibility of the general provision of English courses in China’s primary schools. Without enough theoretical and practical proof, as well as insufficient qualification in China’s primary school context, extending the English learning in China’s primary schools is not recommended.

References

1.Crystal,David.2002.The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. 北京：外研社

2.Ellis,R.1985.Understanding Second Language Acquisition.上海：上海外语出版社

Author brief introduction：Ke Yanping(1988-), female, the Han nationality, from Fujian, now studying at the Foreign Language School of Southwest University, mainly doing the research on Applied linguistics, teaching method etc..