Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students : Time for Another Revolution [1 ed.] 9781443826235, 9781443825658

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Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students

Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students: Time for Another Revolution

Edited by

Martin Wolff

Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students: Time for Another Revolution, Edited by Martin Wolff This book first published 2010 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2010 by Martin Wolff and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-2565-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2565-8

English has become the gatekeeper to higher education and employment in China. This book is dedicated to all of those who are unable to unlock the gate and pass through.

CET 4 and CET 6 National English examinations have become the symbol of English proficiency in reading and writing. Employers have required them as prerequisite to employment consideration. All comments of students quoted in this book were written by post-graduate students who have passed CET 4 and some have passed CET 6; and the comments were created on computers equipped with Microsoft WORD. The students’ comments are unedited to reflect their true lack of English competency and to debunk the claim that CET 4 and CET 6 reflect any appreciable English writing proficiency, particularly with the availability of the “spell function” of WORD.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................................................................... ix Foreword ..................................................................................................... x Preface ....................................................................................................... xii Chapter One................................................................................................. 1 China EFL: The Four Great Lies Martin Wolff Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 19 Mute English – The Latin of China Yiqing Liao PhD, and Martin Wolff, J.D. Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 44 China EFL – What Does Reform Mean? Martin Wolff Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 50 A New Chinese Puzzle Martin Wolff Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 63 First Day Student Culture Shock Martin Wolff Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 81 China EFL: What is Holistic English? Martin Wolff and Niu Qiang Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 92 Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead Martin Wolff, Niu Qiang and Teng Hai

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Table of Contents

Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 242 Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution Edwin Roessler and Peter Griggs Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 253 China EFL: A Market Driven Model Martin Wolff Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 292 A Revolution – Not an Evolution (Spring 2009) Wang Zhe, Martin Wolff, and Niu Qiang Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 368 Holistic English: The Revolution Continues (Fall 2009) Martin Wolff Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 420 Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 Martin Wolff Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 470 Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey: Holistic English vs. Traditional Oral English Martin Wolff List of 396 Undergraduate Universities Represented .............................. 493

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks: to: Kris Anticknap who spent hundreds of hours reading more than 12,000 student posts on chinaholisticenglish.org and independently selected those that are included throughout this book. 呻૎ࣔʳ(Jerry) who was responsible for all technical aspects of developing the Free Choice English Movie Library at Sun Yat-sen University

FOREWORD

It is my great honor to be invited to write this foreword for Dr Martin Wolff’s new book. To be honest, it is my first time to write a foreword in English for a foreign teacher’s book though I have written some previously for books in Chinese. I accept the invitation because I admire Martin as one of my best foreign employees, career comrades, international colleagues and educational friends in the TEFL field in China. Martin’s educational concepts, methods, attitudes, acts and contributions impressed me by my class observation, our casual chats, skimming his large number of teaching journals and the formal talks between us. His educational concepts such as “holistic development through English learning”, “Chinglish is better than deaf and dumb English”, “non-native English speakers talking to each other is like iron sharpens steel”, “acquiring English in the non-native English environment needs manmade English immersion”, “be brave, never be a coward in opening your mouth speaking English” and the like, agree with the updated foreign language educational beliefs and principles. Underneath the rationales, his teaching seems very “pushy” and often too hard to accept by the Chinese students at the beginning, mostly because they were used to instructionbased teaching and examination-driven learning for over 10 years of English classes. However, Martin pushed them into the “English swimming pool” to “survive” which made them feel “unsafe”. First of all, he made his classroom into a real English community in which only English is the unique communicative language. To some extent, to the Chinese-native adults who are non-English majors, it is scary and difficult because they lack confidence and competence in that community but loosing face every minute. Besides, he assigned a lot of after-class tasks requiring his students to read/send English emails to each other every day, go surfing on the internet in English, watch the specially selected English movies for culture studies, write movie comments and many other tasks, all in English. All these were regarded by many students as forcing added burden onto them. From the educational point of view, Martin is successfully practicing many modern educational conceptions and methodologies such as student-

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centeredness, task/problem/project/action-based approaches, learning to speak by speaking and practice makes perfect, autonomous learning and learning by doing, just as Dewey’s theory about “school is society”. Martin’s teaching style is not by instruction in theory but by application in action. No matter how reluctant his students feel at the beginning, as a result of his efforts, many of them transform, change and shift from “paper-score men” to “real-world communicators” although the process is full of hardship or even culture shock resulting from misunderstanding. Some students gave up, some complained, some took the action and achieved in the end. It turned out to be a test, a real test to the Chinese students in many ways. It proved to be a challenge, a bi-folded challenge to both the teacher and the students. Martin himself enjoyed the process and, most reward of all, the students’ positive changes, visible and invisible. As a faculty of College English instruction in China for over 30 years myself, as a TBEL (task-based English Learning) approach promoter and practitioner for over 10 years, and as an ELT researcher and teacher trainer, I really appreciate and highly praise Martin’s educational spirits and career ethics. I try to conclude them into“3 Ls”, “3 Es” and “3 Ds”, i.e. since he loves teaching, loves students and loves China; his teaching is enthusiastic, experienced and enjoyable out of his devoted, diligent and demanding efforts. Facts prove that his teaching provides his thousands of students with lifelong benefits in the multi-functional, multi-faceted, multi-effected holistic development journey. That is the destination target of higher education. Read the book, you can find the practice, statistics, feedback and comments that record the great deeds. Read the writers, you can feel their soul and mind. The key is, get the message from it: what’s wrong with the TEFL for the Chinese students in their learning and what’s their potential? Get the hint from it: He can, they can, we can, and you can. Why not try! With best wishes to a greater success in TEFL reform in China —XIA, Jimei (Angela)୙伃ම Professor of English education Dean of English Education Faculty —Sun Yat-sen Universityխ՞Օ䝤 Chinaխ㧺ʳwritten on the Spring Festival (Year of Tiger), Feb 16, 2010 ࢊഫॡ‫ॣڣ‬Կൈ䢧㥀

PREFACE

This book is a compilation of articles arising from the authors’ eight years of personal experiences, study, research and analysis of EFL teaching in China between 2002 and 2010. It is an attempt to identify deficiencies and suggest improvements in EFL teaching in China. The authors began with the assumption that identifying the existing problems, analyzing them and suggesting corrective action would be beneficial to bringing about much needed curriculum reform. The authors were assisted by the opinions of 2,500 post-graduate nonEnglish majors at Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou, China. Chapters 1 – 4 deal with issues traditionally given the ostrich treatment (head buried in the sand) and thus ignored or downplayed by most Chinese scholars and administrators. Chapter 1 deals with the 4 Great Lies that serve to demotivate Chinese learners of English. Chapter 2 confronts Mute English, the result of the current test oriented curriculum. Chapters 1 and 2 are laced with and supported by the opinions of 2,000 post-graduate students at Sun Yat-sen University. Chapter 3 highlights the failed reform movement of the late 1990s and Chapter 4 examines the vested interests that make true EFL reform near impossible. Chapters 5 – 10 document the development and implementation of a new paradigm for EFL teaching in China (Holistic English). The Holistic English Program was tested at 1st tier universities, 2nd tier universities, 3rd tier colleges (junior colleges) and 4th tier vocational colleges, with both English majors and non-English majors. Chapter 5 is an explanation of the Holistic English Program. Chapter 6 documents the successful implementation of the Holistic English Program by 10 foreign teachers. at 6 colleges and universities in 4 provinces Chapters 7, 8 and 9 document the success of the Holistic English Program at Sun Yat-sen University, one of China’s top tier universities, These chapters are peppered with sample opinions of 2,500 post-graduate non-English majors who have made over 15,000 posts on http://chinaholisticenglish.org

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Chapter 11 summarizes the opinions of 193 undergraduate English majors at Guangxi University and 2,500 post-graduate non-English majors at Sun Yat-sen University, through a series of comparative graphs covering 3 semesters from spring 2009 through spring 2010. Graphs showing the selfperceived benefits received by the students in the Holistic English Program are shown side-by-side with graphs from students in traditional English classes. This display of comparative graphs speaks louder than any possible narrative about the efficacy and superiority of the Holistic English Program over the traditional English curriculum. This compilation of articles makes a compelling case for replacing the traditional Oral English learning curriculum with the Holistic English Program.

CHAPTER ONE CHINA EFL: THE FOUR GREAT LIES MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY

Introduction At any given moment there are twice as many Chinese learning English as there are citizens of the U.S.A. English instruction begins in kindergarten and continues into postgraduate study, for both English majors and nonEnglish majors. Everyone in China must study English. Local variants of English such as Chinglish and Chinese English are discouraged as inappropriate. Students are placed under extreme pressure to “master” English. National English competency exams are a predicate to further study or employment. China employs more than 150,000 native English speakers to teach English in its schools. Some programs encourage Chinese learners of English to locate foreigners on the street and run up to them and yell “Hello” in the foreigner’s face. This crazy approach is predicated upon the belief that the only way to improve your English is to engage with a native English speaker. Teaching English as a Foreign Language in China is predicated upon 4 GREAT LIES.

First Lie – You Must Master English Every Chinese learner of English is instructed that they must “master” English. Due to the inordinate influence of the British Council on English learning in China, most Chinese students of English own the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary or Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. These are

2

Chapter One

also the most available dictionaries in school libraries and book stores throughout China. “Master” is defined1 as: master (SKILLED PERSON noun [C] 1 a person who is very skilled in a particular job or activity: He was a master of disguise. 2 a famous and very skilled painter: This painting is clearly the work of a master. master adjective [before noun] extremely skilled: a master craftsman a master chef master verb [T] to learn how to do something well: to master a technique She lived in Italy for several years but never quite mastered the language. He quickly mastered the art of interviewing people. masterful adjective If an action is masterful, it is very skilful: a masterful performance masterfully adverb masterly adjective done extremely well: She gave a masterly performance as Kate in 'The Taming of the Shrew'. mastery noun [U] If someone has a mastery of something, they are extremely skilled at it: her mastery of the violi 1

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

3

Dr. Niu Qiang, one of China’s eminent scholars in English Linguistics explains that to “master” English one must speak like a native speaker. But, assuming the student is motivated to “master” English, which English should they choose to “master”?

British English (BrE, BrEng) Black British English (BBE); England (English language in England (EngEng) Northern Cheshire; Cumbrian (Cumbria excluding Barrow-in-Furness); Geordie (Newcastle upon Tyne); Lancastrian (Lancashire); Scouse (Merseyside); Mancunian (Manchester); Mackem (Sunderland); Northumbrian (rural Northumberland); Pitmatic (Durham and Northumberland); Yorkshire (also known as Tyke) In the far north, local speech is noticeably Scots in nature. East Midlands / West Midlands Black Country English; Brummie (Birmingham); Potteries (north Staffordshire) Southern Cockney (East London); East Anglian (Norfolk and Suffolk); Estuary (Thames Estuary); Kentish (Kent); Jafaican (Inner London); West Country Scotland Scottish English; Highland English Wales Welsh English Ireland Hiberno-English; Mid Ulster English Isle of Man Manx English Channel Islands Guernsey English; Jersey English

4

Chapter One

Malta Maltenglish

American English (AmE, AmEng, USEng) Cultural African-American Vernacular English (AAVE); Chicano English; General American; New York Latino English; Pennsylvania Dutchified English; Yeshivish; Yinglish Regional Northeastern dialects Boston English; Hudson Valley English (Albany); Maine-New Hampshire English; New York City Dialect, Northern New Jersey Dialect (New York metropolitan area); Providence-area English; Vermont English; Philadelphia-area English; Pittsburgh English; Inland Northern American English (includes western and central upstate New York); Wawarsing English; Northeast Pennsylvania English (Scranton, Pennsylvania-area) Mid-Atlantic dialects Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area Accent (D.C. Slang); Baltimorese; Tidewater accent; Virginia Piedmont; Virginia Tidewater; Inland North American (Lower peninsula of Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, the suburbs of Chicago, part of eastern Wisconsin and upstate New York); The Chicago accent; Buffalo English North Central American English (primarily Minnesota, but also most of Wisconsin, the Upper peninsula of Michigan, and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa; Yooper dialect (the variety of North Central American English spoken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in some neighboring areas) Midland American English North Midlands English (thin swath from Nebraska to Ohio); St. Louis dialect; South Midland (thin swath from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania) Appalachian English; Southern English; Coastal Southeastern (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia area) Cajun English; Harkers Island English (North Carolina); Ozark English; Piedmont Dialect; Southern Highland English; Florida Cracker Dialect; Gullah or Geechee; Tampanian English; Texan; Yat (New Orleans); Western English; California English; Utah English; Boontling; Hawaiian English; Pacific Northwest English

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

5

Canadian English (CanE, CanEng) Newfoundland English; Maritimer English; Cape Breton accent Lunenburg English West/Central Canadian English Quebec English; Ottawa Valley Twang; Pacific Northwest English; Bermudian English

Caribbean English Anguillan English; Bahamian English; Jamaican English; Trinidadian English

Central and South America Belize English; Falkland/Malvinas Islands English; Guyana English

Asia Burmese English; Hong Kong English; Pakistani English Indian English Hinglish; Punjabi/Delhi English; U.P/Bihari English; Bengali/Assamese English; Oriya English; Gujarati English; Maharashtrian English; Kannadiga English; Telugu English; Tamil English; Malayalee English Malaysian English (MyE); Manglish; Philippine English (PhE); Singapore English; Sri Lankan English (SLE)

Africa Cameroon English; Liberian English; Nigerian English; Malawian English; South African English; East African English; Ugandan English

Oceania Australian English (AusE, AusEng) Cultural Australian Aboriginal English; Torres Strait English Regional South Australian English; Western Australian English; Fijian English; New Zealand English (NZE, NZEng) The above list may not be exhaustive.

6

Chapter One

Most Chinese students of English settle for “mastering” a dictionary definition of English. They memorize long lists of English words and their definitions, or set phrases, to pass the National English proficiency examinations (Qiufang and Johnson 1997) and then wonder why they can’t speak or write comprehensible English. Who has ever “mastered” the English language? English is not static, new words are added to dictionaries every year. As Noah Webster stated “the English language is an ever-changing tapestry”. Large teams of lexicographers, associate editors and editors are required to publish a dictionary. If anyone has “mastered” English, why are so many people required to publish a dictionary? This extreme mandate to “master” English is the exact academic pressure that Krashen identifies as inhibiting 2nd language acquisition. (Krashen, Stephen (1981) When this academic pressure is removed, Chinese learners of English build self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, self-discipline and develop autonomous learning skills, (Qiang, Wolff, Teng 2009) and then go on to produce comprehensible English, but not perfect English. CCTV-9 (International English) employs Chinese presenters who have been abroad for many years, some as long as 20, living in an English speaking environment. Their English is not native like. A rather common instance of Chinglish is when the Chinese interviewer asks a guest “How do you think about ….?” instead of “What do you think about ….?” It is impossible for a native Putonghua speaker to “master” English and speak like a native English speaker due to the influence of the mother tongue, Putonghua. This mandate to “master” English establishes a very high bar that tends to discourage rather than motivate.

Second Lie – You can only make your English better by speaking with a native speaker What probably began as propaganda, supporting the creation of job opportunities for British citizens to teach English in China, has become engrained in the fabric of the English learning mentality of China. Chinese people believe that the only way to make their English better is to communicate with native English speakers.

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

7

Through the legal employment process, China employs in excess of 150,000 native English speakers to teach English beginning in kindergarten and continuing through post grad study. It is rumored that another 100,000 native English speakers teach without the legally required permits. Consider a representative university oral English class taught by a native speaker: (Qiang, Wolff, Teng 2009) on average, a class of 40 students for 90 minutes every two weeks. If every student speaks, they will have a maximum of 2 minutes each to speak at the foreign teacher. There is no time for any dialogue. Many foreign teachers resort to pair or small group work to facilitate more oral communication. But this is L2 sharpening L2, just like steel sharpening steel. So long as the class is taught by a foreign native speaker, the Chinese simply do not see the paradox. After viewing the Hollywood blockbuster “The Terminal,” Chinese learners of English have a solid understanding of the basic principles of 2nd language acquisition and soundly reject the notion that they can only make their English better by speaking with a native English speaker. (Wong, Wolff, Qiang 2009)

Third Lie – Chinglish is no good Chinglish and Chinese English are distinguishable (Jiang Yajun, 1995) but both are discouraged as inappropriate. Every Country that adopts English as its official or unofficial L2 creates its own variant of spoken English. Anglish ('purified' English); Benglish (Bengali English); Chinglish (Chinese English); Czenglish (Czech English); Danglish (Danish English); Dunglish (Dutch English); Engrish (Japanese English); Finglish (Finnish English); Franglais (French English); Denglisch/Germlish/Genglish/ Ginglish/Germish/Pseudo-Anglicism (German English); Hebrish (Hebrew English) - also sometimes used to refer to English written with Hebrew characters; Hunglish (Hungarian English); Italgish (Italian English); Japlish (Japanese English); Konglish (South Korean English); Poglish (Polish English); Porglish (Portuguese English); Punglish (Punjabi English); Rominglish/Romglish (Romanian English); Runglish (Russian English); Serblish (Serbian English); Singlish (Singapore English, multiple varieties); Spanglish (Spanish English); Swanglish/Kiswanglish (Swahili English); Swenglish (Swedish English); Taglish (Tagalog English); Tinglish/Thailish (Thai English); Vinish (Vietnamese English); Wenglish (Welsh English); Yeshivish (Yeshiva English)

8

Chapter One

China, with its 1.3 billion plus people, has every right to develop a variant of English influenced by its native Putonghua (Holm and Dodd 1986) and manageable by its population. The objective should be effective communication in the international language of commerce, not blind adherence to some ideal of perfection or pure British English, whatever that is. Granted, some professions demand a higher degree of English such as interpreters, translators, industrial and political spies, international lawyers, international accountants and scientists cooperating on international projects. But the average Chinese business person or common citizen has no demonstrable need for anything more than Chinglish.

Fourth Lie – Everyone in China needs to learn English Everyone from kindergarten through postgraduates study English. Most Chinese university (non-English major) graduates know more about the English language than most American university (English major) graduates. Chinese students study the rules of construction and memorize vast lists of words and set phrases but they do not learn the language or acquire the language. They have enough knowledge about English to pass the Chinese National proficiency examinations but they cannot produce comprehensible oral or written English. (Jun Lu Nov. 2005) The English curriculum is driven by the composition and nature of the National examinations. (Jun Lu Nov. 2005) The curriculum is designed to teach the students all about the English language but not to learn or acquire it. It would be far more intellectually honest for China to claim that everyone must study English because the current test oriented curriculum and teaching methodology puts learning and acquisition beyond reach. China needs to firmly grasp the difference between study, learn and acquire. They require different teaching methodologies and obtain vastly different results.

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

9

Effects of Debunking the Four Great Lies During the spring 2009 semester at Sun Yat-sen University the 4 Great Lies were explained to 600 post graduate (humanities) students2 in the new 2

The 600 students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Zhejiang The 600 students represent the following 120 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Army Institute of Xian, Beijing Institute of Business, Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Central South University, Central University of Nationalities, Chang An University, Changchun University, Changchun Normal University, Changchun Taxation College, China University of Mining and Technology, Chin South Normal University, Chinese University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing University, Chongqing Jaiotong University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Dalian Nationalities University, DongBei University of Finance and Economics, Finance and Economic University of Tiang Yi, Fudan University, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou University, Gannan Normal University, Guangxi University, Guangdong Academy of Fine Art, Guangdong Business University, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangdong University of Business Study, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guizhou Institute of Nationalities, Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou University, Hangzhou DianZi University, Hainan University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Hebei Normal University, Hebei Economic and Business University, Hebei University, Hefei University of Technology, Henyang Normal University, Hohai University, Hongshan Normal University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Coal Industrial Teacher’s College, Hubei University of Technology, Hubei University, Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, Hunan University, Hunan Normal University, Jiaying University , Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University, Jishou University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Lanzhou Commercial College, Lanzhou University, Liaoning University, Ludong University, Minzu University, Nanjing Agriculture University , Nanchang University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nankai University, Nanyang Institute College, Nanyang Normal University, NorthEast Agricultural University, NorthEast Normal University, North China Electric Power University, Northeastern University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest University, Northwest Polytechnic University, Peking University, People’s University of China, Qingdao University, Renmin University, Shandong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenzhen

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Chapter One

Holistic English course (this replaced the traditional oral English course), but were not explained to 84 post graduate (humanities) students in the traditional oral English course. The following graphs clearly demonstrate that when the burden and pressure induced by the 4 Great Lies is lifted from the students, there is a demonstrable benefit to the students in the areas of self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, self-discipline, creative thinking and autonomous learning skills. C G (3 Classes) MARCH 2009

SYSU

# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, South Central University for Nationalities, Sijiazhuang Railway College, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, South China University, Southwest JiaoTong University, Southwest Finance University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, South China University of Technology, Sun Yat-sen, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan University, Xian Economic and Financial College, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian Institute of Technology, Xian University of Finance and Economics, XiangTan University, Xiamen University, XiDian University, YanShan University, Yantai University, Yunnan University, Zhanguan Economy and Law School, Zhanjiang Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongshan University.

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

11

H E (12 Classes) MARCH 2009 SYSU

# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

During the fall 2009 semester at Sun Yat-sen University the 4 Great Lies were explained to 625 post graduate (science) students3 in the new Holistic 3

The 700 students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hong Kong SAR, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang The 700 students represent the following 195 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Agricultural University of Hebei, Anhui Normal University, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Anyang Normal Teachers University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Normal University Zuhai Campus, Binzhou University, Central China Agriculture University, Central China Normal University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Central South University, Changchun Normal University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, China Agriculture University, China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Geosciences, China West Normal University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications, Dalian University of Technology Dalian Jiaotong University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Dezhou University, East China Institute of Technology, East China Normal University, East China Institute of Technology, Foshan University, Fujian Normal University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong College of Pharmacy,

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Chapter One

Guangdong Ocean University, Guangzhou University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong University of Business Study Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin University of Technology, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University, Hefei University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan College Of Science And Technology, Henan University of Technology, Hengyang Normal University, Hohai University, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, Huanggang Normal University, Huangshan College, Huangshan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Huangzhong Agricultural University, Hubei Normal University, Hubei University of Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Hunan City University, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Hunan University, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Jiangsu University, Jiaying University, Jiamusi University, Jiliang University, Jilin University, Jimei University, Jinan University, Jiujiang University, Jishou University, JYU University, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoning University, Lanzhou University, Leshan Normal University, Liaocheng University, Liaoningshihua University, Linyi Normal University, Linyi University, Luoyang Normal University, Nanchang University, Nanchang Hang Kong University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Neijiang Teachers' College, Nankai University, Northeast Agriculture University, Northeast Forest University, Northeast Normal University, Northeastern University, North University of China, North West Normal University, Northwest University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest A & F University, Ocean University of China, Peking University, Pingdingshan University, Quanzhou Normal University, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao University, Qingdao Technological University, Qufu Normal University, Qiannan Normal College for Nationalities, Shanxi Agriculture University, Shanxi Datong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University of Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, Shaoxing University, Shaoyang College, Shangqiu Normal University, Shanxi Datong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenzhen University, Shijiazhuang University Of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Normal University, South Central University for Nationalities, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southeast University, Southwest Forestry College, Southwest Jiaotong University, Southwest Normal University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Sun

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

13

English course (this replaced the traditional oral English course), but were not explained to 120 post graduate (science) students in the traditional oral English course. The following graphs clearly demonstrate that when the burden and pressure induced by the 4 Great Lies is lifted from the students, there is a demonstrable benefit to the students in the areas of selfconfidence, intrinsic motivation, self-discipline, creative thinking and autonomous learning skills. C G (4 Classes) SEPT 2009 SYSU CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 4 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

40

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

# o f s tu d e n ts

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Yat-sen University, Taiyuan Normal University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Three Gorges University, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin Normal University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Jinan , University of South China, Weifang Medical College, Weinan Normal University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xiangnan University, Xiangtan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xidian University, Xinzhou Teachers University, Xinjiang University, Xinyang Normal University, Xuchang University, Yangcheng Normal University, Yanshan University, Yantai University, Yantai Normal University, Yangtzeu University, Yunnan University, Yuxi Normal University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang Forestry University, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zunyi Medical College.

14

Chapter One

H E (15 Classes) SEPT 2009 SYSU CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 15 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

250

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

# of students

200 150 100 50 0 1

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5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

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What Students are saying The fall 2009 700 post-graduate students (all of whom have passed CET 6) at one of China’s top ten universities, representing 195 undergraduate colleges and universities from every Province of China read a draft of this article and made their opinions known at http://chinaholisticenglish.org The following are some representative (unedited) students comments: May Class 6 November 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 pm “Steel sharpens steel.” I like this idiom and I like Chinglish. I have been always told to do as the “four great lies” says since I began to study English. They are the basic rules for studying. But now they turn out to be lies. It is because the standards we neglect the true nature in studying English, that we become shy and afraid of speaking English not build selfconfidence, intrinsic motivation and self-discipline. So get rid of these lies and do the right from now, as the going says: better later than never. Mark Class 16 November 2nd, 2009 at 10:31 pm I’m terribly grateful to you for telling us the four great lies of English learning in China. In my experience to learn English, there are some mistakes such as grammar study, words study, learning only formal textbook English. I just rely on schools, never be motivated, and think my

China EFL: The Four Great Lies oral English is so substandard that I don’t want to speak more. After I read the article, I become more positive and optimistic. I will manage my emotions again and remain motivated and energetic. So, thanks a lot for you guidance. Jane.Y Class 8 November 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 am I do agree that the four great lies definitely exist and have been hindering Chinese students’ English learning. Why do students need perfect English? What is that for and how can it be possible? Isn’t it strange that students have to keep all the set meaning of all phrases and words in mind just to pass tests but seldom use it in their life? I believe good English comes from people’s interest, practical needs and practice in daily life, not from compulsory boring tests. Lively Class 2 November 2nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm I have heard the 4 lies first time in the early time of this term. The four ideas were told to us for many years. Not until now they became lies. There are always a simple standard for us to study English. So we learn English to catch the line and we forget that English is a language for communication. That’s why we can remember much vocabulary but can’t talk them easily. English is a language that we need to practice. It’s not a dead, unchangeable standard that everyone should obey to, but a vivid tool makes us understand the hold world easily. Jane Class 9 November 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 pm After reading the article, I have a deep impression. When I studied in the senior middle school, I had only one goal about learning English, it was getting high marks. I have only one approach which was looking and memorizing the words through the dictionary and the words book which I bought from the store too. I never want to speak it out, because I faced the bar of college entrance examination. English teachers trained us through asking us doing the English examination against the entrance examination to the university again and again. We become a machine. At that time we just feel English is hard, and it is too hard to achieve high scores. So I agree with most views of this article, I hope that China can put the English reform into practice. Torres Class 3 November 2nd, 2009 at 8:44 pm · Edit After reading the article, I have a very fresh and comfortable feeling, just like a breeze blowing over my face. The four great lies are just what are deeply in my mind. The circumstance we live in nearly turn the lies into the truths. I agree with this article in these points as following: 1. Language

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Chapter One is just a tool, it should not be mastered, just be used. 2. English is not the language of someone or one country. It is just one of the languages in the world. It originated from England, but it has been popularized with the discovery of America, and so on. And it has evolved into different kinds, such as British English and American English. So we have our own English. 3. We can communicate with Chinese people just in a different language. Communication is the most important thing. 4. English is just a tool. If you think it is necessary, just learn it. If not, just have a rest. Wesly Class 3 November 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 pm This article indeed changes my perspective toward English learning. Sometimes I really feel that my oral English is so substandard that I don’t want to speak more. After reading this paper, I decide to speak more English though it may be substandard. Chinglish is also understandable! Hany Class 1 November 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm Lies or truths? It is a question for us to think! To be frank it is the first time that I hear that “YOU MUST MASTER ENGLISH” is a lie! ”YOU CAN ONLY MAKE YOUR ENGLISH BETTER BY SPEAKING WITH A NATIVE SPEAKER” is a lie! ”CHINGLISH IS NO GOOD” is a lie! ” EVERYONE IN CHINA NEEDS TO LEARN ENGLISH” is also a lie! How shocked I am by the 4 lies! Because I think the 4 lies are truths for so many years and everyone I know just believe them and do following them. Indeed, we need to change our attitude towards learning English. A student that has learned English for more than 10 years can still not to speaking it .What a shame! It is time for us to change! Jane Class 8 November 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm “SECOND LIE – YOU CAN ONLY MAKE YOUR ENGLISH BETTER BY SPEAKING WITH A NATIVE SPEAKER.“ ”THIRD LIE – CHINGLISH IS NO GOOD”. In the four lies, I have more deep feelings about these two. I have studied English for 13 years before my postgraduate. But I had never communicated with others in English seriously. Even when I was doing an English presentation I was only echoing what my papers was saying. Real change began from this semester of holistic English. In this class, several Chinese students communicate with Chinglish. No one make fun of someone else, and everyone just try to do their best. I feel that through practice of this period, I am really improving. This morning, I met one tour groups from Japan in the library. An old man asked me in English: “Can you speak English?” Two months ago, I would say: “A little.” But now I said to him straightforward: “Yes, I can! “.Then I answered two questions in English. As I walked out of the library, I felt proud and elated. Who gave me the courage to speak? I think

China EFL: The Four Great Lies

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that is the holistic English class and Professor Martin. I think, one more important purpose to learn a language it to communicate other than to pass the CET-4 or 6. And as long as we can be understood by others, Chinglish is also nothing wrong. In addition, NATIVE SPEAKERS are not the only helpers. As long as we are willing to help each other, we can improve by ourselves.

Conclusion No matter how well intentioned the 4 Great Lies may have originally been as extrinsic motivators, Chinese university students laboring under the heavy burdens imposed by these false premises neither learn nor acquire English and graduate functionally illiterate, in that they are unable to produce comprehensible English. Many students find the bar too high and simply give up. For those that continue on in earnest, they eventually confront the frustration of functional illiteracy and wonder why they wasted 16 years learning (sic) English. Grace class O2 December 2nd, 2009 at 10:42 am I found it frustrated to learn English because of the first lie. I thought it useless to speak English with my friends because of the second lie. I barely spoke in front of the public because of the third lie. In this way I realized that my English improved little in return to my effort. But I have to keep on studying English because of the fourth lie. ….

The 4 great lies inhibit 2nd language acquisition and are a poor substitute for a lack of good 2nd language pedagogy and methodology.

References Alison Holm and Barbara Dodd (1996) The effect of first written language on the acquisition of English literacy, Cognition, Volume 59, Issue 2 Jiang Yajun, (1995) Chinglish and China English, English Today, Vol. 11 issue 1 Jun Lu (Nov. 2005) On Improving Student’s Spoken English in Classes, Sino-US English Teaching, Volume 2, No.11 (Serial No.23) Krashen, Stephen (1981) Second Language Acquisition and 2nd Language Learning, Prentice Hall Qiang/Wolff/Teng (2009) China EFL: Holistic English, The revolution has begun but the long march lies ahead, Nova Science Publishers

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Chapter One

Qiufang Wen and Robert Keith Johnson, (1997) L2 Learner Variables and English Achievement: A Study of Tertiary-level English Majors in China, Applied Linguistics, Vol. 18 No. 1 Wong/Wolff (2009) Holistic English: A Revolution – Not an Evolution, (In Press) Nova Science Publishers http://chinaholisticenglish.com accessed December 1, 2009

CHAPTER TWO MUTE ENGLISH – THE LATIN OF CHINA YIQING LIAO, PHD AND MARTIN WOLFF, J.D., SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY

Abstract “Mute English” (ME) is a unique Chinese phenomenon ignored by linguistic scholars but derided by Chinese students. It is a communicative language taught as if it were a dead language, like Latin. We explore the origins, as well as the cause and effect of this phenomenon.

Introduction Mute English is a term brought to the authors’ attention by a postgraduate, non-English major, at Sun Yat-sen University (Zhongshan) when describing culture shock after attending the first day of classes in Holistic English. (http://chinaholisticenglish.org “First Day Student Culture Shock.” September 2009) Carter Class 1 September 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am I entered a strange classroom for oral English and had a special experience there last Monday afternoon. All the seats were surrounded in circles next to desks and many colorized banners were pasted on walls in the classroom. A dumpy oldster with white hair and a red hat who was pretty much the same as the KFC but looked so strict was walking up and down. It was my first time to be near a foreigner for such a long time. I was a little nervous and perplexed but sometimes the oldster was humorous and the classroom was filled with laughter. Maybe my mute English will be improved here, I look forward to it.

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Chapter Two Maxwell.Class 5 September 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 pm Thank you for your encouragement to me for learning English, and your stories that increased my experience and awareness of social life. This class touched a string and you gave me interest and motivation to learn English anew. I have learned English for seven years, but not ever found satisfaction in my English. After this class, I realized that why I didn’t study English well. The answer is that I had learned “mute English”. From now on, I will start my English learning life by a new way. With the strict upbringing and rules from this class, and the Professor Wolff’s humorous expression, I believe I can move a step on the road of learning, and good habits from this class which will be beneficial in my future when employed.

Carter and Maxwell are just two of 670 post-graduate students attending one of China’s top ten universities and representing 195 undergraduate colleges and universities 1 from every Province2 of China. 1

The students represent the following 195 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Agricultural University of Hebei, Anhui Normal University, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Anyang Normal Teachers University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Normal University Zuhai Campus, Binzhou University, Central China Agriculture University, Central China Normal University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Central South University, Changchun Normal University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, China Agriculture University, China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Geosciences, China West Normal University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications, Dalian University of Technology Dalian Jiaotong University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Dezhou University, East China Institute of Technology, East China Normal University, East China Institute of Technology, Foshan University, Fujian Normal University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong College of Pharmacy, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangzhou University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong University of Business Study Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin University of Technology, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University, Hefei University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan College Of Science And Technology, Henan University of Technology, Hengyang Normal

Mute English – The Latin of China

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University, Hohai University, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, Huanggang Normal University, Huangshan College, Huangshan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Huangzhong Agricultural University, Hubei Normal University, Hubei University of Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Hunan City University, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Hunan University, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Jiangsu University, Jiaying University, Jiamusi University, Jiliang University, Jilin University, Jimei University, Jinan University, Jiujiang University, Jishou University, JYU University, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoning University, Lanzhou University, Leshan Normal University, Liaocheng University, Liaoningshihua University, Linyi Normal University, Linyi University, Luoyang Normal University, Nanchang University, Nanchang Hang Kong University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Neijiang Teachers' College, Nankai University, Northeast Agriculture University, Northeast Forest University, Northeast Normal University, Northeastern University, North University of China, North West Normal University, Northwest University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest A & F University, Ocean University of China, Peking University, Pingdingshan University, Quanzhou Normal University, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao University, Qingdao Technological University, Qufu Normal University, Qiannan Normal College for Nationalities, Shanxi Agriculture University, Shanxi Datong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University of Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, Shaoxing University, Shaoyang College, Shangqiu Normal University, Shanxi Datong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenzhen University, Shijiazhuang University Of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Normal University, South Central University for Nationalities, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southeast University, Southwest Forestry College, Southwest Jiaotong University, Southwest Normal University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Taiyuan Normal University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Three Gorges University, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin Normal University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Jinan , University of South China, Weifang Medical College, Weinan Normal University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xiangnan University, Xiangtan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xidian University, Xinzhou Teachers University, Xinjiang University, Xinyang Normal University, Xuchang University, Yangcheng Normal University, Yanshan University, Yantai University, Yantai Normal University, Yangtzeu University, Yunnan University, Yuxi Normal University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang

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Chapter Two

Once apprised of this term, the authors provided the students an opportunity to express their opinions as to the cause and effect of ME. (http://chinaholisticenglish.org “MUTE ENGLISH” October 2009) Each discussion point is preceded by at least one (unedited) student comment, prompting the analysis. DEFINITION Mute English From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mute English is a phenomenon, especially common in the People's Republic of China, where people can read and understand English as a second language but cannot speak it well. The phrase is a translation of the Chinese phrase, "䦾֣૎兿" ("ya ba ying yu" in pinyin). The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as Dumb English. Mute English occurs primarily due to the lack of native English speakers to emulate or practice with, particularly in a country as large as China. Efforts to mitigate Mute English in China have resulted in numerous commercial products including TEFL schools and teach-yourself courses, international exchanges, and the eagerness with which Chinese students strive to practice their English with foreign visitors.

We take serious exception to the Wikipedia rationalization for ME and suggest that it is simply a well crafted excuse and a convenient scape-goat to avoid dealing with the real causes of ME and implementing appropriate and required reforms. In fact, the Wikipedia excuse for ME perpetuates one of the 4 Great Lies of teaching English as a foreign language in China and is pedagogically just plain incorrect. “You can only make your English better by speaking with a native L1 English speaker.” (Wolff 09, 4 Great Lies) Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang Forestry University, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zunyi Medical College 2 The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan Hong Kong, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang

Mute English – The Latin of China

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Just as steel sharpens steel, L2 speakers can sharpen L2 speakers. The problem lies in the pedagogy and methodology that treats English just like any other academic subject matter that must be studied and learned through rote memorization. (Qiang/Wolff 2009 China EFL: Programming Human Robots)

Real Causes of Mute English CET and College Entrance Examinations The bane of English teaching in China Chelsea Class 16 October 28th, 2009 at 9:04 am Learning a language consists of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Unfortunately, students in China studying English do not pay attention to speaking. It is just “mute English”, the reasons for this below. Firstly, we study English in the way of reading English textbooks, listening to dialogues, and writing composition. The only purpose of our study is just to passing exams, like CET, which does not contain speaking test. So we students rarely do speaking practice. Secondly, many people are afraid of making mistakes when speaking English. They think that will make them lose faces. And the last but not least, we do not have the environment for speaking English, because a lot of people cannot understand English and our English teachers make courses also in Chinese! To change “mute English”, I think we should speak English as often and loudly as we can, just like Li Yang, not to care faces. Maybe only this way can we improve our speaking English. Smith Class 2 October 28th, 2009 at 1:31 am English as a foreign language has received worldwide attention all over the world also, including Chin. In China, there are many English tests, for example, cet 4, cet 6. Admittedly, it improves student’s English level to a certain extent. But it also brings some problems, mute English is the most serious phenomenon. Under the education system of China, students blindly pursue the examination results and a large number of students ignore the importance of oral English. Therefore, some students even English very well, but difficult to express themselves in English very well. This is the disadvantages of China’s education system. Now, we should start to study English hard, improve our English level, especially oral English.

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Chapter Two Jane Class 16 October 29th, 2009 at 10:04 pm Maybe we are not unfamiliar to hear “Mute English”. “Mute English” is a common phenomenon in our China. We have learnt English for many years since junior high school, but most of us do not communicate with others in English well. Now, I am in the same trouble. On one hand, in my opinion, there is no environment for us speaking English. In my memory, we study English with reciting; we only seek to know the meanings and grammar of words and recite them in order to pass the exam such as CET-4 and CET-6 but ignore its real use of learning English. Maybe we are able to get good marks in the examination, but we can’t speak it fluently. Now, I am in the same trouble. In all, it is the problem of Chinese education system; we study English only in order to pass the “Mute English” exams. We have reading and listening exam but no oral English exam, as a result, they do not emphasize oral English no matter teachers or students. On the other hand, It is a reality, there are lots of students and need thousands of teachers so it is impossible for every class have a foreigner teacher to improve oral English. However, the point is that many Chinese English teachers’ oral English are not very good who only focus on test not oral practice. In the future, we should take English as a real language! We should not only study words but also learn to communicate with others in English. In this way, learning English will be real valuable. Ricky Class 9 October 29th, 2009 at 9:32 am The Mute English phenomenon is common in China. Some students included me just can read and write well but lack the ability to listen and speak. We were taught English just for English examination and unfortunately, oral English is not required in English exams, so we ignored it. Another reason is that we would not have the environment where we can speak English if we don’t create it on our own initiative. So, we should try our best to build up the environment to learn English and make Mute English gone. And I think with the Professor Martin’s help, our oral English will become better and better. Jose Class 5 October 28th, 2009 at 8:32 pm After reading the paper “Mute English”, I learned that many solutions were suggested to solve this phenomenon. For example, some of the students advised that CET should be reformed and special attention should be paid to the oral English exam. But I want to figure out that actually, we already have an extra oral English test of CET, which can only be taken by those students who got a high score in the CET reading, listening, and writing parts. Unfortunately, nobody is taking serious of the extra test. For the students, this test score has nothing to do with the final score of CET,

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they just get a tiny certificate that little employers will pay attention to. Therefore, what I suggest is not only add an oral English test in CET but also weigh it a lot for the students’ true English skill and pay serious attention to this test, so that students may try hard to pass this test and get their oral English improved.

The CET examinations, much like their Imperial Examination predecessor, are more of an endurance contest than an evaluation of well rounded academic achievement. The CET national examinations have fostered their own pedagogy, methodology and teaching materials and these have filtered down to the kindergarten level.. The examinations purportedly measure a university student’s cumulative memorized knowledge about the English language. (Wolff 2009, China EFL: What Does Reform Mean?; Wolff 2009, A New Chinese Puzzle) The importance of the CET examinations cannot be overstated because they have become the gatekeeper to higher education and even employment. (Wolff 2009, CHINA EFL: A Market Driven Model PetroChina Embraces Holistic English Program) Millions of students pass the requisite CET examinations every year but remain functionally illiterate, unable to produce comprehensible English. Most English education in China is designed to prepare students to pass the CET examinations while ignoring the practical ability to use that which has been studied for 16 years. Andeson Class 8 October 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am Actually, the Mute English is a common phenomenon in china, and I am a victim of the Mute English. What causes the Mute English, in my opinion, there are several reasons, with the English teacher and the examine system the most important two reasons. In my middle school and high school, my English teachers only teach me the words and the grammar, and they teach these in Chinese. And we never speak English in the class. The teach method partly causes us the mute English. On the other hand, our examine system also contribute a lot to our mute English, the university entrance examination only exam our English the reading and writing level, not include oral English. So the middle school and high school teachers just teach us to pass the university entrance exam. And when we enter the university, we have to take the CET exam, which also emphasis our reading and writing level, also neglect the oral English. The whole exam system contributes a lot to our mute English. To improve the phenomenon, great changes should be taken, not only our teacher methods

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Chapter Two and also our exam system. And also we should try our best to improve our English for our better future.

The CET examinations are the root cause of ME. Since Chinese teachers of English are themselves victims of this test driven educational system, they teach English at the primary and secondary school levels with an eye on the eventual college entrance examination and CET, neither of which emphasize oral English. Thus, CET influences everything down to kindergarten education. CET is perceived as the top rung on the ladder of English success. Reaching for that CET top rung begins in kindergarten. Oral English is not considered important at any level of China’s educational system, not even the college entrance examination. Malte Class 7 October 30th, 2009 at 2:18 am In my opinion, there are several reasons for Mute English in China. In article, Professor Martin also finds some reasons, for example some senior high school teachers have no ability to teach English well. To be honest, it is indeed a very important reason. However, I think Chinese education system is the root cause of “Mute English”. For College entrance examination, vocabulary, sentence and grammars have a very great proportion, while listening has a little proportion and oral English never appear. In order to get high score and enter a good university, the senior high school students must pay more attention to grammars, words and so on. Unfortunately oral English and listening are neglected. As a result, a mute English speaker appears. Nancy 2 Class 7 October 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm When we talk about the mute English, I always feel a litter pity. I have learned English for 11 years, but I can not speak it as fluent as a foreign kids aged 11. The focus of learning English is put on preparing for examinations during my English learning career. And those examinations do not put any emphasis on the oral English. Consequently, teachers and I do not take it serious. When I realize that the real purpose of learning English is communication, I think I must improve my oral English .But I find my pronunciation is so poor. I am afraid of speaking English. It is a vicious circle. In order to avoid the tragedy as me, it is necessary to snip the circle from the beginning .let the teachers and students know the importance of oral English. Maybe when the importance presents itself in examinations, the high efficiency of reform will appear.

Mute English – The Latin of China

Teachers Stella Class 18 October 29th, 2009 at 12:36 pm ‘Mute English’ is a common phenomenon for our Chinese students who often do well in writing, reading and listening. In my opinion, there are two main reasons why the Chinese students can’t speak English fluently and freely. At first, although we already have study English for ten years, English teachers in China always put emphasis on grammar and language rules rather than practicability. We don’t have much opportunity to practice our oral English. Secondly, we always complain the lack of English environment. However, all of us ignore one thing that the environment should build by ourselves. Most of us are shamed to open our mouth to speak English. So it is only way that we don’t keep mute any more to improve our really practical English. Jane Class 4 October 27th, 2009 at 9:52 pm In my eyes, this is a very meaningful topic to be talked about. Having studied English for so many years, what makes me so sad is not being able to express myself clearly and fluently in it. At the beginning of our studying English, we were taught how to spell a word and what its meaning is, then how to analyze a sentence grammatically. Most of the time, the teacher was speaking Chinese and never gave us a chance to practice our oral English. Tests also laid emphasis on what the teacher taught. Gradually we realized that oral English is not needed. The following period during which we studied English, situation remained the same, so oral English was ignored by us. As a language, English is a communication tool. Having studied English for so many years, for us, it is a failure that we still cannot communicate with others in English, which makes us lose interest and confidence in it. The phenomena of “mute English” calls for a reform in the education system of China. The aim of studying a foreign language should be making it our communication tools. Armstrong Class 17 October 27th, 2009 at 10:03 pm So far, I have learned English for more than ten years. I can read, listen, write English, and have went through the CET 4 and 6. However, I cannot speak English fluently, why? Language is a tool to communicate with each other, so is English. I don’t know if the “MUTE ENGLISH” exists in other non English-speaking countries, but it does exist in China. From the perspective of mine, English is treated as a course not a language, our English teachers’ missions are teaching us how to go through all kinds of examinations and get a high score in the course; the students, we, spend a lot of time on reading, listening and writing except speaking, because oral English is not required in the tests. At last, how to do to

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Chapter Two change the phenomena? I think let’s start from “hello”. Open your mouth and shout English loudly. Don’t be shy, just try. Elise Class 16 October 27th, 2009 at 11:20 pm Mute English is common in China. We can read and understand English well as a second language. However, we cannot speak it fluently, and there are some difficulties to communicate with others. I think, there are two main reasons. One is the impersonal cause, the other is subjective. Because of the English exams, students often pay more attention to the language grammars, articles’ reading and words’ spelling, but ignore the oral exercise. Teachers also emphasize on using right words and grammars. In the class, teachers talk a lot and students only listen without saying a word. Many of us are afraid of speaking errors, so they don’t want to talk in English. This phenomenon makes me know there is no speaking environment and chance in our daily life. Though English corner is held every week, only a few people attend it. I think, if we could say it loud and often, we can overcome the Mute English. Liana-class 7 October 27th, 2009 at 11:31 pm The reasons for “MUTE English” which are shown in the article are true. The first time I started English class is at junior school. From junior school to University, teachers in the class only pay attention to the grammar and the use of words. What is more, teachers say Chinese in the class. This may be the students and the teaches are Chinese people. We can read and understand the article, but we have difficulty to speak it out. The people around us are Chinese, they all speak Chinese. Lack of the environment, in my opinion, is most important reason for “MUTE English”. But “MUTE English” is a great barrier to learn English, so If we want to learn English well, we should try our best to overcome it. Iris Class 14 October 29th, 2009 at 5:47 pm · Edit I know the phenomenon about ”Mute English” in China, but I don’t know how to describe it in English until I read the paper and learn this word. The phenomenon is quite common in China. Although I have learned English nearly 10 years, I couldn’t catch the English movie without subtitle and speak English fluently. The reasons for this phenomenon are well-known. When we came school, what the teachers emphasized are grammar, reading not the listen and speaking. If you wanted to get a high score in English class, do the exercises about grammar and reading as more as you can. Besides, the second reason is the environment around us. We are shamed. We are afraid to speak English and no one could communicate with you. If you speak English in common life, it is quite odd and the people would consider you as unbelievable and curious. Last but not least,

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in my opinion, the most important reason is that the purpose in China of teaching English is not for communication and using. What we learned from the school is English is a class that you should get a higher score not a language that you should use it to communicate. Carling Class 6 October 29th, 2009 at 5:09 pm I thought I was a mute in English. I were afraid of opening my mouth. I usually could not express what I wanted to tell others exactly. But now, after my ABC DAY, I have been going to change condition. I will speak English with room though I will make mistakes. I think there are many reasons for the Mute English phenomenon in China. First, there lacks material in China. There are so few good teachers who will teach the students speaking English, not only writing, reading and listening. Most teachers just teach the students words and grammar. Second, most of the English exams in our country do not contain oral English. We spent more on reading, listening and writing to get high scores .Last, because of the two reasons above, have been taught getting high scores for so many years, we have gradually lost the initiative of speaking. There lacks the Englishspeaking environment. Jessica class 17 October 29th, 2009 at 3:54 pm When we have first been taught English in grade one in middle school, we were told we must study English well to get excellent marks, and go to a key middle school and university. It is targeted for examinations and we are victims of examination-oriented education system. Most teachers taught grammars, sentence structures, and how to remember every single word correctly. Because of the extremely pressure of promoting, what the students can only do is do huge amount of English exercises, such as reading, listening, and writing, to learn the examination skills. Speaking, which students pay much less attention to, is not included in the examination. It is not the free soil to study what you like or what you really need䟾 while English I think, is much more than good marks but a new way to communicate and get information directly.

Of the one million plus (1,000,000,000 +) Chinese teachers of English less than 10% actually teach English in the target language, ENGLISH. They stand in front of their students and utter one of the 4 Great Lies, “You must master English.” This is said in mandarin, not in English. (Qiang, Wolff, Teng 2009, China EFL: Holistic English: The Revolution Has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead)

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Chapter Two

There are two reasons for this: First, classroom instruction to pass CET does not require instruction in English. Second, the Chinese teachers’ English is so poor it is impossible for them to teach in the target language, ENGLISH. They have not come close to acquiring a functional English let alone “master English.” While few, if any linguistic scholars, disagree with Stephen Krashen’s theory that 2nd language must be taught in the target language, throughout China’s primary and secondary schools English is taught in Chinese. (Krashen 1981) Foreign teachers recruited to teach oral English are not required to have any degree in English, linguistics, 2nd language acquisition or even education. They are not even required to have any teaching experience. The foreign teacher is viewed as more of an entertainer, (a white monkey3), than a real teacher. Properly educated and experienced foreign 3 In 1978, when China first opened its door to the outside world, China recruited high quality foreign teachers like Mark Salzman, a Yale University graduate, to teach English as a foreign language (EFL) at the university level. As China expanded the English curriculum to middle schools, the demand for foreign teachers outgrew the supply. China started the slippery slope of recruiting less than qualified foreign teachers. The requirement of a Bachelor degree in English, Linguistics or 2nd language acquisition disappeared, as did the 2 years of teaching experience requirement. China’s recruiting approach also changed. The original “employment opportunity” became “come experience the culture and travel around China.” This recruitment advertising appealed to those who wanted an extended vacation in China, necessarily interrupted by the necessity of “work” to finance the adventure. Thus China recruited those who became known as “backpackers.” They arrived in China with a short term tourist mentality and a backpack, not a suitcase. When China extended the English curriculum to the primary school and even kindergarten, there was simply an insatiable demand that could not be met so China further reduced the requirements of foreign teacher qualifications. If a foreigner could play the guitar or piano or just chat with the students, they were considered qualified. Initially, white skin and blue eyes remained an iron clad requirement. This group of foreign teachers quickly became know as the “white monkeys.” In China, brown monkeys are regularly trained to entertain and collect money from the crowd. White monkeys entertain the students and collect money from their employer. Even white monkeys could not fill China’s insatiable need for English teachers; so foreign exchange students, in China to learn Chinese, were pressed into service. L2 English speakers are now regularly recruited due to a lack of qualified and even unqualified L1 English teachers. Russian, Filipino and even African L2 speakers are now employed to “teach” EFL in China.

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teachers are not required because their oral English course does not contribute to the students’ ability to pass the CET examinations. (Qiang/Wolff 2009, China EFL: Foreign Teacher Needed; Qiang/Wolff 2003 China ESL: An Industry Run A Muck? Qiang/Wolff 2006, China EFL: The Unqualified, Teaching (sic) the Unmotivated, in a Hostile Environment)

Teaching Materials Lebron 15 October 28th, 2009 at 1:00 pm This article reminds me that we have been learning English as a subject not as a language. From CET, Chinese English teachers and English textbooks we can see that for nearly 16 years, the aim of learning English is to pass exams. But in fact, English is and should be a tool for us not a subject. However, the article ignores students themselves. In the same mute English environment, there are still many students who can speak out. Are they smarter? Absolutely not. So the willing is another important aspect. Mute English teaching mode emphasizes memorizing, which is not a good way to learn English, but it is still a way to do so. The students who are willing to practice what they memorized before can make progress in learning English. So it is true that we should reform the English teaching mode, providing English acquisition conditions. The education for stimulate students’ interests is also important. Jane Class 6 October 14th, 2009 at 9:37 am English is an important tool to communicate with foreigners and the whole world. There are three abilities in learning English: listening, speaking and reading. However, English teachers in China always put emphasis on listening and reading while ignoring speaking because they think it’s not related with the CET examinations.

Teaching materials for Chinese teachers of English are primarily limited to grammar and language rules. Oral English teaching materials contain little more than set phrase memorization exercises. (Qiang, Teng, Gregory, Wolff 2004, Can You Get a First Class Education At a Third Tier College In China?; Wolff 2009 A New Chinese Puzzle) Teaching materials for the “foreign experts” are either the set phrase books utilized by the Chinese teachers, whatever materials are brought from the home country including guitar, or the “foreign expert” is instructed to just chat with the students.

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China’s government owned publishing houses publish no 2nd language acquisition teaching materials. CET does not even pretend to measure actual 2nd language acquisition.

