Colleges and universities across China will launch bilingual
education to meet the need for bilingual personnel after the
country's accession to the World Trade Organization.
Major courses such as information technology, bio-technology, new
material technology, finance and law will be given in both Chinese
and English; Monday's Beijing Youth Daily quoted a source from the
Ministry of Education as saying.
Five to ten percent of the total courses will be taught in English,
Zhang Yaoxue, an official in charge of higher education, was quoted
as saying.
Bilingual education is not new in China. A number of primary and
secondary schools and even some kindergartens in Shanghai and
Beijing have been teaching in English.
"Bilingual education does not simply improve the students' oral
English," the daily quoted Tang Shengchang, principal of a
Shanghai-based secondary school, "It improves their overall
linguistic ability and enables them to think in a second
language."
Most bilingual schools in Shanghai have adopted original editions
of textbooks from English-speaking countries and first- hand
material downloaded from the Internet, so that the students can
learn in a "pure English environment," Tang was quoted as
saying.
However, the scarcity of bilingual teachers has become a major
problem that hinders the development of bilingual education in
China, as few seasoned science teachers speak good English, and
English-speakers may not be able to give science lectures.
To
solve this problem, the Ministry of Education will send more
Chinese teachers to receive training overseas, said Zhang. "The
first group will leave at the end of this year," he said.
(Xinhua News
Agency 09/25/2001)