Shanghai, China's promising economic, business and trade center, is actively promoting "bilingual teaching" among its elementary and high schools in the new semester beginning early September.

Around 30,000 school kids, scattered in 19 urban districts and suburban counties, are benefiting from the program, a local source said Saturday.

The so-called "bilingual teaching" means the use of two different languages in teaching, which is adopted in many countries around the globe including Canada and the United States, as well as in Europe.

Quite a number of Asian countries including China, too, are exploring the bilingual teaching system, mostly using English as the second teaching language besides their mother tongues.

Wang Wenlong, principal of a bilingual school attached to the Shanghai Foreign Studies University, which is run jointly by the university and the education department in the Yangpu district, said: "to popularize English is the basis for bilingual education, while bilingual education promotes effectively and extensively the use of English."

His school has increased the number of English classes and organized a range of outdoor activities to enhance the students' English listening and speaking skills.

Shanghai's New Huangpu Experimental School has offering bilingual teaching for six straight years, covering such courses as popular science English, chemistry, mathematics, geography, life science and information science.

The efforts will not only imbue the students with enthusiasm in learning English and train their writing ability, but help them speak more and practice more, overcoming the so-called "dummy English", teachers said.

Shanghai's economic development will be curbed to some extent unless adequate emphasis is placed on foreign language teaching or bilingual teaching, said Zhu Pu, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Educational Commission, citing that approximately 90 percent of Internet information is in English.

To promote bilingual education will beef up Shanghai's efforts to turn itself into an international economic, financial and trade center, Zhu noted.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2003)