No English Speaking Environment Amy Class 17 October 29th, 2009 at 2:15 pm The article “Mute English” moves me to express my feeling because I fully have the same feeling after reading it. In fact, I have been learning English for decade, but I still can’t speak English freely, to say nothing of expressing myself in English when converse with others. I often feel vocabulary limited when I want to speak English. What’s more, I’m short of courage, what makes me nervous and embarrassed. When I chat with foreigners, I also cannot understand them very well. Why?! I think that’s “Mute English”. Leaning English in China without an English Speaking Environment, it’s hard to speak out consciously. I find that I usually think in English, but never speak out, that’s not good for our spoken English at all! To avoid “Mute English”, we have nothing to do but just open your mouth and speak out! Jack class 17 October 28th, 2009 at 10:41 pm It is common that many of people around us who have learned English for more than ten years can not speak it. We call it “mute English”. Unfortunately, I am the one. I think there may be two reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly, there is no English speaking environment. I think the best way to learn a language is to use it in our daily life. But in a large country such as China, you will find it is difficult to use English to communicate with others. If you do that in normal time, I’m sure you will be thought as heterogeneity. Secondly, the problem of education system is also distinct. Every student has no chance but to learn English, many of them would never use it after leaving school. Only a few students maybe go overseas, but every one of us have use too much time to learn it. Many of students are compelled to learn English, leading to we can get high scores in CET-4 or CET-6 but can’t speak it. I hope this phenomenon would improve in the near future. Peter Class 01 October 27th, 2009 at 10:22 pm Mute English is a common phenomenon to Chinese English learner. What the emphasis we put on is vocabulary, grammar, reading. Listening and speaking, which I think more important, are ignored by the learner. Of course a lot of things contribute to this phenomenon. Firstly, we have no speaking English environment in China, even in schools. What we have

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33

is only English Corner. However, almost no person joins in it. What’s worse, in China, numerous examinations compel students learn English only for passing the test, and then they only can choose A, B, C, D for a question rather than communicating with other in English.

Chinese colleges and universities provide some extra-curricular English speaking activities but they do not provide the slightest semblance of an English speaking environment. English Corner has been around for 25 years but it has not contributed much, if anything.(Qiang/Wolff 2009, CHINA EFL: English Corner; (Qiang/Wolff 2008, China EFL: Why Chinese Universities do not Provide an English Speaking Environment,; Wolff 2009, CHINA EFL: A Market Driven Model PetroChina Embraces Holistic English Program) There are two required elements to a proper English Speaking Environment. A proper ESE is one where the students are inundated with comprehensible English input and where it is easier to communicate in English rather than in the native Putonghua. An English speaking environment is defined as: "An environment where English is the dominant language." Or, "an environment where people are compelled to speak English”. 4 Chinese teachers of English actually discourage the use of oral English in class because it does not help the student with the CET examinations and it constitutes a challenge to the teacher’s poor English, which could cause the teacher loss of face (wounded ego or pride).

Effects of Mute English Jane Class 4 October 27th, 2009 at 9:52 pm In my eyes, this is a very meaningful topic to be talked about. Having studied English for so many years, what makes me so sad is not being able to express myself clearly and fluently in it. At the beginning of our studying English, we were taught how to spell a word and what its meaning is, then how to analyze a sentence grammatically. Most of the time, the teacher was speaking Chinese and never gave us a chance to 4 Creating Authentic Dialog: ESL Students as Recipients of Service Learning, Stephanie Marlow, Boise State University (Boise, Idaho, USA) “An environment where authentic dialog with native English speakers occurs on a regular basis presents ESL students with the possibility to grow both linguistically and socially”. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Marlow-ServiceLearning.html

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Chapter Two practice our oral English. Tests also laid emphasis on what the teacher taught. Gradually we realized that oral English is not needed. The following period during which we studied English, situation remained the same, so oral English was ignored by us. As a language, English is a communication tool. Having studied English for so many years, for us, it is a failure that we still cannot communicate with others in English, which makes us lose interest and confidence in it. The phenomena of “mute English” calls for a reform in the education system of China. The aim of studying a foreign language should be making it our communication tools. Robin Class 18 October 28th, 2009 at 10:32 pm The Mute English phenomenon is common in China, I was the typical example. I have learned English 10 years, and do my best to learn well, but I still can’t express myself well How funny and how sad. I am afraid to speak English. I often attend the business English salon, but I neither play game with them nor talk to them, I have litter confident in oral English. My previous English teachers pay so much attention on grammar, we have no chance to speak it, how to make it authentic, how to communicate foreigners. we also accept that, so today’s Martin brings me so much surprise. May be I should speak English as more often as I can. Emma Class 5 October 28th, 2009 at 12:52 am I passed a lot of English examinations, but both my oral and writing English are so poor. It’s a prime example of mute English. At the beginning, I study English in order to pass the examinations. Therefore, memorizing new words is my aim. After 6 years, as an undergraduate, I was aware of the important of oral English. But, I must pass the CET. Just as Martin say, I had “no intrinsic motivation, no self-confidence, no selfdiscipline, no autonomous learning skills and lack creative thinking ability”, when I learned or practiced oral and writing English. However, how to improve the situation? I don’t know. Maybe practice more and more practice. Ben Class 4 October 30th, 2009 at 11:08 am Such students, who can read English newspaper and write English composition without difficulty, are not willing to speak in English. Such phenomenon is defined as mute English. Mute English roots in our classes. Chinese are cultivated to be obedient subjects by national educational system. We used to keep silent in our class and listen to our teachers. If we speak out what we are thinking about, which may be in contradiction with orthodox idea, we will be regarded as rebels and abandoned by others. So most of us lost individual conscience and confidence. We would rather be mute than a different one. So in the Chinese class, we keep

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silent. And in the English class, we keep silent too. What I said above may be a part of the reasons gives rise to the mute English. Edison Class 18 October 26th, 2009 at 10:14 pm Mute English is a common phenomenon in China. Actually, I think what I have learned for many years is exactly mute English. I do well in most of my English tests, including university entrance examination, CET 4 and CET 6. But I rarely speak English with other people. So when I have to say something in English, I feel nervous and find no appropriate words to express my idea. What produce mute English? Our education system. Since we are pupils, we are taught to recite the content of our text books. Teachers teach us grammar and tell us to remember many words and phrases which may appear on the exam paper. Every problem on the exam has a model answer. The more you remember the better grades you get. I get good marks but my oral English never improves. We must create an English-speaking environment for ourselves. We must be not afraid of losing face. We must follow the saying “Steel sharpened steel”. Thus we are able to improve our oral English sooner or later.

The most immediate and serious effect of ME is that university freshmen have no intrinsic motivation, no self-confidence, no self-discipline, no autonomous learning skills and lack creative thinking ability. The following graph demonstrates how freshmen from 6 universities (Guangxi University, Shenyang Normal University, Yang En University, Xinyang Agricultural College, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang Vocational College) in 4 provinces (Fujian, Henan, Guangxi, Liaoning) made improvement and progress in 3 of these areas through a new paradigm for oral English. (Qiang, Wolff, Teng 2009, China EFL: Holistic English: The Revolution Has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead) Cumulative 6 schools

600 NUMBER OF STUDENTS

500 400

CONFIDENCE

300

MOTIVATION

200

DISCIPLINE

100 0 1

Graph 1

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

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After four years of undergraduate university, post-graduate students at one of China’s top ten universities are required to endure another year of English learning. However, in the spring term 2009, 485 post-graduate non-English majors were placed in 12 Holistic English classes. Even as post-graduate students, they were lacking in intrinsic motivation, selfconfidence, self-discipline, autonomous learning skills and lacked creative thinking ability. The following graph indicates their growth and development in these areas under the new paradigm.

# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

Graph 2 The following graph demonstrates how post-graduate student,, at the same top ten university, in the traditional oral English classes fared poorly in these same areas.

# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

Graph 3

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

Mute English – The Latin of China

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Graph 2 and 3 are taken from HOLISTIC ENGLISH, A Revolution – Not an Evolution, Wong Zhe and Martin Wolff, Sun Yat-sen University, Niu Qiang, Changchun University (2009) (In Peer Review, TEIC Journal)

Solution Larissa Class 18 October 28th, 2009 at 11:27 am It is known that mute English is a common phenomenon in the contemporary society in China. Some people argue that this phenomenon results from CET examinations, but I think it may be attributable to the exams early in primary school. When we were in primary school, we were taught to get high scores in all exams which includes English exam in order to enroll in an ideal junior school. As a result, the conception that to learn English is one of the keys to get in a better school is widely accepted since students are in primary schools. Therefore, both teachers and students are unaware of speaking during the English studying process. To solve this problem, I think we should place much emphasis on the way of exams of English. July class 16 October 28th, 2009 at 12:55 pm In my opinion, the phenomenon ”Mute English” is a very serious problem in China. From the days we began to learn English, our teachers taught us to read phonetic symbol and let us to read words, dialogues, passages and even recited them. But they seldom let us to speak or communicate with others in English. In the final analysis, there exists examination-oriented education system in China. The final score is judged by the ability of reading and writing not the speaking. If the style of English examination is changed, I believe everyone will speak English more actively. At the same time, changing the style is a tough task.

The simple answer is TRUE REFORM instead of the current trend to tweak that which currently exists, including adding something referred to as an oral component to the college entrance examination and CET. A test should confirm and validate curriculum, curriculum should not confirm and validate a test. CET is predicated upon an inadequate and inappropriate foundation, i.e. English is just another subject matter and to be taught as such. True reform requires a new sustainable foundation based upon practical English language needs in the employment marketplace instead of meaningless philosophical educational accomplishments. The goal of universities and colleges throughout China is to have students pass

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national English competency examinations such as TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that these national English competency examinations bear little or no relationship to comprehensible output, the pass rates have become the exclusive focus of administrative attention and false pride. This is in part due to demands of Chinese employers who are misinformed that passing CET 6 is the evidence of an accomplished English speaker5. Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” He tried to eliminate the requirement for a CET certificate in order to graduate from HIT, but gave up without success. "I had to reconsider the usefulness of CET certificates in job hunting for our graduates. Almost all employers want their recruits to have a CET certificate, so I had to push my students to pass the CET for their good, although it is against my will,"6 The market need to have graduates who can produce comprehensible English output has been completely ignored. Consequently, foreign employers, Joint Venture employers and Chinese companies doing business abroad are hiring university graduates from India because they are better able to produce comprehensible oral and written English, than their Chinese counterparts. Imagine more than 5 million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for 16 years, many of whom are being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the 10 most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.” 7 Chinese universities are under tremendous pressure to change curriculums to meet the needs of the job market. But instead, they are simply reducing enrollments in certain majors.8 "One of the reasons for the difficulty in university graduates 5

Yuankai, Tang, 9/6/07 Beijing Review, Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 6 Beijing Review., Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 7 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/27/content_6799171.htm Beijingbased survey company Mycos HR 8 Hot courses' won't secure good jobs (Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/china/national/2008-01/12/content_1239129.htm (accessed October 10, 2008)

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finding employment is that they are unable to satisfy the needs of employers," he said. (Yang Weiguo, associate professor of Beijing-based Renmin University) He said the universities needed to adjust their teaching methods and content quickly to conform to social development and demand.9 (Wolff 2009, CHINA EFL: Incompatibility of Corporate Training and HOLISTIC ENGLISH) Language learning needs to be converted and transformed into language acquisition. “While there is a need for specialist terminology, the greatest need of international employers is to have employees who can communicate successfully in English. Thus, communication and accommodation should be emphasized in language instruction; the mastering of perfect grammatical forms is an added bonus that can be reserved for later refinement. Flexibility is just as important as the mastering of prescribed forms, if not more so. In order to communicate across international boundaries, students must learn to adjust to their interlocutor in order to facilitate understanding. Moreover, because of the growing use of English as a global lingua franca, students of the language need to be exposed to a wide range of English accents in order to increase their abilities to understand the people they are likely to encounter in an international career. Furthermore, it is not only formal but informal language skills that should be practiced at university; students should be made aware of the different genres and registers in English, so that they can determine the appropriate use of the language in the various situations in which they are likely to find themselves. …. Finally, students should be taught skills that allow them to mediate between languages and cultures. Thus an intercultural approach is needed in language teaching, so that future employees are ‘able to view different cultures from a perspective of informed understanding’ (Corbett 2003:2) An approach that has the goal of successful intercultural communication at its core will prepare students for the relatively unpredictable needs of language use in corporate Europe.” (Erling and Walton 2007)

Conclusion So long as CET is the gatekeeper for university graduation or advanced studies and post-graduation employment, China will continue to teach MUTE ENGLISH and produce functional illiterates. 9

20% university graduates fail to find jobs in 2007 (Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/239233.htm (Accessed October 1, 2008)

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Chinese scholars of English Linguistics have remained largely silent and abdicated their responsibility to fashion language policy while allowing those preparing and profiting from the CET tests to have a free rein. (Qiang/Wolff 2005, Linguistic Failures, English Today) Let us revisit the Wikipedia excuse for Mute English again and note that not one single post-graduate student, out of the 700 queried, blamed ME on the lack of L1 English speakers available for the practice of oral English in China. Yet, almost every student alluded to the test driven curriculum or even CET directly. In fact we have been speaking out and writing against ME since 2002 but were unaware of the common terminology coined and applied by Chinese students to this failed EFL curriculum. However, since this treatise is student generated, student driven and student centered, it is only fitting that students have the last word. Michael Class 6 October 28th, 2009 at 10:37 pm As a post-graduate student of Sun Yat-sen University, I think I am a symbol of ME-a student who has learned English for ten years but even can not speak English well. Professor Martin Wolff has made a search about this phenomenon and has written something about his observation. Mute English, is a common phenomenon that has existed for a long time in China’s education system. This is not a new question about China’s English education. In Martin’s paper, many students showed their opinions about this old topic. Many people have mentioned CET or China’s English examination system. I think this maybe the most important reason. Just look at the students’ comments, you will find almost everyone have mentioned CET in their texts. I think this is an interesting phenomenon, since everyone knows what is the root cause of ME, why there is no change? Another interesting phenomenon is that, when we look at the suggestions those students have posted, many of them suggested what we should do is adding oral test to our English examination system. Still a test! Oral test becomes the scapegoat of ME! What many people have ignored is that CET originates in TOEFL. Not the test itself, but our attitude and aim of learning English is the most important reason. CET indeed has oral test! So do not say adding oral teat into English test. Every test is not perfect; we can not place our hopes in this! Our Chinese people value pragmatism. You may find an interesting phenomenon in some landscape and famous scenery that some sellers can communicate with foreigners fluently even their education background is very bad. The day when one person realizes that he/she should learn English for his/her everyday life, then he/she may

Mute English – The Latin of China say bye-bye to mute English. I’m sure even there is a compulsory oral test in CET, a long time after one person passes the test, he/she may become ME again! What we should do is to ask ourselves why we should learn English and do I really need learn English? We shouldn’t see English just as a subject. If you really realize that English is so important for your future life, then you will learn it well naturally, also speak well! No matter whether you like English or not, no matter whether there is an English culture environment or not, no matter whether there is a test or not! Young Class 5 October 26th, 2009 at 9:54 pm English, the most widely used language in the world, is becoming mute in Chinese education. Thinking about the way Chinese education evaluates our students, we can easily find why. For most people, the main goal of studying English is to get high grates in the examinations (College Entrance Examination, CET-4, GRE, etc.), which regard listening, reading and writing abilities as the criteria rather than speaking. For grad students, they may make great effort to improve their writing skills to publish English paper, but also —— no speaking. In my opinion, to change this status we should change our concepts of English education. To consider English as a communication tool rather than a test tool, to put oral English as the main may in communication rather than reading and writing, that is the beginning of “Vocal English”. Carl Class 15 October 29th, 2009 at 9:01 pm It is common and natural for the Chinese students becoming a ME learner. Many students, even the teachers, whose aim is just to get high score or pass the test not to communicate with others in English. Maybe some student want to improve their oral English, they can not find a place or somebody to chat with. They complain there is not an environment for him. When I begin to study English, the purpose is just to pass examination, and then I can go further study in university. But when I have passed some exam, I found I could not communicate with others especially meeting some foreign guests. At last, I realize that the most important of studying English is oral English. I think if the purpose being changed one day, the ME would not exist. For this, students should change his aim. The teachers should change their teaching method. The exam should be reformed. Dennis Class 5 October 28th, 2009 at 11:42 pm In my opinion, the phenomenon of “ME” is produced mainly by the national educational system. We began to accept the examination-oriented education from being only a child. In these days, the parents the teachers and other people around us always told us ”you should study well

41

42

Chapter Two ,especially perform excellently in your exam”. Every vacation, every people you encountered would ask you “what about your examination? In our country, the students must face all kinds of examination, weekly examinations, monthly examinations, mid-term examinations, final examinations and so on. The unique standard to evaluate the student’s is examination. So we shouldn’t be so surprised at the production of mute English. Because of the circumstance around us, we must wok hard to get a high marks in the examination. Oral English is not important to us, no people cares for it. That’s why we are hard to put our English into the practice and can’t communicate with others in English. I think the revolution of the national educational system is the ultimate way to eliminate the phenomenon of “ME”. However䟾nowadays, we can’t count on the government to take active measures. We should create any advantageous factors for ourselves to practice our English. We also should believe we definitely can study English well and speak English fluently.

References Corbett, J. 2003, An intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching, Clevedon & Buffalo: Multilingial Matters Erling and Walton 2007, English at work in Berlin, English Today Volume 23 Number 1 Krashen, Stephen D. 1981. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition,. English Language Teaching series. London: PrenticeHall International (UK) Ltd Qiang/Wolff (2003) China ESL: An Industry Run A Muck?, Progress in Education, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. (2005), Linguistic Failures, English Today, Cambridge University Press http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. (2006), China EFL: The Unqualified, Teaching (sic) the Unmotivated, in a Hostile Environment, Frontiers in Education, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2008, China EFL: Why Chinese Universities do not Provide an English Speaking Environment, Education in China – 21st Century Issues and Challenges, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2009, China EFL: Foreign Teacher Needed, Journal of Education Research http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2009 China EFL: Programming Human Robots, Journal of Education Research http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2009, CHINA EFL: English Corner; Teaching EFL in China: What Every Foreign Teacher Should Know Before They Go, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org

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Qiang, Wolff, Teng (2009),China EFL: Holistic English: The Revolution Has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead, CHINA EFL: Curriculum Reform, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org Wong,/Wolff,/Qiang (2009) HOLISTIC ENGLISH, A Revolution – Not an Evolution, Nova Science Publishers http://chinaholisticenglish.org Wolff (2009) A New Chinese Puzzle, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. (2009), CHINA EFL: Incompatibility of Corporate Training and HOLISTIC ENGLISH, CHINA EFL: Curriculum Reform, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. (2009), 4 Great Lies, Nova Science Publishers http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2009, China EFL: What Does Reform Mean? Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org —. 2009, CHINA EFL: A Market Driven Model PetroChina Embraces Holistic English Program, Nova Science Publications http://chinaholisticenglish.org

CHAPTER THREE CHINA EFL – WHAT DOES REFORM MEAN? MARTIN WOLFF, CHINA FOREIGN EXPERT

Introduction In 2009 China expects 10 million1 new college students to attend its +2,2362 public colleges and more than 1,300 private colleges.3 “The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century. The reform aims to modernize EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with better technology.”4 From a western perspective the mandate from the Ministry of Education evokes visions of full scale implementation of current 2nd language acquisition pedagogy and methodology, multi-media classrooms, computer

1 China expects drop in number seeking college degree, http://en.ce.cn/National/Education/200905/31/t20090531_19211543.shtml (accessed July 1, 2009) 2 List of universities in the People's Republic of China, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China (accessed July 5, 2009) 3 Non-government Colleges Seek Help, http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=100414&p_qry=universi ty%20and%20enrollment (accessed July 1, 2009) 4 A Recent History of Teaching EFL in China, http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11103 (accessed July 16, 2009)

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labs and sound labs, English acquisition libraries and the creation of English speaking environments. A 2009 survey of Chinese colleges and universities failed to yield evidence of the mandated reforms.

Multi-Media Classrooms Definition A theater style tiered seating classroom with audio-visual equipment programmed in English, sound equipment, projection screen and blackout curtains.

College Survey In the rich coastal cities of Dalian, Shanghai, Qingdao, and Xiamen, the 1st tier, 2nd tier 3rd tier and even 4th tier colleges and universities visited had the requisite facilities for English teaching. All of the multi-media equipment had Chinese programming as opposed to English programming. 50% of the multi-media classrooms had flat floors instead of tiered floors. One Shanghai 2nd tier Joint Venture University actively discouraged actual use of the multi-media equipment because of the high cost of electricity and the 3,000 rmb cost to replace the projector bulb. In Central China and Western China a completely different situation was observed. 2nd tier universities, 3rd tier and 4th tier colleges claim to have numerous multi-media classrooms for English instruction. But the observed reality is that only 1 in 10 has operable equipment, some inoperable for as long at 5 years, (all with Chinese programming), most lacking blackout curtains and most with flat floors. No 1st tier university was visited. In Southern China 1st tier and 2nd tier universities were observed to have an ample number of operable multi-media classrooms for English instruction. The equipment was programmed in Chinese and the floors were primarily flat, although a few exceptions for tiered floors were noted. The 3rd and 4th tier colleges appeared to suffer from the same deficiencies as were observed in Central and Western China.

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Computer Labs and Sound Labs Definitions A computer lab for English instruction should be a room with English programmed and networked computers with at least one printer, sufficient in quantity to meet the needs of the number of students, and available not only for class assignments but also for research and free choice reading, which requires access to the World Wide Web. A sound lab for English instruction should be a room with English programmed equipment designed for English audio and visual input in individual stations in sufficient quantity as to meet the needs of the number of students.

College Survey Throughout Eastern and Southern China it was observed that an adequate number of computer labs and sound labs exist with an adequate number of computers or stations to meet the students’ needs. Maintenance programs kept the equipment in proper operable condition. None of the labs were programmed in English. None of the computer labs had access to the World Wide Web. Only one computer lab had a printer. Two of the 1st tier universities visited provided a computer in every student dormitory room with access to the school intranet. For an extra fee, the students can obtain access to the World Wide Web but filtered through the school intranet firewall. In Central and Western China there was a paucity of both computer labs and sound labs. The labs that did exist were programmed in Chinese, could not meet student needs and were in various states of inoperability. Some labs had as high as a 65% inoperability factor. At one college the computer science majors learned the computer via a PPT lecture. They never received any hands on instruction or experience. At one school all 8 sound labs were 100% inoperable for an entire semester.

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At another school there was a computer lab with 40 computers for 10,000 students. 18 of the computers were inoperable and too old to repair.

English Acquisition Libraries Definition A collection of English books and magazines covering a multitude of subjects and interests, written at varying degrees of difficulty, that can be freely accessed by all students wishing to engage in free choice reading.

College Survey A random selection of 3 - 1st tier, 3 - 2nd tier and 2 - 3rd tier colleges and universities in Shanghai revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. A 2nd tier university had an English research library but students were not allowed entry because they would “wear out the books.” A 1st tier university had an English research library but students had to pay an entrance fee each time they entered. In Central China, a visit to 2 - 2nd tier, 2 - 3rd tier and 2 - 4th tier colleges and universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. A 3rd tier college recently constructed a US$5 mil. library for its 10,000 students. The college has 1,100 English majors but not one single English book in its 4 year old library. In Beijing, a visit to 4 randomly selected 1st tier universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. English research libraries were the norm. In western China a visit to 4 randomly selected 2nd tier universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department.

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In Southern China a visit to 2 – 1st tier, 2 – 2nd tier and 3 – 3rd tier randomly selected colleges and universities revealed that no such 2nd language acquisition English language library existed even though each school boasted a School of Foreign Languages with an English Department. 1 - 1st tier university had a freely accessible English research library. And 1 - 1st tier university had a small English acquisition library within the School of Foreign Languages. A visit to 5 Joint Venture universities; 1 in Beijing, 1 in Dalian, 1 in Guangzhou, 1 in Shanghai, and 1 in Shenyang, revealed that each school had a 2nd language English acquisition library. These libraries are primarily used for assigned reading and only available for free choice reading one hour each day. Books may not be checked out. The survey results are not surprising since China teaches English learning for test taking to the exclusion of English acquisition. The communicative approach to English learning concentrates on memorizing set phrases and parroting them back in oral English class. There are also monetary policy impediments to the acquisition of English books from abroad. When the strict policy hurdles can be overcome, it is usually for the acquisition of science and technology books.

English Speaking Environment Definition There are two required elements to a proper ESE. A proper ESE is one where the students are inundated with comprehensible English input and where it is easier to communicate in English rather than in the native Putonghua. An English speaking environment is defined as: “An environment where English is the dominant language.” Or, “an environment where people are compelled to speak English”.5

5 Creating Authentic Dialog: ESL Students as Recipients of Service Learning, Stephanie Marlow, Boise State University (Boise, Idaho, USA) “An environment where authentic dialog with native English speakers occurs on a regular basis presents ESL students with the possibility to grow both linguistically and socially”. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Marlow-ServiceLearning.html

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College Survey Speak with any Chinese university foreign language department administrator and they will extol the virtues of creating an Englishspeaking environment (ESE) for the English majors. But take a close look and you will quickly discover that there is no ESE on campus. The hiring of some foreign native English speakers and holding weekly English Corners is the total extent of efforts to create an English speaking environment. These English speaking opportunities contribute little or nothing to the creation of an ESE. An ESE is all about comprehensible input, i.e. immersion. Almost all of China’s colleges and universities hire foreign English speakers and hold weekly English Corner. But finding a single university with an ESE was impossible.

Conclusion Very clearly there is a complete failure of the western “vision” of the Ministry of Education’s mandate to “modernize” the teaching of English as a foreign language in China. Possibly something is lost in translation. It was noted that the Administration of each college and university surveyed possessed numerous late model luxury sedans while student facilities languished in an inoperable state of disrepair or nonexistence.

CHAPTER FOUR A NEW CHINESE PUZZLE MARTIN WOLFF, CHINA FOREIGN EXPERT

Contributors: Joe Anthony Blum, Jane Li, Gregory Mavrides, Ria Smit, Yu Yi

Question What Chinese industry has been around for at least 30 years; targets children; bleeds over 2 billion $ from the Chinese economy annually; employs more than 1.0 million Chinese and approximately 250,000 foreigners; provides no nutritional value; contributes little or nothing to the development of a better off - harmonious society; and puts more than 5.0 million defective products into the stream of commerce every year?

Answer No, the correct answer is not McDonald’s. The correct answer is Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).

In the Beginning It all began when a misguided U.S. President Richard M. Nixon met with Chairman Mao in 1972, for the express purpose of opening China’s vast market of 2 billion plus people to western profit seeking business interests.1 Little did he realize that in actuality, he was opening the west to 1 Margaret MacMillan, (2006) Seize The Hour: When Nixon Met Mao, John Murray Publishers

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Chinese Government owned monopolies who would flood the west with cheap Chinese export products and in the process amass great fortunes at the expense of western economies2. The great U.S.A. came to rely on China to purchase its treasury bonds to finance its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fund the economic recovery stimulus package of 2009.3 In 1978 China officially opened its door to the west. Shortly thereafter the first wave of native English speakers entered China to teach in China’s universities.4 With the 1991 fall of the USSR5 and 1987 recognition of China by the USA’s President Carter;6 ENGLISH FEVER descended upon China like a plague; spreading from east to west, north to south, invading every school from kindergarten to university and spawning a new brand of Joint Venture higher education schools.7

Why? Previously, when China believed that the USSR would become the postWW II economic and military super-power of the world, most Chinese universities taught Russian language. This abruptly changed when China and Russia had a political falling out and the reality of the U.S.A.’s rise to the number one position was foretold by Chairman Mao’s world famous handshake with President Nixon and the subsequent demise of the USSR. Chinese teachers of Russian were retrained to teach English, with Russian language remaining in only a few key universities in Heilongjiang Province and Beijing. English became the rage all over China. Learning English became a National obsession.

2

China.Org.Cn, China's World-Largest Forex Reserves - Not Just About the Money (2006) http://japanese.china.org.cn/english/2006/Apr/165139.htm accessed July 7, 2009 3 China.Org.Cn, China buys US$14.9b of US treasury bonds, (2008) http://china.org.cn/business/2008-09/19/content_16505870.htm 4 Mark Salzman (1986), Iron and Silk, Random House 5 Martin McCauley, (2007) The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, Longman 6 Carter Opens Ties With China, The Ledger, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ts0SAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pvoDAAAAIBAJ &pg=6648,6151&dq=china+1978 (1978) (accessed July 5, 2009) 7 China Moves Toward Establishing Joint-Venture Universities, China Daily (2002) http://mdjnkj.china.com.cn/english/2002/Mar/28035.htm (accessed July 1, 2009)

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Private EFL/ESL schools (kindergartens, primary, middle, high and college) have proliferated to such an extent that according to statistics from the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the NPC, about 54,000 private schools had been set up in China by the end of 2000, with 6.93 million registered students. (People’s Daily, 5/23/01). The teaching of English as a Foreign/Second Language (EFL/ESL) in China has become a nationwide endeavor pursued at all academic levels, from the kindergarten to the University. In the past ten years there has been an explosion in the development of public school English programs and private English language schools throughout China. EFL/ESL has become very big business in China (China Daily, HK Edition, October 9, 2002.) Reports show that ESL has become a 10-billion yuan business in China. Of the 37 billion yuan annual book sales, ESL takes up as much as 25% of the market share. And a few ESL teachers in Shanghai command an hourly rate of 1,000 yuan (US$120). Even on average, a student pays 10-20 yuan (US$1.2-2.4) for one hour of ESL training. China's reasons for learning English were well summed up twenty years ago by a team from the U.S. International Communication Agency after visiting five cities and many educational institutions in China: "The Chinese view English primarily as a necessary tool which can facilitate access to modern scientific and technological advances, and secondarily as a vehicle to promote commerce and understanding between the People's Republic of China and countries where English is a major language" (Cowan et al., 1979).8 http://www.iatefl.org/content/newsletter/155.php (accessed July 14, 2009) At first blush, it may appear admirable that China has so wholeheartedly made such a concerted effort to adopt English, the international language of commerce, as its second language. On October 24, 2002, Zang Xinsheng, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Education reportedly said: “With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and the approaching Olympics in 2008 more than ever is it a priority for young Chinese to learn and improve their language skills” (China Daily, 10/25/02). The same article states “Beijing is striving to reach its goal of teaching citizens to speak English to improve its image as an international metropolis.” Beijing wants its 13 million residents to speak English to 8 Cowan, J., Light, R., Mathews, B. and Tucker, G. 1979. English teaching in China: a recent survey. TESOL Quarterly 12, 4, 465-482.

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enhance its image as a cosmopolitan metropolis (China Daily, 10-05-02). China’s Ministry of Education wants all young people of China to learn English due to China’s WTO membership and China’s hosting the 2008 Olympics (China Daily, 10-05-02). Certain municipal governments in China require all of their civil servants to learn some English (China Daily, 10/05/02) These goals or objectives beg the question, WHY? Market studies, market analysis and affirmative recommendations from experts in the fields of business, math and linguistics should support each of the forgoing propositions, but do not appear to have been conducted. What is the mathematical probability that each of Beijing’s 13 million or so residents will need to be able to speak English for an intended or even accidental encounter with a single English speaking foreigner during the 2008 Olympics? Probably not very high. Does a market study support the proposition that Beijing’s image will be enhanced in the eyes of foreigners if all the residents of Beijing can speak English? Further, would such image enhancement translate into increased economic benefit for Beijing? If so, how much economic benefit will accrue to Beijing and does it offset the social, cultural and political costs that must be paid along the way by the people of Beijing? These questions do not appear to have been addressed by any formal study. How many bilingual (Chinese-English) jobs will actually be created in China due to China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) membership and hosting the 2008 Olympics? Does the number of new jobs requiring English support the need for all of China’s young people to learn English? Answers to these questions are not readily available. And about the bilingual jobs created by the 2008 Olympics: How long will they last? A few months? Why should someone spend three or four years studying English in College for a job in 2008 that will only last a few months? Post Olympics what becomes of these Chinese English speakers? What is the mathematical probability that all municipal government civil servants, in any particular Chinese municipality, will need to use English in their daily work? Very slim.

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The TEFL Curriculum The entire English curriculum is based upon learning to the exclusion of acquisition. English is taught in 4 separate, distinct and disconnected courses, i.e. reading, listening, writing and speaking. The entire emphasis is on memorization; memorizing extensive lists of English words, memorizing extensive set phrases; and memorizing pronunciations. Not even the slightest attention is paid to Krashen’s 2nd language acquisition theory or immersion, or any other 2nd language acquisition theory. There is no disagreement that the results are dismal. China produces over 5.0 million college graduates every year. Most of them have learned English for 16 years but are unable to produce comprehensible English output. Those fortunate enough to matriculate to graduate studies are further compelled to engage in additional English study, no matter what their major. This is because their undergraduate English study was only adequate to pass the National English Proficiency examinations but they remain functionally illiterate, unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English. At the post-graduate level, the same pedagogy and methodology that failed for 16 years is utilized for another semester, in the hope that it will work. Chinese college graduates know more about English than most native speakers. Unfortunately, they can’t use a language that they have studied for 16 years. This is a terrible waste of time and resources. In the west it would amount to a National disgrace. In China, TEFL employs more than 1.0 million Chinese teachers of English.9 Less than 40,000 of these teachers are accomplished enough in English to teach English using English. Imagine,10 960,000 Chinese teachers of English who teach English in Chinese. UNBELIEVABLE. It is no wonder that the Chinese students can’t produce comprehensible English when their teachers can’t. 9

MacArthur, (2003) English as an Asian Language, English Today Qiang/Wolff/Teng (2009) Chapter 13 China EFL: Holistic English: The Revolution Has Begun,but the Long March Lies Ahead, China EFL: Curriculum Reform, page 160, Nova Science Publishers 10

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Reform is Essential The goal of universities and colleges throughout China is to have students pass national English competency examinations such as TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that these national English competency examinations bear little or no relationship to comprehensible output, the pass rates have become the exclusive focus of administrative attention and false pride. This is in part due to demands of Chinese employers who are misinformed that passing CET 6 is the evidence of an accomplished English speaker11. Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” He tried to eliminate the requirement for a CET certificate in order to graduate from HIT, but gave up without success. "I had to reconsider the usefulness of CET certificates in job hunting for our graduates. Almost all employers want their recruits to have a CET certificate, so I had to push my students to pass the CET for their good, although it is against my will,"12 The market need to have graduates who can produce comprehensible English output has been completely ignored. Consequently, foreign employers, Joint Venture employers and Chinese companies doing business abroad are hiring university graduates from India because they are better able to produce comprehensible oral and written English, than their Chinese counterparts. Imagine more than 5 million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for 16 years, many of whom are being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the 10 most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.” 13 Chinese universities are under tremendous pressure to change curriculums to meet the needs of the job market. But instead, they are simply reducing enrollments in certain

11

Yuankai, Tang, 9/6/07 Beijing Review, Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 12 Beijing Review., Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 13 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/27/content_6799171.htm Beijingbased survey company Mycos HR (accessed May 1, 2009)

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majors.14 "One of the reasons for the difficulty in university graduates finding employment is that they are unable to satisfy the needs of employers," he said. (Yang Weiguo, associate professor of Beijing-based Renmin University) He said the universities needed to adjust their teaching methods and content quickly to conform to social development and demand.15 Both “in house” and private corporate English training centers are proliferating throughout the business hubs of China. The curriculum is usually industry specific and amounts to ESP (English for a specific purpose), i.e. the teaching of technical language and phrases to meet the perceived need to limit English communication to a standard or formal form of English related to a specific discipline such as medical English, legal English, architecture English, IT English, etc.. “While there is a need for specialist terminology, the greatest need of international employers is to have employees who can communicate successfully in English. Thus, communication and accommodation should be emphasized in language instruction; the mastering of perfect grammatical forms is an added bonus that can be reserved for later refinement. Flexibility is just as important as the mastering of prescribed forms, if not more so. In order to communicate across international boundaries, students must learn to adjust to their interlocutor in order to facilitate understanding. Moreover, because of the growing use of English as a global lingua franca, students of the language need to be exposed to a wide range of English accents in order to increase their abilities to understand the people they are likely to encounter in an international career. Furthermore, it is not only formal but informal language skills that should be practiced at university; students should be made aware of the different genres and registers in English, so that they can determine the appropriate use of the language in the various situations in which they are likely to find themselves …. Finally, students should be taught skills that allow them to mediate between languages and cultures. Thus an intercultural approach is needed in language teaching, so that future employees are ‘able to view different cultures from a perspective of 14

Hot courses' won't secure good jobs(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/china/national/2008-01/12/content_1239129.htm (accessed October 10, 2008) 15 20% university graduates fail to find jobs in 2007 (Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/239233.htm (Accessed October 1, 2008)

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informed understanding’ (Corbett 2003:2)16 An approach that has the goal of successful intercultural communication at its core will prepare students for the relatively unpredictable needs of language use in corporate Europe.”17

Reform is Impossible Wholesale reform of the TEFL curriculum is impossible under current circumstances. There are simply too many vested interests in English learning. It begins with the National English Proficiency examinations. Graduation and employment decisions rely heavily on passage of these tests. A school’s academic standing depends upon the pass rate for these tests. These examinations primarily test knowledge about English and memorization skills. They do not adequately test functional literacy18. The authors of these tests have a vested economic interest in residuals every time the tests are used. Although some famous Chinese linguists have criticized the tests19 as inaccurate and irrelevant; the supporters launched a strong defense.20

16

Corbett, J. 2003, An intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching, Clevedon & Buffalo: Multilingial Matters 17 Erling and Walton 2007, English at work in Berlin, English Today Volume 23 Number 1 18 Wang/ Zhou (4/2005) A Validation of CET For Testing Communicative Competence …., CELEA Journal Vol. 28 No. 2 17 Wang/ Zhou (4/2005) A Validation of CET For Testing Communicative Competence …., CELEA Journal Vol. 28 No. 2; Niu Qiang, (April. 2001) “Problems in Current College English Tests in China” in FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH VOL. 33 NO. 2. Authors' names ⠯ ᔎ, date 2001 ᑈ3 ᳜㄀33 ो ㄀2 ᳳ, Article name lj⦄㸠催᷵㣅䇁⌟䆩Ёⱘ䯂乬NJ, Journal ໪䇁ᬭᄺϢⷨお(໪೑䇁᭛ঠ᳜ߞ) The Issues In The Current College English Test, Niu Qiang, Foreign Language Teaching and Research (bimonthly) Mar. 2001 Vol. 33 No. 2 20 Kang/Chen (2005) Testing The Test: Aspects of CET 4 Revisited, CELEA Journal Vol. 28 No. 2, Authors' names 䕰৥ϰ, Article name ᗔ⭥Ϣ䇃㾷— 䆘lj᭛∛᡹NJ᭛ゴ“ 㽕㋴䋼䖬ᰃᑨ䆩” Journal ໪䇁⬠, Date 2002ᑈ ㄀ 6 ᳳ(ᘏ㄀92ᳳ), Gu Xiangdong, (2002) Suspicion and Misunderstanding -A Review of the article “To the Quality or the Test” in Wen Wei Po, Foreign Language World, No. 6 2002 (General Serial No.92)

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There are literally thousands of textbooks written by Chinese scholars intended to assist students in passing the National tests. The scholars receive economic royalties on the sale of their books. Some include foreign coauthors or editors but these are mainly window dressing. Less than a handful of State Owned Publishing Houses, usually attached to a famous university, have a monopoly on publishing texts for English study. They have a great deal invested in publishing English learning texts. They have no motivation to publish English acquisition texts because Chinese scholars have no motivation to write them because they are perceived as useless in passing the National examinations and they would not conform to the curriculum designed to support the tests. The test authors have no motivation to change the tests. Chinese teachers of English have no time to acquaint themselves with acquisition theory, pedagogy or methodology and they have no incentive to do so. Plus they are limited by the students’ need to pass the National examinations. When suggesting reform of an industry generating more than 2.0 billion $ a year, one must necessarily tread very lightly. The native English speaker is utilized as little more than an encourager as opposed to a real language teacher. http://www.networkesl.com/english /web/48_73.html (accessed 7/15/09)

Solving the Chinese Puzzle For those unfamiliar with China, the obvious answer may be to simply have the National Ministry of Education hand down an edict that acquisition must become a part of the EFL curriculum. Nothing in China is that simple. China is much more complicated than “One China – Two Systems.” When Beijing speaks, not everyone is required to listen. China has 2 SAR’s, 7 semi-autonomous regions and 4 semi-autonomous municipalities. These areas are basically immune to National mandates. They can take or leave Beijing’s advice with certain limitations. Even the Provinces have a great deal of freedom through their provincial Departments of Education.

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Reforming TEFL in China is a monumental task, sort of like eating an elephant. Of course the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Possibly the way to reform TEFL in China is one teacher at a time, one classroom at a time, one school at a time, one province at a time. A much quicker way would be to reform or do away with the National English proficiency examinations. Or, find a cure for English fever.

Conclusion Question How can TEFL in China be reformed to graduate students who can produce comprehensible oral and written English?

Answer That is the 2 billion $ question. If I knew I would surely tell you!

Solutions from the puzzle masters The following are unedited attributions: The only magic process I've ever seen to work is the total immersion into L2 for at least a year (as I did). I started to seriously learn English at age 18 a few months before I emigrated to Canada. (True, in Austria, we all had English for four years "in der Hauptschule" but with the same dismal success as China has). After arrival in Canada, after a brief survey of what works and what doesn't, I decided to stay away from all Germanspoken people for at least a year, which I did. Actually, I neither called nor wrote home to my family in Austria for almost two years . . . with the result that I learned to sound like a native Canadian, even without going to school. If the Chinese did something similar, meaning working in an English-only environment while living in an English-only community with a native roommate, they would also acquire English the way I did . . . the way natives do . . . through role modeling what they hear. Can that be done without leaving China? I think it could in a convoluted sort of way, but the easier answer would be to simply have a youngster commit to the use of "English only" for at least a year, somewhere,

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preferably in an industrial environment--learning some marketable skills, rather than a scholastic one--to acquire more (questionably useful) knowledge. The second important solution: China needs to put more emphasis on the value of learning skills if she wants to remain a role model to the world. Yes, knowledge, per se, has been the West's major export over the last fifty years; yet, as valuable as it was a few years ago, with the advent of the Internet, knowledge has become a public commodity . . . it has virtually lost its market value. If Chinese students would start to use the English section of their library more, they would discover this for themselves. In fact, to me, it seemed almost criminal how little research was done by our NCC students here at NJU last year. But this mindset is not likely to change while the powers to be focus on the passing of "knowledge" tests rather than the acquisition of comprehensible output (by both teachers and students). Joe Anthony Blum, MA TESOL For those of us who have been around for awhile and have seen the fruits of China’s foreign language program, it is obvious that what the Chinese really want is for the rest of the world to learn Chinese. Absolutely you can quote me. In fact, I just went on record with that position in a MKL promotional article I wrote for EzineArticles.com (Teaching English in China—Debunking the Myths). New Oriental as well as English First have both added Chinese language programs for foreigners. Even my former boss at Hainan YuDa has applied for an educational license to teach Chinese to foreigners. Of course, Chinese universities have been doing this for awhile but now everyone is going to get in on the act. At least it’s honest. As disorganized as the mainland Chinese government is, if they really wanted their populace to speak English, they would be speaking English by now. The whole thing was just for show in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, just to prove how “international” China really is (a point you have made numerous times). There was never any real intent. That’s obvious based on the result. Gregory Mavrides, PhD, China Foreign Expert As for the “Puzzle” you mentioned, it is really a puzzle for me, and also for lots of Chinese teachers of English, I think. However, the puzzle stems from a variety of factors, such as economic, military, political, technical ,

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scientific development and the change of the world, I think. CET-4 or CET-6 can not shoulder all the blame and responsibility. In fact, English as a foreign language, has been raised to a higher position because of CET-4 and CET-6, without which many students of science may choose to put more time on their majors though it may not be a bad thing…… So, you see, it’s really a puzzle. Jane Li, Chinese teacher of English I don't think any of us can change China. However, we can all change the corner where we work. Each year I train teachers and a whole district has now given me a document that through my effort they have a large pool of good local English teachers and that the level of English in the district has been raised. As for, why teach English? Some of the respondents seem to have over looked the fact that Russian was universally taught in China for many years. When there was the fallout with Russia, Russian had to be replaced, and so, long before Nixon came to China, the teaching of the "international language" had already begun. For proof of this, read WILD SWANS. There weren't any English teachers then, so the Russian teachers were told to use the international phonetic symbols to learn the English and teach it. All of today's teachers still copy their teacher's method even though they know it is ineffective. It is possible to turn a country around one degree at a time. You will not move people 180 or even 90 degrees by just being adamant. Now when you apply that to a conglomerate like China, it becomes even more obvious, that is the way an egoistic nation like China is. That is why I only train teachers with the total backing of the Education Authorities in the area where I am working and go back to see how it is implemented. Great changes have taken place and I make it clear that this is a work in progress, not that my training is the last they will need in their lifetime. In our lifetime we will not see a total change, but from 1992 until now I have seen a lot of change and I know this will continue. Stop looking at what is not, but start implementing the change you can. Maybe my training is so successful because it is done without any gain to me, except the

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satisfaction that I am making a little difference in one corner of this great land. Ria Smit, China Foreign Expert, Zhengzhou, China Just think of the puzzle game. A puzzle game consists of many pieces which are "locked" to each other in a special way. One piece doesn't make any sense. The key to solving the puzzle is to start from the edge, first make a line, then a small area, a big area, finally the whole picture will show up. An old saying in China: "The outsider sees the most of the game". Chinese students and teachers are the pieces of the puzzle. Foreign experts are the outsider. For this reason, you can see the situation objectively. English is a foreign language in China. The government should invite foreign experts to design the English curriculum, course and textbooks, and to train teachers. This can also avoid the problem of vested interests. Yu Yi, Chinese teacher of English.

CHAPTER FIVE FIRST DAY STUDENT CULTURE SHOCK MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY

The beginning of any new academic semester is fraught with inevitable required adjustments. The post-graduate non-English major students (pgs) at Sun Yat-sen University are no exception. They are required to take one semester of oral English with a foreign teacher. Most pgs have had prior undergraduate experiences with this inconsequential course where the grade does not count and more often than not, the foreign teacher has a guitar and only knows how to teach English songs. The pgs have a very strong preconceived idea of what to expect from their oral English class and the expectations are not very high. On the very first day of the Holistic English class, all of this changes. All preconceived ideas fly out the window. The process begins as the students approach the classroom. As the pgs approach their 4th floor oral English classroom they are confronted by a 200 cm x 200 cm banner. They have no idea what “Chingland” means and “Chinglish Spoken Here” goes directly against and is directly opposed to their prior teaching that Chinglish is no good. For up to sixteen years of prior English education the students have been told the 4 Great Lies; 1) You must master English; 2) Chinglish is no good; 3) You can only make your English better speaking with a native English speaker and 4) Everyone in China needs to learn English. This hugh and startling banner is the pgs first indication that something may be different with this oral English class. As they approach the classroom door they look puzzled and double check the room number. There is a sign on the door identifying the room as a “Lab” but oral English is not a lab class so they are confused.

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As the pgs open the door, their jaws drop, they freeze in position and get a “deer in the headlights” look. Again, they step back and double check the assigned classroom number. Then they ask each other if they are in the right building. As they slowly enter the room there is a Chinese buzz. The foreign teacher actually looks like a real professor. The professor loudly announces, “This is an English class and this is an English classroom. Why am I hearing Chinese? If you want to practice your Chinese, leave.” A hush falls over the room. The pgs ask permission to be seated. The professor advises that those pgs who have brought their books and a writing utensil may be seated. All others must leave and never return unprepared again. Those who did not bring their books or writing utensils are told to leave but they remain frozen in time and space. The professor explains that coming to a pg class at China’s #8 most famous university unprepared is intolerable kindergarten behavior and the guilty students are ordered to leave. Sometimes an entire first class must be cancelled and rescheduled at a punitive evening time. On the very first day of the semester the professor draws the line in the sand and demands that the pgs act like mature, responsible, serious students or get out. They have never had such an experience in their prior 16 years of education. They are in shock! They are shown the course rules in their workbooks and the professor goes over each rule in detail. You must carry your own textbook to gain entry to the movie and discussion class. No book – no entry. There are limited seats and they are reserved for class members. Do not be late for the movie or discussion class. Late – no entry. It is rude to enter the movie after it has begun. This disturbs the entire class and show a lack of respect for your classmates. Come to class prepared. If you have not done the homework you may be expelled from the class. No mobile phones. If your mobile phone rings or if the light is seen during the movie or discussion class the phone may be confiscated and will not be returned to you. Change your mobile phone language to English and answer your phone “hello” from now on.

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Chapter Five If you do not understand a movie watch it again on the school web site. Or ask your teacher for permission to download it to your memory stick so you can watch it as your convenience. If you do not understand a homework assignment, ask the teacher to explain it to you again. Use “Google – English” search engine for internet research assignments. Using a Chinese search engine will not help you to improve your English. You have been given a free red hat that says “SPEAK ENGLISH.” Wear it at all times on campus.

The professor explains that this may be an English class but English in a vacuum is worthless. In this class the students will also learn good manners, good work skills and western expectations of a mature young adult. At this point many students doubt that they want to stay in this class. It was supposed to be a “no sweat” easy class where a student could catch up on some lost sleep. But this grumpy old foreign man who looks like father Christmas at best or Mr. KFC at worst, is strict, even harsh. Fortunately, the professor knows how to bring the pgs out of shock and within minutes the classroom is filled with laughter as everyone settles down to begin their semester of fun with English acquisition. The students are encouraged, by subsequent email, to post their first day culture shock experience at http://chinaholisticenglish.org The following (unedited) student posts are representative: Shirley2_class4 September 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm I had thought that the oral English classes were just easy jobs for me after having learnt English for thirteen years. But when I stepped into the classroom, I realized I was wrong. The atmosphere actually shocked me. The long time of studying English in a rigid and non-incentive way has worn out my passion for English. Martin made me to reconsider the meanings of learning English. I forgot something important in the course of English study. They were proud, happiness and encouragement. I showed my appreciation for Martin. I thought I would find these significant feelings in Holistic English. Vita class13 September 20th, 2009 at 6:58 pm Although English is very important for me, I don’t like it. In my opinion, learning English is very dull, tedious, and so on. But when I enter the

First Day Student Culture Shock classroom, everything is changed. The room is full of bright color, very beautiful. And a lovely foreign teacher aloud speaks English to us. It is fresh for me. Then he tells us that you can study English in a relaxed station, such as seeing a film, talking interesting topic with your friend. You don’t need remember grammar, listen the English again and again. Suddenly I feel learning English may be interesting. Maybe I can speak English fluently in some day. Ben Class3 September 20th, 2009 at 10:40 pm When I walked into the classroom, I thought I was in the wrong place. I hadn’t seen such a classroom before. So I checked the class number several times, then the teacher came…. Lucy Class O2 September 28th, 2009 at 12:14 am Seeing the poster on the door on which there was ‘Holistic English Lab’, I could not stop laughing. Let me tell you why. We have been in school since we were five or six years old, which implies we are skilled at passing all kinds of exams without actually taking in the knowledge. And suddenly, there comes a naive teacher who uses his heart to prepare for his classes. I felt pity for this teacher’s hard work at that moment because very few would take it seriously. However, my view totally changed after the first class. The teacher, a Father-Christmas-like American, is the most devoted teacher I have ever seen in my entire life. Even a foreigner could work so hard at improving our English, and I can’t see any reason why we do not endeavor ourselves. Summy Class3 November 4th, 2009 at 12:30 am So last Saturday morning is my first day student culture shock. At first I was really scared by Martin’s severe attitude to the students who were late. In China, most professors have been used to that and they never explain how bad this behavior is, so finally students just take it for granted. In my opinion, teacher should make their students aware that being on time is very important. If students do not realize that they will make some big mistakes in their left lives, especially in work. Another difference I found is that in western culture students are encouraged to think and talk freely and to open their mind to find various creative ideas. What teachers teach is not only knowledge but also how to learn and how to create.

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Chapter Five TOM-13 September 20th, 2009 at 1:38 am When I knocked the door nervously and then came into the door, oh, what I saw was Santa Claus! I was told to show him the workbook before I realized that he was not Santa Claus actually. After being permitted to be seated, I found professor was really strict because any one broke the rules would be punished. I had to say that Professor Martin Wolff was the first foreign English teacher I had ever met and was shocked not for his strictness because it was reasonable but for his humor in English lessons and totally different style of teaching! I never saw a Chinese teacher say “I like teaching and speaking with student even though I had retired.” I have to say that I just like him though my English is just so so. I could use supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to describe professor and enjoyable to the post-graduate students. Charlie.15 September 20th, 2009 at 8:22 am Chinglish? What is Chinglish? Looking at the words in a remarkable red banner, I was puzzled. With doubts I knocked the door. A man looked like Santa Claus queried me: “Where is your yellow book, no book, no come!”. Oh, I was rather taken aback; it took me back into the real world “He is not Santa Claus but my rigorous oral English teacher!” With beating hearts and some nervousness, we began the class. Wow, so different, so funny and so unexpected. Professor Martin brought us a friendly entertainment atmosphere instead of a rigorous academic education. I was greatly fascinated by this “art work”. During the class, I got that the aim of “Holistic English” was to facilitate us self-study, increase our knowledge or expand our world view, and also to embolden us in developing an ethical standard, increase confidence in oral communication. Now, I was little nervous but much confidence. Carter class1 September 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am I entered a strange classroom for oral English and had a special experience there last Monday afternoon. All the seats were surrounded in circles next to desks and many colorized banners were pasted on walls in the classroom. A dumpy oldster with white hair and a red hat who was pretty much the same as the KFC but looked so strict was walking up and down. It was my first time to near a foreigner for such a long time. I was a little nervous and perplexed but sometimes the oldster was humorous and the classroom was filled with laughter. Maybe my mute English will be improved here, I look forward to it.

First Day Student Culture Shock Terry09 September 20th, 2009 at 9:27 am Our first English class was cancelled and rescheduled at the night because we did not bring our books. We began to know this was a first class that different to all the class I have acquired. When we had prepared our English book and come back to 4th floor oral English classroom, we felt shock and within minutes the classroom is filled with laughter, and teacher is very strict, interesting and responsible. I really hope we can have a enjoyable time together. Jenny.Class1 September 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am I’ve been studying English for about 16 years. During these years, I’ve been taught in approximate ways so the fun of English learning fades day after day. But the first day of this new semester, something changed. I met my first foreign teach, Doctor Wolff, kind of strict. But he’s one of the most responsible English teacher I’ve ever seen. Honestly, I did shock at the beginning. However, when I looked around the room, everything attracted me, colorful phases on walls, smart red hats neatly placed on clean desks…Doctor Wolff treats us like his child and I always believe that every father loves his kids. Holistic English is a new approach for me to experience, I do wanna to follow our teacher and enjoy the new journey. Vivian class9 September 20th, 2009 at 9:35 am The first glance of the HEL is very impressive; it is more like a café than a traditional teaching lab. And what is more impressive me is that, because of some misunderstanding, there are 30 students fail to bring their textbook, and unlike the other teacher, martin strictly insist us to get our book before we enter class room. This is the fist time that I know the power of principle, because students learned that they should do well preparation before they start. This is the most precious thing that I got from martin on my first class day. Andy_Class 3 September 20th, 2009 at 9:38 am Yes, yes, I must say that the things written in this article is actually true. Yes, I am in shock. I had several foreign teachers before, but none of them like Prof. Martin. Prof. Martin is really a special teacher. Did your English teacher tell you a password in the first class before? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Did your oral English teacher tell you the questions of your final exam in the first class? And one of the questions is a tongue twister? I know that I will have special English classes I never imagined before. It may bring me a new attitude about learning English. I really look forward to my oral English classes.

