A Study of the Effects of Content-Based Instruction for English Majors in the Chinese Context
CHANG Junyue & XIA Yang Dalian University of Foreign Languages
Abstract
This study focused on the effects of the Content-Based Instruction (CBI) for English majors in the Chinese context. A quasi-experiment was conducted in an English teaching institution with tests as data collection instruments. The quantitative study indicates that CBI brings better outcome than Skill-Oriented Instruction (SOI) in developing language knowledge, language skills and disciplinary knowledge, achieving the general objectives of the national curriculum more effectively than the conventional SOI. The findings throw a positive light on the reform of the national curriculum for English as a specialty and the education of English majors in China.
Key words: English as a specialty; CBI (Content-Based Instruction); SOI (Skill-Oriented Instruction); curriculum
1. Introduction
The National Curriculum for English as a Specialty in Chinese Tertiary Institutions(“the National Curriculum” in brief hereafter), issued in 2000, stipulates that English as a specialty is to foster inter-disciplinary talents with “a solid mastery of English language skills, broad range of knowledge, a certain amount of knowledge in relevant disciplines, relatively strong abilities and comparatively high comprehensive qualities”(Advisory Board, 2000: 1). To achieve the objectives of this curriculum, Chinese tertiary institutions have made efforts to adjust their curricula for the upper division (third and fourth years), but little has been done to adjust their curricula for the lower division(first and second years). The National Curriculum is dominated by the idea of Skill-Oriented Instruction (SOI) with skill-oriented English courses accounting for over 92% of the total for the lower division and over 67% during the four years of undergraduate education, leaving hardly any room to expand students’ knowledge in content areas, especially not at the lower division. The curriculum dominated by SOI may help to improve students’ language skills and their communicative competence, however, it has its drawbacks in widening students’ knowledge, expanding their disciplinary knowledge, improving their cognitive ability, fostering their creativity, and enhancing their life skills. Therefore, the curriculum itself makes it hard to achieve the objectives it has stipulated. About a decade’s implementation of this skill-oriented curriculum has made its strengths, flaws and negative effects salient.