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Chapter Five Tom_class14 September 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am I was taught by foreign teachers during my middle school time. But I don’t like to be taught by them. They often asked us to sing songs and to play games, which were so boring. I felt that they treated us as babies and the class looked like a kindergarten. On the first day of Holistic English, I changed my thought. Mr. Wolff is not a young boy. All the foreign teachers I have met before are also students learning in China. Mr. Wolff is a real old teacher teaching in china. I am looking forward to a new experience with foreign teacher. Rachel-Class1 September 20th, 2009 at 9:59 am On the first day of the new semester, I found my learning experiences for 16 years past wasn’t applicable here. Chinglish wasn’t allowed before but here is just a Chingland. Classes were begun in conventional classrooms before but here is just a tearoom, and you can help yourself with tea and biscuit if you like. And most important, Pro. Martin is terribly strict, even if he looks like Santa Claus. Distinct with other oral English teachers, he told us he would just teach right English and wants us to be successful. I think I have to adjust to this new situation as soon as possible, and keep high alert to his calls and assignments at any time. Jim-Class2 September 20th, 2009 at 10:06 am When I came into the classroom, I was surprised. On the walls there are many sentences which encourage us speaking English out bravely? But when I heard what Pro.Martin said, I was shocked deeply. In his class, you can make mistakes. If you do not make mistakes and correct, you will never learn the oral English and you maybe miss a high-pay job. As Martin said, do it when you can. Do not regret when you can not. Jane.Y-class8 September 20th, 2009 at 10:13 am Mr. Wolff is my first foreign teacher. But the more important thing is, he is the first teacher who has shocked and changed me so much in the first class. “I’ll not teach you any English; you’re here not to study English, but to acquire English.” He said quite seriously after some brief introductions in the first class. Well, to acquire English! That means, we will learn English without lots of forced memorizing, and gradually be able to use it through casual talks! I got excited at once and I knew I would like the course.

First Day Student Culture Shock Jane Class Two September 20th, 2009 at 10:53 am What an impressive English class I had last Monday morning. It’s totally different from my preconceived idea of the oral English class. We always study English instead of using English in our life, but on the first class Pro. Martin changed the situation. He is a responsible teacher, he taught us not only about how to improve our oral English, but also told us other things such as how to be a good employee when we work for a foreign company. It’s really useful to all of us. Thanks to Pro. Martin, i am looking forward to the next class. John Class13 September 20th, 2009 at 10:56 am At the time I first entered this “Holistic English Lab” I was shocked. Is it a classroom? An old man with white beard ordered us to sit where there’s a red hat. “Unbelievable! Do you think you are in a kindergarten? You are not told to do this!” Oh, what a serious guy. Soon I find this old man-our Professor Martin Wolff, is very humorous and kind-hearted, but he is much more strict. If you are late, out; If your phone rings in the class, give it to him without returning, otherwise, out; and something like that. Jesus! “Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little”. Aren’t we Chinese crazy? We will never obey these rules for learning our own language. However, I shall do all my best to obey the instructions from this strict and respectable (I say respectable because he spend his weekend on giving lessons to the students who are late or absent) man, and try to enjoy the fun he promised to bring us. Cindy-class2 September 20th, 2009 at 11:06 am My first oral English class was unforgettable, what shocked me most is the rigorous atmosphere, which made me realized that oral English class is not just play English game or sing a English song like before, it requires us to do our utmost to practice our oral English. Of all the past 10 years, we’ve learned English on the purpose to pass the exam, which made me ignored the practice of oral English, but this class provides us a precious chance for us to practice, especially with professor Wolff’s strict requirements, which not only taught us how to practice English, but also taught us the attitude toward life, how to experience it, and how to face it.. Tom class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am I was taught by foreign teachers during my middle school time. But I don’t like to be taught by them. They often asked us to sing songs and to play games, which were so boring. I felt that they treated us as babies and the class looked like a kindergarten. On the first day of Holistic English, I

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Chapter Five changed my thought. Mr. Wolff is not a young boy. All the foreign teachers I have met before are also students learning in China. Mr. Wolff is a real old teacher teaching in china. I am looking forward to a new experience with foreign teacher. Mindy Class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm After my first class of the Holistic English class, my impression on English class has changed completely. The professor is so harsh that I find it difficult to adapt to his style. It seems that he is teaching us the rules needed to be an excellent and successful person more than English. He said he could not accept the “just so-so” attitude, which is very popular in China. He demanded that we follow instructions seriously, be prompt and responsible and it seems that there will be no second chance if we make a mistake. I am really shocked by this culture difference but I will try my best to cope with it anyway. Dexter 8 September 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm It really shocked me to see the banner written with “Chinglish spoken here”. It might be just a trick, because it is totally opposed to my understanding. When I came into the classroom, a teacher with a full white beard was saying something loudly and clearly, it suggests, to some extent, that he knows how to help us learn English or acquire English. Then, in his speech, I find he is humorous and friendly teacher. In the first class, he emphasize two points—we need to learn or acquire English rather than study, which I consider a new perspective; the other one is following instructions, which makes me impressed. That is my experience; I met a responsible, enthusiastic, and kind of humorous teacher—professor Martin. Joanna class 9 September 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm “You come to my class unprepared? This is a university, not a kindergarten, get out!” “Oh, it would be a tough day today!” – by Martin Wolff. There’s no doubt that Martin’s attitude shocked all of us during the first day of our oral English class. Oh, my god! He is so strict! That’s my feeling. Then I found that his English is so good and I really like his accent. Yes, he is strict or even harsh. Nevertheless, he is just the right one for us. He is humorous, passionate and responsible. So I will just follow him, enjoy the class and make progress! Jessica-Class 2 September 20th, 2009 at 3:57 pm Holistic English course is more than an English course! Not only can we speak English, but also we can see English, smell English and drink English. Professor Wolff is as “harsh” as it can be. However, it is just

First Day Student Culture Shock because of his stricture that we’ve gained things more than English knowledge merely from the first day class, things that will aid us in our lifetime. Try your best to be as punctual and precise as you can. This is what Professor Wolff taught us in the first class. I have faith in myself that I can gain a lot from this course. Susan Class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 4:02 pm Before I went into the classroom of oral English on Thursday afternoon, I was tired and sleepily. But, it stimulated me as soon as the decoration of the classroom appeared in front of my eyes. Motto boards almost occupied the whole sidewall and the desks on which there each were six red hats with letters “SPEAK ENGLISH” were not placed in right order. Another one that attracted me simultaneously was Professor Martin. He was a fat man with bushy beard for which we almost could not see his mouth and he had a loud and clear voice. Just as he said, he was really a strict professor. You were allowed to be in the classroom unless you had the workbook and were not be late. During the class, do not nap or even inattentive, otherwise you will miss some important information. So, we should be serious every second and I believe that like teacher, like pupil. Yolanda Tsai September 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm It’s such a big shock for me in our first oral English class. Firstly, some classmates didn’t allow to enter the classroom because of no book. “You come to my class unprepared, get out”, the word made me nervous. When I entered into the classroom, I found many mottos on the wall and many red hats on the desks. I realized this oral English course is very special. Then, the professor introduced himself, he told us about his kids, his experience, and so on, all these taught me a lot thing. I really believe we will learn a lot useful thing from this course, not only about study, but also about life. Eric Class 1 September 20th, 2009 at 5:05 pm It’s an exciting class that I’ve never experienced before. When I entered the classroom, I noticed that there were no Chinese words, there were many English Inspirational mottoes on the wall. It’s an absolutely English atmosphere. … Sara class 8 September 20th, 2009 at 5:19 pm In fact, it’s my first time to have an oral English class with a foreign teacher. Although I have learned English for about ten years, I know my English level is poor. The classroom is so different, and Professor Martin is also a man of character. Everything is amazing. Mr. Wolff’s western style impressed me favourably. “Out”, he cried to those people who didn’t bring

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Chapter Five a book or was late. And he never allows us to speak Chinese in the classroom. At the first, maybe it’s a little hard for us to obey his demand, but I think the entire English environment is good for our improvement Joe Class 8 September 20th, 2009 at 5:58 pm Honestly speaking, I was really shocked when I entered the oral English classroom. With tables and chairs set in groups and large number of colorful slogans pasted on walls, it seemed like a coffee shop instead of a classroom! And our teacher, Dr Martin, was also beyond expectation. I’ve had several oral classes since my junior high school, and every foreign teacher was characteristic. Dr Martin reminded me of Tony, who was the first foreign teacher in my life, especially with the announcement “NO CHINESE IN MY CLASS”. But I think Dr Martin is stricter and more professional. Anyway, it’s a post-graduate class. I admitted I need to pay more attention on practicing oral English right now, and finish every trifle that I can do, including bringing the red cap to class, remembering the password “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, saying “hello” when answering any phone call and so on. Those who can not do trivial things can not accomplish great things. Hawkins class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 7:08 pm I have learned English so many years and met a lot of English teachers including some foreigners. But Professor Martin and his Holistic English are totally a new experience. Honestly, the English class time is always boring for me. But this time was different. Class time spent so fast. Professor Martin, not Farther Christmas or Colonel Harland Sanders, has a good sense of humour. In his class, we learned not only oral English, but also how to be a successful man in future. Professor Martin is also a strict old man. Maybe good teachers are always strict. In addition, I learned a new word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Miller 13 September 20th, 2009 at 8:26 pm This is interesting! The moment I walked into the classroom which didn’t look like a regular one, a little question just popped out to me: was I going to have a class? The room was so beautifully decorated that it made me think we were going to have fun here. But, just a while, I found out that the teacher was very strict and had no tolerance about any childish attitude. Actually, I was once taught by a foreign teacher in high school. But that was just for fun. The class was over, and nothing did I get. This time, I knew the teacher was serious and he even bought everyone a red hat with his own money. As for me, I’m going to make good use of this opportunity to improve my English and learn something else important to my life

First Day Student Culture Shock Phoebe class 9 September 20th, 2009 at 9:29 pm Unfortunately, my first oral English class on Tuesday morning was cancelled because none of our classmates had taken the yellow book. I never thought it a problem to have a class without a book before. But this time, “no book, no entry”. The teacher was so strict, but still responsibleour class was rescheduled at that night. And the first thing I learned from the oral English class was to take everything seriously and be responsible. The atmosphere of the class that night was really free and enjoyable. Different from our traditional English class, students were seated in groups so that we can communicate with each other conveniently and in a friendly environment. The teacher made an introduction to Holistic English and told us the instructions that we should follow in a humorous way. The whole classroom was fraught with laughter. Kevin Wong September 20th, 2009 at 10:28 pm In my opinion, before this Saturday, any oral English class is funny but useless. The foreign teacher just told some joke, played some games or sang some songs. This Saturday, I was arranged to an oral English class again. When I got into the special classroom, a Father Christmas look foreigner, Prof. Martin Wolff, asked me whether I have brought my yellow book. Fortunately, I had noticed the sentence “No book- No entry” on the textbook. So I gained entry. During the 2 hour class, Prof. Wolff told us much about how to improve our oral English. That’s totally different from my experience before! Terry Class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 11:08 pm How amazing! That’s my first impression when I came into the classroom for the first oral English lesson. The layout of the tables was quite different, and we could sit down face to face. I felt very good in this Environment, but a bit nervous at the same time because my English is so poor. Then Mr. Wolff started our lesson. He is humorous but strict. The teaching style was funny and fresh, which I had never seen during my last 10 years’ English lessons. I think in the lesson, Mr. Wolff teaches us not only the knowledge of how to improve our oral English but also the attitude to do a job, such as sense of discipline and self-confidence. For example I felt confident from the motto I learned form the lesson. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tells ‘em, Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” I find that I am beginning to enjoy this lesson.

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Chapter Five Shirley2 Class 4 September 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 pm I had thought that the oral English classes were just easy jobs for me after having learnt English for thirteen years. But when I stepped into the classroom, I realized I was wrong. The atmosphere actually shocked me. The long time of studying English in a rigid and non-incentive way has worn out my passion for English. Martin made me to reconsider the meanings of learning English. I forgot something important in the course of English study. They were proud, happiness and encouragement. I showed my appreciation for Martin. I thought I would find these significant feelings in Holistic English. Young Class 5 September 23rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm Before entering the Holistic English Lab, I still felt it’s unnecessary to learn English as a postgraduate, because postgraduates should devote themselves to the current research which made them have no time for English classes. However, Professor Wolff gave me a hard blow on this idea. I began to felt nervous when professor harshly told the students without the workbooks out of the class. As time passed, I was deeply impressed by the disciplines of the class. Professor told us the importance of responsibility. And I also realized that English is very important for post-graduate student whatever their majors are. Jack Woods Class 6 September 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm At the first sight of the banner with “Chingland” and “Chinglish” near the English classroom, I regained the exactly same feeling as I came across a funny word “Chinamerica” at the homepage of yahoo world news. I told myself, “Wow, it seems that I might be lucky enough to meet a creative teacher. Fantastic!” To be honest, I think my classmates’ English level, of course including mine, is not so bad already and the traditional teaching methods are helpless but just time-killing. So, something new sounded amazing. Thank God, there was a difference indeed! To some extent I might disagree with Martin’s aggressiveness, but I liked his straightness and honesty. What’s more, the room’s environment, the class’s atmosphere and especially, Martin’s attitude towards English teaching and learning, were very attractive to me. Yeah, he hit the point. English is just an instrument which helps our communication, that’s all. When we learn it, we use it, simple and clear. One hour passed by quickly and Martin didn’t let me down, he drew a colourful blueprint. When the class was over, I stepped out the classroom with a little bit of unwillingness as well as the looking-forward to next class.

First Day Student Culture Shock Alex Class 7 September 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm Yesterday was wonderful! I found that the oral English class which I took yesterday was so different from the oral classes I’ve taken before. When I came into the classroom which is called as a “lab”, I was strongly shocked. It is very special that the whole classroom was decorated by colourful paper streamers with English mottoes on them. The desks and chairs were specially organized, which were totally different from the traditional classroom in our campus. All of these built an atmosphere that was comfortable and lively for study. The English teacher Professor Martin, a humorous American elder, was also very special. He was affable but very strict. There are many rules for us to obey in the class. If anyone of us disobeys the rules, Professor Martin will become very angry just looks like a volcano that is going to burst out! The most important thing I learned from this lesson was that it’s no need to be afraid of speaking English and to worry about making mistakes. As Professor Martin said, just leave “the face” in the dorm. I think it is a great opportunity for us to improve our oral English and I will try my best. Just enjoy the class! Ivy 17 September 25th, 2009 at 8:25 pm It’s one of the most meaningful lessons in my whole life. And I had never experienced such a special English lesson: different furnishings, different teaching way, different requirement and so on. On the first sight, every classmate would have the same idea that it was too bad to have this lesson. However, after Professor Wolff’s explanation, my thought had changed. As the professor said, since we want to master English in reality, we need a pure English environment. I think this is appropriate. I believe this English lesson will be of great help to our upgrade. Thanks, Professor Wolff, to offer us such a good place. Gertie Class 18 September 26th, 2009 at 3:06 pm When I entered the Holistic English Lab for the first moment, I realized it was unique. Colorful maxims on the wall, red chairs round several desks and freely used water made me feel it was a comfortable classroom with a conversational atmosphere. In the class, Professor Martin told us a lot about his family and talented students, and his humor made us blur out laughter a lot. Besides, I was shocked by his attitude that “so-so” is a big NO NO! I was aware of the significance of forming a strict and serious attitude towards my study and future jobs. “Don’t take your face to the class!” Marin said. I realized, prompting our English speaking skill is not the only goal, but building confidence and courage to speak. Not English learning but English acquisition will bring us progress. Henceforth, I will try my best, wishing I can improve my oral English with the help of our strict but nice Professor Martin.

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Chapter Five Lucy Class O2 September 28th, 2009 at 12:14 am Seeing the poster on the door on which there was ‘Holistic English Lab’, I could not stop laughing. Let me tell you why. We have been in school since we were five or six years old, which implies we are skilled at passing all kinds of exams without actually taking in the knowledge. And suddenly, there comes a naive teacher who uses his heart to prepare for his classes. I felt pity for this teacher’s hard work at that moment because very few would take it seriously. However, my view totally changed after the first class. The teacher, a Father-Christmas-like American, is the most devoted teacher I have ever seen in my entire life. Even a foreigner could work so hard at improving our English, and I can’t see any reason why we do not endeavor ourselves Ross Class01 September 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm Actually I was kind of hoping that the oral English teacher would be a beautiful fairy lady with a wave of blonde hair, so when I saw Professor Martin standing at the front of the classroom greeting us,I felt a little disappointed (LOL).His luxuriant mustache was the first thing that impressed me. The mustache is so thick that his mouth is almost hidden behind it. I figured that he must be a good-tempered teacher which was later proved wrong. He turned out to be a very strict teacher whose class has many rules and regulations for the students to follow. That’s the second thing that impressed me. The strict tones of his got me very nervous at first, especially when I was asked to change my English name because it was actually a girl’s name. I felt quiet embarrassed at that time. And at the same time everyone else was sitting in his chair, afraid of being criticized of doing something wrong. The tense atmosphere suddenly changed as soon as the class began. Professor Martin changed to a man who talks like our parent (in a good way of course).I could feel that he cares about us and he was doing his best to impart to us the secrets of how to learn English. The words he said were very stimulant and the man has such a wonderful sense of humor which could be counted to be the third thing that impressed me that day. I suddenly began to love this class and Martin. Professor Martin has so many interesting stories to tell because he has so many experiences and has been to so many places. He said that he was retired but not tired. He said a teacher should stop teaching whenever he stops learning. I guess that might be the reason why he chose to be a teacher after his retirement. The class was ended in a very relaxed air and we talked about the funny experience we just had during the class all the way back.

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Alex Class 18 September 26th, 2009 at 12:01 pm It is really a “first day shock” to me and everything is unbelievable. On my way to the classroom with other guys, I didn’t know anything about the course yet. After all, this is just another English course like one of those courses before and I guess there’s nothing different. But when I saw that “Chinglish” flag on the wall, I said to myself, “Wow, maybe there IS something different.” And so it is. The so-called “classroom” was more like a tea house, with colorful papers on the wall…. Sabrina class3 September 20th, 2009 at 4:11 pm It’s really a culture shock! As prof.Woff said that most of us had never had such an experience in our prior 16 years. I was shocked when I came in the classroom. There are seven tables in room and every table has six seats with a red hat belong to each seat. Subsequently, we know that this especial red hat is a symbol that denotes we are Prof. Wolff’s students. My dear Prof. Wolff is a kindly man, he told many interesting stories made we laugh. But he is also a strict man. When he saw someone hadn’t took the oral book he shouted:”out!” What a exciting class it was! Our dear Prof. Wolff said that as long as we follow his arrangement our English will be better and better! I believe! Moon September 20th, 2009 at 11:10 pm If I was ordered to choose a word to describe my oral English on the first day, I think “interesting” will be the most appropriate one. When I entered the classroom with my classmates, the special scene made me surprised: six red hats with “speak English” putting on the table which soon after we knew we must wear anywhere and anytime, a small potted plant placing on our desk, colorful boards with motivated proverbs being hung on the white wall, and our teacher, Dr. Martin, speaking not at the front of the room, but in the middle of it. In a word, I never entered this kind of classroom and experienced the comfortable atmosphere of learning. I fall in love with the special oral English class on the first day.

What is Holistic English? The chief editor of a major Asian linguistics journal suggested that Holistic English is just rearranging furniture. There are scholars who simply refuse to acknowledge the difference between language learning and language acquisition. Holistic English is language acquisition. The emphasis is on comprehensible input in a friendly environment. Due to a paucity of English reading

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materials and the complete absence of any English acquisition library, English movies with English subtitles provide the medium of comprehensible input. Holistic English treats the language as an inseparable whole, as opposed to the traditional Chinese English learning curriculum of dissecting language into four separate and disconnected parts, i.e. reading, listening, writing and speaking. Holistic English encourages language acquisition for communication purposes. The traditional Chinese curriculum mandates learning English to pass a multitude of exams and results in Mute English, knowledge about English but functional illiteracy. The goals of Holistic English are developing confidence, intrinsic motivation, self-discipline, autonomous learning skills, creative thinking and increasing world view. The goals of the traditional Chinese curriculum are memorization of language rules, vocabulary lists and set phrases for passing examinations but not for communication. The contrast between Holistic English and the traditional English learning curriculum is stark and it does shock the students on the first day.

CHAPTER SIX CHINA EFL: WHAT IS HOLISTIC ENGLISH? MARTIN WOLFF AND NIU QIANG

Throughout China, English is taught in 4 separate and disjointed classes, Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. There is no link or common subject matter between the classes. The foreign teacher is retained, primarily, to handle the oral class to force1 speech production by chatting with the students. (Yes there are exceptions but we are speaking to the overall national situation at all levels of higher education throughout China. Yes, some foreigners do teach other than oral English. Yes, some foreigners are given teaching materials for oral English. But those are the exceptions and they are few.) The Holistic English Program replaces oral English learning with a conversation English experience; replaces teachers with facilitators; replaces set phrase or speech pattern memorization with language acquisition; develops self-confidence, intrinsic motivation and develops autonomous learners and creative thinkers; replaces graduates who are unable to produce comprehensible English with those who can. There are Chinese beliefs that you learn English just like you learn any other subject; if you can speak English you can teach English; foreigners can just chat with Chinese students to improve the Chinese' spoken English; English can be taught by Chinese speaking Chinese; and Chinese students will improve their oral English if forced to speak with a foreigner.2 1

Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions 2 The Comprehension Hypothesis claims that we acquire language by input, not by output, a claim is supported by studies showing no increase in acquisition with

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Holistic English is simply taking one subject matter and using it for reading, listening, writing and voluntary3 speaking in one single class. It emphasizes comprehensible input through very entertaining movies, in a friendly English speaking environment. It is all about language acquisition rather than language learning. It emphasizes input rather than output. Watching dictioned movies is different from the audio-lingual method because the subtitles enable the students to read and comprehend the movie and the story of the movie makes learning a pleasurable entertainment which makes implicit learning or incidental learning of the vocabulary possible. This is a combination of both explicit learning and implicit learning or intentional learning and incidental learning, or conscious learning and unconscious learning. It also provides free choice reading material and English TV for leisure time activities in the evening. Every attempt is made to prompt the English mental lexicon within a dominant Chinese environment. Everything possible is done to create a non-academic, non-performance based, nontest oriented atmosphere within the classroom setting. Students speak when they are ready, not on command. Forced output is actually very harmful.4 more output (Krashen, 2002b). Studies show, however, consistent increases in acquisition with more input. 3 Comprehensible input-based methods encourage speaking but do not force it. Students are not called on; rather, participation is voluntary. 4 Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions “There are five types of output namely reading out aloud, pattern drills, memorized matters, story retelling, and free production or communicative output. If students are forced to produce output which they are not linguistically ready for, it will only encourage them to produce deviant English or Chinglish which fossilizes if they cannot receive timely corrective feedback, which usually is the case. They stopped learning as soon as their pidgin English can manage a conversation. They use communicative strategies like avoidance, simplification, overgeneralization to express their ideas both in oral as well as written production. Therefore, same as giving students the optimal input is crucial for acquisition to take place, eliciting optimal output is also essential to guarantee acquisition. This does not mean to exclude free production altogether. It only means that at the initial stage of learning, students should learn to observe how words and phrases they learned from textbook are idiomatically used in all their complexity and contexts in the movies before or while applying them freely to their own free output. This is like building a three-floor house. You do not build the third floor without building the first two. Free production is like building the third floor. Learning the vocabulary from a dictionary and textbook is preparing students for understanding movies and

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One way to relax the classroom atmosphere is to have plants; carpet, curtains, wall pictures, as opposed to Chinese proverbs in Chinese, which prompt the Chinese mental lexicon rather than the target English mental lexicon; water machine, anything that takes the edge off and makes the room feel more like a coffee shop or tea house. There is no lectern as that is a major barrier to a friendly environment.5 It has been scientifically proven that the above formula works and students do acquire English with output capabilities.6 25 years of recent Chinese educational history proves that language learning does not produce students with output capabilities. That is why so many Chinese try to go abroad to improve their English. The Holistic English Program is a comprehensive, but remedial, "Holistic" approach to English acquisition7 including observation, listening, reading, writing, debate, conversation and Internet research, all in one course. Each semester the course revolves around 8 full feature commercial Hollywood entertainment movies. The freshmen course movies are primarily crosscultural in nature while the sophomore course is exclusively composed of movies with business content, theme or moral.8 reading materials. Only when the learner encounters a word frequently in different contexts, can he or she convert the declarative knowledge of a term into procedural knowledge and then later on into automatic ability. Thereafter, pattern drills like making up sentences with words and phrases is a necessary step to drill the students in how to use the words properly.” Niu Qiang (2001) “Types of Output and the Elicitation of Optimal Output”, Teaching English in China. Vol.24 No.1 5 Suggestopedia, one of the eight teaching methodologies, is a method developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist educator Georgi Lozanov who describes it as a science … concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nonconscious influences, that human beings are constantly responding to. Suggestopedia optimizes learning. The most conspicuous characteristics of Suggestopedia are the decoration, furniture, and arrangement of the classroom, the use of music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher. Memorization in learning by the suggestopedic method seems to be accelerated 25 times over that in traditional methods. ( Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S, 1986:142 ) Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S, (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 6 Krashen, Stephen (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Pergamon Press Inc. 7 The emphasis is on language acquisition not language learning 8 There was opposition to the Freshmen II Workbook due to the inclusion of medical drawings of a breast and ovaries, in conjunction with the advance

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The underlying educational philosophy is that the best way to truly improve a student’s second language acquisition is through the student’s reading, listening, writing and speaking more English, in a holistic manner. There is no shortcut. This course is also intended to provide timeless business conversation issues with current application in China. There are computer assisted reading and vocabulary activities for the students to complete before watching the movie. The primary purpose of the exercises before watching the movie is to increase the student’s comprehension of the movie, i.e. Krashen’s “comprehensible input” theory. There are no academic exercises while watching the movie, thus creating Krashen’s “friendly environment” through the absence of academic rigors. Students are encouraged to bring drinks and snacks, relax, and enjoy the movie. The movies are interesting, entertaining, and most importantly, educational. They may be played in any order as one does not build upon another. To enhance the educational value of the movies and hence improve English acquisition and business knowledge, the movies must be presented within a friendly entertainment atmosphere instead of within the institutional strictures of a rigorous academic assignment. The movies should be shown in a downtown movie theater atmosphere. Stopping the movie for discussion, analysis, or to memorize chunks of language, is totally inappropriate, as is showing the movie in segments. Such activities are techniques of English teaching, not English acquisition. After watching the movie there are writing assignments; Internet research assignments that will draw the student’s attention to current issues in China related to the moral of the movie; and suggested topics for conversation or debate. The exercises after watching the movie are intended to involve the student in an in-depth analysis of the moral of the movie and its current relevance in China, and thus prepare the student for the subsequent conversation or debate regarding the movie. This will facilitate language acquisition and output. The main objective of this course is to take the students out of the language-learning realm and place them into a language acquisition mode and increase language output.9

vocabulary taken from the movie Supersize Me. The drawings were deemed inappropriate material for college students. 9 Subconscious acquisition, not conscious learning

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This course is a departure from the "talk and chalk" teaching methodology where the students are required to "memorize and regurgitate" for a test oriented course. There is simply nothing to memorize. At the same time, the course will expand the students’ worldview and business knowledge as well as help them develop a personal moral base. Again, it bears repeating, this is not a film appreciation class. The movies are not the subject of any study, they are simply comprehensible input. The idea of “Holistic Approach” is borrowed from psychology and has been applied to many fields other than linguistics. Holistic approach in language teaching means to treat what is to be learned as a whole. This course is holistic on three levels: First, along with the movies, the five skills of language are not presented in isolation, but are integrated in one course; Second, due to the nature of movies, English is not broken down into small units, rather the input is presented in all its complexity, which enables the learner to acquire the real meaning and use of the words learned in isolation Third, the most important innovation of this course is the idea of introducing international business culture by way of movies. The content of the movies provides both a global view of the business world and the underlying culture differences between the east and the west. In addition, moral and personality essentials towards success and failures, gains and loss are an indispensable part of each movie, which will help to build up the university students’ character and prepare them for possible challenges in their future life. It achieves what we call “Quality Education” in the real sense. Last but not least, this course is a very example of the famous Chinese saying “combine education with recreation”. The movies will not only strongly motivate the students so as to develop a positive attitude towards classroom learning, but also effectively teach them how to learn on their own outside the classroom, which we believe is the solution of English learning in the end. The movies replace traditional “Oral” or “Conversation” textbooks that contain old, boring and irrelevant stories or “set phrases” to be memorized through role playing and game playing; resources that evoke constant criticism from students and foreign teachers alike. The movies constitute comprehensible input that is delivered in a low-anxiety situation. They are real messages of real interest. Watching English movies helps the learner to convert their receptive knowledge into productive ability by drawing their attention to how

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words, expressions are actually used in real context of situation instead of context of text. While watching, unconscious memory is also working, same as listening to the same melody repeatedly enables one to hum the tune without effort. The Chinese students are poor at acquiring the English pronunciation, especially the intonation. Owing to the fact that Chinese belongs to a different language family, namely, the Sino-Tibetan language family. But by exposing to English in great quantity by various native speakers of English, the students imitated and acquired the English accent quite naturally and easily. Good pronunciation is conducive to both good comprehension and production in the English language for Chinese students. Idiomatic conversational English, Academic English, Business English, Conference English, English for Special Purposes like Legal English, Zoological English, Astronautic English, etc, can all be learned through watching TV Series on various subjects, depending on the learner's own interest and choice of profession. Both visual and audio channels are brought into full play cognitively, motivation and interact are increased to the highest level psychologically; modules for both listening and reading are activated neurologically or biologically, and by dubbing, even the pathway of speaking is smoothed which helps greatly to prepare students for later or future free production. Various ways to express the same meaning become possible, and the same word or phrase can be encountered in all its complexity in various situations. Therefore, if proper learning strategies on how to watch English movies are communicated to the student, for instance, by telling them to give intentional attention to the target term, then not only the different meanings of the same term can be picked up, but also, repeated encounters of the same term enhances the memory and shortens the incubation period from comprehension to production. In this way, the three factors influencing memory, (frequency effect, recency effect, saliency effect) will guarantee the student to learn English expressions so well that they can pass from controlled forced output to automatic natural production without too much effort. It would be beneficial to provide the students with access to computer lab or sound lab facilities where the movies can be watched repeatedly, but only after watching the movie initially in the movie theater with the crowd psychology and interation at play. A theory that is widely accepted and is

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true in both L1 and L2 acquisition is that incidental vocabulary learning is a gradual process in which gains are made in small increments with repeated encounters needed to gain full knowledge of a word. It was found that vocabulary gains increased as the number of times learners met words in context increased. Learners who met words 10 times produced superior scores to those who met words only twice. However, no significant results were found between two and six encounters and six and ten encounters. The correlation between the number of times each word occurred in the book and the relative learning gains was found to be 0.34, which confirms that repetition affected learning. (Stuart Webb, 2007) It is safe to say that six to ten encounters are more likely to promote receptive knowledge of known words to productive knowledge of words than two or three encounters. While watching movies makes many encounters possible within a short time which enables the recency effect, frequency effect and saliency effect to take place in terms of the functions of memory. The effect of repeated watching with intervals is exponential.10 Availability of the movies on the university intranet is essential. This course should not be confused with a “film appreciation” class that studies the film for creation, composition and value. This new paradigm is completely different from the academic pursuit of studying films. The workbooks cannot be adapted to a film appreciation class. Nor is this a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) course. The computer is only one tool in the integrated use of modern technology. This is truly a Holistic English course. The movies should be played in one sitting. They should not be stopped for analysis, discussion or memorization of chunks of language; nor showed in segments. This course will promote learner autonomy, creative thinking, enhanced reading skills, enhanced listening skills, enhanced writing skills and increased voluntary oral communications. Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “… university education has robbed students of their originality. The education system, particularly the higher education system, badly needs reform.”

10 Stuart Webb, 2007. "The effects of repetition on vocabulary learning" in Applied Linguistics. Vol. 28, No 1.

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A famous Chinese proverb provides: If you give a person a fish, he can eat for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, he can feed himself all of his life. Tao Xingzhi, the famous modern educationist, once said: The best education is to make teachers less needed. This statement concisely generalized the purpose of education is to train learners to study and work independently. In other words, the end-product of education is an independent learner (McDevitt 1997); therefore the ultimate goal of the teacher should be to convert students from passive language learners into independent and autonomous learners and acquirers. The future society will be a world of “survival of the fittest”. People will be required to be independent, lifelong and self-developed learners so as to meet the needs of the society. In education, we should attach great importance to teaching a person the skills and knowledge which will enable him to survive independently throughout his life. English teaching, likewise, is no exception to this general proposition. The task of English teaching is not merely to teach a foreign language, but to teach learners how to learn. Instead of making the student master foreign language skills, English teaching should help learners to obtain English learning strategies and make them become autonomous lifelong learners. English language teaching has its own special and unique features. It is somewhat different from other subjects such as mathematics, physics or geology. With several formulae, one can work out mathematic or physic problems, whereas mastering some grammar and vocabulary will not enable the learner to speak English like a native speaker. What’s more, if the learner does not continue his autonomous language learning after graduation, fossilization will occur. This means the learner will not maintain his acquired or learned level of English proficiency. Learner autonomy (LA) can be viewed from several aspects. From the macroscopic perspective, we should create an ideal learner autonomy environment. This concerns several aspects, such as school administration, teaching methodologies, teaching materials, etc. And from the microscopic perspective, we should focus on the learner. Teaching linguistic knowledge only, will not produce an autonomous and lifelong learner. To help the learner develop learning strategies paves their way to LA. If the learner masters effective learning strategies, the learner can get twofold results with half the effort. Learning strategy can help the learner improve learning efficiency, promote independent learning during the learning

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process, motivate the learner, and arouse interest in learning. After mastering learning strategies, the learner can continue self-education, even after graduation. This will prevent fossilization to occur after they leave university The kinds of learner autonomy mentioned above are not ideal autonomy. We must understand that no autonomous learning is actually purely or truly autonomous. The learning responsibility is largely on the learner’s shoulders, but its actualization requires the joint efforts of both the teacher and the society. To reach the objective of learner autonomy, society must create an ideal environment. Only under the efforts of proper school administration, teaching methodologies, teaching materials and the learner, can an ideal autonomous learning environment come into existence. Since the ultimate goal of English teaching is communication, English teaching should equip learners with a solid foundation of the language in order to communicate with native speakers freely and naturally, without great difficulty. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly convinced that learner autonomy and learning strategies are more important than ever in 2nd language acquisition (SLA). Although there have recently been many encouraging findings discovered in domestic and overseas related fields, teachers should not apply them mechanically. Instead, teachers should combine these findings with the characteristics of Chinese students; help them to create an autonomous learning environment in accordance with present resources and integrate learning strategies into their teaching, and train the learner to be a life-long learner. It is generally agreed that the solution to English language teaching (ELT) in China is for learners to achieve learner autonomy, which means that the learner is taught the ways to get sufficient input outside the classroom. Modern technology makes that possible. Teaching with movies enables a native speaker to introduce a totally different genre or region of the English language to the Chinese students. The learner should have many questions in mind after watching the movie. They can bring these to the classroom and ask the teacher to explain and discuss among themselves. Therefore, the choice of movies is critical. They must be interesting, exciting and relevant.

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The only solution to come to terms with English globalization for China is to shorten the time for English formal education, which means we have to avail our students of the modern technology and information era to explore input outside the classroom. China is known for its long history in education and the idea of learner autonomy is nothing new as revealed in the old saying “If you give one a fish, he can have it for only one day; but if you teach him how to fish, he can have it for life”. This educational principle has not been incorporated into the process of English education due to various reasons. And now it is time to bring our teachers and trainers of English at various levels to the awareness of this teaching principle, that is, to teach the students how to teach themselves in addition to teach them grammar and vocabulary. What may be common sense to many may not be common sense to the students and even many teachers. Every teacher has his or her own ways of learning the English language, but their methods are not based on a systematic study of the psycholinguistic and SLA theories. Therefore, what the linguists should do now is to introduce the teaching and learning strategies which are a combination of both theory and practice, rather than a series of experience or intuitions. A summary of such strategies can help the Chinese teacher to be a much better learner of English so as to be a more effective and adequate teacher of English in class. How to optimize and maximize output from limited input is a question which will never have an ultimate answer because we can always add more to this field of inquiry with the new findings in the neurological and cognitive sciences. But this ever growing cross-disciplinary research makes the quest for answers in one field even more exhilarating because of the light it may throw on other science and social science disciplines. We may never find the answer to how our brain works but the unknown nature of the subject makes the exploration for answers more satisfying than the answer itself.

China EFL: What is Holistic English?

There are seven objectives of Holistic English: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Build self-confidence to speak English Develop intrinsic motivation Develop autonomous learning strategies Develop Self-discipline Creative Thinking Increase World View Increase Business Knowledge

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CHAPTER SEVEN HOLISTIC ENGLISH, THE REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN, BUT THE LONG MARCH LIES AHEAD MARTIN WOLFF, NIU QIANG AND TENG HAI

Contributors Julie Anderson, Xinyang Technical and Vocational College Kenneth Clarke, Huarui College at Xinyang Normal University, Henan Province Robert Hill, Yang En University, Fujian Province Edwin Roessler, CIB at Shenyang Normal University, Liaoning Province Stacy Meeking, Guangxi University, Guangxi Semi-autonomous region David Cahill, Beijing Pan Youyi, Student Assistant, Xinyang Agricultural College

Abstract Throughout China, English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught in 4 separate and disjointed classes; reading, listening, writing and speaking. There is no link or common subject matter between the classes; they are completely disconnected from each other. The foreign teacher is retained, primarily, to handle the oral class to force speech production by “chatting” with the students. The objective of English learning through this methodology is for the student to pass the National English proficiency examinations. (TEM 4, CET 4 and CET6) Holistic English is simply taking one subject matter and using it for reading, listening, writing and voluntary speaking merged into one single conversation English class. It emphasizes comprehensible input through very entertaining movies, in a friendly English speaking environment.

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(This is not a film class.) It is all about language acquisition1 rather than language learning2. The Holistic English Program replaces the Oral English learning classroom with a conversation English acquisition

1 Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning, which is the product of real interactions between people where the learner is an active participant. It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge; develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communication and for the identification of cultural values. Teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen in a personal psychological plane. The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner. A classic example of language acquisition involves adolescents and young adults who live abroad for a year in an exchange program, attaining near native fluency, while knowing little about the language in the majority of cases. They have a good pronunciation without a notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but they intuitively recognize and know how to use all the structures. (Krashen) 2 The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language through the application of intellect and logical deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and governed by a formal instructional plan with a predetermined syllabus. One studies the theory in the absence of the practical. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. There is little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. In the teaching of English in Brazil, for example, the student will study the function of the interrogative and negative modes, irregular verbs, modals, etc. The student learns to construct sentences in the perfect tense, but only learns with difficulty when to use it. It's a progressive and cumulative process, normally tied to a preset syllabus that includes memorization of vocabulary. It seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structure with its irregularities, its contrasts with the student's native language, knowledge that hopefully will produce the practical skills of understanding and speaking the language. This effort of accumulating knowledge becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language. Innumerable graduates with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning. They often are trained and theoretically able to teach a language that they can communicate in only with extreme difficulty. (Krashen)

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experience. It emphasizes comprehensible input rather than forced output.3 Holistic English not only prepares students for the National English proficiency examinations, it also produces graduates who are actually able to communicate effectively in comprehensible oral and written English, something the test oriented English learning paradigm fails to do.

Introduction It is essential to remember that English is a tool for communication. College graduates who spend 16 years learning English and pass their national English competency examinations but are unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English, i.e. know all about English but cannot use it, have wasted 16 years of education and a great deal of their parents hard earned money. The revolution begins by changing the name “Oral English” to “Conversation English” with the attendant change in connotation to a friendly tea house or coffee shop environment. The Holistic English Program replaces the Oral English learning classroom with a conversation English acquisition experience. Higher education is BIG Business. “There is an estimated 5.59 million students this year (2008) in China, compared to 3.38 million in 2005, 4.13 million in 2006 and 4.91 million last year.”4 Chinese universities are producing an assembly line product, i.e. graduates properly equipped to make their maximum contribution to creating a better off harmonious society, with Chinese characteristics. When we produce English major graduates who cannot produce comprehensible oral or written English, we are creating defective products. Imagine an automobile factory that produced cars that, when they come off the assembly line, cannot run. The automobile company would need to analyze the problem and institute proper corrections to produce a marketable automobile. The Holistic English program is the result of just such an analysis of why Chinese college graduates are unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English and it is the much needed correction to the FAILED current teaching pedagogy.

3

Krashen, Stephen (2004). Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions, Presented at 13th International Symposium and Book Fair on Language Teaching (English Teachers Association of the Republic of China), Taipei, Taiwan 4 State-owned groups top students' wish list, Liu Jie (China Daily), 2008-06-27 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-06/27/content_6800492.htm

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Although “English Fever” is running rampant throughout China and is claimed to be “market driven”; the rush to institute English learning nationwide, with more than 1,000,000 Chinese teachers of English who are themselves unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English or teach in the target language, has miserably failed to meet market needs. The goal of universities and colleges throughout China is to have students pass national English competency examinations such as TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that these National English competency examinations bear little or no relationship to comprehensible output, the pass rates have become the exclusive focus of administrative attention and false pride. This is in part due to demands of Chinese employers who are misinformed that passing CET 6 is the evidence of an accomplished English speaker5 Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying ”I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” President Wang fears that China is producing human robots. The market need to have graduates who can produce comprehensible English output has been completely ignored. Consequently, foreign employers, Joint Venture employers and Chinese companies doing business abroad are hiring university graduates from India because they are able to produce better comprehensible oral and written English.6 Imagine more 5

Yuankai, Tang, 9/6/07 Beijing Review, Education Feared to Raise Robots (2007) http://www.cnki.com.cn/Article/CJFDTotal-BJZB200736011.htm 6 PROSPECTS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA AND INDIA, (2005-12-8) Pei Yuanying, Foreign Affairs Journal, No. 75 , Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs http://www.cpifa.org/EN/Html/200512816260-1.html Indians’ good command of English is due to the following factors: First, the Indian government had accentuated the learning of English during two century-long British colonialist rule; second, India’s education system has introduced bilingual training where possible; third, unlike China’s mandarin, there is no nationallyspoken language in India. Hindi is a language widely spoken in India, but it is only in Northern India and not in the South. There are hundreds of languages in India, of which 18 local and official languages at the state level are recognized by the Constitution as official national languages. Therefore, only English was the language spoken all over the country. At present there are two national languages - Hindi and English. Without English there is no way for people in the North to communicate with their compatriots in the South. Therefore, it is only natural for Indians to learn English well. Indians who have received higher education speak accurate, standard and learned English.

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than 5 million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for 16 years, being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the 10 most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.”7 Every university in China has a shadow administration to the public academic administration. Every academic administrator has an assigned CCP party secretary assigned to watch over them and approve their every decision. University curriculum and majors are Party driven, not market driven.

The Background “Second language acquisition occurs when comprehensible input is delivered in a low-anxiety situation, when real messages of real interest are transmitted and understood. … we learn best only when the pressure is completely off, when anxiety is zero, when the acquirer's focus is entirely on communication; in short, when the interchange or input is so interesting that the acquirer 'forgets" that it is in a second language.” —Krashen8

Academic Journals are legion with articles postulating nuances in old teaching methodologies and brand new methodologies for teaching English as a foreign language. There are also legions of articles concerning second language acquisition theories. For the most part, these journal articles remain on the library shelf, unread by the more than 1,000,000 Chinese teachers of English as a foreign language, the more than 150,000 so called “foreign experts” teaching (sic.)9 EFL in China, or the administrators of China’s universities and colleges.

7

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/27/content_6799171.htm Beijing-based survey company Mycos HR “Poll: Hot majors of past not getting jobs”, Wang Ying (2008-06-27 07:36) 8 Krashen, Stephen D. (1981). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. English Language Teaching series. London: Prentice-Hall International (UK) Ltd. 9 Qiang/ Wolff, (2007) “China EFL: The Unqualified Teaching the Unmotivated in a Hostile Environment” Frontiers in Higher Education, Ch. 11, Nova Science Publications

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Chinese university journals have long discussed the virtues of using movies to teach English as a foreign language but these have not provoked the needed wide-spread reforms.10 10

Discussion of teaching in English in the use of audio-visual Lessons A discussion teaching method in English video-aural-oral course [Xinyang Journal of Agricultural College Journal of Xinyang Agricultural College] CUI Shu-li Cooperation mode teaching in the English audio-visual teaching that the role of Effect of cooperative instruction on English video-aural-oral course [Xinyang Journal of Agricultural College Journal of Xinyang Agricultural College] CUI Shu-li. Lessons College English audio-visual methods of teaching and testing Analysis of Audio-lingual - video Teaching and Testing for College English [coal higher education Meitan Higher Education] Zhang Xuemei, ZHANG Xue-mei The number of English Language Teaching System in the role of audio-visual Lessons The Function of Digit - Language Teaching System in English Visual Aural - Speaking Course [laboratory science Laboratory Science] Chen Min, Han Guan clouds, high-vibration Talking about "common participatory approach" in English Teaching of Application of Working Together Teaching Method in Audio-oral Course for Higher Vocational English Teaching [Liaoning Higher Vocational Journal Liaoning Higher Vocational Technical Institute Journal] Kai Jiang Audio-visual teaching English Lessons On teaching of audiovisual and oral English course [Journal of Qiqihar University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) Journal of Qiqihar University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition)] Yang Qing Anchored said audio-visual teaching methods in English Teaching of English Audiovisual and Speaking Teaching Based on Method of Anchored - Instruction [Journal of Hunan University (Social Sciences) Journal of Hunan University of Technology (Social Science)] also Ling Liu Discourse discussion of the overall teaching and the integration of the use of teaching - teaching college English reading and writing a new attempt A Blending Use of "Textual Teaching and Discussion-Oriented Teaching" - A New Trial in the Instruction of Comprehensive College English Course [Hengyang Teachers College Journal of the Journal Hengyang Normal University] Zhiqi English language teaching system in the audio-visual teaching that the psychological effect of Psychological Effect Produced by Language Teaching System in English Visual-Aural-Oral Teaching [laboratory science Laboratory Science] Chen Min, Han Guan-yun Comprehensive audio-visual said English teaching reform of Studies in the Reform of Student English Audio, Visual, Oral Teaching Method [Jiangxi education and scientific research, Jiangxi Educational Research] para-wing, Duan Rong Audio-visual said - to develop the ability to re-English heard that the first lesson Audiovisual Oral Course - The Important Course in Cultivating Students'

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Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition11 is generally ignored because it is claimed that “it will not work with Chinese students.” 12 Truth is that Chinese teachers of English rejected the communicative teaching methodology due to their own poor English skills.13 Consequently, China continues with a 25 year old “talk and chalk - rote memorization for test regurgitation” methodology that has failed to produce college graduates capable of producing comprehensible oral or written English14 English is taught in four separate and disconnected classes, i.e. intensive reading, comprehensive listening, extensive writing and oral conversation. Most, but not all, Chinese teachers of English spend the entire 90 minutes of scheduled class time reading from the assigned text or writing on the blackboard. There is no interaction, no question and answer. And then the class is over.

Oral Ability [Journal of Anhui Industrial University (Social Sciences) Journal of Anhui University of Technology (Social Sciences Edition)] Shih Chi-yu English heard that the use of multimedia-assisted teaching APPLICATION OF MULTI MEDIA ASSISTED AURAL AND ORAL ENGLISH TEACHING [Journal of Mudanjiang Teachers College (Philosophy and Social Science Edition) Journal of Mudanjiang Teachers College (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition)] Qu Ying-mei, Wang Guohua On the audio-visual College English Teaching On Polytechnic College's Visual-audio-oral English Teaching [Journal of Taiyuan University Journal of Taiyuan University] Zhuqin Said senior audio-visual teaching reform - "joint participation" teaching mode "Working Together": A Newly-developed Method of Teaching and Learning for the Visual-audio-oral Course in the New Century [Foreign Language Teaching Foreign Language Education] Wang Chen-ping Multi-media that the teaching of Discussion on Multimedia Audio-VideoSpoken Teaching [Journal of Changchun Normal College (Natural Science) Journal of Changchun Normal University (Natural Science)] Xia Cao 11 Krashen, Stephen (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Pergamon Press Inc. 12 This comment has been uttered by many foreign and Chinese English teachers, most of whom admitted to having never read Krashen’s works on second language acquisition. 13 Mingjun Lu (2007), ELT in China and a “China English” Model www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/eng6365-lu.htm 14 Qiang/Wolff (2007) EFL/ESL Teaching in China: Questions – Questions – Questions, Ch. 8, Frontiers in Higher education, Nova Science Publications

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Generally speaking there is not even a token attempt at English acquisition.15 There is no English speaking environment, no English library16 and no English immersion.17 English speaking ability is not even a job requirement for Chinese teachers of English in many college Foreign Language or English Departments throughout China.18 In 2002 Dr. Niu Qiang and Martin Wolff began developing a Holistic English acquisition program for Chinese English students19 The first, fullscale implementation of this Holistic approach to English acquisition was implemented at Xinyang Agricultural College in the spring semester of 2007.20 This program does not invent any new theory or technology, it simply reconfigures existing theory, technology and resources to better serve the Chinese English learner with English acquisition. The Holistic approach to English acquisition was so popular with the students and successful academically, the Xinyang Agricultural College curriculum committee decided to extend the program into the next academic year (2007-2008). The College administration made a commitment of facilities to overcome some of the difficulties initially experienced in implementing the Holistic English Program.

15

The banner strung across the building entrance welcoming the freshmen English majors was 100% Chinese, not even bi-lingual. The entire freshmen English majors’ orientation was done exclusively in Chinese. From this humble beginning emerges a hostile English speaking environment that permeates the Foreign Languages Department. 16 English majors constitute 10% of the College community but there isn’t even a single English book in the College library. Most of the English Department staff can’t communicate in English and most of the teachers teach in Chinese. Department meetings and written communications are 100% Mandarin. 17 Qiang/Wolff (2008), China EFL: Why Chinese Universities Do Not Provide an English Speaking Environment, Journal of Education Research, Nova Science Publishers 18 4 out of 5 Chinese teachers of English teach in Chinese instead of teaching in the target language, English. When confronted, most did not even know what “target language” meant. 19 Qiang/Teng/Wolff (4/07), “China EFL: The Use of Movies To Teach English” English Today, Vol. 23 No. 2 Cambridge University Press 20 Qiang/Teng/Wolff, (2007) “China EFL: A New Paradigm”, (2008) Education in China, Nova Science Publications)

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A multi-media room, properly appointed and equipped, was assigned for the exclusive use of the English Department,21 thus eliminating scheduling conflicts and providing real accountability for equipment maintenance. The multi-media room was utilized to show the assigned movies every Tuesday and Wednesday evening with attendance restricted to class members showing their assigned workbooks for admission. Every Friday evening an English movie was shown to anyone desiring to watch, subject to the 300 seat limitation.22 Third year students were encouraged to participate as they have no oral English class. The “Friday Night at the Movies” was so successful that this free choice movie opportunity was extended into a four night schedule. Thursday night became “Disney Night” Friday night became “Ladies Night” with romance and general interest movies.23 Saturday night became “Men’s Night” with action movies.24 Sunday night became “Classics Night”25 (Due to poor reception

21

Repeated attempts to inspect the room and equipment were rebuffed until the first day of classes on September 10, 2007. Only then was it discovered that there was no multi-media equipment in the assigned room. Another multi-media room was assigned but the computer required re-installation of the software before being operational. The school failed to inspect, test and repair for three months and delayed until the first day of classes on September 10, 2007. The College has 9 multi-media classrooms. During the first semester of the program, eight had no window curtains and the equipment was in disrepair. The ninth classroom sound system broke down regularly and the technician assigned to the equipment was rarely available. This caused 5 movie class cancellations and the subsequent cancellation of the next week’s discussion classes. This was a major cause of frustration both for the teachers and the students. 22 The old multi-media equipment broke down on the 8th week of the semester and became completely inoperative on the 10th week of the semester. 23 Cinderella Story, Flicka, Prince and me, Maid in Manhattan, Beyond Borders, Ray, Born Into Brothels, Mississippi Burning, Memoirs of A geisha, Around The World in 80 Days, Naked Gun, Yours, mine, Ours, Crocodile Dundee I, II, III, Syriana, Maria Full of Grace, Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, David, Titanic, Great Race 24 Backdraft, Rambo I, II and III, Money Train, Night Crossing, Top Gun, Tango and Cash, Flight 93, Troy, The Marine, Steven Segal martial arts, The Terminator, The Killing Fields 25 From Here To Eternity, On The Waterfront, GiGi, American In Paris, The Greatest Show on Earth, West Side, Story, The Apartment, Casablanca, 12 Angry Men, About Eve, Hamlet, All The King’s Men, Inherit The Wind, Going My Way, Lost Weekend, Best Years of Our Lives

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of “Classics Night” it was converted to “Comedy Night.”)26 And Monday night became “Sports Night”.27 A total of 2,280 hours of free choice movies were provided during the semester through this scheduled video library. The college library should provide this service as do most modern western libraries. A classroom was designated exclusively for English conversation classes and was configured appropriately, removing the theater style seating.28 The desks were configured in two U shaped rows with the rear row elevated 40 cn. to facilitate better eye contact amongst more students. All Chinese language input was removed from the room. Class size was limited to a maximum of 40 students.29 A hot water filtration machine was installed. Several green plants were added. The teaching area in the center of the U was carpeted. A large television was configured to receive BBC, CNN and CCTV Channel 9 (International English) for free choice evening viewing between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. daily.30 A small English library was provided for free choice evening reading. Every consideration was given to creating a friendly English acquisition environment. The Holistic English Workbooks underwent revision in response to the students’ answers to an end of semester questionnaire. (See Appendix “F”) Each workbook contains eight chapters, one movie constituting one chapter. 26

Police Academy, Naked Gun, Jim Carey movies, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Blazing Saddles, Mrs. Doubtfire 27 Rocky – VI, Million Dollar Baby, White Men Can't Jump, Love and Basketball, Cool Runnings, Sea biscuit, Longest Yard, Gridiron, Bend It Like Beckham, Bad News Bears, Field of Dreams, A League of Their Own, Caddyshack 28 There are special sound labs for listening comprehension and computer labs for intensive reading but totally unsuitable classrooms, with theater style seating and horrible acoustics are pressed into service for conversation classes. The regular classrooms had fans but no blades. After the blades were finally attached, the fans still did not work due to faulty switches that were not checked when the blades were finally attached and were not fixed prior to the hot summer. 29 A maximum of 20 students per class is the optimum model but economically unfeasible at a Chinese university. Even limiting each class to 40 students required coordination with the school admissions office, school registrar and the school budget office. 30 By the sixth week of the semester the students were questioning when the TV would arrive. When it was disclosed that it was in the Dean’s hands, the students responded, “Then it is only a dream. We know him.” The promised TV did not appear during the entire semester.

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This fits an 18 week academic semester while allowing the first week for course introduction and the last week for final examination review. The previously proven, reduced efficacy of classes consisting of more than forty students resulted in a fundamental Foreign Languages Department policy change of limiting class size to a maximum of 40 students.31 A fundamental class scheduling change was also required. Previously all oral English classes were conducted in the various homerooms assigned to each class. With the advent of the Holistic English Lab, all oral English classes were scheduled for the Holistic English Lab.

The College “There is less to fear from outside competition than from inside inefficiency, discourtesy and bad service.”

 Xinyang Agricultural College is a typical 3rd tier 3-year college located in Xinyang City, Henan Province, PRC.32 The College is a school of last opportunity for students who fail to achieve a sufficient score on the college entrance examination to enter a mainstream 4-year college. This is not a College to which anyone aspires to attend. The College administration and staff patronize the student body and treat them like disposable fungible goods. The College was founded in 1910, closed during the Cultural Revolution and re-opened in the ‘80s. The college is located in one of China’s premier tea growing regions, which is also one of China’s most poverty stricken areas. As with all public universities and colleges, Xinyang Agricultural College labors under a dual administrative system. Every academic administrator, leader, Dean or department head has an assigned Communist Party superior who must approve of all administrative and academic decisions as 31

When classes of 42 to 56 students appeared, it was suggested that the excess students simply bring their own additional stools and squeeze into the new Holistic English Lab. This approach completely ignored the Holistic English Lab design limitation and purpose. It also ignored the educational value in limiting class size to a maximum of 40 students. A single overflow class had to be established for all students in excess of 40. 32 Qiang/Wolff (2003) Can You get a First Class education in a Third Tier College in China?, Ch.2, Progress in Education, Nova Science Publications

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being consistent with China’s Communist Party goals and objectives. Academic excellence takes a back seat to political expediency. Many English majors have such a heavy curriculum, loaded with political theory and Party propaganda, that they only have two semesters of oral English during their entire college education. Xinyang Agricultural College also suffers from the same heavy bank debt service obligations as articulated in the 3/13/07 China Daily article, “Debt warning for universities.”33 This has resulted in far too high a student/teacher ratio of 150/1. An English class of 40 students in 2002 has ballooned to a class of 160 students in 2006. There is simply not enough money34 to hire a sufficient number of teachers and even if the funds were available, there is a distinct shortage of qualified and experienced teachers. Colleges and universities throughout Mainland China must develop a new management strategy that increases economic efficiency while simultaneously improving the quality of the educational product being delivered to the student/consumer. In June 2008, Xinyang Agricultural College graduated 356 English majors. Of these, 47 qualified to take the national examination for further college education. Of these 47, “maybe 10 passed the examination and were allowed to continue with their education. By any standard, these results are a disaster and demand education reform. This is just another normal year for this college and hundreds like it throughout China. This does not bode well for development of a better-off, harmonious society and these disillusioned students may prove to be the foot soldiers in China’s next revolution.35

The Faculty "The accomplished scholar is not a utensil." —Confucius

33 Mainland Chinese universities have borrowed heavily to finance construction of new building and campuses to house the ballooning student enrollment. The debt service is bankrupting the universities. 34 The Chinese teaching staff worked with deferred salary for two semesters while the administrators regularly received their salary. 35 These hinterland colleges handing out their fake certificates for a fake education may prove to be the breeding ground for future social unrest in China.

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The Foreign Languages Department at Xinyang Agricultural College has 41 staff, 4 of whom have sufficient English proficiency to teach in the target language, English. The remainder of the staff cannot teach in English or carry on an English conversation outside the classroom. Two of these latter people have been with the department in excess of five years, but have done nothing to improve their own English output. Due to a severe shortage of qualified teachers, people who have studied English for 16 years, but cannot produce English, are hired to teach English. This fact, standing alone, is sufficient to warrant a fundamental shift in the way English is taught in China, particularly at the Normal universities where future teachers are enrolled. There is neither incentive nor disincentive (penalty) program in place to encourage the teachers to improve their own English production. Teachers who refuse to improve their own English production are teaching students to improve their English production. This is so hypocritical. It is reminiscent of a drunken father holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other, lecturing his son on the evils of drinking and smoking. There is no continuing education program for the teachers. Many offers have been made and lauded, but no action taken. The one time a program was scheduled, the party secretary decided it was more important for the teachers to study a report from the CCP 17th National Congress.

The Students The student community at Xinyang Agricultural College consists primarily of young adults from economically disadvantaged farm and peasant families hailing from economically depressed and disadvantaged rural communities throughout Central China.36 To suggest that these students do not have many of the advantages or worldview of college students in China’s rich coastal cities - would be a gross understatement. Many of the students come through the Technical/Vocational Middle School program as opposed to the traditional Middle School program. Hence their admission scores are extremely low.

36

Henan Province, Jiangsu Province, Anhui Province

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The students are fully aware and appreciative of their circumstances in attending this 3rd tier school of last opportunity. Most are not English majors by choice but were assigned to be English majors because they were deemed unfit for any other major. To some students, their desperate situation motivates them to excel; while others are disappointed, discouraged and even angry, and simply give up on themselves and continue to be unmotivated underachievers. The students range in age from 19 – 23. Psychologically and socially they are not as developed as their Western counterparts. They can best be compared to US junior high school students. The school administration addresses them as “boys” and “girls.” This condescending attitude emanates from staff that are themselves cut from the same mold, unhappy, disappointed and even angry that they ended up teaching at a 3rd tier college. There is a 10:00 p.m. curfew in the campus dormitories for these young adults and electrical power is cut off at 11:00 p.m. Students from different Provinces are admitted to different majors with diverse entrance examination scores. Some students choose their major while others are assigned by the government and have no choice. These two factors, independently, and particularly in combination, create a difficult mix of students to teach. English capability levels are diverse, ranging from mere beginner to expert. Intrinsic motivation may be very high or completely lacking. Students are assigned to classes based upon major and not English capability or motivation. In the fall of 2007 a new group of students was admitted into a new International Program. The International Program allows those students without even minimal academic qualifications to enter the lowest 3rd tier college to receive a “higher education” if their parents are able to pay a financial premium. There is no specially designed curriculum for these special needs students.37 37

In the fall of 2007 40 International students were placed into the Holistic English Freshmen I program while 80 were placed into a traditional oral English class and were taught set phrases by a Chinese teacher of English. The following term, all International students were placed into the Holistic English Freshmen II program. The 40 students who had the requisite Holistic English Freshmen I course progressed normally and on a par with the regular college students. However, the 80 students who had not taken the requisite Holistic English Freshmen I program were lost and gained little discernable benefit from the Holistic English Freshmen II program,

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Graduates of the Xinyang Agriculture College English Department suffer from the same pedagogy and methodology that has generally failed China for the past 25 years. The graduates are functionally illiterate in that they have studied English for 16 years but are unable to speak or write coherently, at even a basic level. They are required to learn English through four independent and disconnected courses, i.e. intensive reading, comprehensive listening, extensive writing and oral English.. The teaching methodology is rote memorization of “set phrases” through talk and chalk. There is no English speaking environment, no target language immersion or acquisition.38

The Oral English Curriculum The traditional oral English curriculum provides oral English classes for Applied English freshmen, Business English freshmen, Tourism English freshmen, and freshmen who are non-English majors. Sophomore nonEnglish majors and Applied English majors have no oral English class. There are no oral English classes for any third year students. One of the maxims of second language acquisition is that if the second language is not used consistently, it will be lost. (Use it or lose it!) No matter what the degree of English acquisition by the freshmen and limited sophomores, by the time they graduate they have reverted to functional illiteracy in oral English production. The entire oral English program raises serious academic and economic questions that require serious analysis and probably major change.

The Holistic English Program "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." —Confucius

Throughout China, English is taught in 4 separate and disjointed classes, Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. There is no link or common subject matter between the classes. The foreign teacher is retained,

38

English majors constitute 10% of the College community but there isn’t even a single English book in the College library. Most of the English Department staff can’t communicate in English and most of the teachers teach in Chinese. Department meetings and written communications are 100% Mandarin.

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primarily, to handle the oral class to force39 speech production by chatting with the students. (Yes there are exceptions but we are speaking to the overall national situation at all levels of higher education throughout China. Yes, some foreigners do teach other than oral English. Yes, some foreigners are given teaching materials for oral English. But those are the exceptions and they are few.) The Holistic English Program replaces oral English learning with conversation English experience; replaces teachers with facilitators; replaces set phrase or speech pattern memorization with language acquisition; develops self-confidence, intrinsic motivation and develops autonomous learners and creative thinkers; replaces graduates who are unable to produce comprehensible English with those who can. There are Chinese beliefs that you learn English just like you learn any other subject; if you can speak English you can teach English; foreigners can just chat with Chinese students to improve the Chinese' spoken English; English can be taught by Chinese speaking Chinese; and Chinese students will improve their oral English if forced to speak with a foreigner.40 Holistic English is simply taking one subject matter and using it for reading, listening, writing and voluntary41 speaking in one single class. It emphasizes comprehensible input through very entertaining movies, in a friendly English speaking environment. It is all about language acquisition rather than language learning. It emphasizes input rather than output. Watching dictioned movies is different from the audio-lingual method because the subtitles enable the students to read and comprehend the movie and the story of the movie makes learning a pleasurable entertainment which makes implicit learning or incidental learning of the vocabulary possible. This is a combination of both explicit learning and

39

Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions 40 The Comprehension Hypothesis claims that we acquire language by input, not by output, a claim is supported by studies showing no increase in acquisition with more output (Krashen, 2002b). Studies show, however, consistent increases in acquisition with more input. 41 Comprehensible input-based methods encourage speaking but do not force it. Students are not called on; rather, participation is voluntary.

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implicit learning or intentional learning and incidental learning, or conscious learning and unconscious learning. It also provides free choice reading material and English TV for leisure time activities in the evening. Every attempt is made to prompt the English mental lexicon within a dominant Chinese environment. Everything possible is done to create a non-academic, non-performance based, nontest oriented atmosphere within in the classroom setting. Students speak when they are ready, not on command. Forced output is actually very harmful.42 One way to relax the classroom atmosphere is to have plants; carpet, curtains, wall pictures, as opposed to Chinese proverbs in Chinese, which prompt the Chinese mental lexicon rather than the target English mental 42

Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions “There are five types of output namely reading out aloud, pattern drills, memorized matters, story retelling, and free production or communicative output. If students are forced to produce output which they are not linguistically ready for, it will only encourage them to produce deviant English or Chinglish which fossilizes if they cannot receive timely corrective feedback, which usually is the case. They stopped learning as soon as their pidgin English can manage a conversation. They use communicative strategies like avoidance, simplification, overgeneralization to express their ideas both in oral as well as written production. Therefore, same as giving students the optimal input is crucial for acquisition to take place, eliciting optimal output is also essential to guarantee acquisition. This does not mean to exclude free production altogether. It only means that at the initial stage of learning, students should learn to observe how words and phrases they learned from textbook are idiomatically used in all their complexity and contexts in the movies before or while applying them freely to their own free output. This is like building a three-floor house. You do not build the third floor without building the first two. Free production is like building the third floor. Learning the vocabulary from a dictionary and textbook is preparing students for understanding movies and reading materials. Only when the learner encounters a word frequently in different contexts, can he or she convert the declarative knowledge of a term into procedural knowledge and then later on into automatic ability. Thereafter, pattern drills like making up sentences with words and phrases is a necessary step to drill the students in how to use the words properly.” Niu Qiang (2001) “Types of Output and the Elicitation of Optimal Output”, Teaching English in China. Vol.24 No.1

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lexicon; water machine, anything that takes the edge off and makes the room feel more like home. There is no lectern as that is a major barrier to a friendly environment.43 It has been scientifically proven that the above formula works and students do acquire English with output capabilities.44 25 years of recent Chinese educational history proves that language learning does not produce students with output capabilities. That is why so many Chinese try to go abroad to improve their English. The Holistic English Program is a comprehensive, but remedial, "Holistic" approach to English acquisition45 including observation, listening, reading, writing, debate, conversation and Internet research, all in one course. Each semester the course revolves around 8 full feature commercial Hollywood entertainment movies. The freshmen course movies are primarily cross-cultural in nature while the sophomore course is exclusively composed of movies with business content, theme or moral.46 The underlying educational philosophy is that the best way to truly improve a student’s second language acquisition is through the student’s 43

Suggestopedia, one of the eight teaching methodologies, is a method developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist educator Georgi Lozanov who describes it as a science … concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nonconscious influences, that human beings are constantly responding to. Suggestopedia optimizes learning. The most conspicuous characteristics of Suggestopedia are the decoration, furniture, and arrangement of the classroom, the use of music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher. Memorization in learning by the suggestopedic method seems to be accelerated 25 times over that in traditional methods. ( Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S, 1986:142 ) Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S, (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. 44 Krashen, Stephen (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Pergamon Press Inc. 45 The emphasis is on language acquisition not language learning 46 There was opposition to the Freshmen II Workbook due to the inclusion of medical drawings of a breast and ovaries, in conjunction with the advance vocabulary taken from the movie Supersize Me. The drawings were deemed inappropriate material for college students. There was opposition to the Business I and Business II Workbooks due to inclusion of the movies Disclosure and North Country. Sexual harassment and sexual discrimination were deemed inappropriate subjects for college students.

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reading, listening, writing and speaking more English, in a holistic manner. There is no shortcut. This course is also intended to provide timeless business conversation issues with current application in China. There are computer assisted reading and vocabulary activities for the students to complete before watching the movie. The primary purpose of the exercises before watching the movie is to increase the student’s comprehension of the movie, i.e. Krashen’s “comprehensible input” theory. There are no academic exercises while watching the movie, thus creating Krashen’s “friendly environment” through the absence of academic rigors. Students are encouraged to bring drinks and snacks, relax, and enjoy the movie. The movies are interesting, entertaining, and most importantly, educational. They may be played in any order as one does not build upon another. To enhance the educational value of the movies and hence improve English acquisition and business knowledge, the movies must be presented within a friendly entertainment atmosphere instead of within the institutional strictures of a rigorous academic assignment. The movies should be shown in a downtown movie theater atmosphere. Stopping the movie for discussion, analysis, or to memorize chunks of language, is totally inappropriate, as is showing the movie in segments. Such activities are techniques of English teaching, not English acquisition. After watching the movie there are writing assignments; Internet research assignments that will draw the student’s attention to current issues in China related to the moral of the movie; and suggested topics for conversation or debate. The exercises after watching the movie are intended to involve the student in an in-depth analysis of the moral of the movie and its current relevance in China, and thus prepare the student for the subsequent conversation or debate regarding the movie. This will facilitate language acquisition and output. The main objective of this course is to take the students out of the language-learning realm and place them into a language acquisition mode and increase language output47. This course is a departure from the "talk and chalk" teaching methodology where the students are required to "memorize and regurgitate" for a test oriented course. There is simply nothing to memorize. At the same time, 47

Subconscious acquisition, not conscious learning.

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the course will expand the students’ worldview and business knowledge as well as help them develop a personal moral base. Again, it bears repeating, this is not a film appreciation class. The movies are not the subject of any study, they are simply comprehensible input. The idea of “Holistic Approach” is borrowed from psychology and has been applied to many fields other than linguistics. Holistic approach in language teaching means to treat what is to be learned as a whole. This course is holistic on three levels: First, along with the movies, the five skills of language are not presented in isolation, but are integrated in one course; Second, due to the nature of movies, English is not broken down into small units, rather the input is presented in all its complexity, which enables the learner to acquire the real meaning and use of the words learned in isolation Third, the most important innovation of this course is the idea of introducing international business culture by way of movies. The content of the movies provides both a global view of the business world and the underlying culture differences between the east and the west. In addition, moral and personality essentials towards success and failures, gains and loss are an indispensable part of each movie, which will help to build up the university students’ character and prepare them for possible challenges in their future life. It achieves what we call “Quality Education” in the real sense. Last but not least, this course is a very example of the famous Chinese saying “combine education with recreation”. The movies will not only strongly motivate the students so as to develop a positive attitude towards classroom learning, but also effectively teach them how to learn on their own outside the classroom, which we believe is the solution of English learning in the end. The movies replace traditional “Oral” or “Conversation” textbooks that contain old, boring and irrelevant stories or “set phrases” to be memorized through role playing and game playing; resources that evoke constant criticism from students and foreign teachers alike. The movies constitute comprehensible input that is delivered in a low-anxiety situation. They are real messages of real interest. Watching English movies helps the learner to convert their receptive knowledge into productive ability by drawing their attention to how words, expressions are actually used in real context of situation instead of context of text.

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While watching, unconscious memory is also working, same as listening to the same melody repeatedly enables one to hum the tune without effort. The Chinese students are poor at acquiring the English pronunciation, especially the intonation. Owing to the fact that Chinese belongs to a different language family, namely, the Sino-Tibetan language family. But by exposing to English in great quantity by various native speakers of English, the students imitated and acquired the English accent quite naturally and easily. Good pronunciation is conducive to both good comprehension and production in the English language for Chinese students. Idiomatic conversational English, Academic English, Business English, Conference English, English for Special Purposes like Legal English, Zoological English, Astronautic English, etc, can all be learned through watching TV Series on various subjects, depending on the learner's own interest and choice of profession. Both visual and audio channels are brought into full play cognitively, motivation and interact are increased to the highest level psychologically; modules for both listening and reading are activated neurologically or biologically, and by dubbing, even the pathway of speaking is smoothed which helps greatly to prepare students for later or future free production. Various ways to express the same meaning become possible, and the same word or phrase can be encountered in all its complexity in various situations. Therefore, if proper learning strategies on how to watch English movies are communicated to the student, for instance, by telling them to give intentional attention to the target term, then not only the different meanings of the same term can be picked up, but also, repeated encounters of the same term enhances the memory and shortens the incubation period from comprehension to production. In this way, the three factors influencing memory, (frequency effect, recency effect, saliency effect) will guarantee the student to learn English expressions so well that they can pass from controlled forced output to automatic natural production without too much effort. It would be beneficial to provide the students with access to computer lab or sound lab facilities where the movies can be watched repeatedly. A theory that is widely accepted and is true in both L1 and L2 acquisition is that incidental vocabulary learning is a gradual process in which gains are made in small increments with repeated encounters needed to gain full knowledge of a word.

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It was found that vocabulary gains increased as the number of times learners met words in context increased. Learners who met words 10 times produced superior scores to those who met words only twice. However, no significant results were found between two and six encounters and six and ten encounters. The correlation between the number of times each word occurred in the book and the relative learning gains was found to be 0.34, which confirms that repetition affected learning. (Stuart Webb, 2007) It is safe to say that six to ten encounters are more likely to promote receptive knowledge of known words to productive knowledge of words than two or three encounters. While watching movies makes many encounters possible within a short time which enables the recency effect, frequency effect and saliency effect to take place in terms of the functions of memory. The effect of repeated watching with intervals is exponential.48 Availability of the movies on the university intranet is essential. This course should not be confused with a “film appreciation” class that studies the film for creation, composition and value. This new paradigm is completely different from the academic pursuit of studying films. The workbooks cannot be adapted to a film appreciation class. Nor is this a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) course. The computer is only one tool in the integrated use of modern technology. This is truly a Holistic English course. The movies should be played in one sitting. They should not be stopped for analysis, discussion or memorization of chunks of language; nor showed in segments. This course will promote learner autonomy, creative thinking, enhanced reading skills, enhanced listening skills, enhanced writing skills and increased voluntary oral communications. Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “… university education has robbed students of their originality. The education system, particularly the higher education system, badly needs reform.” A famous Chinese proverb provides: If you give a person a fish, he can eat for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, he can feed himself all of his life. Tao Xingzhi, the famous modern educationist, once said: The best education is to make teachers less needed. This statement concisely

48

Stuart Webb, 2007. "The effects of repetition on vocabulary learning" in Applied Linguistics. Vol. 28, No 1.

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generalized the purpose of education is to train learners to study and work independently. In other words, the end-product of education is an independent learner (McDevitt 1997); therefore the ultimate goal of the teacher should be to convert students from passive language learners into independent and autonomous learners and acquirers. The future society will be a world of “survival of the fittest”. People will be required to be independent, lifelong and self-developed learners so as to meet the needs of the society. In education, we should attach great importance to teaching a person the skills and knowledge which will enable him to survive independently throughout his life. English teaching, likewise, is no exception to this general proposition. The task of English teaching is not merely to teach a foreign language, but to teach learners how to learn. Instead of making the student master foreign language skills, English teaching should help learners to obtain English learning strategies and make them become autonomous lifelong learners. English language teaching has its own special and unique features. It is somewhat different from other subjects such as mathematics, physics or geology. With several formulae, one can work out mathematic or physic problems, whereas mastering some grammar and vocabulary will not enable the learner to speak English like a native speaker. What’s more, if the learner does not continue his autonomous language learning after graduation, fossilization will occur. This means the learner will not maintain his acquired or learned level of English proficiency. Learner autonomy (LA) can be viewed from several aspects. From the macroscopic perspective, we should create an ideal learner autonomy environment. This concerns several aspects, such as school administration, teaching methodologies, teaching materials, etc. And from the microscopic perspective, we should focus on the learner. Teaching linguistic knowledge only, will not produce an autonomous and lifelong learner. To help the learner develop learning strategies paves their way to LA. If the learner masters effective learning strategies, the learner can get twofold results with half the effort. Learning strategy can help the learner improve learning efficiency, promote independent learning during the learning process, motivate the learner, and arouse interest in learning. After mastering learning strategies, the learner can continue self-education, even after graduation. This will prevent fossilization to occur after they leave university

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 115

The kinds of learner autonomy mentioned above are not ideal autonomy. We must understand that no autonomous learning is actually purely or truly autonomous. The learning responsibility is largely on the learner’s shoulders, but its actualization requires the joint efforts of both the teacher and the society. To reach the objective of learner autonomy, society must create an ideal environment. Only under the efforts of proper school administration, teaching methodologies, teaching materials and the learner, can an ideal autonomous learning environment come into existence. Since the ultimate goal of English teaching is communication, English teaching should equip learners with a solid foundation of the language in order to communicate with native speakers freely and naturally, without great difficulty. In recent years, researchers have become increasingly convinced that learner autonomy and learning strategies are more important than ever in 2nd language acquisition (SLA). Although there have recently been many encouraging findings discovered in domestic and overseas related fields, teachers should not apply them mechanically. Instead, teachers should combine these findings with the characteristics of Chinese students; help them to create an autonomous learning environment in accordance with present resources and integrate learning strategies into their teaching, and train the learner to be a life-long learner. It is generally agreed that the solution to English language teaching (ELT) in China is for learners to achieve learner autonomy, which means that the learner is taught the ways to get sufficient input outside the classroom. Modern technology makes that possible. Teaching with movies enables a native speaker to introduce a totally different genre or region of the English language to the Chinese students. The learner should have many questions in mind after watching the movie. They can bring these to the classroom and ask the teacher to explain and discuss among themselves. Therefore, the choice of movies is critical. They must be interesting, exciting and relevant. The only solution to come to terms with English globalization for China is to shorten the time for English formal education, which means we have to avail our students of the modern technology and information era to explore input outside the classroom. China is known for its long history in education and the idea of learner autonomy is nothing new as revealed in the old saying “If you give one a fish, he can have it for only one day; but

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if you teach him how to fish, he can have it for life”. This educational principle has not been incorporated into the process of English education due to various reasons. And now it is time to bring our teachers and trainers of English at various levels to the awareness of this teaching principle, that is, to teach the students how to teach themselves in addition to teach them grammar and vocabulary. What may be common sense to many may not be common sense to the students and even many teachers. Every teacher has his or her own ways of learning the English language, but their methods are not based on a systematic study of the psycholinguistic and SLA theories. Therefore, what the linguists should do now is to introduce the teaching and learning strategies which are a combination of both theory and practice, rather than a series of experience or intuitions. A summary of such strategies can help the Chinese teacher to be a much better learner of English so as to be a more effective and adequate teacher of English in class. How to optimize and maximize output from limited input is a question which will never have an ultimate answer because we can always add more to this field of inquiry with the new findings in the neurological and cognitive sciences. But this ever growing cross-disciplinary research makes the quest for answers in one field even more exhilarating because of the light it may throw on other science and social science disciplines. We may never find the answer to how our brain works but the unknown nature of the subject makes the exploration for answers more satisfying than the answer itself.

The Holistic English Workbooks Formulation of the Holistic English Workbook series began in 2002 with the showing of hundreds of movies to more than 5,000 Chinese students49 over the next five years. (See Appendix “I” for a complete list of the Holistic English Workbook series) When the students gave a movie a standing ovation, the movie was considered seriously for inclusion in a workbook. Movies that received

49

The movies were shown to students from top tier, 2nd tier universities, 3rd tier colleges, business institutes and joint venture programs from Harbin to Urumqi, Shanghai to Wuhan.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 117

lukewarm or negative student responses were discarded. Movies that are of no interest or boring militate against 2nd language acquisition. Once the movies were selected for inclusion in a workbook, they were shown again and the students were asked to identify new words and phrases or words and phrases they did not understand in the context of the movie. When more than 30% of the students identified a word or phrase as troublesome, the word or phrase was included in the new vocabulary section of the workbook. Pre-teaching of the movie vocabulary increases the comprehensibility of the movie. Each original workbook contains 8 movies, each movie constituting a separate chapter. This fits an 18 week university semester. In the first part of each chapter the students read a commercial movie review and acquaint themselves with the new vocabulary taken from the movie. Students are asked to use the Internet to research definitions because most students have British English dictionaries that do not contain slang or phrases and most, but not all, of the movies are American English. Further, the students need to learn that the internet is useful for something other than just playing computer games. Then the students watch the movie in a non-academic setting, a friendly environment, just like going downtown to the movie theater. Eating and drinking is allowed and teacher presence is discouraged. After watching the movie there are supplemental reading materials or internet research assignments designed to draw the students’ attention to the theme or moral of the movie in a Chinese context. The articles, whenever possible, draw from Chinese newspapers written in English. Then there are writing assignments. Short questions to be answered from the cumulative knowledge acquired from the movie and supplemental reading assignments. This not only serves as writing practice, it also reinforces what the students gained from the movie and further prepares them for the discussion part of the class. The workbooks are specifically designed to better prepare the students for their national English examinations (TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6) and to create graduates who can actually produce comprehensible oral and written English.

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Currently, Chinese students from the best Chinese universities learn English for 16 years, pass their National English exams, but are unable to communicate in oral or written English. English is a tool for communication. Learning English for 16 years without acquiring the ability to communicate in English is a catastrophic waste of time, a monumental waste of money and fails to prepare the students to make their most effective contribution to a better off and harmonious Chinese society. Although the Holistic English workbooks were created by and for the students, the effectiveness still depends upon the students themselves. Students, who place the workbook under their pillow at night to assimilate the contents while they sleep, will not make any improvement in their English competency. The workbooks are designed to be utilized by English majors and non-English majors alike, without regard for individual English competency. The workbooks are a “one size fits all” tool to be utilized by all Chinese students enrolled in a college or university, anywhere in China. This point is particularly important because students in Chinese colleges and universities are not segregated according to English competency levels. Each class is a mixture of beginners to well accomplished students. Classes are arranged by majors, not English competency. We recognize that the Holistic English Program is not a universal teaching paradigm for everyone. No such device exists. As the students’ evaluation charts herein confirm, there is still a small percentage of students who gain little or no benefit from the Holistic English Program. However, the percentage of students passing the National English examinations increases significantly and will be confirmed in a future report. And, the percentage of students who acquire the ability to actually communicate effectively in English also increases significantly, also the subject of a future report.

Course Scheduling True educational reform requires that all option be on the table, including rethinking the traditional 45 minute class period. Transferring a daytime class of a combined 90 minutes to an evening class of 180 minutes is the most troubling reform to be accepted by Chinese university administrators. Actual class scheduling is not affected. The classes are merely combined and transferred to an evening time slot in a mufti-media room to facilitate

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 119

one showing of the movie to many combined classes. The empty daytime classroom is troubling for many administrators, as is the students enjoying an evening movie as apposed to having a live foreign teacher making a presentation. As stated elsewhere, language acquisition occurs when there is comprehensible input in a friendly environment and that means understandable movies in a non-academic setting. All movies were shown at night, beginning at 6:30 p.m.,50 due to their length extending beyond the two-period day time class schedule.51 During the week that the sophomores were watching a movie, the freshmen were engaged in the Holistic English Lab. The next week, the freshmen watched their movie and the sophomores were engaged in the Holistic English Lab. In this manner, the teacher facilitated oral discussions every week and was able to provide a discussion opportunity for up to 400 students each week or a total of 800 students during the semester. The economy of scale savings were discussed in a previous article.52 Although this alternative scheduling placed the students in the classroom an extra four hours during the semester, over and above the forty hour course requirement, no students were heard to complain. Freshmen spend the first week of the term learning the difference between language learning and language acquisition. The lesson material is found on the inside back cover of the Holistic English Workbooks. They are also instructed on how the workbooks should be used. They are then given one week to complete the “Before Watching the Movie” homework. In the second week the freshmen watch their first movie. The evening movie class is substituted for the daytime class. After watching the movie, the freshmen complete the “After Watching Movie” homework. In the third week the freshmen have their first conversation class. 50

Half way through the Fall 2007 semester the time was changed to 6:00 p.m. at the request of the students. 51 During the first semester of the program, due to administrative indifference or ineptness the movies were scheduled to be shown on Thursday and Friday evenings, thus greatly reducing the time available for the students to complete the homework after watching the movie. Due to malfunctioning equipment and/or technician indifference, 5 times the movie was not shown until Sunday, completely eliminating any time for the students to complete the required homework prior to the discussion class. 52 Qiang/Teng/Wolff, (2007), “China EFL: A New Paradigm”, (2008) Education in China, Nova Science Publications

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Sophomores have already had two semesters of Holistic English so in the first week of the term they can watch their first movie. Their first conversation class is in the second week while the freshmen are watching their first movie. This alternating schedule allows one foreign teacher to teach twice as many students over the term. If a school insists that the movie night not substitute for the daytime class, then one week the class can work on the “Before Watching Movie” assignment in class. Please note that the Holistic program will not work when students meet twice a week and it is not possible to utilize the Holistic workbooks for a film class. A third year English major was selected to intern by assisting with the Holistic course.53 The intern was responsible for showing the evening movies and monitoring the weekend use of the sound lab. He was also responsible for assigning students to clean the facilities after use. Students were allowed to eat and drink during the movie in the multi-media room but not in the sound labs.54 The absence of a teacher reduced the academic atmosphere. It would be beneficial if the students had the opportunity to watch the movies as many times as it required for them to fully comprehend the

53

During the first term of program implementation, two Chinese teachers were assigned as co-teachers to assist the foreign expert by showing the movies at night and attending some of the discussion classes to learn how to teach the course. In actuality, only one co-teacher attended one sophomore class as an observer. Neither co-teacher ever actually conducted any class. No Chinese teacher was prepared to teach this class the next semester thus negating a major reason for having co-teachers. In the 9th week of the term, one of the co-teachers was terminated for dereliction of duty and unacceptable course content alteration. But both received their full salary as if they had performed their responsibilities well. During the second term of program implementation a second attempt was made to train a Chinese teacher of English to teach the Holistic English course. During the orientation, the teacher opined that we were making a mistake in not using Chinese subtitles when showing the movies. Then he objected to doing the workbook assignments, claiming that his English was good enough without doing the assignments. The last straw was when he decided not to attend the showing of the movie because he could watch it at home. Efforts to train this teacher were terminated. 54 Allowing food and drink helped to create a non-academic atmosphere, like going to a commercial theater.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 121

content and to learn the vocabulary. Neither the college nor the community internet bars were equipped to accommodate this educational need. Showing the movies in segments or chunks; stopping the movie for discussion or language memorization; and discussions about sections of the movie dialogue, are all tools of language learning and are alien to the Holistic English Program of English acquisition.

Student Evalution The sophomore students have completed three semesters of Holistic English.55 The freshmen students have completed two semesters of Holistic English.56 The International students are unique in that one class has completed two semesters of Holistic English Freshmen I and Freshmen II while two classes have completed only Freshmen II, having not participated in Freshmen I.57

55

Holistic English Freshmen I; Holistic Business English I; Holistic Business English II 56 Holistic English Freshmen I, Holistic English Freshmen II 57 In the fall of 2007, Xinyang Agricultural College initiated three International classes within the Foreign Languages Department. These are students who do not qualify academically but whose parents can afford to purchase an education for their children. One of the International classes was put on the Holistic English Freshmen I program. Two of the classes were taught by a Chinese teacher of English who taught primarily in Chinese using the traditional chalk and talk teaching methodology and using a typical set phrase memorization textbook. In the spring 2008 term all three international classes were put into the Holistic English Freshmen II program. Those International classes that had not participated in the Holistic English Freshmen I program were at a distinct disadvantage. They had not had the basic instruction in proper listening skills, proper homework skills, proper writing skills, or internet research skills. They had not heard the orientation lecture and did not know of their obligation to read more English, write more English, listen to more English and speak more English outside the classroom. Plus the Freshmen II movies were too advanced in subject matter and language difficulty. In week 9 of the spring 2008 term, the students who had participated in Holistic English Freshmen I were able to make an extemporaneous, comprehensible threeminute oral presentation. The students who had not participated in the Holistic English Freshmen I class during the fall 2007 term were unable to produce more than ten English words when asked to make a three-minute presentation and a super majority of students could not utter a single English word.

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At the end of each semester the students are given an anonymous58 questionnaire (See Appendix “F”) to ascertain their evaluation of the selfperceived benefits they have received from the Holistic English course. In the fall of ’06 the Class of ’06 consisted of 357 Applied English, Business English and Tourism English majors. However, due to curriculum requirements,59 the Applied Linguistic English majors did not participate in the Holistic English program during the spring ’07 or fall ’08 semesters, which left 221 participating in the Holistic English program. These students were admitted to Xinyang Agricultural College with a low cumulative college entrance examination score of 350 and a high of 640. In the spring of ’07 the Class of ’07 consisted of 284 Applied English, Business English and Tourism English majors. These students were admitted to Xinyang Agricultural College with a low cumulative college entrance examination score of 443 and a high of 620. A new International program admitted 120 students who were unable to enter the school on scholastic merits but could afford to purchase a diploma. The students were asked to rank (from 1 – 10 with 10 being the greatest help) how much the course helped them to improve in ten areas. (vocabulary, reading skills, listening skills, writing skills, conversation skills, (Charts #1, ) confidence, motivation, discipline, (Charts #2) worldview and business knowledge (Charts #3). The students’ responses are summarized in the following charts. Zhao Shixiong, Social Sciences Academic Press

Teaching set phrases does not produce speakers of comprehensible English. The Holistic English program requires that students begin with Freshmen I and then progress through Freshmen II, Business I and then Business II. When the Holistic English program is utilized as designed, it produces students who can produce extemporaneous, comprehensible oral English output. 58 Anonymity protects the students from fear of retribution for honesty 59 Political education

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 123

Class of ’05 Business English and Tourism English The progress of the Class of ’06, in the Holistic English Program, is charted over three semesters. The students participated in Holistic English Freshmen I in the spring ’06 term; Holistic English Business I in the fall ’07 term; and Holistic English Business II in the spring ’08 term. These students did not have an opportunity to participate in Holistic English Freshmen II. When comparing spring ’06 (most classes more than 40 students) with fall ’07 and spring ’08 (classes limited to 40 students) it becomes clear that class size effects benefits conferred and that the quality of education goes down as class size rises above 40 students.

Spring ’06 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing - Conversation (Classes larger than 50)*

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Fall ’07 Holistic English Business English I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing - Conversation (Classes limited to 40)

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 125

Spring ’06 Holistic English Freshmen I Confidence – Motivation - Discipline (Classes larger than 50) BE, TE,Class of '06

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Fall ’07 H olistic Business English I Confidence – Motivation - Discipline (Classes limited to 40)

# o f s tu d e n ts

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CONFIDENCE MOTIVATION DISCIPLINE

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Spring ’08 Holistic Business II Confidence – Motivation - Discipline (Classes limited to 40) BE, TE,Class of '06

# o f s tu d e n ts

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

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Spring ’06 Holistic English Freshmen I World View – Business Knowledge (Classes larger than 50) BE, TE, Class of '06

# of s tudents

80 60

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40

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8

9

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 127

Fall ’07 Holistic Business English I World View – Business Knowledge (Classes limited to 40)

Chart #8

Spring ’08 Holistic Business English II World View – Business Knowledge (Classes limited to 40) BE, TE, Class of '06

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40

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Chart #9

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Class of ‘07**Applied English, Business English and Tourism English The class of ’07 participated in Holistic English Freshmen I and Freshmen II. Due to an anomaly, the Business English 3 class was segregated, for diagramming purposes, and is not included in the cumulative charts.

Fall ’07 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Cumulative (Classes limited to 40)

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 129

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 131

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CLASS OF ’07 Business English 3 Due to an anomaly, the Business English class of ’07 was segregated out of the freshmen cumulative charts. A cursory review of the responses to the questionnaires drew special attention to an apparent anomaly with the Class of ’07 Business English 3 responses which appeared to be extremely out of step with all of the other freshmen responses. Further inquiry revealed that these students had the lowest English component scores, of all entering freshmen, on the college entrance examination and did not come through the normal public middle school program or the normal college entrance examination process; but rather came through the vocational technical training middle school program. However, by the end of the freshmen II program, these students were almost caught up and on a par with the regularly admitted students.

Fall ’07 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Class of ’07 Business English 3

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 133

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Class of ’07 Business English 3

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Fall ’07 Holistic English Freshmen I Confidence – Motivation – Discipline (Classes limited to 40) Class of ’07 Business English 3

Chart #18

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Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Class of ’07 Business English 3 BE 3 ''07

# o f s t u d e n ts

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Chart #19 This BE 3 class shows significant improvement in the second semester. Although they still lag behind the regular classes, this class has made remarkable and significant improvements.

Fall ’07 Holistic English Freshmen I World View – Business Knowledge Class of ’07 Business English 3

Chart #20

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 135

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II World View – Business Knowledge Class of ’07 Business English 3

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2

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4

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6

7

8

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Chart #21 This BE 3 class shows significant improvement in the second semester. Although they still lag behind the regular classes, this class has made remarkable and significant improvements.

Class of ’07 International Students *** A total of 120 students were admitted to a new International program designed to generate much needed income for the college by admitting academically unqualified students whose parents could afford to purchase the diploma.

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 137

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Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II Confidence – Motivation – Discipline

# o f s tu d e n ts

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CONFIDENCE MOTIVATION DISCIPLINE 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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Chart #25 The International Tourism English #7 class completed Holistic English Freshmen I prior to taking Holistic English Freshmen II GPA 80.

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International 2 computer and gardening # of s tudents

15 CONFIDENCE

10

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

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Chart #26 The International combined computer and gardening class completed a set phrase English learning class in lieu of Holistic English Freshmen I. GPA 63.9

International # 3 Accounting

12 # o f s tud ents

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6

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4

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2

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8

9

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Chart #27 The International accounting class completed a set phrase English learning class in lieu of Holistic English Freshmen I. GPA 69.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 139

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II World View – Business Knowledge

Chart #28 The International Tourism English #7 class completed Holistic English Freshmen I prior to taking Holistic English Freshmen II GPA 80.

# o f s tu d e n ts

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14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

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1

2

3

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8

9

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Chart #29 The International combined computer and gardening class completed a set phrase English learning class in lieu of Holistic English Freshmen I. GPA 63.9

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International #3 Accounting

# o f s tu d e n ts

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6 4

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2

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8

9

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Chart #30 The International accounting class completed a set phrase English learning class in lieu of Holistic English Freshmen I. GPA 69. *** In the fall of 2007, Xinyang Agricultural College initiated three International classes within the Foreign Languages Department. These are students who do not qualify academically but whose parents qualify economically to purchase an education for their children. One of the International classes was put on the Holistic English Freshmen I program. Two of the classes were taught by a Chinese teacher of English who taught primarily in Chinese using the traditional chalk and talk teaching methodology and using a typical set phrase memorization textbook. In the spring 2008 term all three international classes were put into the Holistic English Freshmen II program. Those International classes that had not participated in the Holistic English Freshmen I program were at a distinct disadvantage. They had not had the basic instruction in proper listening skills, proper homework skills, proper writing skills, or internet research skills. They had not heard the orientation lecture and did not know of their obligation to read more English, write more English, listen to more English and speak more

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 141

English outside the classroom. Plus the Freshmen II movies were too advanced in subject matter and language difficulty. In week 9 of the spring 2008 term, the students who had participated in Holistic English Freshmen I were able to make an extemporaneous, comprehensible three-minute oral presentation. The students who had not participated in the Holistic English Freshmen I class during the fall 2007 term were unable to produce more than ten English words when asked to make a three-minute presentation and a super majority of students could not utter a single English word. Teaching set phrases does not produce speakers of comprehensible English and there are no scientific studies that claim it does.. The Holistic English program requires that students begin with Freshmen I and then progress through Freshmen II, Business I and then Business II. When the Holistic English program is utilized as designed, it produces students who can produce extemporaneous, comprehensible oral English output. It was a very ill advised move to teach set phrases or speech patterns to two of the international student groups and then throw them into Holistic English II and the administration did not consult with the Holistic English Program staff prior to making this decision. Both groups of international students who had set phrase teaching in their first freshmen semester should have failed Holistic English freshmen II and would have were it not for the grading policy that will not allow anyone to fail. We draw the following preliminary conclusion from the above graphic displays of student input60 1. Comprehensible output occurs only after comprehensible input. Increased reading, listening and writing, increases oral output. 2. Discipline, motivation and confidence are interrelated and interdependent. 3. Discipline, motivation and confidence play a significant role in oral production. 4. The students are seriously lacking in world view and business knowledge and require much more than just the Holistic English program to become well informed about world affairs.. 60

The raw data has been preserved and will be made available for further research.

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5. There is no “one way” to teach or acquire English as a foreign language. 6. While increased motivation results directly in increased comprehensible input, an immediate increase in comprehensible output is not necessarily spontaneous. 7. Current traditional courses in reading comprehension, listening and writing, taught by Chinese teachers of English, leave a void in the students’ acquisition of English. 8. Classes of more than 40 students are anti-academic and anti-productive. 9. Teaching set phrases does not produce speakers of comprehensible English. The Holistic English program requires that students begin with Freshmen I and then progress through Freshmen II, Business I and then Business II. Students who do not follow the program as designed not only receive less benefit from the program, their grades also suffer because they are unable to produce comprehensible English. 10. When the Holistic English program is utilized as designed, it generates students who can produce extemporaneous, comprehensible oral English. The questionnaire also asked what the students liked best about the class. Two answers dominated the responses: 1. 2.

We have the freedom to express our opinions without fear of being criticized. Each student gets to be the teacher and conduct the discussion.

The students were also asked “If you had the authority, power and money, what one thing would you change at this school to make your educational experience better?”61 99% of the freshmen students responded to the questionnaire and 4 major complaints62 surfaced: 1. More and better equipment. The existing computers are old, in disrepair and not enough to meet student needs. The sound lab and multi-media equipment is in disrepair. The students also require internet access to complete homework assignments. 37.2% 2. More foreign teachers and better Chinese teachers 30.3% 3. More English books in the school library. 28.9% 61

9% of the respondents failed to properly comprehend this question and chose between money, power or authority as to which would enable them to study better. 62 There was no advance discussion, coaching or planting of ideas. This question was a complete surprise to the students.

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4.

More English activities such as various competitions 3.4%

98% of the sophomore students responded to the questionnaire and 4 major complaints63 surfaced: 1. Living conditions. The dormitories and recreational facilities were heavily disparaged. 26% 2. More and better equipment. The existing computers are old, in disrepair and not enough to meet student needs. The sound lab and multimedia equipment is in disrepair. The students also require internet access to complete homework assignments. 25% 3. More English books in the school library 25% 4. More foreign teachers and better Chinese teachers 14% At a meeting of the class monitors, the Dean asked for a verbal evaluation of the Holistic English class. The monitors were unanimous in expressing that the class was both interesting and exciting. Chinese are known for being reserved or understated when expressing their opinions. Neither Chinese nor Western college students are known for finding their college classes both interesting and exciting.64

Teachers’ Evaluation A cooperation agreement was entered into with Stacy Meeking of Guangxi University, Nanning; Kenneth Clarke, Xinyang Normal University (Huarui College); Nick Stirk, Harbin Institute of Technology, Peter Griggs, CIB at Shenyang Normal University and Russ Taylor at Shenyang Normal University wherein they used the Holistic English Workbook commencing fall 2007 or Spring 2008. As a result of favorable student response and teacher satisfaction with Holistic English Freshmen I, Guangxi University decided to use Holistic English Freshmen II for the spring 2008 semester for English majors. See Appendix “B” As a result of favorable student response and teacher satisfaction with Holistic English Freshmen I, Huarui College at Xinyang Normal University

63

There was no advance discussion, coaching or planting of ideas. This question was a complete surprise to the students. 64 It would appear that the course was successful in creating extrinsic motivation.

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decided to use Holistic English Freshmen II for the spring 2008 semester for 1,480 plus non-English majors. See Appendix “C”. Nick Stirk, Harbin Institute of Technology was dropped from the program because of a failure to use the workbook for its intended purpose; as comprehensible input for eventual conversation output. Instead, the workbook was used as the foundation for a film appreciation class and none of the instructions for teachers were followed. The Holistic English program is not intended to be used in conjunction with a film appreciation class and it cannot be adapted for such use. A cooperation agreement was entered into with Robert Hill of Yang En University to use the Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I for the spring 2008 semester. See Appendix “D” A cooperation agreement was entered into with Russ Taylor, Shenyang Normal University to use the Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I for the spring 2008 semester. Russ was not able to obtain permission from his Dean. A cooperation agreement was entered into with Edwin Roessler, CIB at Shenyang Normal University to use the Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I for the spring 2008 semester. See Appendix “E”. A cooperation agreement was entered into with Julie Anderson, Xinyang Technical and Vocational College to use the Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I for the spring 2008 semester. See Appendix “H”.

Holistic English Lab The Holistic English Lab is unique in that it is the first and only classroom of its kind in China. Oral English classes often find themselves treated as an unwanted stepsister and put in any old available room, or even held outdoors. Usually, little or no consideration is given to the English acquisition or speaking environment in the assignment of facilities for oral English classes. The design of the Holistic English Lab was seriously influenced by Dr. Stephen Krashen’s statement that language acquisition occurs best in a low anxiety environment.

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BEFORE / AFTER

When the students entered the new Holistic English Lab for the first time, they milled around in awe of the new facility and were reluctant to sit up on the riser. After some discussion in Chinese, the students started verbally arguing over the seats on the riser. Approximately 2% of the male students took one look at the Holistic English Lab and disappeared for the entire semester. It was clear that they would have no place to hide in the back of the room and sleep, play electronic games, play with their cell phones or read material unrelated to the class. The Holistic English Lab acoustics were significantly improved and thus listening was greatly facilitated. The common echo of sounds bouncing off bare concrete walls and floors was greatly reduced. Everyone in the room was able to follow and participate in the discussion because everyone could clearly hear whoever was speaking. At no time was any segment of the class left out, bored, and eventually disruptive, as is often the case in theater style seating classrooms with poor acoustics. The new seating configuration also facilitated better eye contact between everyone in the room and hence facial expressions and body language were successfully incorporated into the EFL equation. It also eliminated

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any “back of the room” where male students habitually play computerized games, text message, chat in Chinese, read Chinese books, and sleep. No Chinese language signs or notices were allowed to be posted in the room, thus eliminating conflicting message input to the mental lexicon.65 Ten Chinese, Western and Business proverbs were posted on the walls, in English.66 The students were fully informed of the five year effort to develop the Holistic English program and the difficulties in building a Holistic English Lab. They demonstrated their appreciation for the efforts extended on their behalf by dedicating themselves to the serious pursuit of EFL and maintaining the Holistic English Lab according to Western standards of cleanliness, both of which are marked attitude adjustments. To reduce the academic atmosphere of the Holistic English Lab, students were allowed to eat and drink in the room contrary to school rules for regular classrooms. All of the third year English class monitors were assigned to monitor the evening use of the Holistic English Lab to make certain the television was

65

All classrooms used for English teaching on campus have numerous Chinese signs on the walls. The Foreign Languages department offices have no English signs on the walls but many Chinese signs. An effort to remove Chinese signs and replace them with English signs was rebuffed. 66 " The accomplished scholar is not a utensil." "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous." "To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage." "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow;-I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness, are to me as a floating cloud." "The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear." “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” “If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.” “Effective listening starts with inviting listening opportunities.“ “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” “Learning to speak effectively will help you climb the ladder of success.” ‘The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year.” ‘If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.” “There is less to fear from outside competition than from inside inefficiency, discourtesy and bad service.” ‘Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.” ‘Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm“

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properly working,67 the water filtration machine was full, and that the room was left in a proper and clean condition for the next morning’s class. The friendly English acquisition and speaking environment of the new Holistic English Lab resulted in more spontaneous and fluent English production. The students commented favorably on the new environment and generally speaking, their English production underwent a remarkable increase. It was clear that many of the students found the discussions so interesting that they forgot that they were communicating in a second language. One student proclaimed that she was even dreaming in English. The following are verbatim emails from several students: “Our new spoken classroom at the school 2-302. It's different from other classroom. New Oral indeed different from the previous classroom, very English atmosphere. We like it.” —Venus Class: 06-business 1 NO: 067013119 “First I am very appreciate for you to build a wonderful English class room for the English major students. It is not only the first time for me to see this kind of classroom but all the students as well. I pretty enjoy the design in our classroom. It is convenient for us to communicate with each other. Especially that you can see every student very clearly and easily. Then I highly support your view of buying a large new TV in our classroom .Because there is no TV or computer in our dorm .In order to save money, some students do not want to go to the internet bar to view the events or news happened in our nation or in the world. So this is a golden opportunity for us to open our eyes to the world. Next I want to give you a suggestion .Last class you told us that only third year students and applied English class students can go to the room to watch the news from CCTV-9, BBC, CNN. But I think you should give this chance to every student who really wants to go there. Because Xinyang is a small and poor city in China .But we can not put ourselves in this limited space, we should keep up with the world. In my opinion there are a lot of students who need or want to watch the news in our wonderful room. So I hope you can open to the students who would like to go there.” —Jane Class 2 Tourism English NO.18 “Our new classroom is really great. It's clean, comfortable and attractive. So that the classroom can stimulate learning and help build a classroom community. 67

This system was terminated in the 10th week of the semester due to the administration’s failure to provide the promised TV.

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The total cost of the Holistic English lab was 10,500 rmb. This included 2,500 rmb for a small English library and 5,000 rmb for the TV. To reconfigure and decorate the room cost only 3,000 rmb. Unfortunately, the promised television never became a reality68 and the promised new desks never arrived. During the 2008 winter vacation, the teaching building was locked so it was impossible to water the plants and they all died. 68

In late May 2008 the College Logistics Department claimed that the type of large screen rear projection TV requested was unavailable on the local market and the new design TV was too expensive. Within 30 minutes of this report, the Holistic English Program student assistant, Pan Youyi, provided color brochures of three large screen rear projection TV’s available in local stores. He also provided cell phone pictures of the available TV’s and calling cards of the local stores. He found a 43” for 4,000 rmb; a 47” for 6890 rmb and a 51” for 6,000 rmb. This incident highlights the continuing indifference and or incompetence of the College Logistics Department staff. As of press time, there was still no TV in the Holistic English Lab. The students were right when they said it was just an impossible dream.

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Second day of classes September 2007

In the last week of the spring ’08 term, the Holistic English Lab met an ignomous end when the Foreign Languages Department allowed the Logistics Department69 to use the room for employer interviews of non69

The same logistics department that delayed 18 months in replacing burned out light bulbs on five flights of stairs used every evening by over 500 students; the same department that never fixed the sound equipment in the multi-media room; the same department that never fixed a retractable movie screen; the same department that failed to clean the multi-media room for 5 months; the same department that could not find a specific model TV in local stores but was found in three local stores by the student assistant; the same department that was unwilling to provide water or electric to the foreign teacher’s courtyard for six months; the same department that refused to replace the electric fuse box on the foreign teacher’s apartment until after fixing it sixteen times and was forced to replace it after an explosive fire; the same department that was unable to purchase a white board in a local store but was purchased in a local store by the student assistant; the same department that failed to fix the weather stripping on the foreign teacher’s apartment windows causing serious illness; the same department that locked the teaching building for 6 weeks thus killing the plants in the Holistic English Lab; the same department that took six weeks to provide four hollow tile blocks for steps in the Holistic English Lab; the same department that took six weeks to supply four brooms and dustpans for the Holistic English Lab; the same department that failed to supply fan blades for the classroom fans for three years; the same department that failed to check the defective fan electrical switches after

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foreign language department students. They thoroughly trashed this pristine room beyond recognition. Devastating!70

Economic Efficiency The wage disparity between foreign experts and Chinese teachers is well documented elsewhere. Xinyang Agricultural College formerly required two foreign experts, one for the freshmen class and one for the sophomore class. Under the new paradigm only one foreign expert is required for 800 students. Replacement of the Chinese co-teacher with a 3rd year student intern also reduced program costs. The Holistic English Program is designed for a teacher to student ratio of 1/800, one foreign teacher for every 800 students. This results in up to a 66% reduction in the cost of providing oral English classes. A school with 100 foreign teachers is overstaffed because only 33 foreign teachers are required under the Holistic English Program. The Holistic English Program can be taught by any foreign teacher no matter what their experience or degree. There is also another budgetary benefit from the new paradigm. Under the old paradigm students were exposed to the foreign expert assigned to their class. Their experience was limited to the one regional English spoken by that one foreign expert. While watching the English movies the students were exposed to an average of ten (10) native English speakers (using many different regional Englishes) per hour and two (2) L2 English speakers per hour. The students/consumers hear (three hundred sixty 360) native English speakers and seventy-two (72) L2 English speakers during the thirty-six (36) hour semester and hence receive much higher value for their tuition fees than exposure to one (1) foreign expert for thirty-six (36) hours.

installing the fan blades; the same department that insisted on monthly repairs of the worn out air conditioner in the foreign expert’s apartment for three years thus forcing the foreign expert to purchase a new 5,200 rmb air conditioner; the same department that proved incompetent over and over again. 70 “neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” Holy Bible KJV, Matthew 7:6 (Do not waste your efforts on unappreciative people.)

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Why let the students understand only one foreigner's pronunciation and vocabulary, while there are so many speakers with different pronunciations and different genres of speech and so much more information that will fill the students, especially English majors' minds, so that they will not be struggling with forced output out of thin air!

Difficulties in Implementing the New Paradigm “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm” —Confucius

During the first semester of program implementation, assigned staff approached the new paradigm with skepticism and never gave the full support and cooperation required to make the program successful. Two Chinese co-teachers were assigned to assist the foreign expert and learn how to teach the class. Only one co-teacher ever observed one sophomore business conversation class. Neither assigned co-teacher ever taught a single conversation class. The co-teacher assigned to show the movies was reassigned at week 9 for dereliction of duty and incompetence. During the second semester of the program, efforts were made and abandoned to train another Chinese teacher of English to conduct the Holistic English program. After the initial, comprehensive orientation, the Holistic English program was criticized for showing English movies with English subtitles instead of Chinese subtitles. This ignorance disqualified the Chinese teacher from further participation in the Holistic English Program. The school technical equipment was in disrepair and the technical staff approached their jobs with a rather cavalier attitude. The technical staff was repeatedly heard to say, “It isn’t working and can’t be fixed.” The movie class had to be cancelled 5 times due to faulty equipment and the assigned technician being unavailable. Subsequent conversation classes had to be cancelled. When a movie screen would not deploy and after two weeks of requesting that it be repaired, the technician suggested that the students manually pull the screen down. After the students manually pulled the screen down, the technician had no suggestion for retracting the screen to have access to the blackboard. The college’s only technician was unable or unwilling to fix a simple on/off electrical switch.

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The fans in the conversation classrooms had no blades. The blades were attached after 4 weeks of complaining. However, when attaching the blades, the fans were not tested. As it turned out, the wall switches were defective and the fans remained inoperable throughout the entire semester. The explanation for this was “This is a third tier college, what do you expect?” The rebuttal was “Just because this is a third tier college, that is no excuse for you doing a third rate job and cheating the students.” The decision to extend the program into a second semester was made in May 2007. Neither the third floor multi-media room nor the Holistic English Lab was ready or available for the first day of classes on September 10, 2007. Although under almost daily request for progress, the school administration was remiss in their duties and took no appreciable steps toward preparation until the first day of classes. Notwithstanding this administrative omission, classes were held on time, although under stressful conditions. The promised third floor multi-media room with new equipment never materialized. Classes were assigned to the fifth floor multi-media room with old and outdated equipment. A warning was issued that the heavy use of the old equipment would be problematic but this warning was ignored. When the equipment failed to work, the technician refused to remedy the situation until the following day and the evening classes had to be cancelled. The following day the technician refused to fix the equipment until the following week. This played havoc with class scheduling and student progress in a scientific manner. The technical problems of the first semester were neither remedied nor resolved, just repeated.71 The 71

Technicians at Shanghai University resisted using the multi-media equipment to show movies because the projector bulb was very expensive. Facilities at Shanghai Normal University were off limits to students. “The Unqualified Teaching (sic) the Unmotivated in a Hostile Environment” (2007) Frontiers in Higher Education, Ch. 11, Nova Publications Facilities at Guangxi University were off limits to students except during school evaluation Multi-media equipment at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics International School had to be repaired before each use. At the JUFE MBA school, three months of advance preparation failed and the class had to be cancelled on its first day. In Urumqui the sound system lacked a critical connection cord and the movie for 400 middle school teachers had to be cancelled.Xinyang Normal University has 14 new multi-media rooms but no program to utilize them.

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problems with the audio-visual equipment were never properly addressed and difficulties continued through the spring 2008 semester. During the second semester of the program the assigned multi-media room was on the fifth floor of a five story teaching building, serviced by stairs only. Notwithstanding a serious mishap in early April 2007, due to lack of any lighting in the stairwells; as of October 15, 2007, nine out of ten light bulbs in the stairwells were burned out and it was impossible to get anyone interested in making the stairwells safe. The open air hallway lights were fixed on October 8 but nothing was done about the dangerous stairwells. (The stairwell lights were finally fixed, but only after evening classes were cancelled until they were fixed.) It is unconscionable that it took 13 months to correct such a dangerous condition. As of the third week of the second semester of the program, there were no brooms or dustpans available for the students to clean the Holistic English Lab. Such simple things were treated as insurmountable problems requiring weeks, if not months to resolve. The prevailing attitude was that nothing needed to be done on time or in a proper manner. Freshmen class rosters were not provided until immediately after final exams. For the first 10 weeks of the spring 2008 semester, the cleaning staff completely ignored the multi-media room. The build-up of trash became so unbearable that the students gave the room a thorough cleaning and then complained to the Party Secretary, attaching 12 photographs, four of which are included below.

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During the spring 2008 term, in mid-April, it was discovered that a few freshmen were skipping out on their mandatory self-study evening class while falsely claiming that they were going to the free choice movie. Somewhere between the homeroom self-study class and the multi-media room, these students got lost and ended up in card games, pool games or internet bars. The Vice-Dean of the Foreign Languages Department, a person who speaks no English although she has worked in the Department for more than five years, and a person with no training or knowledge in psychology or 2nd language acquisition; unilaterally handed down an edict that all freshmen would be restricted to their homeroom for self-study and would be prohibited from attending the free choice evening movies. This antiacademic punitive overreaction was quickly countermanded by the Dean when it was brought to his attention. Rather than punish everyone for the sins of a few; rather than deprive all freshmen students of comprehensible input in a friendly environment; freshmen attending the free choice movies received a hand stamp at the conclusion of the movie. If a student had been absent from the self-study class the night before and could not produce the hand stamp evidence they had attended the movie the previous night, they were punished. The Holistic English Program requires the students to make weekly use of the Internet. There are only 100 computers on campus with internet access and these are for use by 10,000 students. We note that this was a major disappointment

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addressed in 200472 but the school administration has not dealt with it in an effective manner. On Sunday, February 24, 2008, the eve of commencement of term classes on Monday, February 25, 2008, of the 6 foreign teachers, at other schools, intending to implement the Holistic English program: 5 did not have their course teaching assignments, Only 1 had a classroom assignment, Only 2 had an advance opportunity to test the multi-media equipment, Only 3 had their workbooks printed and available for students, Only 3 had administrative approval for the Holistic English program.

Creating a Supportive English Speaking Environment “… it is consensually agreed by critics that the establishment of a “natural” English environment is vital to “authentic” communication, for, as Guo Naizhao and Li Dongfu put it, “the greatest disadvantage for learners of English in the Chinese context is the shortage of a natural communicative environment, and it is generally considered impossible for students to learn English without such exposure.” (Guo and Li: 17) However, most of the ELT environments (Sun et al.: 2002; Jin Lingje et al.: 2005; Hu Guanwei: 2003) are artificially created and confined to the space of the classroom. But the fact is, however effectively a simulated English environment works in class, once out of the classroom, the students are treading the Chinese ground and breathing the Chinese air. The communicative competence built up in an artificial environment will be inevitably vitiated due to the lack of a practice environment. Meanwhile, in accordance with the general ELT policy, Chinese CLT also takes “authentic” SE as its assessment standard. As a consequence, the confidence obtained in a simulated “natural” setting will be unavoidably impaired by the fear of committing grammatical errors and speaking accented English on real communicative occasions.”73

72

Can You Get A First Class Education in a Third Tier College in China?, ?” (2004) Niu Qiang, Martin Wolff, Teng Hei, Anne-Marie Gregory, Progress in Education Vol. 13 Ch. 2, Nova Publications; (Awarded first prize in Henan Province Certificate No. CG0536, 2003. 5) 72 Non-English majors were more motivated to improve their English than students assigned to be English majors. 73 Mingjun Lu (2007), ELT in China and a “China English” Model www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/eng6365-lu.htm

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During the fall 2007 semester, the multi-media room was utilized on Friday evenings for free-choice movies.74 Students were not required to attend. The 300 seat room was usually always full with only half of those attending being English majors and the balance being from other departments within the college.75 There was no admission charge. When the college had previously experimented with evening movies, there was an entrance fee and the program was a complete failure. Half way through the second semester of the Holistic course implementation, the Friday night movies experienced standing room only crowds, with as many as 100 students standing to watch 3 hour movie like The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur and The Titanic. The English Club started a Saturday morning comedy movie series in one of the college sound labs. On the very first Saturday there was a standing room only crowd that had to be turned away. An additional men’s night at the movies was added on Saturday evenings, showing action movies such as Steven Segal, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Van Dam and movies like The Killing fields, Good Morning Viet Nam etc. Male students who had never attended a single required English class in the Holistic English Lab started attending the free-choice movies. A super majority of the male English majors attended the men’s night at the movies.76 However, there remained 5% who refused to change their attitude and engage in the educational program. Primarily their English was so poor that they did not belong in any college English class. During the spring 2008 semester the free choice movie nights were expanded significantly, Sunday night classics Monday night sports Thursday night Disney Friday night lady’s night Saturday night men’s night

74

Jewish Culture and History: The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, David, Exodus, O’ Jerusalem, Judgment at Nuremberg, Munich, Fiddler on the Roof, The Pianist, Sand Pebbles, Schindler’s List 75 Non-English majors were more motivated to improve their English than students assigned to be English majors. 76 It appears that the course was successful in generating intrinsic motivation.

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The assigned multi-media room had a seating capacity of 300. Every night of the free choice movies, up to 20 students stood along the wall to watch the movie or brought portable stools, with the exception of Sunday night classics when only between 100 to 150 students regularly showed up.77 Hundreds of students simply walked away, disappointed. 5 pleas for reassignment to a larger multi-media room fell on deaf ears. Instead, 120 freshmen were added to the Holistic English program and forced to stand during the assigned class movies. Eight larger multi-media rooms went unused during the evening hours because there was an unwillingness to make the equipment operable. In the fourth week of the term, a special remedial movie night was implemented for 120 students identified as special needs students. Cartoon feature films from Disney/Pixar 78 were shown on Thursday evening. Because this group of students had particular problems with listening comprehension, the movies were shown without subtitles. This group of students had a perfect attendance record for the Thursday night movies. The effect on their listening comprehension will have to be measured over a protracted period of time. On Saturday afternoon, motivational movies79 were shown, by invitation only, to those students who did not attend class regularly, had special needs, suffered from a lack of self confidence or motivation, or believed that they were such poor students in such a poor college that they were incapable of improving their lot in life. An English identification sign was placed on the hallway entrance door to every English classroom. A sign was placed at the front of each English classroom that said “Speak English” and on the back wall was a sign that said “This is an English Class. Teach in English.” All Chinese signs were

77

The few Chinese university libraries that have any English collection usually have the classics. Clearly, the classics are of little interest to Chinese university students and therefore do not fall within the definition of comprehensible input because they are not interesting. 78 Bambi, Cars, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story, 101 Dalmatians, Lion King, Willy Wonka and the chocolate, Factory, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Robin hood, Aladdin, Fantasia, Dumbo, Finding Nemo, Fantasia, Monsters Inc. 79 Stand and Deliver, Gridiron, Blackboard Jungle, To Sir With Love, Coach Carter, Lean on Me, The Great Debaters

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removed from the English classrooms. Initially, the administration was not pleased with this. Numerous requests were made to remove the multitude of Chinese banners from the Foreign Languages Department offices. No action was taken. When English signs were added to the office walls, there was severe criticism, initially. Attempts were made to provide the Chinese teachers of English with current literature on 2nd language acquisition, but these efforts were thwarted.80 The English majors are all assigned to the same dormitory under the assumption that if they live together they will communicate in English. But attempts to remove the Chinese signage and replace it with English signage were rebuffed. English signs were immediately removed by the Chinese staff. The dormitory staff spoke no English and suggestions to replace them with English speaking staff were scoffed at. The staff computers in the English Department offices and the computers in the student’s computer lab were all equipped with Chinese programming. There was a refusal to see the need to add or substitute English programming. The English department computer lab supervisor81 and the computer course teacher spoke no English. English majors were denied the opportunity to improve their English skills in the English department computer classes. Chinese teachers of English were not encouraged to teach or communicate with their students in English, primarily because they couldn’t, their English being too poor. It was believed that merely creating an opportunity to speak English was adequate and that it was not necessary to actually create an environment where English was the dominant language of communication or where the students would be compelled, by the circumstances, to speak English. It was erroneously believed that creating a once a week English Corner, or 80

Information was not allowed to be posted on the bulletin board. A promised list of all Chinese staff emails never materialized. Out of 42 Chinese staff, almost half had no email address and did not know how to access the internet. 81 When this teacher was unable to teach a class, he asked the Holistic Teaching Assistant to show the English majors a Chinese movie in his absence. The English majors and the Teaching Assistant rebelled and an English movie was substituted.

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providing a Friday evening English movie with Chinese subtitles, or assigning all English majors to the same dormitory, or hiring a foreign teacher to “chat” with the students, created an English speaking environment. In short, it was not possible to create an English speaking environment outside the Holistic English Lab.82 There was not even a reasonable attempt to counter the all- pervasive Chinese environment. There seemed to be a resignation to the Chinese environment and a defeatist attitude toward creating an English speaking environment. Speak with any Chinese university Foreign Language Department administrator and they will extol the virtues of creating an English speaking environment (ESE) for the English majors. But take a close look and you will quickly discover that there is no ESE on campus. First and foremost, Chinese university administrators do not have a clear and proper understanding of what constitutes an ESE. When most of them undertook their university education 20+ years ago, 2nd language acquisition research was in its infancy and comprised no more than one chapter in their textbooks and no continuing education is provided. There is a complete lack of knowledge about immersion83 or comprehensible input in a friendly environment.84 82

Qiang/Wolff (2008), China EFL: Why Chinese Universities Do Not Provide an English Speaking Environment, Journal of Education Research, Nova Science Publishers. 83 The Second Language Acquisition Process in Immersion Contexts: Theory and Research, Smith, Samuel, Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, v1 n2 p119-131 Fall 1988, 1988. Abstract: Research concerning the success factors in language immersion education is reviewed, focusing on five major schools of thought. First, the traditional model for immersion research, implemented in a Montreal (Canada) suburb is examined. Then three studies of the influence of affective variables in immersion program success are examined, and it is noted that no theoretical overview of the importance of the affective aspects is known. Theorists and researchers considering the social facet of the immersion process and two works on the interrelationship between social and affective factors in the immersion setting are discussed next. Finally, Stephen Krashen's monitor model is compared with the others, and found to be the most relevant to immersion theory. A 27-item bibliography is included. (MSE) 84 Walking a Mile in Their Shoes: Transforming Teachers' Beliefs about English Language Learners, Grace Cho, Debra DeCastro-Ambrosetti, California State University, Fullerton,

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There are two required elements to a proper ESE. A proper ESE is one where the students are inundated with comprehensible English input and where it is easier to communicate in English rather than in the native Putonghua. An English speaking environment is defined as: "An environment where English is the dominant language." Or, "an environment where people are compelled to speak English”. 85 Far too many Chinese Foreign Language Department administrators are under the false impression that an ESE is simply where the students are given an opportunity for English output. As a result they decry the lack of an ESE and immediately turn to speak to an English major in Putonghua; or they place all English majors in the same dormitory with Chinese speaking staff; or, they hold weekly English corners; or, they hire foreign teachers to “chat” with the Chinese students. Even at a school that does all of these things simultaneously, no ESE is created. The administrators do not require the English majors to speak to them in English nor do they respond to them in English.86 There is a very simple explanation for this. The administrators are either unable to speak in English or their English is so poor that they do not want to “lose face” with the students. The administrators do not contribute to the creation of an ESE and they rarely do anything to improve their own English capability. The administrators set a very bad example for the students. When the Party Secretary assigned to the Foreign Language Department cannot speak or understand any English, all department business must be conducted in Putonghua, including all staff meetings and written communications. This militates against creation of an ESE. http://www.calstate.edu/ITL/exchanges/classroom/1070_transforming_pg1.html “According to Krashen (1982), language is best acquired when the input is comprehensible (i.e., meaningful, interesting, little beyond current level) and when the learning environment is positive.” 85 Creating Authentic Dialog: ESL Students as Recipients of Service Learning, Stephanie Marlow, Boise State University (Boise, Idaho, USA) “An environment where authentic dialog with native English speakers occurs on a regular basis presents ESL students with the possibility to grow both linguistically and socially”. http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Marlow-ServiceLearning.html 86 One such administrator was bragging about how they will not answer any question from an English major unless asked in English. During this discussion the administrator received a mobile text message from an English major. The message was in Chinese. The administrator answered with a text message written in Chinese.

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The joint venture universities set up by foreign universities, in partnership with Chinese universities, are not exempt from this criticism. The foreign university brings its foreign curriculum and administration that usually requires that all courses be conducted in English. However, according to Chinese law, these joint ventures are required to have Chinese deans. The Chinese deans rarely speak English and hire their own Chinese speaking staff. Students find it much easier to communicate with the Chinese speaking staff in Putonghua so they bypass the English speaking staff. Eventually this leads to the Chineesing of the entire joint venture program. The Chinese administrators who profess the need for creation of an ESE are often the primary impediment to its creation. Thirty-eight out of forty Chinese university English teachers, who are supposed to teach in English, are incapable due to their own poor English, so they teach English in Putonghua. They are, for the most part, ignorant of the need to teach in the target language and many have inquired, “What does “target” mean?” English majors ask their Chinese English teachers questions in Chinese and are answered in Chinese, both in the classroom and outside the classroom. Telephone text messages between teachers and students are also conducted in Putonghua. The classrooms are littered with Chinese proverbs and political propaganda, all in Putonghua. One oral English classroom had two Chinese signs directly above the blackboard in the front of the room. The Chinese signs translated to: “Do not speak in this classroom” and “If you must speak, speak in Chinese.” This was in an Oral English classroom where speaking English was the objective. The Oral English classrooms have theater style row seating bolted to the concrete floor and students are thus compelled to speak to the back of the head of any other student they wish to engage in oral communication. Modern five story libraries at universities with a 10% or higher English major population have absolutely no English books,87 or the English reading room is reserved for faculty only.88 There is no English speaking 87

Xinyang Agricultural College Shanghai Normal University. “If the students are allowed to use the English collection, the books will wear out quicker.”

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staff in the library. A set of inquiries was made regarding the Xinyang Agricultural College library but the promised responses never materialized.89 Actually, the administration used a form of intimidation to squelch any inquiry into the budget or purchasing practices of the College library. Transparency has not yet trickled down to Xinyang Agricultural College. The multi-media libraries offer English movies with Chinese subtitles. The computer labs and sound labs are programmed in Chinese rather than English. The lab support staffs and computer teachers do not speak English.90 The campuses have no bi-lingual signage91 Even the sign welcoming the new freshmen English majors is all in Putonghua and the freshmen orientation is all in Putonghua. There is no English speaking staff in the canteen, post office, logistics department, dormitories, or any other service office of which the students must avail themselves. There is no extra-curricular access to English newspapers, TV or films. In short, there isn’t even a token attempt to create a proper ESE within the pervasive native Chinese environment. When foreign teachers complain about the lack of an ESE or make constructive suggestions for the creation of an ESE, they are net with a set of rehearsed excuses that include:

89

1. What is the annual library budget for English material purchase? 2. How much of that budgeted amount is actually spent on English materials? 3. What percentage is that amount of the total purchasing budget? 4. How does the library select the English materials? 5. Who on the library staff has education in 2ND language acquisition and understands comprehensible input? 6. Why do you know nothing about the library purchase program and why does our department not have major input in the purchase recommendations? 90 Jiangxi University of Economics and Finance 91 Shanghai Foreign Studies University, the second most important English teaching university in China.

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This is China. It is my habit to speak in Chinese. You will be gone in one year or less. Laughter Whisper – “that foreign teacher is crazy” The first step to creating a proper ESE on Chinese university campuses is to provide continuing education in 2nd language acquisition to all Chinese Foreign Language Department administrators and staffs. Unless and until the administrators and staffs understand modern 2nd language acquisition theory, all other efforts at creating a proper ESE are futile. Second, it is imperative that all Foreign Language Department administrators and staffs be required to participate in continuing English language education programs. It is both impractical and hypocritical for Chinese teachers to demand that their students improve their English while the teachers refuse to improve their own.92 Third, there must be an incentive or punishment scheme so that administrators and staffs make an honest effort to understand 2nd language acquisition theory and to improve their English competency. Fourth, schools must transform their Foreign Language Departments into little English enclaves, or at least bi-lingual ones. Classrooms must be English friendly and configured to facilitate oral communication. All Chinese signage should be replaced with English signage and the desks should be configured to facilitate conversation. Fifth, English competency must become an employment prerequisite for all English teachers.93 92

"a teacher who gives up learning should also give up teaching." Review of Teacher Education in NSW, https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/teachrev/submiss/contedu.htm 93 On Target: Teaching in the Target Language. Pathfinder 5. A CILT Series for Language Teachers, 1991, Abstract: The guide is designed to illustrate how it is realistic and possible to teach in a target foreign language, propose effective instructional strategies and techniques, and offer suggestions for in-service teacher workshops on the approach. It is proposed that language students need to experience the target language as a real means of communication, have a chance to develop their own built-in learning system, and bridge the gap between controlled, secure classroom

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Sixth, libraries must provide a diversified selection of English reading materials and English movies with English subtitles.94 Without a fundamental attitude adjustment, the concept of creating an ESE is just an impossible dream. In April 2008, 15 class monitors and the Holistic English student assistant held an impromptu meeting with the Party Secretary for the Foreign Languages Department to complain about the lack of administrative support in providing an English speaking environment on the Xinyang Agricultural College campus. The Party Secretary asked the monitors to submit a written report containing their requests and he also requested a supporting report from the Foreign Expert. Both reports were submitted with 24 hours. The students were requesting a second multi-media room for evening English movies due to limited seating and high demand for the single multi-media room. The students also requested a 52” television with cable practice and the unpredictability of real language encounters. The guide begins with a discussion of teacher concerns about teaching in the target language, sources of meaning other than verbal in communication, classroom techniques for providing messages without use of language, and providing messages using limited language. The second section offers specific strategies for implementation in the classroom, including simple instructions and other expressions, techniques for encouraging student participation and satisfaction, and areas in which teachers can cooperate. Specific activities are provided and illustrated. The final section gives ideas for departmental in-service workshops on teaching in the target language, including activities, and recommendations for troubleshooting in classroom communication. (MSE) 94 Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions, Stephen Krashen, Presented at 13th International Symposium and Book Fair on Language Teaching (English Teachers Association of the Republic of China), Taipei, Taiwan, November, 13, 2004. http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/eta_paper/index.html “The Comprehension Hypothesis also applies to literacy: Our reading ability, our ability to write in an acceptable writing style, our spelling ability, vocabulary knowledge, and our ability to handle complex syntax is the result of reading.” Free Voluntary reading: New Research, Applications, and Controversies, Stephen Krashen. Presented at PAC5 (Pan-Asian Conference), Vladivostok, Russia, June 24, 2004, http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/pac5/index.html “Recreational reading or reading for pleasure is the major source of our reading competence, our vocabulary, and our ability to handle complex grammatical constructions.”

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access for CNN, BBC and CCTV 9 for free choice viewing at night in the Holistic English Lab. Within 72 hours of the original complaint, the Party Secretary made his first visit to the Holistic English Lab, accompanied by the College purchasing agent. The Party Secretary directed that the second multimedia room be equipped and the Holistic English Lab television be readied for the September 2008 term. Unfortunately, the College Logistics Department continued to play the role of obstructionist.95 On May 2, 2008, a Shanghai delegation of Chinese businessmen and their wives visited the campus to discuss donating an all-weather, outdoor, video wall for installation on the main square. English news would be played during the day and English movies would be played at night. This would provide an English cornerstone in the middle of the campus that would set the tone for an overall English speaking environment. It would also be the first of its kind on any Chinese university or college campus. The Xinyang Agricultural College administration gave approval to proceed with this cornerstone of an English speaking environment. The video wall donation was abandoned and withdrawn when the college leadership insulted the proposed donors by suggesting they had ulterior motives.

Major Change in Grading Policy Grade inflation in Chinese universities is out of control, by western standards. In a famous Chinese university within the north Shanghai university ghetto, Chinese professors, associate professor, lecturers and other staff are required to assign 40% of their students an “A” grade; 30% must receive a “B” grade and 30% are required to receive a “C” grade. A grade 95

In late May 2008 the College Logistics Department claimed that the type of large screen rear projection TV requested was unavailable on the local market and the new design TV was too expensive. Within 30 minutes of this report, the Holistic English Program student assistant, Pan Youyi, provided color brochures of three large screen rear projection TV’s available in local stores. He also provided cell phone pictures of the available TV’s and calling cards of the local stores. He found a 43” for 4,000 rmb; a 47” for 6890 rmb and a 51” for 6,000 rmb. This incident highlights the continuing indifference and or incompetence of the College staff.

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of “D” should be used very sparingly because it would tend to discourage a student and a grade of “F” should only be used when a student’s tuition remains unpaid. In a Joint Venture business institute in central Shanghai any student who fails their final exam is entitled to a re-examination and another and another until they receive a passing grade. At a famous university in Beijing, a student who fails a final examination may pay a visit to the teacher at home, bringing gifts of food, money and even sexual favors to raise their grade. At a university in central China foreign teachers are encouraged to pass everyone. When the foreign teachers give a failing mark, the mark is raised to a passing grade administratively. At a central China university every teacher must submit three alternate final exams for administrative approval. If the original teacher fails a student, the failed students gets two shots at a make-up exam, with two different teachers doing the grading. No student fails all three exams. At a Joint Venture university in Dalian, an administrator’s child, who was a student at the time, was hired as a computer technician and given complete access to the school’s computer system, including the codes to access official records. He was the most feared and loved student on campus. He had access to all teachers’ computers and tests. He always received an “A” grade on every final exam, even exams where no other student was able to achieve an “A” grade. At one Joint Venture university in northern China failed grades remain failed grades until the student pays new fees and retakes the failed course. Another Joint Venture school in northern China that tried that, and went so far as to expel students, who failed three courses,. The parents stormed the Dean’s office in protest. The expelled students were reinstated and admitted on probation. There was never another failing grade issued. A very famous Beijing university utilizes Tutors to assist foreign professors who teach long distance program from their home foreign university. A tutor was pressured and even threatened to change certain low grades. The tutor succumbed to the pressure and threats. When the foreign professor learned of this, he contacted the authorities at the Beijing

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University who denied any knowledge of pressure or threats against the tutor. Within a short span of days, the tutor was dismissed. Chinese teachers know the score and only violate the grading policy when they know there is an opportunity for economic enrichment from a rich parent or when they lust for a student. While some schools encourage foreign teachers to fail deserving students, the list of failed students has all the potential to become an extortion list. Foreign teachers usually exhibit disdain for the grading policies, if they are made aware of them. Usually, foreign teachers become aware of the grading policy by accident or learn of it if they have taught for several years in China. Foreign teachers usually submit their grades to someone who inputs them into the school’s computer system while Chinese teachers input the grades directly into the computer system.96 Foreign teachers rarely receive the access code the the course grades section of the school computer system and thus never really verify what grades were assigned to their students. Foreign teachers who object do not have their contracts renewed. It is generally understood throughout China’s higher educational system that once a student has been admitted; they will graduate so long as their tuition is paid and they have not committed a serious offense against school rules or a law of China. In the fall of 2007, at Xinyang Agricultural College, 22 English major students failed to meet the attendance requirements of the Holistic English program and thus were not allowed to sit for the final examination and 96

In Anhui, I taught at a local university in Hefei for two and a half years. When school started again in the fall of 2005, I was greeted by a class of sophomore English majors who seemed depressed and down and out. Several of the students complained about their final marks the previous semester. I told them that I would bring my grade book in the next day and I requested that they go online and tell me what there marks were. Out of approximately 25 students, 7 grades were not changed, 10 grades were lowered and 8 marks were raised. After lunch I climbed 5 flights of stairs to the Foreign Languages Department and spoke to the Dean, how an error like this could possibly happen. She didn't have a clue. To make a long story short, I told her that I felt I would have no integrity with my students and that I would resign if the grades were not changed. They were changed within a week. It seems that the person entering the grades with a family name of Chen was incompetent and his father was a professor/leader. http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=60621

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received a grade of “0”.All 20 failing grades were administratively raised to a passing grade over the concerns of the foreign professor. In the spring of 2008, these same 20 English major students, (15 boys and 5 girls), plus another 2 boys, failed to attend a single Holistic English class, their only oral English class. The foreign professor was asked to reexamine the students and give them a second chance, a plea that was rejected since the Holistic English class is a participation class and the students never participated, not even once. A serious dialogue ensued wherein it was agreed that the failing grades would remain and be logged into the students’ scholastic record. The administration recognized that the “everyone passes’ policy was antiacademic, cheated the students and Chinese society, and denied the professor the ultimate external motivation device. The foreign professor called a meeting of the 22 failed students, with the administration’s approval, and offered them a second chance program. (Thirty minutes prior to the meeting, one female student called the foreign professor and stated that she was too busy to attend the meeting and wanted to meet on another day. The student was informed that the meeting was a second chance meeting and that no third chance meeting would be scheduled. She did not attend the second chance meeting.) The students were offered an opportunity to earn a revision of their prior failed grade if they met the following conditions: 1.

They must attend all of their classes this semester, not just the Holistic English class., and they must sit up front and do all of the assigned homework. 2. They must attend all four weekly free choice evening English movies and sit up front where roll would be taken for them. 3. They must attend a special remedial class to be held on Saturday afternoons at 2:30. 4. A single failure to meet these conditions would result in the prior failing grade becoming permanent. The stakes were extremely high for these 22 English major students because with a “0”grade in their record, they will not graduate until they repeat the course after paying new tuition fees.

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All 20 English major students, who attended the second chance meeting, agreed to the conditions. Within the first three days of the second chance program, four students failed to meet the agreed conditions and were dropped from the program. We are compelled to conclude that there are some students who are not only unteachable; they do not belong in any institution of higher education. AND THEN THE SHOE DROPPED! Two weeks into the second chance program it was discovered, when the students started dropping out of the program en mass, that all of the failing grades had already been administratively changed to passing grades. The second chance program was immediately terminated upon confirmation of this information. A written inquiry was made of the administration, “Is it true that so long as a student’s college fees are paid and they do not kill a teacher, they will receive a passing grade in every course, even if they never attend a single class?” There has been no response, no denial. This is the norm throughout China, not the exception, and is just one reason a Chinese college education receives little or no recognition in the west.

The Resistance “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” —Lee Iacocca, Former Chairman, Chrysler Corporation, U.S.A.

Every revolution must have a resistance movement and the move to revolutionize teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in China is no exception. Throughout the five year process of developing the Holistic English Workbook, cooperation from Chinese university and college administrators was not readily forthcoming, other than at Xinyang Agricultural College. The following is a list of stated reasons: “We have been doing it the same way for the past 20 years and I do not see why we should change now.” “What makes you an expert?” “It is a good idea but it won’t work at our college because ….” “We want live foreign teachers teaching every minute of every scheduled class.’ “We don’t need books or movies for oral English. Our foreign teachers should just go chat with our students.’

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The above reflects that current knowledge in the areas of second language acquisition, modern management practices, principles of human resource management or even an ability to speak English are NOT job requirements.97 The requirements are Party affiliation and academic standing. Even Foreign Languages Department Deans are unschooled in 2nd language acquisition98 and thus through passive inaction, as opposed to proactive leadership, give aid and comfort to the resistance. When presented with current 2nd language acquisition articles, they assign a new teacher to read them and give a report. The teacher neither reads nor reports. When the Foreign Languages Department Party Secretary speaks only Chinese, through his leadership, any attempt to create a supportive English speaking environment is doomed, particularly when lacking any understanding of 2nd language acquisition. Not a single Xinyang Agricultural College Chinese teacher of English understood the difference between English learning and English acquisition and thus failed to play a proper supporting role. Only 8 of the 41 Chinese teachers of English were able to teach in the target language, English, or carry on an English conversation outside the classroom. Repeated efforts to conduct a continuing education program for the Chinese teachers of English were lauded but never implemented. The one time teacher training was scheduled; it was cancelled at the last minute so the teachers could study a summary of the CCP 17th National Congress. In light of the above rather prevalent administrative attitude, it was unsettling when foreign English teachers joined the resistance with: “Teaching with movies is silly.” “It won’t work at our school because ….” “It may be a good program but not for our students because ….” “I have been teaching English for 20 years and teaching with movies will not work.” “I can select better movies.” “Teaching with movies is silly.” 97

Previously at this college the Foreign Languages Department Dean was a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) who spoke no English. 98 When they attended college 24- 34 years ago, 2nd language acquisition comprised one short paragraph in their textbook. There has been no continuing education.

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“I AM THE STAR OF MY CLASSROOM. The students need to connect with me, not a bunch of actors in a movie” People are creatures of habit and naturally resist any change that may jeopardize their comfort zone. The resistance is a natural phenomenon. However, we acknowledge that there is a view more sinister than ours, although we may not concur. David l. Cahill a 9 year “foreign expert” veteran submits the following commentary: First of all, I think the problem is actually worse than the way you present it. I understand that you may be targeting a particular, inclusive audience and don’t want to alienate readers whom you’re trying to win over. (I have a PhD in Rhetoric, 2 Master's degrees in Linguistics and Renaissance literature and a BA in English literature.) For one thing, it’s not just that the Chinese administrators who seem to be most responsible for failing to implement a genuine ESE misunderstand the issues, as you seem to argue. Many of them, and teachers and students as well, simply don’t take English seriously, despite all the well-meaning rhetoric … As China grows economically and gains increasing global power and prestige, the incentives to widespread English competency in China may actually diminish, rather than increase. Many Chinese including the younger generation matter-of-factly say that they expect Putonghua, not English, to eventually be the global language, or that Putonghua will at least gain parity with English as more and more foreigners around the world study it. In a sense, of course, as linguists we would have no issue with this; Putonghua could theoretically serve as well as English or any other language as the global lingua franca (discounting the enormous challenges of teaching a non-alphabetic language). Given this mind set, the Chinese may pay lip service to the idea of English literacy in China while secretly harboring contempt for English. This contempt is manifested everywhere in multiple expressions of apathy toward English, detailed in your piece. … And when creative people like you become too much of a nuisance, your contract will not be renewed (when your contract is renewed, it’s because you haven’t been enough of a nuisance and the local Party office is scarcely aware of your existence). I’m in my third year of teaching linguistics in the English Department at a major Chinese University (my ninth year teaching in my fourth Chinese university). My current employer likes to brag that their English Department is the best in China. In reality, it’s more of a vocational-style training school for foreign-language majors, not a serious university, and

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Chapter Seven its Linguistics and Literature programs are a joke. It does a good job of training these kids (who are generally already very well trained in their major language before arriving at college). I regularly teach junior/senior undergraduates and first-year graduate students advanced linguistics courses. They’re generally talented, intelligent students but also unmotivated and often lazy, with poor study morale (which the university itself can take most of the blame for). The first-year post grad students get accepted into the program on the basis of a general language competency exam and a politics exam. If they don’t do well enough in either of these two exams, they don’t get in. Their actual knowledge of their major is much less important than the fealty they must pay to the Party in the politics exam, displayed in their ability to memorize a vast amount of meaningless boilerplate. As a result, I have to contend with students who don’t know anything about linguistics, and don’t much care, unless they have eventual hopes of studying abroad (Linguistics is often chosen as a graduate major on the assumption it’s the easiest major to get accepted into; few of the students have the slightest interest in linguistics itself). Next semester I have to contend with the Olympics. The Program director warned me that most of the undergraduates I’ll be teaching will be missing class for volunteer activities related to the Olympics, and the semester itself may be cut off early by several weeks. There is no clear attendance policy or guidelines; it’s assumed I’ll go with the flow. One of the courses I’ll be teaching is Shakespeare. They asked me if I plan merely to “talk about” Shakespeare or let the students actually read "excerpts" from Shakespeare. Teaching Shakespeare may not have much to do with the typical foreign teacher’s job in China, namely oral or written English, but some of the issues and problems are the same. These are bright students and English majors who are more than capable of reading Shakespeare. The only way Shakespeare is taught in any English-speaking country and many other countries as well, to English literature majors, is to read whole plays carefully, usually one a week, or one every two weeks (e.g., in China, as a concession to the extra difficulties they have). My point here is that the students won’t take this course seriously because the Department itself doesn’t take it seriously. I’m supposed to go through the motions, pretending to teach “Shakespeare,” without anyone actually doing anything. Yes, it's important for the Olympics to be carried off well and they need English-speaking volunteers from the universities. But the Olympics should NOT be mixed up with university education or interfere with my or any other teacher's work. Yet if I work hard preparing the course and the lessons, I’ll be regarded as a bit of a clown who takes his work too seriously and moreover fails to share in the enthusiasm for the Olympics. This is the situation at the “best” English Department in China.

We do agree that any meaningful revolution in EFL teaching in China will be furthered by the “foreign experts” who are dissatisfied with the current

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oral English curriculum and teaching materials, or the lack thereof. We also recognize that the Chinese administrators are the main impediment to true reform in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Chinese colleges and universities. Arrogance, indifference, incompetence and xenophobia are the major obstacles that must be overcome. During the month of May 2008, “Crazy English”99 was invited to give a two-day seminar with the false promise that for 200 rmb, participants would improve their English pronunciation in two days.100 Upon completion of the two-day program, at the next weekly staff meeting, the Vice-Dean of the Foreign Languages Department attributed all of the significant improvement in the students’ motivation to “Crazy English.” This xenophobic proclamation had an immediate and negative effect upon the Holistic English Program. When the Vice-Dean was directly confronted about her insult and challenged in her ignorant claim, her only response was a school-girl giggle, because her English was too poor to even apologize. The Dean had to apologize for the Vice-Dean. When the Dean was directly confronted about his duty to protect the students from such schemes, he extended another apology. It cannot be overstressed how much damage this incident has caused to those involved in the Holistic English Program. 99

Crazy English is a Chinese style, home grown 2nd language teaching program that has no scientific basis and is reminiscent of snake oil salesmen in the old wild west of the USA. On May 16 the administration of Xinyang Agricultural College , Henan , PRC, invited Crazy English to address a captive audience of naïve and unsuspecting students. The huckster’s pitch was simple and alluring. Pay 200 rmb for a 2 day seminar and your English would be greatly improved. One would have thought they were in the old Wild West listening to a snake oil salesman. The claim outlandish, the product a fake, the allure, instant success. 80 gullible students signed up and Crazy English stole 16,000 rmb from our poor students. There is no magic wand, no instant success program for anyone wishing to improve their English. There is no scientific basis to support any of the craziness of Crazy English. But China is famous for its fake products so why should Crazy English be any exception? The only thing real about Crazy English is its appropriate name, “CRAZY. “ A poll of the 80 student participants disclosed that 78 of them desired a refund because they felt cheated. 100 This false claim challenged the honesty and integrity of the Holistic English Program that teaches the only way to improve your English is to read more, listen more, write more and speak more English over a protracted period of time. There are no shortcuts.

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Is Crazy English just another FAKE Chinese product?

Developing the Holistic English Workbook Series “My Shanghai Company hires graduates who have passed CET 4 and 6, from famous universities but your (Xinyang Agricultural College) students have better oral English skills than my employees.” —Jolland Lau, Orient Overseas Container Line Limited, May 2, 2008

When foreign teachers are recruited to teach in China, the Foreign affairs Office may inform them of the need to bring their own teaching materials, or at least a guitar. Or, upon arrival in China they may be informed that there are no teaching materials and they should just chat with the students; or they are given a text that contains old, boring or inappropriate materials. The Holistic English workbook series fills this gap for all Chinese university students, of all majors and all university/college English levels.101 This is truly a one size fits all approach. The workbook series was developed over six years and involved input from more than 6,000 Chinese university and college students from 10 provinces across China.102 The students were enrolled in the 4th tier railroad colleges, business institutes, 3rd tier colleges, 2nd tier universities and top tier universities. English comprehension and output capabilities ranged from very poor to acceptable. All of the movies utilized in the workbook series were chosen by the students after declaring them to be both interesting and exciting. The movie vocabulary and phrases included in the workbook, for pre-viewing review, were also selected by the students after declaring them to be troublesome to understand and a hindrance to understanding the movie. Throughout this development process it was very clear that movie choices and potentially troublesome words and phrases chosen by both Chinese and foreign teachers did not coincide with the choices made by the students. Each workbook contains 8 chapters, one movie constituting one chapter. Each chapter should cover two weeks of class. The normal university term 101

Chinese students learn English for 12 years before matriculating to university Shanghai, Shangdong, Jiangxi, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Hubei, Fujian, Guangxi and Xinjiang 102

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is 18 weeks. The first week of the term is reserved for introducing the course and the last week of the term is reserved for examination review. The Freshmen I workbook is the easiest and is recommended for introduction to the Holistic English methodology no matter what the college class level of the students. Freshmen I is prerequisite to Freshmen II. Freshmen II is prerequisite to Business I and Business I is prerequisite to Business II. Each successive workbook is more academic and intellectually challenging.

Criticisms of Holistic English Workbooks The draft workbooks were 200 to 250 pages and were priced at 55 rmb. This pricing far exceeded the national norm of 20 to 30 rmb for university texts. To reduce the price, it was necessary to reduce the cost of production and this meant not only reducing the total number of pages but also transforming internal color pictures into black and white pictures. The redesigned workbooks were sent out to several educational institutions and foreign teachers for comment. The criticisms and the responses follow: 1. The cover artwork needs to be improved to make it more appealing. The four cornerstones of the Holistic English Program, and hence the workbooks, are; read more English, listen to more English, write more English and speak more English. The cover artwork on the Freshmen I and Freshmen II workbooks adequately reflect these cornerstones and create the appropriate mindset in the students.

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The Business I and Business II books concentrate on various business management principles that affect the business bottom line, MONEY. The cover artwork fairly expresses the concept and establishes the students’ mindset on money matters.

The originator of the criticism offered to create new artwork on the condition that his name is added to the books as a co-author. The criticism and offer were rejected. However, this criticism provoked further analysis that led to changing the book titles to Book I through Book IV so that Book I could be used by senior students without experiencing any embarrassment. 2. The vocabulary lists are either too long or too short. The vocabulary lists consist of words and phrases that more than 1,000 Chinese university students, at various levels of higher educational institutions, determined to be troublesome to understanding the movie. The students read movie transcripts and read English subtitles and identified new or contextually troublesome words and phrases. When a high enough percentage of students identified the same words and phrases, they were then added to the particular movie vocabulary list. The vocabulary lists are not memorization lists; they are to be used to familiarize the student with their meaning prior to watching the movie thus making the movie more comprehensible. Since the vocabulary lists were student initiated, they remain as decided by the students.

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3. There needs to be more definitional pictures added to the vocabulary lists. Some vocabulary words are accompanied with pictures. The criticism is that more words require the accompanying definitional pictures. This is a fair criticism without any practical solution because adding more definitional pictures adds additional pages and increases the retail price to the students. It is better to have the students include an “image” internet search when they conduct their definition internet search. This also furthers development of autonomous learning. However, efforts to find a Chinese publisher may reduce publication costs and hence allow for more pictures. 4. The definitional pictures should be printed in color. This is also a fair criticism. Only the front and back covers are printed in color. All internal pages are printed in black and white. This is to reduce printing costs and reduce the retail price paid by the students. This may also change if a suitable Chinese publisher can be found. 5. Some of the movies should be changed. The workbooks were student driven from beginning to end. More than 5,000 Chinese university students watch hundreds of movies and selected those that interested them the most. Then the movies were reviewed for relevance to current or emerging events in china before inclusion in the workbooks. Many of the alternate movie suggestions made by the author of this criticism had been soundly rejected by the students during the original review process. The movies appear to be concentrated in the American 1960’s. This is also a fair criticism. Hollywood was preoccupied with certain social issues in that time frame and China is experiencing almost identical problems now. If and when newer movies become available, the workbooks can be readily changed.

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6. The workbooks would have a better marketability in Korea or Japan. In fact, some of the movies may be offensive to Korean or Japanese students and the internet research materials are directly related to China and would be of little or no interest to Korean or Japanese students. 7. The discussion topics should be expanded. If the discussion topics were expanded and exhaustive, there would be an increase in pages and retail price paid by the students. More importantly, if the discussion topics were expanded, the teacher would not be in an optimum position to put forth challenging topics during the discussion that would create the need for the students to engage in creative thinking and problem solving. The students would simply write their topic answers in advance, memorize their answers, and parrot them back during the discussion. An exhaustive discussion topic list would also limit the students’ ability to direct the discussion in their own manner. The discussion would be reduced to a power point presentation. One of the main objectives of the holistic English program is to encourage creative thinking and problem solving, not to perpetuate the training of robots. 8. The workbooks should direct role playing, group work, pair work and other teaching methodologies. Most English learning textbooks do contain such suggestions. However, the holistic English workbooks are not about English learning, they are about English acquisition. Each teacher is free to utilize their own teaching methodologies and creative ideas. It also allows student suggestions. English acquisition occurs when there is comprehensible input in a friendly environment, not in a highly regimented academic pressure cooker environment. Creativity and spontaneity produce the best results. 9. The vocabulary lists should all contain definitions. Some of the vocabulary lists contain definitions. Some of the vocabulary lists contain definitions accompanied by definitional pictures where appropriate. Some vocabulary lists require the students to use a dictionary or the internet to find appropriate definitions and definitional pictures.

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This mix of approaches reduces the monotony of conformity to a particular regimentation and also assists in producing autonomous learners. The vocabulary lists are not vocabulary lessons where the words and definitions are to be memorized. The students are simply required to familiarize themselves with the new vocabulary so as to make the movie more comprehensible. 10. The vocabulary lists are not in alphabetical order. This is true. They generally follow the order in which the students will confront them in the movie. The vocabulary lists are not English learning vocabulary memorization exercises. The students should merely acquaint themselves with the vocabulary from the movie so as to make the movie more comprehensible when watched. 11. Each workbook does not contain enough movies. Each workbook contains eight chapters with each chapter constituting one movie. Each movie unit is a two week lesson plan. The first week of the term is consumed introducing the course and workbook. The eight movies are designed to consume sixteen weeks. The last week of the term is usually used for final examination review. Most Chinese university terms are 19 weeks, inclusive of the final examination. The workbooks are designed for the normal Chinese university nineteen week term. The originator of this criticism raced through the movies one per week and taught the course like a typical English learning Oral English class without regard for any of the language acquisition material supplied to him in advance. 12. The movies are not available in China. When a Chinese university purchasing agent places a book order, one set of movie discs is provided free of charge for every 50 books ordered. Four movies, in MP4 format (best played with Media Classic Player software that is downloadable for free from the internet and K-Lite codecs) are provided on each of two discs. This distribution system comports with 99 points of the current copyright requirements.

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13. The workbooks are not available in bookstores. The workbooks are only sold by way of direct bulk sales to universities in order to provide a measure of copyright protection to the authors. 14. There should be a separate teachers’ book. Objection was raised to the workbooks containing instructions for teachers and class rules. It was suggested that such material should be contained in a separate teachers’ book like so many of the language learning textbooks. Usually, teachers’ books are also available in bookstores and are routinely purchased by students. The only valid apparent reason for making a token effort to keep this teachers’ information from the students would appear to be for the purpose of generate additional book sales. There does not appear to be any valid academic reason for a separate teachers’ workbook, particularly when they are available for purchase by the students. 15. The workbooks require the movies to be shown at night. The typical weekly class is two forty-five minute teaching periods. Even without a break, the movies do not fit into the daytime schedule. Showing the movies in segments reduces the viewing to an academic exercise and defeats the “friendly environment” required for language acquisition. The movies must be shown at night when there are no time constraints. Watching the movies should be like going to a commercial theater downtown. 16. There is no time allotted for stopping a movie for studying language patterns or repeating chunks of language. Stopping a movie for any purpose is language learning not language acquisition. 17. The workbooks are not appropriate for a film class. This criticism was leveled by a film class teacher who was advised that the workbooks are not designed for use in a film class and cannot be adapted for such use. The Holistic English Program is not about studying films.

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Those teachers actually using the Holistic English Workbooks found no merit to the above criticisms and none of their students registered any complaints either. 18. The workbooks do not tell a teacher how to teach. The course facilitators are free to conduct the conversation as they see fit. Some teachers have success preparing a list of questions and asking a student to conduct the conversation using the prepared list of questions. The students are rotated frequently, say every three questions. Some facilitators ask the students to give a three minute extemporaneous oral presentation of anything the student wishes to say about the movie. Some facilitators use role playing. The options are open for each facilitator’s discretion and class demography. 19. The workbooks are poor quality. One teacher complained that for a college level textbook, the holistic English Workbooks fell far short of an acceptable quality both in paper and binding. It is true that the holistic English “Workbooks” follow a workbook standard and not a textbook standard. The students write in the workbooks and they are a one time use item. They do not need to meet the rigors of a textbook that may serve as a reference for years to come. Those foreign teachers looking for a coffee table conversation book to take home as a souvenir of their China experience will have to look elsewhere. 20. Major editing required. There are admittedly numerous spelling and grammatical errors throughout the workbooks. These errors fall into two categories. First they appear in attributed work and we are not allowed by copyright law to edit attributed work. Second, they appear in vocabulary taken from the movie subtitles. When the students use the internet to locate a definition, the search engine will usually also provide a corrected spelling. Changing the spelling in the workbooks will confuse the students when they watch the movie as opposed to their learning the correct spelling from their definitional search. There are also many regional differences and slangs that could be

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argued about at length. We chose to simply follow the published subtitles as the most prudent and less confusing approach. 21. No Chinese school will pay a foreigner to show movies A careful reading of the sections of this paper titled “Course Scheduling” and “Economic Efficiency” will reveal that at no time is it suggested that any foreign teacher be paid to show movies. The intern was responsible for showing the evening movies and monitoring the weekend use of the sound lab. Pg. 17 The Holistic English Program is designed for a teacher to student ratio of 1/800, one foreign teacher for every 800 students. This results in up to a 66% reduction in the cost of providing oral English classes. Pg. 37

Publishing the Holistic English Workbook Series “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. - I know I can. - I did. - I told you so!” —An optimist

A hard cover sample was submitted to one of China’s most famous foreign language education publishers in Shanghai for publication consideration. The editorial staff found the book to “have merit” but publication was rejected because “Chinese teachers would not know how to use it.” It was clearly explained that the books are for use by the 150,000 foreign teachers teaching oral English; the reply was “they do not need teaching material; they just need to chat with the students.” A decision was made to self-publish. Inquiry was made of the Beijing ISBN office to obtain a block of ten ISBN numbers. This request was denied because individuals are not allowed to obtain ISBN numbers in China. They can only be issued to licensed publishing houses and they are all owned by the Government. Neither the British nor US ISBN office would issue an ISBN to anyone in China, even if they used their address in England or the US. A major New York publisher stepped up and agreed to publish the workbooks as E-Books in the US and enter into a cooperation agreement with a Chinese publisher for printing and distribution. However, the New

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York publisher reneged citing that they are not publishers of educational texts for long, continuous print runs. Out of necessity, Holistic English Publishing was created as a US enterprise. ISBN numbers were issued by the US ISBN agency. A cooperation agreement was entered into with a Chinese college for the printing and distribution.103 All of the books were registered with the Beijing copyright office104 and “Holistic English” was registered with the Beijing trademark registration office. Almost immediately, three orders were received, 600 Freshmen II and 400 Business II from one school and 1,480 Freshmen II from another school. The Chinese college did not communicate effectively with the printing department and as a consequence, 1,480 Business II were printed erroneously. This was clearly an error by the Chinese side since none of the communications went through the English side. When Holistic English Publishing could make no immediate use of the Business II books, the printing department became irate with the English side. Most Chinese universities place book orders a few weeks prior to term commencement which is why Chinese publishing houses must advance print and warehouse vast quantities of books. Holistic English Publishing was operating on a custom print to order basis, being without funds to stockpile quantities of books. The error of the Chinese side almost scuttled the entire cooperation agreement until Holistic English Publishing retained their own Chinese representative to handle all orders and communications with the print department. Chinese professors must publish to maintain their academic standing, which “academic standing” provides many economic and non-economic perks. Chinese professors use their own books in class so there is a large

103

The Chinese printer could only print the ISBN on the inside cover copyright page and not on the back cover. 104 The legal services to register the copyrights was put out to bid and won by Fenbao Liu, Managing Director Patent and Trademark Attorney, Shanghai L&W Intellectual Property Law Office, LLC. After working on the project for less than two months, the law firm increased the agreed fee by 50%. The relationship soured immediately and the relationship was soon terminated.

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theoretical market but it usually can't be tapped because so many are publishing so much out of self interest. Many Chinese PAY to have their books published because the publishing is the key for them, not the revenue from royalty. When Chinese publishers do pay royalty to Chinese professors, it is often as low as 2 jiao per book. Every school gets a 15 to 18% discount from the Chinese publisher. This means that the school makes more per book than the author. Then there are the inevitable disputes over the number of books sold. In a case documented in the Beijing Court, a New Zealand author received no royalty on 10,000,000 books. If an individual self-publishes an E Book, the Chinese universities are precluded by law from purchasing them. The Chinese university must receive an "official receipt" from every vendor. That means a red chop (stamp) properly issued by the Government. That is why the Chinese market monopoly can only be broken through a JV agreement with a Chinese Publisher. Our Chinese printer issues the "official receipt." Publication of texts for higher education in China is tightly controlled by two state owned publishers who have a vested interest in protecting their current offerings. They are both owned by the top two foreign language universities in China. The current offerings are limited to English learning materials to be used by Chinese teachers of English. (Set phrases and language patterns) These publishers are not interested in publishing English acquisition texts nor are they interested in publishing materials for foreign teachers. Changes in teaching materials are tightly controlled by the Government. On May 13, 2008, a senior editor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press visited the Xinyang Agricultural College to discuss possible publication of the Holistic English Workbook series. Under the publishing proposal, colleges selling the Workbooks would make more money than the Workbook authors.

Limitations of the Holistic English Program There are three limitations of the Holistic English Program. As the student evaluation charts clearly demonstrate, the Holistic English Program fails to motivate approximately 5% of the participating students.

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Of which 95% are boys. Personal interviews with the subject students revealed that China’s historical preference for boy babies and boy workers continues to influence current thinking. The boys believe that the college diploma is just a necessary piece of paper and they know that they will be given a passing grade no matter what. As second failing is the lack of objective evaluation devices to measure students’ progress. 2nd language acquisition is predicated upon comprehensible input with eventual comprehensible output. Output is neither automatic nor consecutive to comprehensible input. Each student responds to the comprehensible input at differing speeds. Some may produce comprehensible output immediately, while others may take an extended period of time that is beyond the current educational term. It is impossible to measure the degree of comprehensible input a student has received. Additionally, there is no initial performance test administered at the beginning of the term so there is no basis for an improvement analysis. Thus, teachers are left to a subjective analysis based upon student interest as expressed through attendance and appropriate listening characteristics as well as actual comprehensible output that may in fact be delayed. The only evidence of benefit, aside from the students’ self-evaluations is the 18% increase in the first time pass rate on the National English proficiency examinations, TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6, observable ability to make creative extemporaneous oral presentations and the success of graduates in obtaining employment where English skills are essential. On May 1 a delegation of major Shanghai employers visited Xinyang Agricultural College. After speaking with numerous students, the employers remarked, “Our Company hires graduates from famous Shanghai universities who have passed CET 4 and CET 6 but your students have better oral English skills than any of our employees.” However, the efficacy of the program in China’s 1st tier universities is still unproven. Attempts to test the program at numerous top tier universities were met with apathy, arrogance, skepticism and indifference.

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Conclusion “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year.”

The Holistic English Program and the Holistic English Lab at Xinyang Agricultural College comprise the first serious, full-scale effort to implement English acquisition in the place of English learning, at any Chinese university or college. Development of both the Holistic English program and the Lab were guided by the sage advice of Dr. Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California, “Second language acquisition occurs when comprehensible input is delivered in a lowanxiety situation, when real messages of real interest are transmitted and understood. … we learn best only when the pressure is completely off, when anxiety is zero, when the acquirer's focus is entirely on communication; in short, when the interchange or input is so interesting that the acquirer 'forgets" that it is in a second language.” The entire project was overseen by Dr. Niu Qiang, Associate Professor, Changchun University, Jilin, PRC. Comprehensible input The movie input is made more comprehensible by reading the vocabulary taken from the movie, along with either reading prepared definitions or researching definitions. The post-movie Internet research and writing assignments help the student to further understand the message of the movie. Delivered in a low-anxiety situation The multi-media room is operated like a commercial theater that allows eating and drinking. This is to create a more relaxed atmosphere. The Holistic English Lab is laid out and appointed in as “laid back” an atmosphere as the rigors of an academic institution will allow. Real messages of real interest All of the movies are Hollywood productions and most are based upon true stories or representative stories. After watching the movie the students have Internet research assignments and reading assignments that draw the students’ attention to current events in China that relate directly to the message of the movie. Thus the foreign movies are supplemented with real messages of current interest in a local context.

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Pressure is completely off The students have no pressure while studying the vocabulary of the movie. They are advised that they need to be familiar with the new words and their meaning but they are not required to memorize them. During the post-movie discussion, the students are told that there are no right answers and no wrong answers, just what they think and what they communicate using the words available in their mental lexicon. There is minimal correction so as to encourage oral production rather than inhibit it. Too much correction too early can actually create a permanent block to oral production. The students are not forced or required to produce oral English until they are ready. Premature compulsion can also cause substantial and permanent harm to the student. The Holistic English program and the Holistic English Lab conform to the basic requirements of language acquisition which is summarized as “comprehensible input in a friendly environment.” The students claim to have experienced a well balanced set of tangible benefits from the Holistic English program and find the Holistic English Lab to be a comfortable English speaking environment. The student evaluations stand for the following propositions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

The larger the class, the less benefit conferred, particularly with classes exceeding 40 students. The students believe they have received real value from the Holistic approach to second language acquisition. The students believe that they have not only benefited in reading, listening, writing and speaking skills; they also increased their world view and business knowledge. There is a small percentage of unmotivated students who gained little or nothing from the Holistic approach to second language acquisition, thus confirming: a. There is no “one” teaching methodology that suits all students. b. There are always some students who are beyond the reach of external motivation and are simply unteachable. The students believe that the benefits derived from the Holistic English program have increased each semester of participation.

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One of the real jewels of this paper could be easily overlooked. Lisa Class 4 of Business English NO: 23 stated: “It makes every student express his own opinion as he pleases and talk to each other.”

Each student must think for themselves and express their own personal opinion. There is nothing to memorize and repeat back. The Holistic English Program is not just about output, it is also about creating independent thinkers who can creatively approach their daily environment with a broader world view. There is no right or wrong answer, only what the students think and freely express. The students claim to have comparatively benefited simultaneously in all ten categories of intended benefit, which confirms the value of the Holistic approach using movies as the comprehensible input base for a conversation English acquisition experience. The benefits to Chinese students include: 18 % Increased first time pass rate for TEM4 and CET4. Increased confidence Increased intrinsic motivation Increased self-discipline Increased reading, listening, writing and speaking skills Expanded world view and increased business knowledge Increased autonomous learning Development of creative thinking Graduates can speak and write comprehensible English and obtain the higher paying jobs. The Holistic English course was conducted simultaneously with the traditional reading, listening and writing courses; yet, the students found significant benefit in reading, listening and writing within the holistic course. This suggests that the traditional courses are in need of review. The efficacy of the Holistic English Program for both English majors and non-English majors is confirmed in 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier colleges and universities throughout China. It is clear that no matter what the lower level of higher educational institution; no matter what the personal differences of the various teachers;

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no matter what the level of college students; the Holistic English Program is consistent in delivering significant benefits to Chinese college students. Professional “foreign experts” teaching English as a foreign language in China are frustrated with instructions to “just chat with our students”; no teaching materials or inappropriate texts; lack of an English speaking environment; and an unwillingness to sing and dance to entertain like their untrained counterparts. The complaints of these professionals have fallen on deaf ears primarily because they were unable to offer any viable alternatives. The Holistic English Program arms these professionals with a proven English acquisition alternative. The success of the Holistic English Program does not depend upon teacher qualifications and, as reflected in Appendice “C”, it can deliver significant benefits to the students when conducted by a less than qualified or less than enthusiastic teacher. Students are a major force and their opinions trump all else. Students are dissatisfied with the current English teaching curriculum and its unproductive results. Students’ complaints have even appeared in the China Daily. Those students from affluent families, or on Government scholarship, go abroad to improve their English output. Poor students remain in China and suffer with poor English output. While it is economically unfeasible to send all Chinese students abroad, the Holistic English Program brings a bit of “abroad” to the students in China. The combination of frustrated foreign experts and dissatisfied students combine to create an unstoppable force for moving away from English teaching and towards English acquisition. Every successful revolution has had a just cause. Educational reform must include administrative reform as well as pedagogical reform. "Let's not Speak for the Facts; Let the Facts Speak for themselves" This is not an EVOLUTION; it is a REVOLUTION.

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References Brody, J. “Learning through self-talk”. In Speak2me, December 2002. No.1 Cook, V. 1991. Second language learning and language teaching. Edward Arnold. 1991. Cohen, A. Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. London: Longman. 1998. Ellis, R. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985. —. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1994. Gardner, R. Social psychology and second language learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. London: Edward Arnold. 1985. Gardner, D. & Miller, L. Establishing Self-Access——From Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Gardner, R. & W. Lambert. Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. 1972. Holec, H. Autonomy and foreign language learning. Oxford: Pergamon. 1981. Krashen, S.D. Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1981. Little, D. “Learner autonomy in practice”. In Autonomy in Language Learning. London: C.I.L.T. 1990. —. Learner autonomy 1: Definitions, issues and problems. Dublin: Authentik. 1991. Lightbown, M. & Spada, N. How Language Are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Littlejohn, A. P. Increasing learner involvement in course management. TESOL Quarterly 17 (4). 1983. McDevitt, B. “Learner autonomy and the need for learner training”. In Language Learning Journal, September 1997. No.16, 34-39. 1997. Myers, C. Facilitating learner independence in the adult ESL classroom. TESL Canada Journal 8(I). 1990. Niu Qiang, “On different types of output and the elicitation of optimal output”. Teaching English in China. Vol.24, No.1. 2001. —. “Reexamining the role of input and the features of optimal input (I)”. Teaching English in China. Vol.24, No.3. 2001. —. “Reexamining the role of input and the features of optimal input (II)”. Teaching English in China. Vol.24, No.4. 2001.

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Nunan, D. Second language teaching and learning. USA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.1999. O’Melley, J. & A. Chamot. Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1990. Oxford, R.L. Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know. New York: Newbury House/ Harper Collins. 1990. Pickett, G. The Foreign Language Learning Process. London: The British Council. 1978. Richards, J. & Lockhart, C. Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classroom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1994. Wenden, A. Learner Strategies for Learner Autonomy. New York: Prentice Hall. 1990.

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APPENDIX “A” CUMULATIVE STUDENT EVALUATION

None of the six universities and colleges implementing the Holistic English Program provided the most basic facilities and equipment necessary for proper implementation nor did they make even a modest attempt to create an English speaking environment for their students. We can only imagine what a modicum of administrative support would accomplish in increasing the educational benefits of the Holistic English program.  The following three charts reflect the cumulative results of student satisfaction questionnaires from six colleges and universities in four provinces of China, including the northeast, (Liaoning) southeast coastal region, (Fujian) central region (Henan) and southwest region (Guangxi semi-autonomous region).  The efficacy of any scientific experiment is in being able to reproduce the same results, under similar conditions and variables. In the testing of the Holistic English Program in six different colleges and universities across China, there were two variables that were not consistent, i.e. teacher uniqueness and student disparity. Each teacher utilized his or her own classroom methodology and style. Each teacher had a different mix of students, i.e. each class was made up of students of variable academic qualifications for college admission as well as variable English proficiency. Yet, as both the individual charts and the cumulative charts confirm, all of the student participants received comparable benefits in similar percentages per class and cumulatively. The efficacy of the Holistic English Program for both English majors and non-English majors is confirmed in 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier colleges and universities throughout China.

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It is clear that no matter what the lower level of higher educational institution; no matter what the personal differences of the various teachers; no matter what the level of college students; the Holistic English Program is consistent in delivering significant benefits to Chinese college students.

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshman and Sophomore Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Cumulative 6 schools

N U M B ER O F ST U D EN T

600

Vocabulary

500 400

Reading

300

Oral

200

Writing

100

Listening

0

1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 55 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Cumulative 6 schools

600 NUM BER OF STUDENTS

500 400

CONFIDENCE

300

MOTIVATION

200

DISCIPLINE

100 0 1

Chart # 56

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

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World View – Business Knowledge Cumulative 6 schools

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

500 400 300

World View

200

Business Knowledge

100 0 1

2

3 4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9 10

Chart # 57 These cumulative charts from one 4th tier, one 3rd tier and four 2nd tier colleges and universities further confirm that comprehensible output lags behind reading, listening and writing skills. Put another way, most students experience improvement in reading, writing and listening skills before they experience improvement in oral production skills. These cumulative charts likewise confirm that as discipline, motivation and confidence increase, students also experience improvement in their reading, writing, listening and oral skills. These cumulative charts further confirm that as the students find the comprehensible input from the movies to be interesting and exciting, they experience an increase in discipline, motivation and confidence. From a business perspective, treating the students’ responses as indicators of customer satisfaction, the Holistic English Program, as a marketable product, has a high degree of customer satisfaction.

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APPENDIX “B” FALL 2008 SEMESTER – GUANGXI UNIVERSITY, STACY MEEKING105

Author’s Note Stacy Meeking taught the Freshmen I program in the fall ’07 term. Bonnie Yule (Canadian) and Karen Barnes (from Washington D.C., where Karen established and directed a church-based ESL program for fifteen years.), taught the freshmen II program in the spring ’08 term while Stacy Meeking taught an elective course wherein he tested new movies for inclusion in the Holistic English Program. Two movies have been added to 105

Stacy Meeking was born Melbourne, Australia. He was educated at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (Mount Eliza Campus), where he received a Bachelor of Business in Risk Management. He has worked towards Masters Degree (Risk Management – Indigenous Leasehold) NTU – Darwin Australia. He is an affiliate of Australian & New Zealand Institute of Finance and Insurance, having secured awards for highest exam scores for four subjects in 1994. He has been President of Australian Insurance Institute N.T. (AII) (two terms) and has sat on the National Board of AII for five years 1994-1999. He was appointed a “Foreign Expert” in China in 2003 and visiting English lecturer at Guangxi University, Foreign Languages College, Nanning, China where he continues to teach Oral English, English composition and debate.

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the program as a direct result of these tests and student feedback. Both Bonnie's and Karen's classes were restricted by the College's insistence that they include certain standardized lessons from the standard GXU Oral English textbook in their HE classes. This had the effect of heavily diluting the major benefits of the HE programme due to time constraints on pre and post movie viewing discussion in class. This Holistic approach, to be really successful, requires teachers and administrators who are confident enough in their own abilities to take a few risks and let their students reach their potential. Many are not capable or game enough to roll the dice. Teachers who need step by step textbooks in order to function won't be able to grasp this programme. For many years now English as a second language (L2) has been taught and studied in China. In fact, English education in China has produced thousands, possibly millions, of English ‘experts’ who know more theory about English than native speakers. From a purely academic standpoint this is commendable. From a wider career advancement viewpoint its appeal is limited indeed. Anecdotal responses from students asking about their job aspirations reveal that most see English as a vehicle to a more promising and rewarding career. Responses from potential employers of students with L2 abilities note that they require effective L2 communicators. China’s production of L2 theorists is not meeting this need. An organization in need of an L2 communicator is not interested in the applicant’s deeper understanding of mnemonics. They want to know this: “can you effectively communicate in English to add value to my business or organization?” Today’s successful English L2 graduates in China need a skill-set which comprises an ability to effectively communicate in English: both written and spoken L2. This is where the Holistic English (HE) method is aimed. Ask any knowledgeable teacher, student or employer about the most effective way to learn L2, and the overriding majority will say that you should go and spend time in a country where the native language is your L2; where you listen, speak and write in a native language environment.

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Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to be able to adopt this best option. But we can attempt to provide an L2 environment that is conducive to L2 acquisition. You will note the word “acquisition”, not “learn”. Acquisition is that you are able to use the L2 effectively. Learn means that you have consumed an amount of data about L2, but have not, necessarily, acquired the ability to use L2. There is a chasm between these two concepts of acquisition and learning, and it is this gap that the Holistic Learning approach is designed to bridge. HE uses English language movies shown in a friendly environment from which students are stimulated to discuss debate, assess, critique, analyze and share opinion. The HE workbooks are designed to introduce and prepare students prior to watching movies. This improves understanding and appreciation. They also have discussion topics and activities designed for in-class completion. In addition, there is vocabulary and research work to be completed outside class, which may involve internet usage. There is ample flexibility and scope for teachers to employ many of their own classroom activities and individual teaching styles to compliment the HE model. The HE workbook is not a text book. HE is designed utilizing a holistic approach to language acquisition through comprehensible input in a friendly environment. (Stephen Krashen’s second language acquisition model) HE is not a movie course. Movies are just a vehicle to facilitate better L2 acquisition. The advantage of movies is, however, that they generate students’ interest – especially when they have done the requisite class preparation – and they are full of native English, including everyday speech, phrases and idioms; the English used in the real world today, which the students need to acquire in order to be accomplished English communicators. HE is best suited to English learners in the first four (4) terms of University in China. For English Majors there are workbooks for two freshmen and two sophomore terms and there are also modules for English in Business, International Trade, and International Law studies.

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In the first term of 2007/2008 academic year I introduced HE teaching to my freshmen English majors, which consisted of 135 students in five separate classes. These were compulsory for the first term only. The second term HE course was optional and some students had to pay to participate, depending on their credit load. 120 students signed-up for the second term optional class. Students are not stupid. They know when they are getting value. In my nearly six years of teaching English at Guangxi University, I have never known a course of English study that has generated such consistent, ongoing interest as HE. The students are enthusiastic and keen to participate in activities. They are acquiring English and they don’t even know it. This is precisely where they need to be.

Fall ’07 Holistic English Freshman I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation (Classes limited to 25) *XDQJ[L)UHVKPHQ&XPXODWLYHIDOO  1 8 0 % ( 5 2 ) 6 7 8 ' ( 1 7 6

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Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 199

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation (Classes limited to 25) *XDQJ[L)UHVKPHQ&XPXODWLYHVSULQJ R 1 8 0 % ( 5 2 ) 6 7 8 ' ( 1 7 6

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FALL’07 Holistic English Freshmen I

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

Confidence – Motivation – Discipline

Guangxi Freshmen Cumulative fall '07

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

CONFIDEN CE MOTIVATIO N DISCIPLINE

1 Chart # 33

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

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SPRING ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

Confidence – Motivation – Discipline

Guangxi Freshmen Cumulative spring '08

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

CONFIDEN CE MOTIVATIO N DISCIPLINE

1

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 34

FALL’07 Holistic English Freshmen I World View – Business Knowledge (Classes limited to 25)

NUM BER OF S TUDENTS

Guangxi Freshmen cumulative fall '07 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

World View Business Knowledge

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

10 = GREATEST HELP

Chart # 35

8

9

10

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 201

SPRING ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II World View – Business Knowledge Cumulative

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

Guangxi Freshmen cumulative spring '08 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

World View Business Knowledge

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10 = GREATEST HELP

Chart # 36 One hundred thirty five freshman English majors utilized the Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I. Two students failed to fill out the complete form so their responses were discarded. The questionnaire also asked what the students liked best about the class. Two answers dominated the responses: 1. 2.

I like the discussion after watching the movie because I can practice my oral English and creative thinking. It helps build open and creative thinking.

The students were also asked “If you had the authority, power and money, what one thing would you change at this school to make your educational experience better?”

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100% of the freshmen students responded to the questionnaire and 4 major complaints106 surfaced: (There was no advance discussion, coaching or planting of ideas. This question was a complete surprise to the students.)

106 1. More and better equipment. The existing computers are old, in disrepair and not enough to meet student needs. The sound lab and multi-media equipment is in disrepair. The students also require internet access to complete homework assignments. 60% 2. More foreign teachers and better Chinese teachers. 22% 3. More English books in the school library. 12% 4. Foreign students as roommates. 6%

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 203

APPENDIX “C” FALL 2007 SEMESTER – HUARUI COLLEGE AT XINYANG NORMAL UNIVERSITY, KENNETH CLARKE107 

 In the fall 2007 semester, Huarui College at Xinyang Normal University decided to teach English to all freshman non-English majors, for the first time in the college’s history. Five teachers were assigned to teach oral English to one-thousand threehundred and eighty students. This created a very high student/teacher ratio calling for a creative solution. An attempt was made to introduce the Holistic English program. The reaction of the foreign teachers to a briefing on the Holistic English program produced mixed results. 107 Kenneth Clarke, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science from Bradford University (1976). He has worked as a Metallurgical Engineer in the South African mining industry for 30 years. He was appointed a "Foreign Expert" in China and continues to teach in China.

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The main objection to the Holistic English program was the fear of losing classroom contact time with the students while they watched a two and one-half hour movie. At a subsequent meeting with the Chinese English teachers, they totally misconstrued the entire Holistic concept and interpreted it as a movie appreciation class. The Holistic program is new and they have no familiarity with it so they used their movie appreciation point of reference to judge the Holistic program. Subsequent investigation revealed that the University leaders were never approached about the Holistic program because it had been rejected by the inexperienced Chinese teachers. Although the Holistic English workbooks were in accord with the initial assurances that the foreign teachers would be allowed to select their own text materials, the university provided completely incomprehensible and unworkable textbooks for the oral English course. English class rosters were not provided to the foreign teachers until very late in the term which impeded effective teacher/student communications and attendance/grade record keeping. Although modern multi-media rooms were provided, they lacked internet access which prevented implementation of the planned curriculum. This forced a fall back to trying the Holistic English Freshmen I program, on a very limited basis, to 474 students. The first movie, Tai Pan, was shown during two separate class periods on two separate days. By the time of the showing of the second half of the movie, the students had all but forgotten the first half of the movie. Showing the movie in segments was a complete disaster. Due to inadequate home computers supplied to the foreign teachers, it was not possible for the teacher to preview the movie and hence was unable to prepare any written homework assignment. The second movie was 'Eat a Bowl of Tea' – was an absolute hit. The verbal response laughing, oohing and aahing was amazing - even more so after the teacher left the room and listened from just outside the classroom door. The students were provided a homework assignment and the results varied from mediocre to very good. .The most important thing to be learnt

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 205

here is that the movie and homework provided every student with a talking point. The third movie was 'Iron and Silk' - also very popular. There was no 'chaperone' with the students while watching the movie. There was no homework for this movie as the following discussion classes were disrupted by the official winter holiday schedule. A plurality of students had very positive reactions to the Holistic approach to English acquisition. At a subsequent meeting with the President of the college, a plea was made to fully implement the holistic English program for the spring 2008 semester He agreed and after some technical problems are worked out, such as scheduling evening movie classes, the Holistic English Freshman II program will be offered to the entire freshman class of 2007.

Spring 2008 Semester – Huarui College at Xinyang Normal University, Kenneth Clarke It was decided that all 1,480 freshmen students would use the Holistic English Freshmen II workbook this term. A delegation of four teachers and two students, led by Juhia Ying, observed a Holistic English class in the new Holistic English Lab at Xinyang Agricultural College on Monday, March 10, 2008. Although the Agricultural College students had much lower college entrance examination scores than our students, we found that the second year students at the Agricultural College were as accomplished in English as our own students. We were very surprised to learn that the Agricultural College students had matriculated from the technical vocational middle school program and not the regular middle school program. This made their accomplishments in English all the more impressive. When we were informed that we were in fact observing a freshmen class and not a second year class; our amazement turned into disbelief until the students confirmed that they were indeed first year students. We were very impressed and desired to duplicate the entire Holistic program at our University.

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Subsequently our foreign teachers were assigned to their own classroom and all classes were required to be held in that assigned classroom. This was a marked improvement. As usual changes were made to the teaching schedule due to the nonarrival of one teacher and the non-employment of another. This resulted in a third of the students starting later than the others, as well as English majors being withdrawn from the program. In order to satisfy teacher’s teaching hours, classes were divided into two groups, to ensure that the teacher met his commitment of 20 periods per week. This initially did not appear to be a problem, but became a problem at the time of the National holiday and the sub-sequent earthquake disaster. It was initially decided that movie #1 would be shown to the “odd” students and movie #5 to the “even” students, then following sequentially for both groups. The reasoning behind this was that it would reduce the amount of copying in the dormitories. Also it gave the teacher a break before having to repeat the same lesson plan again. The program worked well, even with the usual teething problems, equipment breakdowns, classrooms commandeered by Chinese teachers and leaders, lack of information and unscheduled time re-arrangement for the Mayday Festival. Although this was a fairly straight-forward break the problem was accentuated by having two days prior to this scheduled as “sports days”. This totally confused the student body and led to a 3 week delay to rectify falling back in line with the program. One very annoying aspect was the withdrawal of a co-teacher from the program at mid-term. He withdrew without informing either the authorities or myself that he had done so, which was tantamount to admitting that he could not change his “teaching style”. It also resulted in his students being cheated of their money as they no longer used the workbooks they had paid for, although many of them still continued to watch the movies. The ultimate result was that the students ended up watching 5 movies (albeit different ones) and the spoken English at the end of the term was vastly improved to the start of the term. One student who at the beginning would NOT speak turned around at the end and said “See. I will speak to

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 207

you in English”. This sort of positive attitude behavior is consistent with the concept of HE. Unfortunately the curriculum followed by our college makes no allowance for “oral” English for second year students at the moment, which means that the continuation of the HE program is unknown at this stage, but by the reaction of the students, if it is not continued, they will be very disappointed. My only wish at the moment is that all support is given to this program bearing in mind the old adage “You can please most of the people most of the time, you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. This just about sums up the entire feeling for the program—IF YOU WANT IT TO WORK, YOU CAN!!!

Spring ’08 Holistic Freshmen II Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing - Conversation Xinyang Normal University

N U M B ER O F STU D EN T

120 100

Vocabulary

80

Reading

60

Oral

40

Writing

20

Listening

0 1

Chart # 37

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10



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Confidence – Motivation - Discipline



Chart # 38

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

World View – Business Knowledge Xinyang Normal University

120 100 80 60 40 20 0

World View Business Knowledge

1 Chart # 39

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 209

Author’s Note

Robert Crawford – HUARUI COLLEGE at Xinyang Normal University

The charts from the students of USA teacher Robert Crawford, El Monte, California, have been segregated from the rest of the students at Huarui College for the following reasons: 1. 2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

Early in the term this teacher embraced an unexplained hostile attitude towards the Holistic English Program and its author. Half way through the term, this teacher made a libelous internet posting condemning all aspects of the Holistic English Program, without a word to the authors about his concerns or complaints, thus requiring intervention by the author’s Shanghai lawyers. At the end of April this teacher stopped using the Holistic English Program and substituted his own lectures on U.S. culture and using a book by Shanghai University Press called "talk 2." He unilaterally converted his oral English class into a lecture class that showcased his academic prowess but did little or nothing to encourage or motivate his students to produce oral English. In mid-June two more demands were required to remove additional libelous internet posting from Robert’s my space account. Robert left before the end of the semester and refused to use the agreed Questionnaire thus requiring another teacher to complete this aspect of Robert’s obligations. In his previous term at Xinyang Normal, Robert showed his own selection of movies with such disastrous results that he switched to teaching the U.S. Constitution, with equally disastrous results.

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As can be observed in the following charts, Robert’s students give the Holistic English Program high marks.

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II

N UM B ER O F ST UD EN T

Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Robert Crawford at Xinyang Normal University

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Vocabulary Reading Oral Writing Listening 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 40 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Robert Crawford at Xinyang Normal University

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

100 80 60

CONFIDENCE MOTIVATION

40

DISCIPLINE

20 0 1

Chart # 41

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 211

World View – Business Knowledge Robert Crawford at Xinyang Normal University

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

100 80

World View

60

Business Knowledge

40 20 0 1

2

3 4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

Chart # 42 The comments of Robert’s students are very telling about what kind of class Robert conducted. “Oral English class is very interesting and exciting….” “I like the method because we can see some movies and enjoy ourselves. At the same time we can learn more words, foreign culture and American slang.” “I like the free atmosphere during the movie we can talk about it with the classmates around us, not like in class, we can only listen careful.” 92% of Robert’s students commented about how much he talks in their conversation class about US culture; how he talks about the movie before showing it and how he talks about the movie after showing it. When asked what they liked most about this class, 96% stated “movies.” Lecturing Chinese students about a foreign culture, without any reference point, or without wrapping it in a story, is useless. It does not give the students any basis for comprehensible output. It is simply a lecture. Robert made the cardinal error of many first time EFL teachers in China; he felt that what was most important was for him to tell the Chinese students what he wanted them to know about his home country. He lectured; he failed to facilitate the students’ conversation. This usually results from improper training, lack of experience, or ego that requires the teacher to be the center of attention. He was under the false impression that he was making great progress with his students because they sat attentatively smiling and nodding in agreement. The truth is known to

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most China teaching veterans as expressed by this student of Robert, “When I sit this class I can’t understand what the teacher say. But I put on my best. I think the best is the smile for our teacher.’ It is also clear from the students’ comments that Robert was intent on correcting the students English, completely oblivious to the fact that premature correction can be extremely harmful and that at the freshmen level the most important thing is to encourage, not criticize, because it discourages. "Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition", Stephen Krashen, 1982 "What theory implies, quite simply, is that language acquisition, first or second, occurs when comprehension of real messages occurs, and when the acquirer is not 'on the defensive'... Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. It does not occur overnight, however. Real language acquisition develops slowly, and speaking skills emerge significantly later than listening skills, even when conditions are perfect. The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production."

From Robert’s My Space posting it is clear that he is not properly schooled nor trained to be a teacher of anything, let alone EFL in China. Had Robert come to China with a proper attitude and followed through with the Holistic English Program to the end, he could have benefited from reading his students’ comments such as this: “Yes, I like it. But I think teacher should teach how to impress what they want to express but to discussion with students. Because at first many students can’t follow teacher’s speed and the most important skill is to express what we want to say.” A fair translation of this Chinglish is “The teacher should speak less and slowly and allow the students to express themselves more.” This is a fair criticism since this is the students’ conversation English class where they are supposed to have an opportunity to speak English in a safe and friendly environment. Robert not only cheated his students, he cheated himself out of a learning experience. But the Holistic English Program delivered the appropriate

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 213

benefits to the students in spite of the inadequacies of the individual teacher. The Holistic English Program performed as designed.

Virginia – HUARUI COLLEGE at Xinyang Normal University

Virginia is a middle aged woman from the Philippines and an L2 English speaker. Virginia taught at this school for one year but none of her colleagues seem to know her last name or educational background.

Author’s Note In previously published articles we have criticized China’s recruitment of L2 English speakers to teach oral English as a foreign language. We have been particularly critical of hiring people from the Philippines because they are unable to pronounce “F” or “L” properly and their teaching method usually consists of teaching singing and dancing. It is no surprise that many of Virginia’s students comment on her teaching them to sing songs and to play games. Apparently Virginia is also learning to speak Chinese because several of her students mentioned her use of Chinese in the classroom. We have also previously criticized foreign teachers using their classroom to improve their Chinese because this is not what they are being paid to do. (The Unqualified, Teaching (sic) The Unmotivated, In A Hostile Environment, (2007), Frontiers in Higher Education, Nova Science Publishers, New York) They are paid to assist their Chinese students with English. In developing the Holistic English Program we took the Virginias and Roberts of the Chinese EFL teaching world into account and designed a one-size-fits-all program that delivers the anticipated benefits to the students in spite of the teachers. Virginia’s student’s comments overwhelmingly praise the watching of movies as giving them something they can’t get out of a book, giving them knowledge about other cultures and giving them something they can talk about in class. Some students claimed the class was interesting while

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others claimed it was exciting. None of Virginia’s students claimed her class was both interesting and exciting. Many students stated that they wanted more oral Englishes (sic) classes like this where movies are central to the teaching method.

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen II

N U M B ER O F STU D EN T

Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Virginia at Xinyang Normal University

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Vocabulary Reading Oral Writing Listening 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 43 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Virginia at Xinyang Normal University

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

CONFIDENCE MOTIVATION DISCIPLINE

1 Chart # 44

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 215

World View – Business Knowledge

Virginia at Xinyang Normal University

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

40 30

World View

20

Business Knowledge

10 0 1

Chart # 45

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

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APPENDIX D SPRING 2008 SEMESTER, YANG EN UNIVERSITY - ROBERT HILL108 

 After teaching Business Majors International Trade during my first semester here at Yang-En University, I was asked to teach an additional elective conversational class. I had seen Holistic English and know the authors personally. The Holistic English Workbook Freshmen I was reviewed and finally approved. I scheduled 2 classes for 50 juniors and 9 seniors. All of the students are International Trade or Economics majors. It was a challenge to prove to the students that “mistakes are good” and that the main point of the conversation class is to talk freely about the movie and about related subjects.

108 Robert Hill, BA Edu., was born in Pontiac, Michigan, USA. He obtained his BA in Economics (1968) from Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan and a BA in Education (1993) from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. He has taught International Negotiations, Business English, International Trade and Conversation English in Turkey, Korea and has been a “Foreign Expert” in China since 2003.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 217

After a slow beginning, the students began to enjoy the movie plus conversational class format. They can have some fun while planning what they will say during the 2nd class. Actually, as the class has proved to be so popular, I have added FOUR new conversation classes which give the students more time to talk and encourage more lively discussions. The first movie "The Terminal” was enjoyed by almost all of the students even though the first week I still had 3 or 4 students in each class who were too shy to comment. My response to that has been to repeat, to write on the board and to stress that “Mistakes are good” and our main purpose is to relax, to enjoy the movie & then have free talking. This seems to be working. With each successive movie, with each additional conversation class the students seem more relaxed and seem to be enjoying themselves more. I know I have seen a marked increase in class participation during the discussions. Once they realized that the movies are springboards to interesting discussions about life, about differences in culture and / or about how they can get more out of their student years, then their interest levels improved greatly. Yes, you can have fun while learning. The course has proven so popular that I am even showing extra movies… The main points are these. As a class, I believe Holistic English will be a success. The students like the idea of watching movies and then discussing them. The book, the process and the selected movies all work together to improve classroom enjoyment which helps improve their attention levels which leads to far better classroom discussions. And that after all is what this is all about. Students who are enjoying themselves pay more attention. Students who are enjoying themselves tell their friends and that is why there are more students in my classes now then at the beginning of the Semester. We will see if the questionnaire bears out my conclusions, but in my opinion it is simple.

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1) I have seen first hand how shy students have improved their self confidence. 2) “Holistic English, it works”…

Author’s Note The charts from Yang En University indicate that the students received comparable % of benefit as all of the other schools participating in the Holistic English Program. This confirms the efficacy of the Holistic English Program when considering the following: 1.

2. 3.

4. 5.

6.

7.

From the very beginning and throughout the term, this teacher was more interested in coming up with schemes to have his name added to the cover of the Holistic English Workbooks than in focusing on facilitating a proper class. The teacher did not read the previously supplied foundational materials before commencing the Holistic English Program. The teacher failed to follow the established protocol and instead rushed through each two week movie unit in one week, taught the class like a typical English learning class instead of facilitating an English conversation class, and deviated from the workbook by choosing his own movies and using them without the necessary preparation work. This teacher unilaterally changed the Questionnaire but not in a way that impacted on the validity of the charts. The most disliked movie was “What The Blurb,” a movie not in the Holistic English Workbook. Too many foreign teachers suffer from the delusion that they know best how to select movies for Chinese students. One student summed it up rather nicely: “Apparently this course will be improved a lot. The teacher will be more experienced and he knows what students are thinking. This course of this semester is not enough to improve us.” 97% of the students desire to take another Holistic English course next semester.

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Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing - Conversation

Yang En University

NUM BER O F STUDENT

20 15

Vocabulary

10

Reading Oral

5

Writing 0

Listening 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 46 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline

Yeng En University

20 NUM BER OF STUDENTS

15

CONFIDENCE

10

MOTIVATION DISCIPLINE

5 0 1

Chart # 47

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

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World View – Business Knowledge

Yang En University

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

20

World View

15 Business Knowledge

10 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 = GREATEST HELP

Chart # 48

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APPENDIX “E” SPRING 2008 SEMESTER CIB AT SHENYANG NORMAL UNIVERSITY - EDWIN ROESSLER109

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - Yeah, just got the go-ahead this afternoon. As mentioned earlier, the school wants to have both scheduled classes as well as movies every week. In keeping with that schedule, all students (with the exception of one) agreed to give up two hours of their free-time every week to come in and watch the movie. Scheduled movie night is tentatively set for Thursdays, 5 - 7pm, or until finished. Additionally, all the students agreed to pay for the reproduction of the workbook as well, should the school be unwilling to reproduce them free-of-charge. I'm not sure exactly what the school's stance is on that right now, but it doesn't matter any way. The school will definitely reproduce them either way. The first movie will be shown next week. The conditions and schedule aren't as you envisioned, but it's a start. The majority of the students appeared to be very excited about the concept. I'll let you know how it goes! 109 Edwin Roessler was born in Hartford, Wisconsin, USA. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin in 1978. He retired from a career with the US Government in 2003, and was appointed a “Foreign Expert” in China that same year, where he has continued to live and teach ever since.

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March 14, 2008 –The classes are going quite well, thanks. Our first Movie night went great. The students really seemed to enjoy it. I saw a lot of LED illumination, but it may have been from electronic dictionaries. I will say something in class about it this week. There were also students who came and went. Some of them just went after the movie started when they realized I wasn't taking attendance. I think I'll have them sign out next week, and sign back in when they return. Concerning homework, rather than just give them a pass / fail, I think I'll score it on a scale from 1 -5. Some students really care / try, and put much more effort into it than others. They deserve more credit for their effort than someone who just does a half-assed job, the way most things are done here. I'll convert the totals into a numerical grade, and count it as one-third of their final grade for the course. They'll also have one presentation, and one final oral exam. This program builds self-confidence very quickly, then intrinsic motivation follows and the students develop self-discipline and become autonomous learners. We did things a bit differently here at the College of International Business (CIB), Shenyang Normal University (SNU). Not by choice, obviously, but because the administration wanted both a movie and class every week, rather than offset them. So, that is what we did. We had our weekly classes where the students took weekly quizzes (five questions - four multiple choice, and one short answer to keep students honest), had student 'question and answer' periods while I graded their weekly homework, and then finished with a review of the upcoming weekly movie, and corresponding vocabulary. Although it required the students to give up two-plus hours of their free-time to come in and see a movie one evening every week, none of them complained (none of them complained about having to spend approximately 25 CNY to purchase the workbook required for the course, either). The majority of them said they really enjoyed the movies. They said the movies gave them a welcome break from spending all their free-time in the library, or their dormitory room every night. As you read further, keep in mind that none of my students were English majors. I had 142 assigned students, one Junior, and 141 freshmen. They were all International Trade, Finance, Economics, and Law majors. In addition to what I gleaned above from my discussions with them throughout the term, and without analyzing any of their questionnaires;

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 223

Their major complaints / dislikes were: 1. The movies - unavailability on-line. Several students complained that they could not watch them anywhere but in the classroom. They were not available to them on-line. CIB's, as well as SNU's network administrator both said there was not enough bandwidth to even load the weekly movie on their respective web-sites, let alone all eight of them. Hard to believe, and I am not at all LAN, WAN, or website savvy, but nevertheless. The students resolved this issue by copying the movies from the classroom computer's hard-drive to memory sticks for personal viewing in the library, or their dormitory rooms. I believe it is imperative that the students have access to the movies outside the classroom. For those who copied the movies to memory sticks, many of them said they watched the same movie several times just to review specific parts of the soundtrack that they had difficulty understanding, even with the provided English subtitles. 2. The movies - outdated. Several students complained that a few of the movies were somewhat old, and outdated. Although true, they still all agreed that there was still much to learn from the movies, and the lessons learned / knowledge gained from each was still relevant in today's society. Smart kids! 3. The movies - vocabulary. Several students complained that for a few of them, the vocabulary was too extensive. Yes, some movies do have more vocabulary than others, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It just requires that the students do more work, more research = more learning. Many students are simply unmotivated, and expect everything to be handed to them. Especially when they believe they have paid for it. 4. The movies - subtitles. Several students complained that there were no subtitles for a few of them. That is true, and a very valid complaint. It is especially valid when they have no other means of readily watching the movies again, on-line. That is just one more reason it is imperative to make the movies available to students on-line. And their major compliments / likes were: 1. The movies - the movies. After the complaints, imagine that. The majority of the students commented that they found most of them to be very entertaining, albeit entertaining in different ways. They said the

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movies helped them relax, and that they got a lot of enjoyment out of the majority of them. Again, the movies were a very nice break from otherwise spending every night in the library, or their dormitory rooms. Simply put, the movies made them happy! Just what every school administrator wishes for - happy students. 2. The movies - eye-openers. Many students commented that they opened their eyes, increased their world-view, their exposure. The students said that classroom discussions based on movie content afforded them the opportunity to express their opinions and discuss many topics that are taboo, or not discussed at all in other classes. They really appreciated and enjoyed the chance to speak out openly and freely about cultural differences in love, marriage, divorce, sex, education, politics, and religion, to name a few. And it was not just cultural differences, either. The movies also brought up discussions concerning personal, internal struggles between being 'traditional' Chinese, and more 'open'; the pressure placed on them between doing what their parents want them to do, and what they would really like to do themselves. 3. The movies - vocabulary. Even though some complained that it was too much for some movies, they also said they did learn a lot of new words. Not just words, but also phrases, idioms, slang, expressions, and reductions, as well. 4. The student 'question and answer' periods - They proved to be big selfconfidence builders and shyness breakers for many over time. The students learned how to speak in front of a group. Even though most of the time they were just asking a series of prepared questions, sometimes they had to be able to defend their views if brought to task by one of their peers. That was when it really got interesting! 5. The student 'question and answer' periods - Hand-in-hand with number four above, over time they learned to accept being laughed at for their mistakes. Actually, they learned that it was OK to make mistakes. And there were many mistakes made by all, and much laughter had by all, as well. I enjoyed a lot of good laughs, myself! Concerning the specific movies themselves, and again without analyzing any of the questionnaires, the movie that seemed to be most liked - "The Terminal". Reasons given were that it was funny, entertaining, and easy to understand. The movie that was most disliked (it actually seemed to be the

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 225

most difficult for many to understand, as well) - "Tai Pan". Reasons given were because it was an old movie, and several students did not appreciate the way Chinese history was portrayed. As I mentioned, it was probably the most difficult to understand for many, as well. The runner-up for most disliked was probably "Gung Ho" - simply because several of the students have such a keen dislike of the Japanese. Several students were really upset / offended by it. It was quite surprising to me, actually. My personal experience with the Holistic approach and Holistic English program has been a very positive, very enjoyable one. I believe watching the movies and discussing them is an excellent venue for language acquisition, and the Holistic approach encompasses all aspects of language acquisition, not just speaking. Holistic English encompasses listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing skills, as well. It’s a very well-rounded course of instruction. The Holistic English course has the element of entertainment that gets students excited, and holds their interest. I am an educator myself, not an entertainer. I do not dance, sing, play guitar, play games, tell jokes, or tell stories as many students would hope. However, the movies at the heart of the Holistic English course certainly do seem to fulfill that desire / craving for entertainment that most students share here. Not only that, but most of the movies seemed to be very well received by the students, as well. They were excited about discussing them in class. In fact, classes often became quite animated when students were trying to make / get their points across with one another. It was a lot of fun, and very entertaining for me, as well. The course of instruction is very well organized. The way it is structured makes putting together a lesson plan a breeze. It is very simple, and very straight-forward. The students really appreciate and enjoy knowing exactly what is happening from week to week, as well. I guess if I had anything negative to say about the Holistic English course, it would concern the time-stamp on some of the movies. I would also suggest that some of the movies be replaced. I did not care much for "Tai Pan", either. I agree with the students, who thought it was old, and outdated. Nevertheless, there were still those lessons to learn, and other-worldly cultural differences to digest and discuss. In summary, I believe that the Holistic approach to language acquisition in general, and specifically the Holistic English course are very sound choices for any educator / school administrator. Especially for those educational institutions that are serious in seeking new, innovative,

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exciting, and captivating means of expanding the language acquisition of their student populations. Personally, I will continue to use the Holistic English approach and Holistic English course whenever, and wherever I can. Next year I will be teaching at XinYu College in Jiangxi, Province. I already have the go-ahead to use Holistic English there.

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshman I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation CIB at Shenyang Normal University

NUMBER OF STUDENT

35 30 25

Vocabulary

20

Reading

15

Oral Writing

10

Listening

5 0

1 Chart # 49

2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 = GREATEST HELP

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 227

Confidence – Motivation – Discipline

CIB at Shenyang Normal University

30 NUM BER OF STUDENTS

25 20

CONFIDENCE

15

MOTIVATION

10

DISCIPLINE

5 0 1

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart # 50 World View – Business Knowledge

CIB at Shenyang Normal University

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

World View Business Knowledge

1 Chart # 51

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

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APPENDIX “F” QUESTIONNAIRE

Class _____________________ Freshman ____ Sophmore ____ INSTRUCTIONS 1) Fill in this form anonymously and hand it in before leaving the classroom. Print clearly. Question #1 Which movie did you like the best?

______________________

Why? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Question #2 Which movie did you like the least?

______________________

Why? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Question #3 Which movie was the easiest movie to understand? ________________ Why? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 229

Question #4 Which movie was the most difficult?

______________________

Why? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Question #5 What did you like the best about this oral English class? ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Question #6 What would you like to say about your foreign teacher? ____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Question #7 Please circle 1 to 10: (10 – greatest help; 1 – least help) Did this course help you to improve your: Vocabulary 1 2 3 4 5 Reading skills 1 2 3 4 5 Listening skills 1 2 3 4 5 Writing skills 1 2 3 4 5 Conversation skills 1 2 3 4 5 Confidence 1 2 3 4 5 Motivation 1 2 3 4 5 Discipline 1 2 3 4 5 World view 1 2 3 4 5 Business knowledge 1 2 3 4 5

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Question #8 What grade do you think you deserve in this class? ______________

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Why do you deserve that grade? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Question #9 If you had the authority, power and money, what one change would you make at this school so that your education would be improved? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 231

APPENDIX G FALL 2008 SEMESTER XINYANG AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, PAN YOUYI, STUDENT ASSISTANT

At Xinyang Agricultural College third year students must serve a job internship prior to graduation. In the fall of 2007 the Dean of the Foreign Language Department gave me an internship as the student assistant to the Holistic English Program, My duty was to show the evening movies and enforce the class rules. I had to set a good example by arriving at the classroom early and making sure the students followed my example. If a student was late or did not bring their book, they were not admitted to the movie. The boys were required to sit in the front row and no one was allowed to use their mobile phone during the movie. In China the leaders should have a good attitude because the teachers or students will follow the leaders. If the leaders should have a bad attitude they will also be followed. So, leaders should have a good attitude.

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Time is money; we all know. But how many students come on time for a meeting? Western culture is very different. We should learn to have a good attitude and learning better ways will improve us. In fact every movie was very important for us. Every movie was talking about the business story .When we leave school we will meet the same things and then we will know what to do The Holistic English Program was perfect. If we wanted to improve our English we must speak more, listen more, write more, and read more English. The program includes all the four parts. When we watched the movies we practiced listening and reading more English .When we do homework we practiced writing. When we discuss the movie we practiced speaking more English. The holistic room is very special. The desks were configured in two U shaped rows with the rear row elevated 40 cm, to facilitate better eye contact amongst more students. In the room there were no Chinese signs and the class size was limited to a maximum of 40 students A major problem was that the multi-media equipment broke down, over and over again, making us cancel a class and wasting the students’ time.

Spring 2008 Semester The leaders kept promising a TV for the Holistic English Lab but they never kept the promise. This was a big disappointment. The administration made a big mistake bringing Crazy English to our school and cheating our students. It became a sore point for the students who paid for a quick way to improve their English instead of following the Holistic way of reading more, listening more, writing more and speaking more. Now they know they were cheated by Crazy English and they blame the school. There were three International classes but only one had Holistic English Freshmen I before. Now the two classes that had standard textbook oral English before are far behind and unhappy with their low grades. Because the school did not keep its many promises to support the Holistic English Program, the foreign teacher left our school and took the program away. What a pity. I got this from the Holistic English Bulletin Board.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 233

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APPENDIX “H” SPRING 2008 SEMESTER XINYANG TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL COLLEGE, JULIA ANDERSON110

Initially the administration was not keen on my using the Holistic English program and it did not fit my intensive teaching schedule of two periods twice a week. After the semester began my teaching schedule was reduced to two periods once a week and the administration gave approval to use the Holistic English Program. First update: I have completed the first chapter of the series and for the most part it went well. I am pleased with the student's ability to 110

Julie Major was born in Houston, Minnesota and has lived in Minneapolis all her life. She received her B.A. degree in French and Social Science from the University of Northern Colorado (1966). She received a degree in Esoteric Philosophy from Sancta Sophia Seminary in 1992. She has taught French, Montessori, Computer Software and Conversation English. She came to China as a “foreign expert” in 2005 and continues to teach English at Xinyang Technical and Vocational College.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 235

communicate orally after having prepared for and viewed the film. I was surprised that 15 students did not come to see the film. I threatened to fail them if they did not show up for the next film. I taught the first Holistic English workbook to second term sophomores at Xinyang Vocational and Technical College, two classes of approximately 50 students per class. I had taught these students for 2 previous terms creating lesson plans using a text which was British and in story form and enrichment materials to encourage conversation in pairs and groups of four on themes like travel, shopping, food etc. As you might imagine, the shift to using these materials was difficult for the students. They liked the idea of seeing movies but they did not want to do the homework. With encouragement and a few threats, the students finally understood the importance of learning the vocabulary before seeing the film and especially completing the written answers to the questions about the film. Those students, who worked diligently on all the skills which this course is designed to develop ie. Listening, speaking, reading and writing, improved greatly in their ability to express their ideas, thoughts and feelings about what they had seen in the various films. The class discussions were relevant and meaningful to the students. They learned that with the proper preparation and tools, they could express themselves and be heard by others in the class. They liked that and it gave them more confidence to continue trying to communicate their opinions. The following are statements made by the students from these classes: “I think I am more confident and brave. At first, I can’t speak English correctly or clearly, but now I can speak freely.” “In this class, we can talk with each other easily and freely. Our teacher often give us enough time to recognize and receive the new knowledge. We can appreciate many moving films and learn many foreign customs and habits.” “I think the oral class is good for us to improve our express technique. It can make me brave so that I can say what I want to say.”

When I arrived in Xinyang and began teaching these students at Xinyang Vocational and Technical College, these students buried their head and

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simply did not want to speak English. I was their first foreign teacher and I found the task of teaching these students daunting. But I happy to report that most of these students have come to the point of wanting to be heard. The Holistic English course has contributed greatly to heighting this desire by giving them interesting films and pre and post exercises which are the tools for helping the students to express their opinions by reading, writing, listening and speaking about a relevant topic.

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Xinyang Technical and Vocational College

30 NUM BER OF STUDENTS

25 20

Vocabulary

15

Reading

10

Oral

5

Writing

0

Listening

1 Chart # 52

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 237

Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Xinyang Technical and Vocational College

30 NUM BER O F ST U DEN T S

25 20

CONFIDENCE

15

MOTIVATION

10

DISCIPLINE

5 0 1

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10



Chart # 53

N U M BER O F STU D EN T

World View – Business Knowledge Xinyang Technical and vocational College

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

World View Business Knowledge

1

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

Chart # 54

 The students were also asked “If you had the authority, power and money, what one thing would you change at this school to make your educational experience better?” 100% of the sophomore students responded to the questionnaire and 3 major complaints surfaced: (There was no advance discussion, coaching

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or planting of ideas. This question was a complete surprise to the students.) More foreign teachers and better Chinese teachers 59% More and better equipment. The existing computers are old, in disrepair and not enough to meet student needs. The sound lab and multi-media equipment is in disrepair. The students also require internet access to complete homework assignments. The living equipment is old and does not work.33% More English books in the school library. 8%

Author’s Note Julie’s story represents what every foreign teacher dreams of but few ever experience; taking a group of disinterested, unmotivated, shy L2 English speakers and transforming them into magpies.

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 239

APPENDIX “I”

HOLISTIC BOOK I The Terminal Coach Carter Tai Pan Gung Ho Iron and Silk Not Without My Daughter The War of the Roses The Joy Luck Club Eat a bowl of Tea

HOLISTIC BOOK IV Barbarians at the Gate North Country McLibel Life and Debt An Inconvenient Truth A Civil Action The Constant Gardner Class Action

HOLISTIC BOOK II Gandhi Stand and Deliver A Great Wall Freedom Song World Trade center Supersize Me Reversible errors Walk the Line Runaway Jury

JEWISH CULTURE Fiddler on the Roof Schindler’s List The Ten Commandments Judgment at Nuremberg The Pianist Ben Hur Munich Exodus

HOLISTIC BOOK III Erin Brockovitch Wall Street Other people’s money Disclosure Working Girl Rainmaker Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices Enron: The Smartest guys in the Room

JOURNALISM The People vs. Larry Flint Good Night and Good Luc All The President’s Men Broadcast News Up Close and Personal Absence of Malice Control Room Outfoxed

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US POLITICS Thirteen Days Truman The Hunting of the President Patriot JFK Fahrenheit 911 NIXON Pentagon Papers

US CIVIL RIGHTS Mississippi Burning Freedom Song Free At Last Rosa Parks Story Martin Luther King Jr. 4 Little Girls The Great Debaters Ghosts of Mississippi

HISTORY (China) Tai Pan The Last Emperor Sand Pebbles Black Sun: The Nanjing Massacre The Joy Luck Club Iron and Silk Eat a Bowl of Tea A Great Wall

MUSIC Ray Walk The Line The Story of Jazz (Masters of American Music) Louis Armstrong - Satchmo (2000) The Benny Goodman Story The Jazz Singer Great Balls of Fire Sweet Dreams Honkytonk Man

INTERNATONAL POLITICS Hotel Rwanda Gandhi Beyond Borders In My Country Salvador Life and Debt Yes Men

WWII (Pacific Theater) Appointment in Tokyo / Documentary The Battle of China / Documentary Empire Of The Sun Midway Pearl Harbor Black Sun Rising Bridge Over The River Kuai

OTHER CULTURES The Terminal Heaven and Earth 12 Angry Men Inherit the Wind Gung Ho Drug Wars Born Into Brothels Maria Full of Grace The Motorcycle Diaries 8 Mile

VIETNAM ERA Good Morning Viet Nam The Killing Fields Platoon Apocalypse Now Coming Home Born on the Fourth of July The Deer Hunter We Were Soldiers

Holistic English, The Revolution has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead 241 MIDDLE EAST Hidden Wars of Desert Storm Kandahar Not Without My Daughter Osama Syriana Uncovered Flight 93 SPORTS Million Dollar Baby In A League of their Own Cadyshack White Men Can’t Jump Bad News Bears Ice Princess Gridiron Gang Love and Basketball

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW 3RD The Paper Chase The Firm Disclosure Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Life and Debt North Country McLibel The Insider Working Girl Wall Street The Corporation Erin Brockovitch 12 Angry Men Inherit the Wind

CHAPTER EIGHT HOLISTIC ENGLISH AT A JOINT VENTURE INSTITUTION EDWIN ROESSLER AND PETER GRIGGS, THE COLLEGE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AT SHENYANG NORMAL UNIVERSITY

Introduction Throughout China, English is taught in four separate and disjointed classes: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. There is no link or common subject matter among the classes. The foreign teacher is retained, primarily, to handle the oral class to force1 speech production by chatting with the students. (Yes, there are exceptions, but we are speaking to the overall national situation at all levels of higher education throughout China. Yes, some foreigners do teach other than oral English. Yes, some foreigners are given teaching materials for oral English; however, those are the exceptions and they are few.) The Holistic English Program replaces oral English learning with an English conversation experience; replaces teachers with facilitators; replaces set phrase or speech pattern memorization with language acquisition; develops self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, and develops autonomous learners and creative thinkers; and replaces graduates who are unable to produce comprehensible English with those who can. There are Chinese beliefs such as: you learn English just like you learn any other subject; if you can speak English you can teach English; foreigners can just chat with Chinese students to improve their students’ 1 Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions

Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution

243

spoken English; English can be taught by Chinese speaking Chinese; and Chinese students will improve their oral English if forced to speak with a foreigner.2 Holistic English is simply taking one subject matter and using it for reading, listening, writing and voluntary3 speaking in one single class. It emphasizes comprehensible input through very entertaining movies in a friendly English speaking environment. It is all about language acquisition rather than language learning. It emphasizes input rather than output. Watching dictioned movies is different from the audio-lingual method because the subtitles enable the students to read and comprehend the movie, and the story of the movie makes learning a pleasurable entertainment which makes implicit learning or incidental learning of the vocabulary possible. This is a combination of both explicit learning and implicit learning, or intentional learning and incidental learning, or conscious learning and unconscious learning. Commencing with the 9/07 semester, Ed Roessler implemented the Holistic English program for his oral English classes at Shenyang Normal University’s College of International Business (SNU-CIB). CIB is a joint venture (JV).

The JV In 2002, Shenyang Normal University (SNU) of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, began a cooperative venture with Fort Hays State University (FHSU) of Fort Hays, Kansas, USA. The College of International Business (CIB, ᅢ㝷ၛᏟ㝌) offers American courses in business taught by Foreign Experts in English. Those courses are developed by FHSU professors and are accompanied by English textbooks, as well as online and classroom-oriented media. CIB is responsible for about half of the foreign teaching staff at the university.

2

The Comprehension Hypothesis claims that we acquire language by input, not by output, a claim is supported by studies showing no increase in acquisition with more output (Krashen, 2002b). Studies show, however, consistent increases in acquisition with more input. 3 Comprehensible input-based methods encourage speaking but do not force it. Students are not called on; rather, participation is voluntary.

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By most measures, the venture has been very successful. The three graduating classes thus far have either found employment or been accepted to graduate programs in China and abroad. In keeping with its non-traditional mandate, CIB offers three programs: classwork leading to an American degree from FHSU, a Chinese degree from SNU, or both. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_Normal_University accessed July 5, 2009

The Teachers

Edwin Roessler was born in Hartford, Wisconsin, USA. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin in 1978. He retired from a career with the US Government in 2003, and was appointed a “Foreign Expert” in China that same year, where he has continued to live and teach ever since.

Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution

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Peter Griggs 2006 - Present: Shenyang, China - Finance & Oral English instructor for Shenyang Normal University - College of International Business 1980 - 2005: Washington DC, USA - financial systems analysis for both government and private industry. Bachelor of Science, Highest Honors, Finance - University of Connecticut, USA

The Students Students who matriculate to CIB are categorized as “planned” and “unplanned”. The former are academically qualified to enter Shenyang Normal University, a 2nd tier university. Unplanned students are accepted to CIB’s FHSU-only degree program. CIB is composed of about 75% planned and 25% unplanned students. The academic range of the unplanned portion ranges from “best in the school” to tier 4-level accomplishment. At the end of each semester, all students are asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire. Although some of these students must be considered of mixed educational capability, they assessed their benefits from the Holistic English program in the medium to high range.

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Spring ’08 (Edwin Roessler) Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation

Graph 1 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline CIB at Shenyang Normal University

30 NUM BER OF STUDENTS

25 20

CONFIDENCE

15

MOTIVATION

10

DISCIPLINE

5 0 1

Graph 2

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution

247

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

World View – Business Knowledge CIB at Shenyang Normal University

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

World View Business Knowledge

1

2

3

4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9

10

Graph 3

Fall ‘08 (Peter Griggs) 100 freshmen students from 12 Provinces4 completed Holistic English 1 commencing in 9/08. At the end of the semester all 100 students filled out a questionnaire.

Fall ’08 Holistic English Freshmen I Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation &+$57)UHVKPHQ+(

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Graph 4 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline CHART #2 Freshmen HE 1 9/08 Confidence

Motivation

Self-Discipline

# o f stude nts

25 20 15 10 5 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Graph 5 World View CHART #3 Freshmen HE 1 9/'08 World View

# of students

25 20 15 10 5 0 1

Graph 6

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution

249

Spring ’09 (Peter Griggs) 152 freshmen students from 14 Provinces5 completed Holistic English 2 during the semester commencing 3/09. 52 students had not taken the prerequisite Holistic English 1 course which put them at a disadvantage. All 152 students filled out the questionnaire at the end of the semester.

Spring ’09 Holistic English Freshmen 2 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline &+$57)UHVKPHQ+( 9RFDEXODU\

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Graph 7

5 Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Shenyang, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin,

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Confidence – Motivation - Discipline

CHART #2 Freshmen HE 2 3/09 Confidence

Motivation

Self-Discipline

# o f s tu d e n ts

50 40 30 20 10 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Graph 8 World View CHART #3 Freshmen HE 2 3/'09 World View

# o f s tu d e n ts

40 30 20 10 0 1

Graph 9

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Holistic English at a Joint Venture Institution

251

Analysis 5% of the CIB students claim that they failed to receive any appreciable benefit from the Holistic English Program. This 5% figure is consistent with the 5% of unreachable and unteachable 2nd tier students at Guangxi University, 2nd tier students at Xinyang Normal University, 3rd tier students at Xinyang Agricultural College and 4th tier students at Xinyang Technical College and Yang En College.6 However, this is significantly higher than the 1.6 % of unreachable and unteachable postgraduate students at Sun Yat-sen University, a 1st tier university.7 The CIB students’ self-assessment indicates a perceived benefits level median of 8, across the board. This figure is consistent with the perceived benefits level median of 8 indicated by 2nd tier students at Guangxi University, 2nd tier students at Xinyang Normal University, 3rd tier students at Xinyang Agricultural College and 4th tier students at Xinyang Technical College and Yang En College.8 (CIB students are predominantly 2nd tier with some “unplanned” students at the 3rd and 4th tier levels.) The post-graduate students at Sun Yat-sen University claimed an overall perceived benefits level median of 9, across the board.9 It is noteworthy that Holistic English fulfills the oral English class while the students are also participating in the traditional reading, listening and writing classes. If the traditional classes were meeting the students’ academic English needs, then the Holistic English charts for reading, listening and writing would constitute nothing more than a flat line. Obviously the traditional courses are lacking something that the Holistic English Program provides. As the students’ self-assessments indicate, Holistic English is not just another oral English class. In addition to incorporating reading, listening 6

Qiang/Wolff/Teng (2009) CHINA EFL: The Revoluton Has Begun But The Long March Lies Ahead, Ch. 3 China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications 7 Wong/Wolff (2009) Holistic English: A Revolution – Not An Evolution, Ch. 5 China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications 8 Qiang/Wolff/Teng (2009) CHINA EFL: The Revoluton Has Begun But The Long March Lies Ahead, Ch. 3 China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications 9 Wong/Wolff (2009) Holistic English: A Revolution – Not An Evolution, Ch. 5 China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications

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and writing, the Holistic English Program has significant success in developing intrinsic motivation and self- confidence while improving selfdiscipline and expanding world view.

Conclusion The educational background and employment history of the teachers is fairly representative of the diversity of “Foreign Experts” recruited to teach oral English throughout China. An educational background in English, Literature, Linguistics, Education or Teaching is not required. Prior teaching experience is not required. With the exception of Dr. Niu Qiang, a Chinese National Psycholinguist and Dr. Wong Zhe, a Chinese National vice dean of the English teaching department at Sun Yat-sen University, none of the other participants in the development and testing of the Holistic English Program have any background in English, Literature, Linguistics, Education or Teaching. Each teacher has been free to utilize their own teaching methodology and style in the classroom.10 The students have ranged from China’s best at a 1st tier university to China’s lowest 4th tier level. The students represent 24 provinces and more than 125 undergraduate institutions of higher learning. Administrative support has ranged from indifference/tolerance to 100% , including financial.11 Yet, the students of Holistic English Program claim that it has delivered significant educational benefits, on a consistent basis, clearly indicating the efficacy of the program across a broad spectrum of students and diversity of teachers with varying degrees of administrative support. We will continue to teach the Holistic English Program whenever and wherever permitted.

10

Wolff (2009) China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications 11 Wolff (2009) China EFL: Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications

CHAPTER NINE CHINA EFL: A MARKET DRIVEN MODEL MARTIN WOLFF, PETROCHINA GUANGZHOU TRAINING CENTER

Abstract For at least the past 20 years, Chinese employers have utilized the national English examination, CET 6, as the benchmark for employment of Chinese university graduates with English L2 capabilities. Recently, some Chinese educators have begun to question the validity of CET 6 as an appropriate benchmark because it measures knowledge learned about English but does not adequately measure comprehensible output. PetroChina, the world’s largest company by capitalization and number of employees, has implemented the Holistic English Program at its Guangzhou Training Center to remedy the English deficiencies of its employees.

1. Introduction Although “English Fever” is running rampant throughout China and is claimed to be “market driven”; the rush to institute English learning nationwide, with more than 1,000,000 Chinese teachers of English who are themselves, for the most part, unable to produce comprehensible oral or written English or teach in the target language, has miserably failed to meet market needs. The goal of universities and colleges throughout China is to have students pass national English competency examinations such as TEM 4, CET 4 and CET 6. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that these national English competency examinations bear little or no relationship to comprehensible output, the pass rates have become the exclusive focus of administrative attention and false pride. This is in part

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due to demands of Chinese employers who are misinformed that passing CET 6 is the evidence of an accomplished English speaker1. Wang Shugua, President of Harbin Institute of Technology is quoted as saying “I recognize CET as a good tool to promote English studies but I am against the practice of regarding a CET certificate as the prerequisite for graduation, which is totally misleading.” He tried to eliminate the requirement for a CET certificate in order to graduate from HIT, but gave up without success. "I had to reconsider the usefulness of CET certificates in job hunting for our graduates. Almost all employers want their recruits to have a CET certificate, so I had to push my students to pass the CET for their good, although it is against my will,"2 The market need to have graduates who can produce comprehensible English output has been completely ignored. Consequently, foreign employers, Joint Venture employers and Chinese companies doing business abroad are hiring university graduates from India because they are better able to produce comprehensible oral and written English, than their Chinese counterparts. Imagine more than 5 million Chinese university graduates, who have learned English for 16 years, many of whom are being passed over for Chinese jobs in China. This is simply unacceptable! English is one of “the 10 most popular disciplines that saw low rates of employment last year.” 3 Chinese universities are under tremendous pressure to change curriculums to meet the needs of the job market. But instead, they are simply reducing enrollments in certain majors.4 "One of the reasons for the difficulty in university graduates finding employment is that they are unable to satisfy the needs of employers," he said. (Yang Weiguo, associate professor of Beijing-based

1

Yuankai, Tang, 9/6/07 Beijing Review, Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 2 Beijing Review., Education Feared to Raise Robots http://www.bjreview.com.cn/special/txt/2007-08/31/content_74644.htm (accessed July 10, 2008) 3 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/27/content_6799171.htm Beijing-based survey company Mycos HR 4 Hot courses' won't secure good jobs(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/china/national/2008-01/12/content_1239129.htm (accessed October 10, 2008)

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Renmin University) He said the universities needed to adjust their teaching methods and content quickly to conform to social development and demand.5 Both “in house” and private corporate English training centers are proliferating throughout the business hubs of China. The curriculum is usually industry specific and amounts to ESP (English for a specific purpose), i.e. the teaching of technical language and phrases to meet the perceived need to limit English communication to a standard or formal form of English related to a specific discipline such as medical English, legal English, architecture English, IT English, etc.. In August 2008, China Petroleum Guangzhou Training Center, (TC) an educational arm of PetroChina,6 implemented the Holistic English Program7 in an attempt to rectify the recognized deficiencies of the CET 4 and 6 certification. Holistic English is to English language learning what Chinese traditional medicine is to health care, a holistic approach. Holistic English moves away from the traditional focus on grammar and lexis. “While there is a need for specialist terminology, the greatest need of international employers is to have employees who can communicate successfully in English. Thus, communication and accommodation should be emphasized in language instruction; the mastering of perfect grammatical forms is an added bonus that can be reserved for later refinement. Flexibility is just as important as the mastering of prescribed forms, if not more so. In order to communicate across international boundaries, students must learn to adjust to their interlocutor in order to facilitate understanding. Moreover, because of the growing use of English as a global lingua franca, students of the language need to be exposed to a wide range of English accents in order to increase their abilities to understand the people they are likely to encounter in an international 5 20% university graduates fail to find jobs in 2007 (Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008) http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/239233.htm (Accessed October 1, 2008) 6 Petro China is the most valued company (by market capitalization - unless stock losses this year have changed that) in the world and Petro China and CNPC are both in the top 6 employers (by number) in the world. 7 Qiang/ Teng/Wolff 7/08, China EFL: A New Paradigm, Ch. 11 Education in China 21st Century Issues and Challenges, Nova Science Publications, New York (http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/new-paradigm.pdf ) Qiang/ Teng/Wolff (2008) In Press, CHINA EFL; HOLISTIC ENGLISH, The revolution has begun but the long march lies ahead. Nova Science Publishers, New York (http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/holistic-english-1.pdf and http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/holistic-english-2.pdf )

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career. Furthermore, it is not only formal but informal language skills that should be practiced at university; students should be made aware of the different genres and registers in English, so that they can determine the appropriate use of the language in the various situations in which they are likely to find themselves …. Finally, students should be taught skills that allow them to mediate between languages and cultures. Thus an intercultural approach is needed in language teaching, so that future employees are ‘able to view different cultures from a perspective of informed understanding’ (Corbett 2003:2)8 An approach that has the goal of successful intercultural communication at its core will prepare students for the relatively unpredictable needs of language use in corporate Europe.”9 All of the trainees of the center are college graduates. Some have and some have not passed the national CET 4 English examination while many had passed the more advanced CET 6 examination; but all were unable to produce adequate comprehensible English output to meet the needs of their current employment position or prospective overseas assignments. This paper presents the data collected and the conclusions drawn regarding the efficacy of the Holistic English Program in assisting the TC trainees with English acquisition sufficient to prepare them for their work assignments abroad where English L2 will be the primary mode of communication with other L2 speakers of English.

II. TC Institutional Goals and Objectives There is no written statement of the goals and objectives of the Training Center or the English department. There were no written statements of goals and objectives for any trainee group.

8

Corbett, J. 2003, An intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching, Clevedon & Buffalo: Multilingial Matters 9 Erling and Walton 2007, English at work in Berlin, English Today Volume 23 Number 1

GENDER

M M M F M F F M M M F

MARRIED

Y N N N Y N N N N N N

Chart #1

T R A I N E E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 N N N N N N N N N N N

CHILD

2003 / 30 2007 / 29 2006 / 25 2006 / 25 2004 / 28 2007 / 24 2007 / 24 2006 / 26 2004/ 27 2006 / 25 2006 / 26

DATE GRADUATED / AGE

Chem Commer Math B Eng Eng Eng Econ Ind Des Chem Geology Ocean E

MAJOR

Poor Good V Good Good Good Good Poor Good Poor Poor Poor

ENGLISH SELF-ASSES

4 4 6 6 6 6 4 4 4 4 4

CET

Group #1 Demographics (Four Month Program)

III. TC Trainee Demographics

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10 12 12 12 4 10 10 11 4 10 12

YEARS OF ENGLISH STUDY

Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N

PRIOR FOREIGN TEACHER

257

T R A I N E E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

258

GENDER

M F M

F F M M M M M M M M M F F M M M M

MARRIED

y y y

y n y y y y n n y n y n n y y n y

n n n n n n n Y y n y n n y n n y

n y y

CHI LD

2005/28 2006/25 2005/27 2005/29 1999/33 2005/26 2005/27 1991/42 1996/38 2005/26 1996/38 2003/28 2005/25 1999/29 2005/35 2004/26 2003/31

1997/34 1997/36 1998/34

DATE GRADUATED / AGE

Law English Engr Engr Explor Ind. Measure Logging Logging Mech Logging Int. trade Econ Mis Law Geophys Account

Machine Geology Geology

MAJOR

Good Good Poor Poor v. poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Good Good Good Good Poor Good Poor Good

Good Good Good

ENGLISH SELF-ASSES

6 4 6 6 n 4 6 4 4 4 4 6 6 4 6 4 4

4 6 6

CET

Group #2 Demographics (Six Month Program)

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10 4 15 16 8 8 8 10 15 5 22 10 8 7 9 5 14

4 24 10

YEARS OF ENGLISH STUDY

Y Y N N N N N N N N Y Y Y N Y Y Y

N N Y

PRIOR FOREIGN TEACHER

y

M

y

y n n n y y y n y y n n y n n n n y y

M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M F M M M

y n y y y y y n y y n n y y n n n y y

y n

F M

y n

Chart #2

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 1998/35

1988/43 2004/25 2004/27 2004/25 1995/35 1994/37 1993/37 2004/29 1995/38 1998/35 2003/29 2001/30 1997/34 2005/26 2004/28 2005/26 2005/27 1989/42 1993/36

1994/35 2007/27

Pet Eng

Pet Geology Env. Env Chem Admin Chem Welding Geology Chem Pet eng Chem Chem. G&O G&O Mktng Seismic Econ Material

Geophys Res dev

Poor

Poor Poor Poor v. poor Poor Poor Good Poor Poor Good Good Good Poor Poor Good Poor Poor v. poor Poor

Good Poor

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4

n 6 4 4 n n 4 n 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 4 n n n

4 6

10

7 8 10 10 6 7 10 10 20 20 10 11 15 10 10 10 10 1 9

10 8

N

N Y N N N Y N N N N N Y Y N Y N N N N

Y N

259

T R A I N E E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Chart #3

260

GENDER

M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M F F M

MARRIED

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

CH I LD

Chem Automation Power Inst Environment Petro Chem Mech Design Automation Mech Chem Molecule Petro Chem Tech Chem

1991/40 1986/44 1985/40 1995/36 1989/42 1991/39 1988/41 1989/41 1987/42 1969/41

MAJOR

1989/42 1982/49 1988/46 1985/45 1991/40 1986/46

DATE GRADUATED / AGE

Group #3 Demographics (One Month Program)

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Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor Poor

ENGLISH SELFASSESSMENT

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Group #4 Demographics (Six Month Program) UNAVAILABLE

IV. TC Curriculum Each group of employer selected trainees receives a leave of absence and becomes resident of the TC for the duration of the one month, three month or six month training program, whichever program has been selected by the employer, in coordination with and in consultation with the TC. The core TC curriculum consists primarily of: Culture and Language The course objectives of Culture and Language are to develop a systematic understanding of various world cultures and their inter-relationship to English as a global lingua franca. English Practice The course objectives of English Practice are to provide different opportunities to practice English output for realistic development. Audio-video The course objectives of Audio-video are to provide various audiovisual resources, to combine language acquisition and learning, so as to improve learners' linguistic and pragmatic ability. English for General Business Purposes The course objectives of English for General Business Purposes are to provide a basic introduction to all phases of business operations. Current Affairs The course objectives of Current Affairs are to improve reading comprehension, oral discourse and expand world view through the use of current news articles. Holistic English The course objectives of Holistic English are to build self-confidence, develop intrinsic motivation and create autonomous learners, while increasing business knowledge and expanding world view.

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None of the TC staff is well schooled in the difference between language learning and language acquisition.1 Therefore, creation of an English speaking environment remains elusive for many of the reasons previously 1 Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning, which is the product of real interactions between people where the learner is an active participant. It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge; develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communication and for the identification of cultural values. Teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen in a personal psychological plane. The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner. A classic example of language acquisition involves adolescents and young adults who live abroad for a year in an exchange program, attaining near native fluency, while knowing little about the language in the majority of cases. They have a good pronunciation without a notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but they intuitively recognize and know how to use all the structures. The concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the language through the application of intellect and logical deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and governed by a formal instructional plan with a predetermined syllabus. One studies the theory in the absence of the practical. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. There is little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. In the teaching of English in Brazil, for example, the student will study the function of the interrogative and negative modes, irregular verbs, modals, etc. The student learns to construct sentences in the perfect tense, but only learns with difficulty when to use it. It's a progressive and cumulative process, normally tied to a preset syllabus that includes memorization of vocabulary. It seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structure with its irregularities, its contrasts with the student's native language, knowledge that hopefully will produce the practical skills of understanding and speaking the language. This effort of accumulating knowledge becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language. Innumerable graduates with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning. They often are trained and theoretically able to teach a language that they can communicate in only with extreme difficulty. Krashen, Stephen D. (1981). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. English Language Teaching series. London: Prentice-Hall International (UK) Ltd.

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identified.2 However, on a campus challenged for adequate educational facilities, the leadership took the bold and creative step of utilizing an empty 3rd floor apartment to create an English coffee lounge to conduct a coffee hour every Friday afternoon from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.; a friendly environment for the trainees to meet and speak English with the foreign teachers, outside the classroom.3

V. TC Trainee Evaluation At the End of each program the trainees are given an evaluation form to render an opinion about each teacher. The trainees are not given an opportunity to render any opinion about the Training Center curriculum or leadership. The foreign teachers were not allowed to test the trainees at the end of any given program. However, personnel from CNPC, Beijing, did give special examinations to Group 2 and Group 3, without any knowledge of what the groups had been provided in terms of curriculum or training. Neither foreign teacher had been asked for a course syllabus or summary. The CNPC staff never spoke with the foreign teachers about the courses they had taught.

2

Qiang/Wolff (2008) China EFL: Why Chinese Universities do not Provide an English Speaking Environment, Education in China: 21st Century Issues and Challenges, Nova Science Publishers, New York (http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/china-efl2.pdf ) 3 An "English Corner" by any other name, including "Coffee Hour" is still an "English Corner." What is an "English Corner," where the foreign teachers' participation is required but the Chinese staff is absolved of any responsibility? It is simply a device whereby the Chinese staff can avoid any responsibility for helping to create an English speaking environment by pointing to the "English Corner" and saying "We have an English speaking environment because we have an English Corner." All responsibility for the creation of an English speaking environment is shifted to the foreign teachers, an impossible task without the active participation of the Chinese staff. China EFL: English Corner (9/08) Wolff, China EFL: Curriculum Reform, Nova Science Publishers, New York http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/china-efl-english-corner.pdf Why Chinese Universities Do Not Provide An English Speaking Environment (9/08) Qiang/Wolff, Current Politics and Economics of Asia, Volume 17 Issue 4 http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/china-efl2.pdf\

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The foreign teachers were never told the testing areas or test content. Neither were the foreign teachers ever advised of the test results by any administrator.

VI. Grading Policy Each group of trainees undergoes an intake evaluation to provide a basis for group assignment and a baseline for progress resulting from participation in the program.4 The final grade is based upon each trainee’s improvement in English comprehension and comprehensible output skills when measured against the intake evaluation. The intake evaluation is conducted in a friendly environment5 by the two foreign teachers with the entire project staff present as observers. The trainees fill out a demographics questionnaire that provides the basis for the informal interview. The group is sequestered in a separate room and brought into the evaluation room two at a time. When the interview is completed, the trainees remain in the interview room with absolutely no personal or mobile phone interaction with the trainees who are awaiting their interview. This insures that no trainee is able to have advance knowledge that will enable them to prepare and memorize responses for the forthcoming interview. The two foreign experts and the project manager record a value for each trainee’s oral comprehension and output. These evaluations are CHARTED in the Appendix. The final examination for the Holistic English course is usually conducted in the same manner as the intake interview. Class attendance, homework completion and class participation are requirements for qualification to participate in the final exam and play no role in determining the final grade. The final grade is based upon an assessment of self-confidence, word choice, sentence structure, question comprehension, response time and overall output comprehensibility, when measured against the intake evaluation for progress during the TC program. 4

For years this process consisted of an on camera interview under the glaring lights in a TV studio. Hardly an environment conducive to encouraging English output from an L2 speaker. 5 The intake evaluation was previously conducted as an oral English test in a television studio with overhead theatrical lighting and a camera in their face, a rather intimidating environment.

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Unfortunately, the foreign teachers were forbidden to administer any final examination to any trainee group. The foreign teachers have absolutely no idea how any final grades were determined.

VII. English Speaking Environment Creating an English Speaking Environment (ESE) is no simple task. Each campus is unique and must be assessed independently. The campus evaluation should include an evaluation of five factors: 1. Physical facilities; 2. Chinese staff; 3. Students; 4. Campus support staff such as bus drivers, cooks, librarians, etc.; and 5. On campus residents and their families. Each factor is unique on each campus and defies any single formula for creating an ESE. The following is an evaluation conducted for the PetroChina Guangzhoiu Training Center: When contemplating the creation of an English speaking environment, the proper definition must be kept in mind: There are two required elements to a proper ESE. A proper ESE is one where the students are inundated with comprehensible English input and where it is easier to communicate in English rather than in the native Putonghua. An English speaking environment is defined as: "An environment where English is the dominant language." Or, "an environment where people are compelled to speak English”.6 The conversion of a Chinese speaking environment at a school located in China to an English speaking environment at a school, located in China, is a monumental task akin to eating an elephant.

6 Creating Authentic Dialog: ESL Students as Recipients of Service Learning, Stephanie Marlow, Boise State University ( Boise , Idaho , USA ) “An environment where authentic dialog with native English speakers occurs on a regular basis presents ESL students with the possibility to grow both linguistically and socially” . http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Marlow-ServiceLearning.html

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Chapter Nine The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The transformation of a Chinese speaking environment to an English speaking one must be accomplished one step at a time. In designing an English speaking environment there are two major resources in play. There is the physical facility and the people. Both resources play an equally important role. The facility must impress the casual visitor with the fact that it is an English speaking and training facility. Everywhere you go and everything you see on campus should remind you to speak English. This begins with a western style STOP sign on both sides of the entrance gate and bilingual signage everywhere on campus, buildings to street names. Even the sign on the mango tree warning against picking should be bilingual. Since the hotel is on campus, it must be included. Every room of every building should encourage speaking English. However, the signage would not be my first priority. My first priority would be something that is most impressionable, has the highest cost effectiveness, reaches the most people constantly and has an unforgettable and unavoidable impact. (At Xinyang Agricultural College the first priority was a video wall in the main square that would play English movies with English subtitles every night to the entire college community. During the day it would play English news. The square is crossed regularly by 90% of the college community, several times a day.) If I had the authority, power and money, my first transformation project at the training center would be as follows; Purchase 5 flat screen TVs and permanently tune each one to a different English news channel. TV #1 and #2 – locate on the second floor of the campus cafeteria, one in each room. TV #1 tuned to BBC news. TV #2 tuned to CNN news (These channels are available through local cable service) TV #3 and #4 should be located on the first floor of the campus cafeteria. TV #3 should be tuned to Al Jazeera English news TV #4 should be tuned to Russian TV English news. (These channels are available through a 1,000- rmb satellite dish.) Al Jazeera extensively covers the Middle East and Africa, both destinations for our trainees. Russian TV covers the Russia, the former

China EFL: A Market Driven Model Soviet Union block and the “…stan” countries bordering China and to which our trainees are assigned. TV #5 should be located in the 1st floor lobby of the teaching building and should be tuned to CCTV 9 International. The sound on all sets should be set just above the din but not so loud as to be intrusive beyond the target audience. The first thing people entering the teaching building would hear is English and the last thing they hear before leaving would be English. People waiting for the elevators would have the opportunity to watch and hear English, great preparation for their further activity on upper floors. The 4 TVs in the cafeteria should be available throughout the work day and not just during the meals. People should be able to watch anytime they have spare time or leisure time. Subsequently I would want to create an English reading room that contains free choice English reading materials exclusively. These should not be academic reading materials but general interest and at varying English levels. For instance, the newspapers should include China Daily, Shanghai Star, 21st Century, South China morning Post etc. Magazine should include Marvel Comics, 16, Ms. Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Modern Mechanics, P.C., Auto trends, Home and Garden, better house and Garden, Vogue etc. Books should include romance novels, mysteries, detective stories, BUT NOT THE CLASSICS. A video library should be available with English movies and English subtitles or no subtitles, BUT NO CHINESE SUBTITLES. An English karaoke room should be established where everyone can enjoy singing English songs BUT NO CHINESE SONGS. All computers and sound labs must have English programming NOT CHINESE. The computers can add Chinese language capability to the English programming so that communications may be prepared in a bilingual format. The above is my preliminary assessment of the facility needs of primary importance. It is not intended as an exhaustive list. Then we must have a comprehensive plan to deal with the human resource on campus. These must be divided into faculty and staff, service workers and incidental people. Two separate plans will be required.

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Chapter Nine The faculty and staff will require mini-seminars on language learning versus language acquisition, immersion, how to create an English speaking environment. They will need to learn their importance in creating an English speaking environment. The service staff (bus drivers, hotel clerks, to cafeteria waitresses) may need basic English courses. Then there are the incidental people. One large segment of this group is the children who live on campus. I would suggest, at the very least, a Saturday morning English cartoon hour where the parents can take their babies and young children and older children can attend on their own. Another large segment of incidental people are the spouses who live on campus. I would suggest that every on campus home be provided with English TV channels. The third and lowest of my priorities would be English activities such as speech contests, debates etc. Such activities are English speaking opportunities but do not create the English speaking environment and are least important. An English corner is a tacit admission that there is no English speaking environment so a special time for speaking English is set aside. And then it is relegated to a “corner” not the center. The above are my preliminary ideas after spending a few days on campus and speaking with numerous staff and students. The above is not intended to be exhaustive and the staff and faculty should be encouraged to give input. Make them partners in the transition work and they will be more willing participants.

Trainees added the following suggestions for creating an ESE: English movies in dorm by closed circuit TV – no Chinese TV Bi-lingual signage on campus English electronic sign on Hotel English music on Public Address system Bi-lingual food signs in cafeteria Cafeteria staff should speak basic English Ability to check out English books from library English magazines such as fashion, beauty care, home decoration, new autos, popular mechanics etc. Speech contest

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Campus radio station should be all English Saturday or Sunday English Movie Theater Every classroom should have English signage

VIII. First Bite of the Elephant Assuming the threshold decision has been made to try creating an ESE, step, by step, what is the first step? Again, there is no single simple answer for every situation. The following is the first step taken at the PetroChina Training Center. Yesterday the foreign teachers (t1 and T2) convened a special staff meeting with all of the Chinese staff in attendance. This was a first for me. I mean I have never heard of the foreign teachers successfully demanding a staff meeting nor have I ever heard of 100% attendance at any staff meeting. The Chinese Dean, being fully aware of the meeting agenda, approved of the meeting. A foreign teacher (T1) presented a complaint received from several students. “The Chinese staff does not speak to us in English outside the classroom.” The foreign teacher pointed out that we are teaching English majors in an English program and are employed by an English department. He also pointed out that all of the staff has very good English skills and there is no apparent reason for the staff not communicating in English outside the classroom. We then listened to an hour of excuses. Another foreign teacher (T2) was called upon for comments. He walked to the front of the room wearing a red baseball cap with yellow letters that read “SPEAK ENGLISH.” He just stood there for two minutes until the laughter died down. Then he turned his back, took off the red cap and replaced it with a black cap. He then removed his outer shirt to reveal a black undershirt that read “ENGLISH ONLY” on the back. More laughter. Then he whirled around displaying the front of the shirt and the cap, both of which read “ENGLISH POLICE.” Both hands were cocked like pistols and he yelled “WE ARE SERIOUS.” Then all of the foreign teachers displayed their black shirts and caps. After the laughter died down, it was explained that every week arrest warrants would be issued for teachers who spoke to students in Chinese outside the classroom. Then the room went very silent. It was explained that every week a letter would be sent to the President identifying those teachers who were hindering student development by refusing to speak to

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Chapter Nine students in English outside the classroom. Then every teacher was issued a red cap. Everyone put their cap on and agreed that they needed to speak to the students in English outside the classroom. The next morning, as the Chinese teachers went to their classrooms without their red caps, they were met by a room full of students wearing red caps reminding the teachers to “SPEAK ENGLISH.” The teachers were very surprised and taken aback. The students explained that they refused to speak with any teacher who spoke to them in Chinese. Within two weeks an administrative edict was handed down that the foreign teachers were prohibited from any further activity directed at creating an ESE.

IX. Conclusions Language acquisition occurs when there is comprehensible input in a friendly environment. The TC administration rebuffed all suggestions from T1 and T2 to create a friendly acquisition environment7 and ordered T1 and T2 to terminate their efforts to create an English Speaking Environment.8 T1 and T2 were 7

China EFL: Why Chinese Universities do not provide an English Speaking Environment http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/china-efl2.pdf 8 CHINA EFL: English Corner http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/englishcorner-china-efl.pdf

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instructed to create English speaking opportunities such as English Corner, English Speaking Contests, holiday parties etc. The corporate ledgers expense the Training Center as an educational item but it would be more intellectually honest to expense it as a corporate retreat; a place where select employees go for R & R under the guise of continuing education. It may be politically incorrect for PetroChina to give its employees paid vacations without the veil of legitimacy provided by a continuing educational experience. The TC perpetuates the English learning for test taking mentality. What makes anyone believe that 4 or 6 months more of the same teaching and English activities, methodology that has failed China for the past 25 years, will suddenly produce English speakers? If it did not work over 16 years, why will it suddenly work in 4 or 6 additional months? There is no magical solution. The trainees must read more, listen more, write more and speak more English outside the classroom. They must become autonomous learners. To make this transformation, they must increase their selfconfidence, develop intrinsic motivation, and proceed in a productive manner. Currently, the trainees are not given this opportunity at the TC. From a western human resource management, business management or educational management perspective, there is no logical or rational basis for the helter-skelter management of groups 2, 3 and 4.. Nor is there any excuse for a complete lack of stated goals and objectives. PetroChina is arguably the most important company in the world today. It is the largest by capitalization and number of employees. It maintains three training centers in Beijing, Dalian and Guangzhou. These centers are in competition with each other for the training groups. This may be the reason the Guangzhou center panders to the every whim of all PetroChina leaders and trainees without regards to real educational goals and objectives. A rigid academic program may send trainees home bad mouthing the center and future groups may be inclined to choose the Beijing or Dalian center. It may be a matter of survival to send the trainees home with a smile on their face and a good report, even if they learned nothing. Lee Iocca, former Chairman of Chrysler Corporation, advised administrators to “Lead, follow or get out of the way.” The administrators of the English

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Department of PetroChina Guangzhou Training Center are not competent to lead, refuse to follow, and block the way. .

The Appendix data clearly establishes that the trainees appreciated and benefitted from the Holistic English Program.

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APPENDIX SUMMER GROUP 2008

PROJECT TEAM Agatha Chen Bai Yu, B.A. Project Leader; Garry Huang Zhi Yong, B.A.; Crystal Xu Hai Jing, B.A.; Laura Lian Song Qing, B.A.; Herbert Png Xuanchun, MBA; Martin Wolff, J.D. TRAINEES The summer group consisted of 11 Da Gang Oil Field company employees selected for further English training in a three and one-half month program. The group consisted of six women and five men, ages ranging from 23 to 48. All trainees had graduated from a Chinese university and had studied English for at least 12 years. FOREIGN TEACHERS A 26 year old male L2 speaker from Singapore with one year teaching experience in China (T1) and a 60 year old male native of the USA with six years teaching experience in China (T2). T1 taught six periods per week of “Culture and Language” using teaching materials gathered from internet sources. T2 joined the teaching staff with only three weeks remaining in the project term. T2 taught 6 periods each week from Holistic English Book I. In the third and final week of the project, T2 was asked to teach all 6 periods, every day. When inquiry was made regarding the goals and objectives of the group program, it was disclosed that the trainees were at the training center as a “reward and for R & R.” There were no identified educational goals or objectives.

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Group #1 (Commencing September 8, 2008) PROJECT TEAM Laura Lian Song Qing, B.A. Project Leader; Garry Huang Zhi Yong, B.A.; Dean Heather He Li Ling, B.A.; Hatty Xu Shu Xian; Eleana Xu Xiao Wen; Agatha Chen Bai Yu; Lili Li Li Ling; Jenny Wang Jun Hong; Herbert Png Xuanchun, MBA; Martin Wolff, J.D. TRAINEES Group #1 consisted of 11 Da Gang Oil Field company employees selected for further English training in a three and one-half month program. The group consisted of four women and seven men, ages ranging from 24 to 30. All trainees had graduated from a Chinese university and had studied English for 4 to 12 years. Only 6 of the Trainees had ever previously had a foreign teacher. 7 of the trainees had passed CET 4 and 4 had passed CET 6. The trainees were evaluated by their Chinese employer as being “excellent” speakers of English. FOREIGN TEACHERS A 26 year old male L2 speaker from Singapore with one year teaching experience in China (T1) and a 60 year old male native of the USA with six years teaching experience in China (T2). T1 taught six periods per week of “Culture and Language” using teaching materials gathered from internet sources. T2 taught six periods per week of “Holistic English” using the Holistic English Workbook series, modified for the specific three and one-half month program. Immediately prior to commencing the teaching program, the foreign teachers conducted an intake interview of each trainee and evaluated their English comprehension and oral communication ability. The trainees themselves (Section III above) gave a fairly accurate self-assessment of their English capabilities that is consistent with the foreign teachers’ evaluation. CHART #4 reflects the English skills evaluation of each trainee by both foreign teachers and the project manager.

China EFL: A Market Driven Model

TRAINEE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

T1 45 55 75 75 65 65 60 60 60 60 55

T2 75 80 95 92 90 90 75 80 75 75 70

275

PM 65 70 85 90 85 85 70 70 70 65 60

Chart #5 The foreign teachers did not evaluate a single trainee as an “excellent” speaker of English. The employer’s criteria for determining that this was a group of “excellent” English speakers, is unknown. The trainees themselves (Section III above) gave a fairly accurate self-assessment of their English capabilities that is consistent with the foreign teachers’ evaluation. The Holistic English Program commenced on time and the trainees completed Book I and Book II of the four book Holistic English Program. With the exception of trainee #2 who was absent twice, the remainder of the trainees had a perfect attendance record and completed most of their homework.

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Trainee Evaluation *URXS,

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Chart 6 Group I

# of s tudents

5 4

CONFIDENCE

3

MOTIVATION

2

DISCIPLINE

1 0 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

10 = GREATEST HELP

Chart 7

8

9

10

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Group I

# o f s tu d e n ts

5 4 3

World View

2

Business

1 0 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10 = GREATEST HELP

Chart 8

Trainee Suggestions for Program Improvement The group suggested the following campus improvements: 1. Create English speaking environment 2. More foreign teachers and less Chinese teachers 3. Improve food quality On the last day of the program T2 evaluated the trainees’ English proficiency as follows:

Chart #10

TRAINEE

T1

T2

PM

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

45 55 75 75 65 65 60 60 60 60 55

75 80 95 92 90 90 75 80 75 75 70

65 70 85 90 85 85 70 70 70 65 60

Project End 85 75 95 95 94 94 80 80 80 75 75

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Group #2 (Commencing September 16, 2008) PROJECT TEAM Eleana Xu Xiao Wen,B.A. Project Leader; Heather He Li Ling; Garry Huang Zhi Yong; Agatha Chen Bai Yu; Jenny Wang Jun Hong; Crystal Xu Hai Jing; Lily Li Li Ling; May Qiu Mei Xin; Herbert Png Xuanchun, MBA; Martin Wolff, J.D. TRAINEES Group #2 consisted of 42 company employees selected for further English training in a six month program. The group consisted of 7 women and 35 men, ages ranging from 25 to 43. All trainees had graduated from a Chinese university and had studied English for 1 to 24 years. Only 15 of the Trainees had ever previously had a foreign teacher. 17 of the trainees had passed CET 4; 13 had passed CET 6; and 7 had not passed either CET 4 or 6. FOREIGN TEACHERS A 26 year old male L2 speaker from Singapore with one year teaching experience in China (T1) and a 60 year old male native of the USA with six years teaching experience in China (T2). T1 taught six periods per week of “Culture and Language” using teaching materials gathered from internet sources. T2 taught six periods per week of “Holistic English” using the Holistic English Workbook series, modified for the specific three and one-half month program. Immediately prior to commencing the teaching program, the foreign teachers and the project manager (PM) interviewed each trainee and evaluated their English comprehension and oral communication ability. The trainees themselves (Section III above) gave a fairly accurate selfassessment of their English capabilities that is consistent with the foreign teachers’ and PM’s evaluation. CHART #6 reflects the English skills evaluation of each individual trainee by both foreign teachers and the PM.

China EFL: A Market Driven Model TRAINEE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

T1

T2

PM

60 65 60

60 70 70

55 65 60

70 55 55 55 50 50 50 50 55 65

80 80 60 80 50 65 65 65 65 80

70 60 55 65 50 60 50 55 55 65

TRAINEE 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

T1 70 80 80 70 75 75 75 75 70

T2 85 90 85 70 85 80 75 75 65

PM 70 90 85 70 75 80 70 75 65

70 65 65 60 60

80 75 75 65 60

70 65 70 60 55

TRAINEE 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

279 T1 60 70 65 60 70 65 70 70 70 75 70 55 55 55

T2 60 80 75 60 75 85 80 70 70 85 60 60 55 65

PM 55 75 70 60 70 70 70 75 70 70 55 55 55 55

50

60

55

Chart # 11 Based upon the intake evaluations, written examinations and other considerations, the trainees were divided into 2 preliminary groups for Phase I of the program, approximately 4 weeks. T1 and T2 had no input into this selection and assignment process. Those highlighted in grey were assigned to Group A and the remainder were assigned to group B, with Group A immediately commencing the Holistic English course. Group B was initially scheduled for four weeks of remedial English before commencing the Holistic English program. T2 was asked to show two movies each week. T2 advised that the Holistic English Program was designed for one movie every two weeks and that the trainees did not have sufficient English language capabilities to handle two movies each week. T2 was instructed to show one movie each week. When T2 requested that the movies be shown on Friday evening he was informed that was impossible because the building was closed and unavailable on Friday evenings. At the end of three weeks, Group A requested more class time to discuss the movies. The Project Manager unilaterally decided to have the trainees watch the movies on their own time, on their personal laptop computers. (There was no consultation or discussion with T2.) However, the class time previously used to watch the movies was cancelled and there was no increase in the discussion time. When T2 explained the realities of this change to the trainees, they demanded that the prior schedule be reinstated and it was.

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The trainees also requested a free choice movie be shown every Friday evening. This request was rebuffed. Access to a multi-media classroom was denied, as was a request to fund either an outdoor movie theater or a video wall. However, with the commencement of week five, T2 was not assigned to teach Holistic English to Group B and Group A was removed from the Holistic English Program over the strenuous objections of the trainees. The Project Manager explained that the group had to concentrate on learning how to pass an examination. Upon termination of the Holistic English Program T2 was instructed to simply show an English movie every Wednesday evening, with no preparation, introduction or post-viewing discussion. T2 explained that this was a mere projectionist job and the trainees would receive no educational or language acquisition benefit from watching movies they would not understand. T2 provided all leaders and staff with a copy of a previously published article that disparaged this use of movies for babysitting purposes.9 T1 and T2 were not allowed to give any final examination or to evaluate the progress of the trainees during their four weeks of instruction. TRAINEE EVALUATION With the abrupt and premature termination of the Holistic English Program, the trainees were asked the following question: “How do you feel about the termination of the Holistic English Program?” The following are representative and unedited trainee responses: Trainee # A It is regretted that the Holistic English lessons are taken away from our training course. After having more than one month’s Holistic English lessons, I found them valuable and had some ideas about them. …

9

“China EFL: The Use of Movies To Teach English” (4/07) Qiang/Teng/Wolff, English Today Vol. 23 No. 2 Cambridge University Press

China EFL: A Market Driven Model In fact, you are the best foreign teacher I have ever met. I am impressed by the effort you have made for us. So do other trainees. If you knew we have ever tried to have you back our classroom, you would learn how much we like you. Trainee # B Thank you for your E-mails. I admire your work passion. Many foreign friends around me performence actively in their work. I always deeply impressed by them. I have received both the E-mails concerning Holistic English. Because I was busy in English study and felt it's difficult to express my thoughts clearly, I didn't reply it when I received the first E-mail. But I think it better to reply. You do need some information form students, especially your chinese students. I hard to say in simple words why chinese student are not good at englishi even after years of diligent study. Many reason contribute to the pity results. Such as: 1. Chinese people don't like change. Just as you mentioned. They prefer Chinese than English. 2. English isn't our offical language, there is a lack of wide English circumstance and practices in our daily life. 3. Chinese education system is not a successful one. Every one knows it. We are still study in a test-oriented environment: Study is just study, to pass the test is the only goal. All our knowledge is in the book and text papers, not our brain. But it couldn't be changed overnight, though we all hate it. However, it is not so disappointed. We chinese are like to adapt new condition, though the change is very slow. Most chinese student are diligence. They can take a great progress if they get more chances. I agreet thatf foreign teachers can help us. If I can often communicate with foreign friends,I can improve my listening and speaking at least. So it is very regreted that the Holistic English was cancelled. To the other hand, it's a hard decision to the Center. They must obey the superior and assure the test pass rate, or they will face a even hard situation. I do understand your feeling. Both of you did your best and perfomence excellently. I wish I can learn more from you.

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Chapter Nine English and Chinese are both culture. The different culture's mutual understand and compromise are difficult and a long-term progress. Despite such sad time, there are many pleasure in our life. We also can do something to make it better. Just lookahead. An old saying:"when in Rome do as the Romans do ". What do you think about it? Maybe doing these can make you happier. Thank you again! Wish you have a good time. Best Regards! Yours sincerely Trainee # C I am very diappointed too, I think hollistic english is very helpful for my english acquisition, it makes me feel easy and free in english learning. But we have no choice! Anyway thank you very much for communicating wiht us! Trainee # D I hope you are very well. I want to talk my view on holistic English this e-mail. Language acquisition is much better than language learning. It is the best way to master a language,and children learn their native language this way. Holistic English which you are carrying on is really good for language acquisition. Yes, there are lots of difficulties to create holistic English. Such as: 1.after class,students or trainees would rather speak Chinese than English, because it is easier to communicate each other. 2. There is few conditions for English. 3.it is impossible to create an English environment successfully. All these difficulties which you have anticipated are not strange. It doesn't mean we can't overcome it. You have been doing a lot for it: the huts ,the banners... One day in the future, all the people in the campus are speak English. It becomes the most famous English training center of non-English speak countrise. How wonderful that day is! Now , it is just a beginning. The way is long and rough, let us try our best together! So my view on how to create a English environment is perseverance, like Coach Carter. We love Coach Carter, we love you!

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We appreciate what you did, what you are doing and what you will do for us. If there is any mistakes in my the e-mail, please forgive me. That is not my intention.

Group #3 (Commencing November 5, 2008) PROJECT TEAM Dean Heather He Li Ling, B.A. Project Leader; Eleana Xu Xiao Wen, B.A.; Agatha Chen Bai Yu, B.A.; May Qiu Mei Xin, B.A.; Garry Huang Zhi Yong, B.A.; Laura Lian Song Qing, B.A.; Margaret Xia Ying; Francis Chen; Herbert Png Xuanchun, MBA; Martin Wolff, J.D. TRAINEES Group #3 consisted of 18 “experts” defined as managers and other technical experts of high rank or position in the company. FOREIGN TEACHERS A 26 year old male L2 speaker from Singapore with one year teaching experience in China (T1) and a 60 year old male native of the USA with six years teaching experience in China (T2). Immediately prior to commencing the teaching program, the foreign teachers interviewed each trainee and evaluated their English comprehension and oral communication ability. The trainees themselves (Section III above) gave a fairly accurate self-assessment of their English capabilities that is consistent with the foreign teachers’ evaluation. CHART #8 reflects the English skills evaluation of each individual trainee by both foreign teachers and the PM.

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TRAINEE

T1

T2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Chart #11

45 20 65 60 70 55 NA 60 55 60 60 NA 50 55 65 0 20 60

15 5 35 25 55 15 NA 60 40 45 50 NA 25 25 60 0 10 65

PROJECT MGR *

NA

NA

* The Project Manager never provided an evaluation.

At the commencement of the program for this group T2 was informed that Holistic English would not be offered. T2 was informed that he would show an English movie every Monday, Wednesday and Friday10 evening, with no introduction and no homework before watching the movie and no discussion of the movie afterwards. T2 complained that this was a mere projectionist job and the trainees would receive no educational or language acquisition benefit from watching movies they would not understand. T2 provided all leaders and staff with a copy of a previously published article that disparaged this use of movies for babysitting purposes.11 T2 violated the admonition against providing an introduction to the movies and gave a 10 minute introduction to the first three movies.

10

Permission to show movies on Friday evening had previously been denied because the building was locked and unavailable. 11 “China EFL: The Use of Movies To Teach English” (4/07) Qiang/Teng/Wolff, English Today Vol. 23 No. 2 Cambridge University Press

China EFL: A Market Driven Model

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At the end of the third movie the trainees asked T2 why he was assigned to technical work that others were capable of performing. They further inquired if T2 was also a teacher. Previous to showing the 4th movie, T2 was informed that the trainees were complaining about two of their classes. They were not pleased with their oral English class and they were unhappy that they only played games, like kindergarteners, in another class. The trainees demanded that T2 teach them oral English. Consequently T2 was asked to teach one hour of oral English every morning. T2 declined. T2 requested a class schedule that would allow utilization of the Holistic English Program. In addition to showing an English movie every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening, T2 was assigned to two hours every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoon from 2:30 p.m. to 430 p.m. for movie discussion. The Holistic English Program was designed for one movie every two weeks but this new schedule called for three movies each week. T2 advised that the trainees had an insufficient English language capability to handle such an intense schedule. In the second week of the program T2 was asked to prepare 10 hours of business management lectures for the last two days of the program. T2 sourced resource materials from abroad and invested 60 hours preparing a power point presentation. One week prior to the scheduled presentation, T2 was informed that the business management lecture was cancelled in favor of a special test to be administered by CNPC staff from Beijing. T2 was dealt with in a most cavalier manner that showed great disrespect and a complete lack of modern human resource management practices. At the end of the program, the groups monitor and two other group members invited T1 and T2 to dinner. The monitor apologized for the poor treatment the foreign teachers had received by the Training Center leadership. On the last day of the program T2 evaluated the trainees’ progress as follows:

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TRAINEE

T1

T2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Chart #12

45 20 65 60 70 55 NA 60 55 60 60 NA 50 55 65 0 20 60

15 5 35 25 55 15 NA 60 40 45 50 NA 25 25 60 0 10 65

PROJECT END 55 5 75 25 85 75 5 70 70 70 80 90 55 55 90 0 15 85

Trainees # 2, 7, 16 and 17 showed no interest in improving their English and their attendance was sporadic. The remainder of the trainees had a perfect attendance record and completed most of their homework.

Group #4 (Commencing April 20, 200912) PROJECT TEAM Eleana Xu Xiao Wen, B.A. Project Leader; Jenny Wang Jun Hong; Garry Huang Zhi Yong, B.A.; Martin Wolff, J.D. (The remainder of the staff assigned to this project are unknown because three requests to identify the team members were ignored.)

12

On March 1, 2009 it was rumored that a new group of trainees would arrive March 20, 2009. As of March 18, 2009 there was no confirmation that a group was even coming and there was no teaching assignment or schedule available.

China EFL: A Market Driven Model

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TRAINEES Group #4 consisted of 70 company mid-level managers 57 of whom were selected for further English training in a six month program. The group consisted of 4 women and 66 men, ages ranging from 35 to 41. All trainees had graduated from a Chinese university and had studied English for up to 16 years. 11 of the trainees had passed TEM 4; 38 had passed CET 4; 4 had passed CET 6; and 8had not passed TEM 4, CET 4 or CET 6. FOREIGN TEACHERS A 60 year old male native of the USA with seven years teaching experience in China (T2). (A 26 year old male L2 speaker from Singapore with one year teaching experience in China (T1) was terminated March 1, 2009 due to a global economic crisis.) T3 is a middle aged woman from Russia who teaches Russian language. Three weeks prior to commencement of the program, the Project Leader met with F1 to work out an appropriate teaching schedule and to make certain teaching materials were prepared well in advance. This was a welcomed departure from the previous management style of - edict handed down from on high. However, in the ensuing three weeks, the schedules for the welcoming ceremony, intake interview, group photo and orientation class changed no fewer than 5 times. The helter skelter management style resurfaced and put the complete program on an unfortunate footing. T2 was asked to prepare a 4 minute welcome speech for the opening ceremony but half way through the Chinese language ceremony, and quite by accident, T2 discovered his welcome speech had been intentionally deleted from the program without any notification. The welcome ceremony was all in Chinese, with a Chinese welcome banner. Although the Training Center refuses to spend any money creating an English Speaking Environment, all of the Chinese staff and trainees were outfitted in custom made military style uniforms and every trainee had a professional identification name plate on the desk before them, in Chinese. The justification for the military type uniforms was the desire to create a military type training atmosphere at the Training Center because these trainees were going abroad and needed to be prepared for terrorist

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activities. This military type training atmosphere is the antithesis to a 2nd language acquisition environment. Later it was discovered that the trainees were even issued military camouflage exercise uniforms. (Not bad for an institution that refused to spend one single rmb creating an English speaking environment.) The foreign teachers were excluded from the intake interview, which reverted to a formal test format. The foreign teachers had no input into the class assignments or student composition of any class. The Dean prohibited a minimal attempt to create an English speaking environment suggested by the Catering Manager. T2 was given a teaching schedule that required viewing a 2 ½ hr movie in 1 ½ hours, an impossibility. Nine days into the program and the staff had not determined which trainees would study Russian language and which would participate in Holistic English. Sixty-seven trainees were instructed to participate in the first Holistic English class but only 64 attended. At the end of the first class, which started thirty minutes late due to administrative error, eight of the trainees asked if they could continue in the Holistic English Program even if they were assigned to learn Russian. Imagine someone learning Russian while acquiring English in a military type learning environment. During the first orientation class only 12 of the trainees were able to correctly complete a simple demographics questionnaire.13

13 INDIVIDUAL DEMOGRAPHICS CHINESE NAME: _______________ ENGLISH NAME ________________ DATE OF BIRTH ________________ GENDER: ______ MARRIED: _____ YES ______ NO CHILD: _____BOY ______ GIRL DATE OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATION ____________ UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR ____________________________ I HAVE PASEED: TEM 4 ______ YES ______ NO CET 4 ______ YES ______ NO CET 6 ______ YES ______ NO MY CURRENT JOB TITLE IS - __________________________________ I HAVE WORKED FOR MY CURRENT EMPLOYER FOR _______ YEARS. MY HOME PROVINCE IS - _______________________ I CURRENTLY WORK IN THE CITY OF - ________________________

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Nineteen days into the program it was finally conveyed that 57 trainees would participate in the Holistic English Program. The staff steadfastly refused to speak to the trainees in English in the dining hall or other locations on campus outside of the classroom. For the most part, the trainees spoke Chinese when entering the classroom, spoke Chinese as soon as the class was over, and when in their small discussion groups they spoke Chinese when they thought the teacher could not hear them. They would even joke, “Speak English, the professor is here.” The conversation classes were assigned to room 202 even though rooms 203 and 204 (which the foreign teacher decorated at his own unreimbursed expense, specifically for Holistic English) were not being used. When inquiry was made as to why room 203 could not be used, the reply was “Room 202 is our room.” This room assignment was changed after the trainees were made aware of the situation. However, after gaining entry to room 203 it was discovered that the administration had placed new Chinese signs on the front wall. Demands for removal were ignored. Although the Training Center has two theaters where the trainees could watch the movies in a relaxed atmosphere, the administration insisted that the movies be shown in a learning classroom where only half of the trainees could actually see the movie and read the subtitles. There was a total lack of appreciation for the principles of 2nd language acquisition and a complete disregard for any expert advice.

I HAVE VISITED OR WORKED IN THE FOLLOWING FOREIGN COUNTRIES MY CURRENT JOB DUTIES ARE - MY ENGLISH IS: VERY POOR _______ POOR _______ GOOD _______ AVERAGE _______ VERY GOOD _______ EXCELLENT _______ I HAVE STUDIED ENGLISH FOR ______ YEARS.

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The administration, following traditional English pedagogy,14 divided the 57 trainees into 3 groups: One group of 17 trainees with very poor English ability; one group of 20 trainees with poor English ability; and one group of 20 trainees with “good” English capability. The advice of T2 to create 2 groups with mixed English capability was ignored. The administration seemed determined to ignore modern 2nd language acquisition pedagogy and methodology. No English Department administrator at the Training Center has any degree higher than a B.A. from a 3rd or 4th tier college yet they refuse expert advice from someone with a much higher degree and many years of practical 2nd language acquisition experience. After the trainees’ discussion of the first Holistic English movie the project manager asked the trainees how they would like to change the Holistic English Program. Since the trainees have been out of college for at least 10 years, what criteria they used to judge the efficacy of the Holistic English Program is unknown and amounts to a complete insult to those who endeavored for 7 years developing the program. Suggested changes followed traditional language learning and the leader seriously proposed the changes. Coincidentally, the trainees’ proposed changes were identical to the changes supposedly requested by Group 2, also with the same project manager. This coincidence is not surprising due to this project manager’s history of untruthfulness. Pandering to leaders and trainees is a clear sign of management without a plan or strong knowledge of pedagogy and methodology and amounts to helter skelter administration without regard for sound teaching. This pandering is a repeat of this leader’s prior project that ended in disaster. Acting to please leaders and trainees, without any goals or objectives, is not proper administration. Further efforts to implement the Holistic English Program were terminated by the resignation of T2 on May 13, 2009.

14

This traditional English learning has failed to produce English speakers for more than 25 years but Chinese administrators steadfastly adhere to it in the belief that someday it will work.

China EFL: A Market Driven Model

Group 5 (Commencing May 20, 2009) PROJECT TEAM Garry Huang Zhi Yong, B.A Project Manager; Martin Wolff, J.D. Holistic English was terminated prior to commencement.

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CHAPTER TEN A REVOLUTION – NOT AN EVOLUTION (SPRING 2009) WANG ZHE, MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY

AND NIU QIANG, CHANGCHUN UNIVERSITY

Main Gate Sun Yat-sen University

Contributors Li Xiaoqin from Wuhan, Hubei, China. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Wuhan University and Master’s degree from Central China Normal University. She works in Hubei University of Technology as an English teacher. Now she is a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-Sen University. Li Hongjun Department of Foreign Languages, Shunde Polytechnic University

A Revolution – Not an Evolution (Spring 2009)

293

Guo Xianfang a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University (2009.32009.7), works as a teacher of English in Wuhan University of Science and Engineering Chen Yuling, B.A. is an English teacher in Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education. Now she is a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-Sen University. Yu Yi, is an English teacher in Shenyang Institute of Engineering. Now she is a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-Sen University. Zhang Fang, is an English teacher in Tia Yuan University of Technology. Now she is a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-Sen University.

Abstract The Holistic English program addresses three main issues: 1.) Why replace the traditional listening and oral English classes with movies; 2.) Which English movies to watch; and 3.) How to watch the English movies effectively. The Holistic English Program replaces traditional oral English learning with a conversation English acquisition experience; replaces teachers with facilitators; replaces set phrase or speech pattern memorization with language acquisition; develops self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, selfdiscipline and develops autonomous learners and creative thinkers; replaces graduates who are unable to produce comprehensible English with those who can. (Qiang, Wolff & Teng, 2009) Holistic English is a significant departure from the traditional “talk and chalk” teaching methodology and substitutes implementation of modern 2nd language acquisition pedagogy. The oral English class becomes the conversation English lounge. But comprehensible input is the key, not immediate ‘forced’ output. (Swain, 1998)

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Holistic English 1. Why replace the traditional listening and oral English classes with movies? The Holistic English in this program is different from the traditional concept of “Holistic Approach.”1 Chinese traditional medicine provides the impetus for this innovative and successful Holistic English Program. In Chinese culture it is known that an inexperienced doctor gives a hundred prescriptions to cure one disease; whereas an accomplished doctor cures a hundred diseases with one prescription. Chinese traditional medicine addresses the root cause of a disease, while western medicine addresses a single disease or even just a symptom. Holistic English draws upon most recent findings in cognitive science (Reder, L. M. 1996; Schumann, 2004; Anderson, 2005), SLA theories (Schmidt, 1990, 2001; Dekeyser, 2003; VanPattern and Williams 2007; Robinson & Ellis, N. 2008), and the practical business knowledge and world view of its creators,. The objective of HE is not only to teach English, but to train a thinking mind in the underlying operating rules of the west and the big world events that China is growing through. History is being repeated while China is developing: the same environmental problems, the turmoil of the stock market; the inside of secret dealings to cover up corruption and business flaws, along with other contemporary business, political and social issues of the day. Therefore, the HE series of movies is different from existing movie-based language programs in that HE approaches language teaching from both the object of the learning process---the language (input and output) (Krashen, 1982; Swain, 1998, VanPattern, 2003, Niu Qiang, 2001a, 2001b) and most importantly, the subject of the process----the learner. The learner’s cognitive processing capacity and features (Robinson, P & Ellis, N. 2008) and their affective factors, (Anderson, 2005) and their knowledge repertoire are all taken into consideration while compiling the HE Workbook. Throughout the six long years’ of evolution of the series, HE has never left the center of this program, that is, the LEARNER, and the LEARNER’S NEED. Therefore, the movies are filtered and narrowed down from a number of 500 to 32 through a student selection process to suit the students’ interests and needs. 1

Holistic Approach arises from Gestalt psychology which studies a whole response to a whole situation instead of studying separate responses to separate stimuli.

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295

Cognitively, the idea of learning English through movies is three fold: first, to get implicit memory mechanism (Ellis, N. 1994) at work through frequency effect, namely frequent encounters of words in different contexts; secondly, to bring explicit memory into play through directing intentional attention to key language chunks (Schmidt,R.1990); thirdly, to get both visual and auditory sensory at work to achieve better understanding and retention2 (Anderson, J. 2005), to breathe life into the classroom atmosphere, to create vividness in the teaching materials, to bring about diversity in teaching methods so as to create intrinsic motivation and participation of the student, and above all, to realize real learner autonomy both inside and outside the classroom, so as to achieve the goal of constructivist learning theory---learner-centeredness. Linguistically, HE is called holistic in that it integrates listening, reading, 2 According to the dual coding theory (DCT), cognition involves two distinct subsystems, a verbal system and an imagery system. The representations of these two memory modules are connected to sensory input and response output systems as well as to each other so that information presented through both visual and auditory channels is better understood and retained. 2 Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: Some Suggestions The Comprehensible Input Hypothesis claims that we acquire language by input, not by output, a claim is supported by studies showing no increase in acquisition with more output (Krashen, 2002b). Studies show, however, consistent increases in acquisition with more input. Comprehensible input-based methods encourage speaking but do not force it. Students are not called on; rather, participation is voluntary. Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: Some Suggestions. Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehension Hypothesis: Some Suggestions The Comprehensible Input Hypothesis claims that we acquire language by input, not by output, a claim is supported by studies showing no increase in acquisition with more output (Krashen, 2002b). Studies show, however, consistent increases in acquisition with more input. Comprehensible input-based methods encourage speaking but do not force it. Students are not called on; rather, participation is voluntary. Forced output raises the affective filter and actually prevents language acquisition. Krashen (2004) Applying the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: Some Suggestions.

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speaking, writing and even translating skills into one learning activity. With the help of subtitles in both English, students can practice fast reading, translating; by engaging in different types of output production, such as shadowing, dubbing (practicing output), acting (learning by doing), and discussing (producing timely output from input), students can truly improve their listening and speaking skills. Through completion of the Holistic English Workbook exercises, students can also develop both their creative and critical thinking, and to also sharpen their writing skill. Culturally, the Holistic in HE means that it is not merely intended to teach English for the sake of learning English, but is aimed at broadening students’ world view by offering movie series with different subject matters, such as English history, culture, business, or law to enable the student to think ‘out of the box’. Pedagogically, HE synthesizes the essence and also actualizes the spirit of several teaching methods, such as the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method, the TPR (Total Physical Response) Method, the Communicative/Interactive Model, the Suggestopedia Method, the Silent Way. (Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S 1986) 2. Which English movies to watch? Movies must be interesting and comprehensible to the viewer (student free choice not teacher mandated) as well as meeting the following criteria: In addition to the four features of Krashen’s optimal input hypothesis (comprehensible, interesting/relevant, not grammatically sequenced and in great quantity (Krashen, 1982), we added some more important features from a psycholinguistic perspective, which distinguishes our selection from other movies listening materials: 1. content-based. 2. authentic; 3. cultural-bearing; 4. articulate; 5. non-redundant. 3. How to watch the English movies effectively. The movies should be viewed in a friendly, non-academic environment similar to a trip to the local movie theater with a group of friends. Initially, the movie should be viewed for its entertainment value and should not be the subject of “study.”

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After the initial viewing, we ‘encourage’ (but do not ‘impose’) students to employ metacognitive strategies of repeated ‘viewing’, spaced ‘viewing’, shadowing and dubbing while ‘viewing’, and above all, of garnering intentional attention to lexical items that are useful for their own production. The relevant cognitive and SLA theories underlying these above strategies are the Forgetting Curve, the Frequency Effect, the Spacing Effect, ACT-R theory (Anderson, 2005), noticing strategy and Saliency Strategy (Schmidt, 1990; Van Pattern, 2005), and others which are to be elaborated in part II of this article due in March 2010. In brief, the immediacy of Holistic English is the development of selfconfidence, intrinsic motivation, self-discipline, creative thinking and autonomous learning skills. After six and one-half years of development and extensive testing at 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier universities and colleges in six provinces, as well as three corporate training centers in two provinces of China; (Qiang, Wolff & Teng, 2008) commencing in February 2009 Holistic English was afforded an opportunity to prove itself at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, a top tier university. Additionally, this was the first implementation of Holistic English for post-graduate, non-English majors required to successfully complete one semester of oral English. The program was developed around Krashen’s (2004) 2nd language acquisition theory that acquisition occurs best when there is comprehensible input in a friendly environment and academic pressure is off. Upon commencement of the HE program both staff and students considered it just another mundane oral English course. At the end of the semester the staff was in shock and awe over the success of the program. Students found the course interesting and exciting and were clamoring, in writing, for a doubling of class hours each week. This level of student enthusiasm and positive results was something very new to the acquisition theory that acquisition occurs best when there is comprehensible input in a friendly environment and academic pressure is off.

Foreign Faculty Analysis of Administrative Support Unlike any of the prior experiences implementing Holistic English, the administrators and staff at Sun Yat-sen University not only promised all

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necessary support, they actually did everything within their power and control to insure a fair and full implementation of the Holistic English Program. It was clear that the administrators had not only read but also understood reports of prior Holistic English implementation efforts. Without any prompting or request, all classes were assigned to one classroom so that the room could be reconfigured into a friendly environment. When the unsuitability of the initial large cavernous classroom was mentioned, the classes were immediately moved to a smaller, more appropriate room. Access was arranged to the classroom two weeks prior to commencement of classes so that appropriate measures could be taken to make it a friendlier environment. Classes were scheduled every other week so that the students would have adequate time for pre-movie viewing homework and after-viewing homework. Movie viewing was scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Friday evening. Each Friday evening fourteen classes watched their assigned movie in the five-hundred seat auditorium (just like a commercial movie theater). The administration also arranged to place all of the Holistic English movies on the University web site two days after they were shown in the movie theater. This provided students with a first viewing opportunity in situations where they could not attend the group viewing in the movie theater. It also provided a second viewing opportunity for those students wishing to refresh their memory before the conversation class. Students were cautioned that watching the movies en mass was for entertainment in a friendly environment while watching movies on a computer is an academic language learning experience and should be avoided if at all possible. The first week of the term the five-hundred seat auditorium was also made available for an orientation lecture to all 600 of the students using the Holistic English Workbook. (Figures 1 and 2) The Vice Dean and several department staff attended, thus showing a genuine interest in monitoring this new pedagogy. The presentation “The Secret To Making Your English Better” was video recorded and placed on the University web site. One hundred copies were express mailed to Foreign Language Departments in universities throughout China.

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Figure 1

Figure 2

The university timely produced sufficient copies of the Holistic English Workbook, although they were not distributed to the students in a timely manner causing some delays in commencement of certain classes. Class schedule and rosters were provided the week prior to class commencement. It must be emphasized that the administration of the post-graduate program of the English Education Division of the Foreign Languages School at Sun Yat-sen University is remarkable in many regards, including knowledge of 2nd language acquisition theory, knowledge of modern human resource management practices, modern business management strategies and was very professional in all regards. On the few occasions when the English Education Division failed to communicate effectively with students or staff, apologies and amends were immediately forthcoming. This administration says what it means and means what it says. It does what it promises. This is very uncharacteristic of Chinese

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university administrations. The level of administrative support for implementation of the Holistic English was unprecedented compared to all prior implementation programs. This administration seriously seeks new pedagogy and methodology to facilitate delivery of a quality educational product to its students/ customers. This commitment to educational excellence is evident in every contact with the administration. This is a marked difference from the experiences of prior Holistic English implementation programs where administrative excuses for ineptness and ignorance have become the norm. “If you want to grow leaders, you can’t let explanations and excuses become a way of life” 1/09 Fiat’s dynamic CEO, Sergio Marchionne.

Facilities Classroom facilities are designed for traditional oral English classes. The rooms are either too large for creation of a friendly, non-academic acquisition environment (Figures 3 and 4); or too small or oddly shaped to facilitate a round table discussion configuration. (Figures 5 and 6) Classrooms are designed for lectures or seminars based upon traditional teaching pedagogy. At Sun Yat-sen at least the seating was not bolted to the floor in theater row style. The desks and chairs could be easily reconfigured. Given a choice between the two basic options, Holistic English was held in the smaller room because it lent itself more to being softened from its academic environment. However, the re-configuration of the desks was not possible for a large group discussion format due to the long narrow room dimensions. The desks were arranged in seven groups of six students each, with one group expanded to nine students when more than forty students were assigned to a class. This re-configuration comports with a typical Chinese coffee shop or tea house seating arrangement and thus a friendly non-academic environment. English proverbs adorned the walls. A water machine was installed with coffee and British tea supplied on a student contribution/donation basis. The window curtains were a beautiful silk print. Orchid plants and artificial flowers were strategically placed around the room. All reasonable efforts were expended to create a friendly coffee shop or tea house environment. (See Figures 7 and 8)

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Figure 4

Figure 5 (before)

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Figure 6 (before)

Figure 7 (after)

Figure 8 (after)

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The movie auditorium was a first class facility with properly maintained and operating equipment.3 The two Chinese speaking technicians were competent and professional. They were assisted by an English speaking department staff member who facilitated communications with the English speaking foreign professor. This level of competence, functioning equipment and staff support is unprecedented in all prior experiences of implementing Holistic English. In contrast, two experienced foreign Holistic English teachers in Henan Province were forced to abandon Holistic English during this same time frame due to inoperable video equipment.4 The students at Sun Yat-sen University enjoy the additional advantage of having computers in their dormitory rooms with access to the University web site. Many students privately arrange access to the World Wide Web. This allowed the students unlimited access to the course movies placed on the University web site for their convenience.

English Speaking Environment The SYSU south campus does not lend itself to the creation of an English speaking environment. With 30,000 plus students5 and a campus

3

The only drawback to this facility is the dual screen system which provides better viewing for power point presentations but is confusing when watching movies. Shutting down one screen leaves half of the auditorium at a viewing disadvantage that is wirse than the double screen distraction. 4 Xinyang Technical College and Xinyang Agricultural College, Henan Province. 5 At present, Sun Yat-sen University is a comprehensive university including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, technical science, medical science, pharmacology and management science. There are 25 schools and colleges, including the School of Humanities, Lingnan College, School of Foreign Languages, School of Law, School Political Science and Public Administration, School of Business, School of Education, School of Communication and Design, School of mathematics and Computational Science, School of Physics and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Geology and Planning, School of Environmental Science and Project, School of Life Science, School of Information Science and Technology, School of Engineering, School of Oversea Education Exchange, Sun Yat-sen Medical College, School of Fundamental Medicine, School of Public Health, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Nursing School, School of Pharmacology, as well as the Department of Earth Science, the Graduate School, School of Software, School of Network Education, College of Continuing Education, etc.

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encompassing 1.17 square kilometers, with the English Department administrative offices and classrooms scattered across the expanse of the campus; of necessity, the students are provided English speaking opportunities such as a regularly scheduled English Corner and other similar activities.

Sun Yat-sen University offers a wide variety of subject areas and complete disciplines. In the programs of graduate studies, there are 22 disciplines leading to Doctorate degrees and 32 to Master degrees, of which 171 specialties lead to Doctorate degree, 236 specialties lead to Master degree; in addition, there are 17 branches of studies leading to professional degrees, which are: Doctorate degree in clinical medicine, Master of business administration (MBA), Master of public administration (MPA), Master of judicial studies (JD), Master of computer technology, Master of environmental project, Master of software engineering, Master of electronic and communication engineering. and Master of biology engineering . The University has 12 post-doctorate research floating stations of Chinese language and literature, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, fundamental medical science, clinical medical science, management, public management, philosophy, environmental science and engineering; 20 key disciplines at the national level and 43 key disciplines at Guangdong provincial level. In undergraduate education, there are 89 specialties in undergraduate programs, with 6 national bases of fundamental sciences research and training, such as philosophy, Chinese language and literature, history, physics, chemistry and biology, 25 undergraduate specialties of name-brand specialties at the provincial-level. There are also the national bases of education in cultural qualities for college students and the first athletic training base for college student in China. In this year, the number of students of all types amounts to 70000,of which 3800 are doctorate candidates, 13000 are graduate students, 28000 are undergraduate students, and 1100 are international students. Sun Yat-sen University has abundant qualified faculty members. The university has the right to evaluate and confer the titles of full professor and associate professor. There are 12000 faculty and staff members, of which 805 are Ph D candidate supervisors, over 860 are full professors, 1500 are associate professors. Outstanding talented persons keep coming forth from the faculties, there are 13 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 4 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 15 young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions at the national level, 37 recipients of national fund for outstanding young scientists, 19 persons selected in the first and second rounds of the "project of talent selection" by the Ministry of Personnel, 19 candidates chosen for the "plan of training excellent scholars for the new century" by the Ministry of Education, 16 professors specially accredited with the "Yangtze Scholar Scheme" of the Ministry of Education, and 16 experts with outstanding contributions selected by the Department of Health. http://www.sysu.edu.cn (accessed March 1, 2009)

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Additionally, the English Department and Japanese Language Departments share an administrative office which complicates matters further since each should have their own 2nd language acquisition environment. For the proper creation of a true English speaking environment,6 all English Department facilities would need to be located exclusively in one building that is not shared with other departments. This does not totally foreclose implementation of certain strategies to prompt the English mental lexicon. For instance, the Chinese calligraphy hanging over the entrance to the English Department could be replaced with an English sign. The administration was presented with an English sign in the colors of the Chinese National flag, (red background with yellow lettering) which reads: “WELCOME TO CHINGLAND.” The Chinese staff was provided black baseball caps which read: ENGLISH POLICE. Six hundred students were provided red baseball caps that read: SPEAK ENGLISH. (Photo 2) The English Department was encouraged to make English its official language of communication. A further complication is the administrative desire that the students develop their second language capabilities and their Chinese language capabilities simultaneously. There is an unfounded fear that creating a 2nd language acquisition environment will somehow disadvantage the students in the further development of their mother tongue (Putonghua). The students enter the 2nd language acquisition program with a tremendous Chinese language advantage through the ubiquitous and comprehensive mother tongue environment. The creation of a 2nd language acquisition environment would not even level the playing field, Putonghua would still provide the most prominent and overwhelming influence in the student’s daily life, unless there was not only a 2nd language speaking environment but also an intensive immersion program where the students were isolated in a 2nd language living environment. The reality is that this is just another excuse for not creating an English speaking environment; but unlike previous excuses, this one is cloaked in academic validity. Under such circumstances the creation of an English speaking environment could be initiated with an outdoor video wall in the central part of the 6

Wolff (2009) “Why Chinese Universities Do Not Provide An English Speaking Environment”, Chapter 6, TEACHING EFL IN CHINA: What every foreign teacher should know before they go! Nova Science Publications, New York

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campus. In furtherance of this idea, 487 students were sent an email asking: What do you think of erecting a double sided outdoor video wall on the north central lawn for the nightly playing of English movies? Your opinion is important. (Note: 92% of the students responded indicating a high degree of interest. The students’ responses are not edited.) 85% are solidly in favor with comments such as – 1. I think it's wonderful idea to watch a movie outside on the lawn. Hoping for this kind of activity. 2. yes, I think its a good idea,and will attract more people,and a fun time,in addition to,we can communicate in English with each other as a little English Corner. Watching moive outside is a good enjoyment. 3. It's really a good idea. By doing this, students can communicate with each other while seeing the film. It also can be another English corner for us. 4. This is a very creative idea. I totally support your suggestion. 5. 6. I think that would be a terrific idea, for in fact, it has all the key elements to make you a fantastic night: 1.beautiful girls sitting next to you (come on boys, you don't deny that's an important driving force behind); 2, beers or cokes (cold and refreshing); 3.early summer breeze; 4.cool movie choosen just for you by ******, that's you will sure regret if you miss it. 10% have reservations such as – 1. I love this new form—but there is a serious problem that during the night, there are a lot of mosquitoes. actually, the auditorium has a lot of mosquitoes too! 2. It is a very good idea! I like it very much, when I was a student in Northwest Universty in xi'an, our universty would give us a movie on the playgroud every saturday night, it's a beautiful memory to me.

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3. I think it's a good idea. It will be of great help to create an Englishlearning atmosphere everywhere on the campus. However, I think the place is not suitable coz the library and classrooms are near the north central lawn,maybe the sound would imfluence the normal opreation. The central lawn near the auditorium may be suitable. I really appreciate your idea and your contribution to our English-learning. Thank you, dear ***** 4. I believe it is a great idea that a double sided outdoor video wall is erected on the north central lawn for the nightly playing of English movies. However, the tough environment outdoor,such as mosquitoes, should be considered. 5. but i am afraid the lawn will be distroyed by us.so i don't agree. 6. I partly agree with your idea. I think erecting a double sided outdoor video wall on the north central lawn is a good idea,but I think it would be better if the movie is playing on every weekend,particulay on friday.Because I think if the movie is playing on everynight, I'm worry that few students will go to see the movie,as we have so homework many to do. 5% are opposed with comments like – 1. In my opinion, it's not a good idea. The north central lawn is already very bustling every night, and it's very harmonious. It has already been one of the symbols of our school. I like it as it is now. On the other hand, movies are more appropriate to be played indoors. 2. I prefer watching movies indoor not outdoor, because indoor can provide us comfortable seats. What’s more, it won’t attract strangers nearby coming into the campus. Too many strangers will increase the insecurity of our campus. 3. Actually I don't think it's a good idea to erect a double sided outdoor video wall on the north central lawn for the nightly playing of English movies. Two reasons may account for it. First, it’s summer now. There are too many mosquitoes outside at night, especially on lawn; Second, stools will be necessary, but you know it's hard to get so many stools.

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4. I don't think it is a good idea. Because I think it will damage the atmosphere of free relax. Besides, little people have enough time to watch the whole movie. 5. It costs to much and doesn’t worth. 6. I would NOT support a proposal to erect a double sided outdoor video wall on the north central lawn for the nightly playing of English movies. My reason: a. Entertainment equipment would bring some disadvantages to the campus such as increased traffic and noise. b. Playing movies nightly would increase electricity costs. c. The fixed architecture would break the environment. d. Students and teachers could watch movies on their computers or in the movie theater. Therefore, the outdoor video wall was not necessary.

Teaching Methodology Holistic English is usually a group discussion. This allows the facilitator to make individual student competency evaluations early in the term and to evaluate improvement at the end of the term. It also provides an enhanced opportunity to develop listening skills. Pair and small group work has been avoided because unmotivated students revert to speaking in Chinese as soon as the facilitator is perceived to be out of ear shot. The facility at Sun Yat-sen required small group work and hence a dramatic change in teaching methodology. An integral part of the new methodology included a strategy that precluded the students from sitting next to or across from the same students more than once during the term. Seating was arranged six students per table to facilitate either pair work or small group discussions. This arrangement proved very successful with post-grad students.

Student Demographics All 537 registered students were post-graduate non-English majors ranging in age from 21 to 28. Men constituted 34.2% and women 65.8%. (450 students completed the course) This is a marked departure from prior Holistic English implementation programs where the percentage of women was 98% to 2% men. This difference in gender percentage may be influenced by the students’ undergraduate majors being more attractive to

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men than some of the majors at other institutions where Holistic English has been implemented. The students’ undergraduate majors included: Class #1 Economics Class #2 Economics, Finance, Marketing Class #5 E Business, Economics, Management Science Class #6 History Class #7 Chinese Studies7 Class #8 Chinese Studies8 Class #11 Law Class #12 Law Class #13 Accounting, Finance, Management Science Class #14 Accounting, Business Administration, E Commerce, HRM Class #17 Information Management. Marketing Class #18 Economics, medical Informatics Class #21 International Relations, Political Science, Sociology Class #22 Demography, Public Administration, Sociology Control Group: Class #20 Philosophy Class #23 Political Science Class #24 Journalism, Tourism, and International Communications The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan,, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Zhejiang

7 At the end of the 6th week, after watching the movie Coach Carter, and being given a homework assignment that required communicating with a foreign exchange student, this class petitioned to replace the teacher and program because the foreign teacher was too strict and there was too much homework. The administration complied with the students’ request over the objection of the teacher. 8 At the end of the 6th week, after watching the movie Coach Carter, and being given a homework assignment that required communicating with a foreign exchange student, this class petitioned to replace the teacher and program because the foreign teacher was too strict and there was too much homework. The administration complied with the students’ request over the objection of the teacher.

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The students represent the following 120 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Army Institute of Xian, Beijing Institute of Business, Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Central South University, Central University of Nationalities, Chang An University, Changchun University, Changchun Normal University, Changchun Taxation College, China University of Mining and Technology, Chin South Normal University, Chinese University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing University, Chongqing Jaiotong University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Dalian Nationalities University, DongBei University of Finance and Economics, Finance and Economic University of Tiang Yi, Fudan University, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou University, Gannan Normal University, Guangxi University, Guangdong Academy of Fine Art, Guangdong Business University, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangdong University of Business Study, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guizhou Institute of Nationalities, Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou University, Hangzhou DianZi University, Hainan University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Hebei Normal University, Hebei Economic and Business University, Hebei University, Hefei University of Technology, Henyang Normal University, Hohai University, Hongshan Normal University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Coal Industrial Teacher’s College, Hubei University of Technology, Hubei University, Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, Hunan University, Hunan Normal University, Jiaying University , Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University, Jishou University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Lanzhou Commercial College, Lanzhou University, Liaoning University, Ludong University, Minzu University, Nanjing Agriculture University , Nanchang University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nankai University, Nanyang Institute College, Nanyang Normal University, NorthEast Agricultural University, NorthEast Normal University, North China Electric Power University, Northeastern University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest University, Northwest Polytechnic University, Peking University, People’s University of China, Qingdao University, Renmin University, Shandong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenzhen University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, South Central University for Nationalities, Sijiazhuang Railway College, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, South China University, Southwest JiaoTong University, Southwest Finance University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, South China University of Technology, Sun Yat-sen, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Wuhan

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Institute of Technology, Wuhan University, Xian Economic and Financial College, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian Institute of Technology, Xian University of Finance and Economics, XiangTan University, Xiamen University, XiDian University, YanShan University, Yantai University, Yunnan University, Zhanguan Economy and Law School, Zhanjiang Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongshan University.

All students have passed CET 6, the National English proficiency examination, but they are still required to take oral English because their output is deficient. This is a red flag that the undergraduate English program is inadequate and the National examinations are of dubious value. Oral English is a required class, not an elective class. Past experience indicates that students required to participate in English classes are far less motivated than those who voluntarily sign up for elective English courses, particularly non-English majors. An early indication of student motivation includes: 1. Whether the students attend the first class Approximately 8% of the students failed to attend the first class. 92% of those who failed to attend the first class were men. 2. Whether the students attend the initial orientation lecture. Approximately 10% of the students skipped the orientation lecture. 78% of those who missed the orientation lecture were men. 3. Whether the students come to class on time. Eight students arrived as late as twenty minutes for the first movie and were refused entry, as previously warned, verbally in class and as stated in the written class rules in the Holistic English Workbook. These students stood in the hall whining and complaining to the Chinese staff for twenty minutes. One student not only arrived late but also failed to bring the Holistic English Workbook. The student inquired “Is there any homework for this class?” This student had not attended the first class or the orientation lecture. One student arrived with his girlfriend who had no Holistic English Workbook because she was not enrolled in the class. She was required to leave in accordance with prior admonitions that the theater seats were

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reserved for class participants only, as evidenced by presenting the Holistic English Workbook, the season admission ticket. One student arrived early but departed to fetch her Holistic English Workbook, leaving her purse in the theater. When she returned twenty minutes later she was denied late entry. When she inquired as to how she could recover her purse, she was informed to wait until the movie was over. This student waited silently and patiently in the hall for ten minutes, without whining or complaining. Due to her mature handling of her situation, she was allowed late entry to view the remainder of the movie. Three young men took seats in the theater without their Holistic English Workbooks. They were asked to leave. Instead of exiting as requested, they engaged in a verbal altercation with the foreign professor. They were informed that their conduct was inappropriate, unacceptable and that the movie would not commence until they left the theater. After departing the theater they entered the control booth and started a verbal altercation with the Chinese staff. When the foreign professor entered the control booth, the verbal assault was directed at him. The students were advised to leave the control room and the building. One student was admonished that if he said one more word he would be expelled from the class with a failing grade. The student immediately insulted the foreign professor by accusing him of failing to treat the students like human beings. The foreign professor was accused of denying the students their basic human rights by not allowing them to watch the movie without bringing their personal copies of the Holistic English Workbooks in violation of the oral and written class rules. This student was immediately expelled from the class for arrogant, insolent and insulting behavior.9 For the remainder of the semester, no student was late for a conversation class or the movie. 4. Whether the students complete their homework assignments 5. Where the men sit in the first class meeting. The men predominantly sat in the back of the room during the first class meeting indicating disengagement and lack of motivation. This is consistent with all previous implementations of Holistic English, thus 9

This behavioral abnormality is commonly referred to as the Little Emperor Syndrome, arising from China’s one child policy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Emperor_Syndrome

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requiring a strategy to compel the men to sit in the front of the room or closest to the facilitator.10 The men who did initially sit towards the front of the room or close to the facilitator exhibited more accomplished oral English production skills than those sitting in the back of the room. Approximately 1.5 % of the SYSU students proved unreachable and unteachable.11 This is significantly lower than prior Holistic English implementation results at 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier institutions of higher education where the unreachable and unteachable peaked as high as 5%. At the commencement of the semester, most of the students exhibited careless reading skills, poor listening skills, sloppy writing skills and poor self-discipline. By the end of the semester 98.5% of the students exhibited significant improvement in all of these skills.

Student Evaluation of Holistic English At the end of the spring 2009 term, the students were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire evaluating the Holistic English Program. (Appendix A) The students’ responses indicate their opinion of the benefits they received from the Holistic English program. (450 students answered the questionnaire) The charts highlight four important issues: 1. Post-graduate young adults assess their benefits from the HE program to be very high, consistent and multi-dimensional. 2. Concurrent traditional English reading, listening and writing courses are lacking something that HE provides. 3. The HE program produces consistent and reliable results across a broad spectrum of students from throughout China’s many provinces and representing 113 undergraduate institutions of higher education. 4. Even older and more mature post-graduate students receive great benefit from a program that emphasizes building self-confidence, developing 10

In 2005 at Xinyang Agricultural College a male student sat in the back of the room reading a Chinese magazine. His English was very poor. He was moved to the front of the room where he became the top student, going on to become a teacher’s assistant in his 3rd year. That student is currently employed as a Vice Manager of a 4 star hotel and has the added responsibility of teaching English to all of the hotel employees. 11 It is impossible to reach or teach a student who openly proclaims no need to know or use English, now or in the future.

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intrinsic motivation, learning self-discipline, while developing creative thinking and autonomous learning skills; characteristics erroneously assumed to already be possessed by such advanced and accomplished students. The cumulative results appear in the following charts: &+$57&808/$7,9(&/$66(6

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Graph 1 most students thought they benefited a lot from the HE course, with the greatest improvement in speaking and listening, then in writing and in vocabulary, and comparatively the least improvement in reading.

# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

Graph 2 most students chose the help of degree 8 and degree 9 which indicates that the students assessed their benefits from the HE course to be very high.

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CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES

# of students

World View

140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Graph 3 most students chose the help of degree 8 and degree 9 which indicates that the students assessed their benefits from the HE course to be very high. The students were also asked to rank the three homework assignments as to which provided the most benefit. 1. 2. 3.

Victor Day12 Foreign Student Chat13 English Corner14

19% 60% 21%

Clearly the students have sent a strong message that there are more viable alternatives than the traditional English Corner. 12

After watching the movie “The Terminal” the students were asked to role play an ABC (American Born Chinese) L1 English speaker for one entire day. In the movie, Tom Hanks, an L1 English speaker played an L2 English speaker. A 500 word essay was required about the experience. Many essays were honest about not completing the assignment due to fear of speaking English only for an entire day. Other essays were too perfect, a tall tale relating what the students thought the teacher wanted to hear. 13 After watching the movie “Iron and Silk” the students were required to locate a foreign exchange student and engage in an extended conversation. A 500 word essay was required but to avoid any tall tales, the essay had to include the foreign student’s name, home country and telephone number. 14 The students were required to attend an English corner and submit a 500 word essay relating their experience.

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Control Group Three post-graduate traditional oral English classes taught by two different teachers and randomly selected, were given the same questionnaire as the Holistic English classes. All students in the control group have passed CET 6. The control group classes were selected as randomly as the HE classes. Class #20 Philosophy Class #23 Political Science Class #24 Journalism, Tourism, and International Communications The control group charts demonstrate the superior efficacy of the Holistic English program over the traditional oral English class that fails to deliver consistent and reliable multi-dimensional benefits at a high level. &+$57&808/$7,9(&21752/&/$66(6 9RFDEXODU\

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Graph 4









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# of students

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

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Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

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Graph 5 CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES World View

# of students

20 15 10 5 0 1

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5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

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Graph 6 The majority of students in the control group found the traditional class to be no help or of little help in the specified areas. By comparing the charts of experimental classes and those of the control classes, the results of the control classes are much worse than those of the HE classes, which indicates that the students in the HE program thought they benefited much more than those from the control classes 10% of the

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students in the control group filled out the questionnaire in Chinese while all of the Holistic English students used English. The individual class charts may be found in APPENDIX C.

English Names for Chinese Students Chinese students take English names for several reasons. From a linguistic standpoint, the English name prompts the English mental lexicon. From a practical point foreigners find Chinese names too hard to pronounce and impossible to remember. An English name allows the Chinese student to prepare for an employment situation where name exchange is commonplace and usually accomplished in English. Many Chinese students obtain their English name from a dictionary and it is not a name at all but a word. Many words and names will not garner respect and will actually defeat the employer’s purpose. Many Chinese girls take names that are popular with western prostitutes. Chinese teachers of English are often unaware of the cultural implications of certain words or names and are unable to correct the student’s name choice. For instance, a Chinese student was allowed to proceed through primary and secondary education with the name “Hitler.” In university the Jewish foreign teacher would not tolerate that name choice. One student matriculated to university with the name “God.’ The foreign teacher at university told the student to leave his class. The student asked “why?” The foreign teacher stated that God already knew everything and could learn nothing from this foreign teacher. The student then chose a new name, “Dog” which was God spelled backwards. Again the student was asked to leave the classroom. Upon inquiry the student was informed that no animals are allowed in the classroom. At Sun Yat-sen University the post graduates had inappropriate names on a par with those reported at 2nd tier universities and 3rd tier colleges. (Qiang/Wolff 2006) WOMEN: Allen, Willie, Timmy, Candy, Fanny, Ranopy, Kisdy, Joy, Tiger, Cherry, Kitty, Fruity, Lolita, Can, Enter, Purr, Angel, Happiness, Dreamy and Fancy.

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MEN: X, Germany, Podolski, Messy, Char, Rainjay, Golden, Jacket, Diff, Hubos, Weilge, Drag, Super, Coffee, SamSon, Chilam, Willa, and Goodwill. Initially Chinese students argue to keep their inappropriate English name but once the students were instructed regarding the adverse effects of a funny or disrespectful name on their future employer’s business, all of the students agreed to take respectable names. The nation-wide phenomenon of Chinese students choosing inappropriate English names stems from the Chinese educational system that employs Chinese teachers of English who are not adequately versed in the English language and culture.

Grading-System Language learning with set targets lends itself to standardized testing schemes. Formulating an objective test to evaluate memorized set phrases and vocabulary retention is a rather simple matter. It does assume that all students are able to learn identical material at the same pace and the test results merely reflect retention ability of robotic-like peoples lacking in any appreciable ability to use what they have retained. Language acquisition emphasizes comprehensible input which does not lend itself to standardized measurement due to the unique nature of each individual and their reading comprehension and listening comprehension level. Neither the quantity nor the quality of the input is subject to verifiable measurement. Since output is not necessarily simultaneous, and may not occur for several months, output does not lend itself to verifiable measurement. There are subjective indicators that can be employed to determine a student’s intrinsic motivation and effort. 1. On the first day of the new semester the students are given a secret password to learn. “SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALADOCIOUS”

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Those students who, without any prompting, Google this word and locate the song and are able to sing the song by the ninth week of the eighteen week semester, are usually the “A” students. Those students who are able to pronounce it correctly by the final examination are usually the “B” students. Those students who can almost pronounce it correctly, by the end of the semester are usually the “C” students. Those students who are unable to pronounce it by the end of the semester are usually the “D” students. Those students who at the end of the semester answer “What password?” or “sorry,” are usually the “F” students. 2. On the first day of the new semester, the students are given a tongue twister, asked to write it down, and are advised that it will be a part of their final oral examination in eighteen weeks. “HOW MUCH WOOD COULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK IF A WOODCHUCK COULD CHUCK WOOD” Chinese speakers of English find this tongue twister particularly troubling and first attempt to say it look like this: “HOW MUCHA UUDA COULDA UUDACHUCKA CHUCKA IF A UUDACHUCKA COULDA CHUCHA UUDA” Those students who, without any prompting, Google this tongue twister and locate the second verse and are able to say both versus correctly and at the requisite speed by the ninth week of the eighteen week semester, are usually the “A” students. Those students who are able to pronounce it correctly and at the requisite speed by the final examination are usually the “B” students. Those students who can almost pronounce it correctly, at any speed, by the end of the semester are usually the “C” students. Those students who are unable to pronounce it correctly but are able to say it in its entirety by the end of the semester are usually the “D” students.

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Those students who at the end of the semester answer “What tongue twister?” or “sorry,” are usually the “F” students. 3. Tardiness, failure to complete homework assignments and the location where the students elect to sit in the classroom, can also be used to measure intrinsic motivation. 4. The students’ personal efforts to read more English, listen to more English, write more English and speak more English, outside the classroom, can also be an area of inquiry during the final examination and subject to evaluation. 5. Student compliance with the request that they wear their red hats that say “SPEAK ENGLISH” on the campus can be observed. 6. Student compliance with the suggestion that they change their mobile phone language from Chinese to English can be checked during the final examination. 7. Student compliance with the request that they answer their mobile phone in English can be periodically checked throughout the semester by simply calling the students randomly. 8. Student compliance with the class rules is readily observable.15 9. Those students who complete the workbook assignments for movies not assigned during the semester are usually “A” students. 10. At the semester end the students are asked what grade they believe they have earned and why they believe they have earned that grade. 15

You must carry your own textbook to gain entry to the movie and discussion class. No book – no entry. There are limited seats and they are reserved for class members. Do not be late for the movie or discussion class. Late – no entry. It is rude to enter the movie after it has begun. This disturbs the entire class and show a lack of respect for your classmates. Come to class prepared. If you have not done the homework you may be expelled from the class. No mobile phones. If your mobile phone rings or if the light is seen during the movie or discussion class the phone may be confiscated and will not be returned to you.

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11. During the semester all students are sent emails advising of the proper format for reports and essays; containing websites that assist in pronunciation; and containing websites with 2nd language acquisition articles. Homework that does not conform to the advised format indicates a laissez-faire attitude or lack of intrinsic motivation. An inability to speak about the phonetics assistance website or to address the content of a single 2nd language acquisition article is also to be considered when evaluating intrinsic motivation. The “A” students usually show humility and claim to have earned a “B” but their intrinsic motivation has demonstrated itself throughout the term. The “B” and “C” students are usually very honest in their self-evaluation. The “F” students usually demonstrate a complete disconnect from reality and claim to have earned an “A” but their lack of intrinsic motivation has made them stand out as “F” students throughout the semester. Actual comprehensible output during the final examination is the least reliable indicator in the absence of a standardized output examination at the commencement of the semester, against which progress can be measured. Due to delayed output capability, implementation of an initial evaluation would not even be a reliable indicator of progress in language acquisition during the semester. Therefore the final evaluation is necessarily subjective and based upon indicators of student intrinsic motivation and effort during the semester. The oral English grade constitutes 20% of the composite English grade. Post-graduate students must receive 70 out of 100 points to pass as opposed to undergraduates who must receive 60 out of 100 points to pass. The final grades for the February 2009 semester are reflected in Graph 7. Grades ranged from a low of 70 to a high of 99.

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12 CLASSES CUMULATIVE FINAL GRADES 35 # of Students

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Graph 7

Continuing Education The postgraduate English program for non-English majors is a one semester program. To facilitate the students’ continued use of their newly developed autonomous learning skills; it was decided to provide the students with additional English captioned English movies through the University web site The law students were all provided a complimentary copy of International Business Law 3rd, Usery/Wolff and the supporting movies were made available through the University web site. (Erin Brockovitch, Wall Street, Working Girl, Paper Chase, The Firm, 12 Angry Men, Inherit The Wind, Disclosure, Enron: The smartest Guys in the Room, Life and Debt, North Country, The Corporation, McLibel, The Insider) For all of the students to obtain a better understanding of one of the pillars of western civilization and culture, it was decided to put the Jewish Culture and History film series on the University web site. (The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, King of Kings, King David, Exodus, Fiddler on the Roof, Schindler’s List. Munich, The Pianist, Judgment at Nuremburg) Plans are also underway to create an English movie free choice library on the University web site with more than 500 movies spanning numerous

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categories including, Africa, Action, Cartoons, China, US Civil Rights Movement, Classics, Comedy, International Politics, Other Cultures, US Politics, Romance, Sci Fi, Sports, Thrillers, Westerns, and World War II Pacific Theater. China is in the process of developing a better off harmonious society and movies with excessive nudity, excessive violence and excessive vulgarity are counter-productive to that goal. Therefore, horror movies and pornographic movies are not included in the movie library.

Comments of Visiting Scholars Seven visiting scholars observed several sessions of the conversation unit of the Holistic English Program. They were all provided a CD with the February 26, 2009 lecture “The Secret To Making Your English Better.” All of the visiting scholars are very experienced Chinese teachers of English. .Six of the visiting scholars share their observations, impressions, conclusions and concerns in the following contributions.

Dean XIA Jimei, Director of Collegiate Foreign Language Education Institute, Vice-Chair of the National Advisory Committee of ELT, with visiting scholars and HE professor

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Li Xiaoqin

Li Xiaoqin, MA from Wuhan, Hubei, China. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Wuhan University and Master’s degree from Central China Normal University. She works in Hubei University of Technology as an English teacher. Now she is a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-Sen University. As an English teacher for 12 years, honestly speaking, I didn’t succeed much in my oral English class. For a time, I even refused to teach Oral English. In our university, Oral English is an independent course. I still remember every time when I tried to make my students say something, most of the students just buried their heads and kept silent, no matter how hard I tried to stimulate them. After class I felt depressed. Just one word — terrible, I was a failure. Now through my observation of the Holistic English Program and class, I find the liht how to make students open their mouth in oral English class. First of all, environment is the most important factor. The Holistic English class makes students feel relaxed. They are all in a friendly environment. The teacher rearranged the desks and chairs and put English proverbs on the walls instead of Chinese proverbs. Once I asked one student how he felt in the Holistic English class. He said to me, “It’s unlike in a class, but in a dormitory or something, talking with classmates or friends. It’s casual. I am not nervous. I needn’t worry about my grammar mistakes or my pronunciation. I enjoy it.” Secondly, preparation or pre exercise is also important. How could the Holistic English class students speak out more while my students had little to say in my English class? They told me the answer. They had the pre

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exercise. Each student had to find out the words’ meaning and usage by himself by Google. Each time before they attended the Holistic English class, they must watch the film assigned by their teacher. The class discussion was relevant to the film, so the students had a lot to say. Also they told me something that they disliked. Some students disliked the film Gung Ho just because they disliked the Japanese working pattern. They thought it was crazy. They hope the film should be more entertaining, funny, easy to understand and close to their life. Of course some students have their complaints. They said there was too much exercise pre and post watching the film. Especially before watching the film, they had to spend one or two day’s spare time to search the new words. As a result, they had no time to focus on other subjects. After watching the film, they had to answer the questions. But this is not the worst. The worst is the teacher only spent a few seconds to check the homework. They felt their working was not much valued. No matter how good or bad you did, the score was the same — Pass or Fail. They hope if less homework and more class, one class for one week, it’s better. As for me, I appreciate the Holistic English Program and class, which enlightens me that English can’t be learned well through learning alone; it should be acquired in an English environment. The Holistic English Program somehow changes my teaching concept. When I finish my visiting, I’d like to introduce the Holistic English Program to my colleagues and implement it in my class. Li Hongjun

Li Hongjun, a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University (2008-2009), worked as a teacher of English in Jianghan Petroleum Institute (i.e. Changjiang University, now) for more than 18 years, and now works in

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Shunde Polytechnic, Foshan, Guangdong, China. She got her M.A. from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.

Holistic English in My Eyes The first time I heard the name of “Holistic English” (HE), it aroused great interest in my mind because of its name. “Holistic”, in my mind, should mean “of/doing something as a whole” or “from all respects”, and it coincides with the idea of English teaching in my mind. Or rather, I think that English should be taught with different skills being developed simultaneously. As I go closer to HE in different ways—reading materials, video clips/tapes of HE classroom teaching, or discussion with one of the founders of HE, some words have emerged in my mind: attractive, interesting, authentic/realistic, scientific, and reliable. And it’s worth trying and should be effective in my own EF teaching. First, Holistic English “attracts” me at first sight with its unique name because it stimulates the interests which I have had, the curiosity and desire that I want to find an unusual and effective way for my students –a large number of non-English major students in vocational colleges in PRC. The second thing I feel about HE is that it must be “interesting” and “inviting” to my students. From my own experience in more than 20 years of College English teaching (CET), I feel that it is true CET has been developing rapidly and astonishingly with great advancement in PRC in the past 30 years after the Chinese higher education reform with the opening-door policy, but the problems and barriers for both Chinese learners and teachers are: the number of the Chinese learners of English is great while the teachers of English are far from enough; the country is big, but a native-like or a friendly English speaking environment/classroom with desired effect can rarely be seen. Although the teachers of English in China have been studying, researching, and conducting training in different ways and areas with different FLT or ELT approaches and methods, the satisfactory approaches and methods are still in great demand. With the development of global economy and intercommunication between nations, English has become a more international and universal language; while, for the English learners of Chinese students, they have become more and more particular about the way of learning English, especially for the students from a “one-child family”, of science and engineering in vocational colleges. Once a college teacher said to me “Nowadays, the students today are not like college students but primary

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pupils; they are not learning but entertaining instead of learning. Being a college teacher, you should not only teach but also be able to present your teaching with pictures, cartoons, songs, videos and films. It becomes much harder for a college teacher to meet the needs of the students than before. ” A lot of my teaching experience have shown what he said is true. Therefore, with films and a quantity of authentic English materials, Holistic English should be “interesting” and “inviting” to the English learners of Chinese students, I feel. From the films, English books, and teaching clips of Holistic English classrooms in Sun Yat-sen University, I feel that everything around HE is “authentic”. Films and English books are a micro-duplication of society, which are made or written as well as conducted by native English speakers and experts. Later, the teaching feedback and assessment prove HE as an effective and interesting teaching approach with facts and numbers though the founder of HE, Dr. Martin Wallf, does not call HE a “teaching approach” but “English acquisition”, or “autonomous learning”. Further more, with after-thought and gradual acquaintance with HE, I think it is “scientific” and reliable. Holistic English is a learner-centered approach rather than a “teacher-centered” one because it offers a psychological basis and teachers can find some supporting theories and a lot of examples to support HE for its English “autonomous learning”— arousing the intrinsic drive or motivation of the learners and making the “English acquisition” without “forcing” them to do so. HE has also proved an old saying to be true both in English and Chinese “You can lead a horse to a river but you can’t make it drink” (Դϡ㛑⠯ϡୱ∈ᔎᣝ༈). Therefore , with HE, students will be attracted and motivated in English learning and discussion, and a teacher will become a facilitator, observer, and a guide instead of the class center, a dominator, or mono-speaker of an English class. In conclusion, Holistic English is reliable and applicable; and it’s worth the effort and trying to be put into our own future CET teaching. A Holistic English Teacher in My Eyes For some reasons, I missed the chance of going to the HE class, but I watched some of the HE classes and films on CDs. From my observation, I feel that the professor is not a foreign teacher like most of those I have ever met. He is strict, responsible, kind, humorous, experienced, and

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considerate. He is “strict” with his students with requirement, rules, and disciplines from his first class. He will not tolerate with his students for being late, using mobile phones or not observing the rules. Just as he said in his class “I’m serious.” “You will never be a good employee if you are frequently late for work in the future.” Such a case can be rarely seen with foreign teachers in China. More often, foreign teachers in China are like “guests” rather than “teachers” from the traditional Chinese viewpoint towards a teacher. They seldom criticize the students nor point out the mistakes the students have made, so some of the Chinese students said they did not learn English as much as they had expected because they did not know where their mistakes were so as to improve their English. Hence, the professor shows his sense of responsibility with his strictness. However, he is also “kind” to his students and humorous with his encouraging words and behavior in his teaching. For example, when a girl student felt so nervous giving a presentation in class that she could not express herself fluently in English, The professor walked his way across the classroom and shook hands with her, saying “Good! Your hand is cold; you are so nervous. Take it easy.” With such a way of teaching, he eased the tension in class and made the teaching easier, atmosphere warm and relaxing. Furthermore, the professor is an experienced and considerate teacher. Having been living and teaching in China for several years, he knows his Chinese students and his ELT well. For instance, he knows the general situation how casual the Chinese students pick up their English names without knowing the implied meaning for the native English speakers such as “Candy, Cindy, Kitty, Dog”. For some modern Chinese students, they choose their English names just as they do for their Chinese nicknames: for fun or showing their passion and love with something or someone they like. For some traditional Chinese parents (especially the farmers), they pick up some Chinese words like “⢫ᄤ” (“Dog” in English) as the nicknames for their children just because they want their children to grow up healthy, and could be brought up easily like an animal. With such a small example of “English names”, he showed the students how different cultures affect their English or foreign language acquisition, and also warned the teachers with his teaching how important cross-culture knowledge is for a non-native teacher of English to be qualified.

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Guo Xianfang

Guo Xianfang, a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University (2009.32009.7), works as a teacher of English in Wuhan University of Science and Engineering. She got her M.A. from Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, China. Being interested in English Education, I’m doing research projects about student-centered college English teaching. That is why I applied to be a visiting scholar of SYSU, hoping that I might carry out my projects smoothly under the guidance of my tutor, Dean Angela. My two projects are about a new college English teaching mode, of which one major part is a task–based teaching approach, which SYSU has been practising successfully for several years. On the very day I arrived at SYSU, when Dean Angela suggested that I observe an oral English course, I hesitated. Then Dean Angela and Dean Wang showed us, the new visiting scholars, around the classroom where the course would be held. On the wall there were some slogans in English that were meant to encourage English learners to speak more and speak freely. That was somewhat similar to what I had seen in some middle schools. But they were quite different, for although the slogans I saw in these schools were in English, they were awkward expressions in imperative sentences; while the slogans in this classroom were friendlier, which read like what Mum or Dad would say to her or his child/children. Then there was a water machine, plants, tea bags, coffee, and paper cups, etc., all of which created a cozy, relaxed atmosphere. Dean Wang told us all changes of this classroom were made by the teacher who would teach the classes and at his own expenses. I was impressed by the responsibility,

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the earnest and the enthusiasm the teacher had in English teaching. And at that time I didn’t know the teacher is an initiator of the Holistic English (HE) program. That was the beginning of my HE experience. In the afternoon of April 8, 2009, I was in HE class for the first time. When I got into the classroom, the students had already taken their seats around the desks. There were from 6 to 8 students around every two desks which were put together. On the desk before them were their English name tags. And everyone had a book with them, which at first I thought to be a textbook. But after I read the book, I realized that it was a workbook designed to help students to be fully prepared for the movie they would watch and then the free production in HE class. It consisted of reading materials about the movie they were going to watch and writing assignment to help them to ponder upon what they had watched. Students would watch the movie before the class, and then have a free discussion and share their opinions under the guidance of the teacher in class. “It should not be called ‘Oral English class’, because discussing and sharing opinions are just part of the whole arrangement, of which this so called ‘Oral English class’ has the same idea as my projects. That is, language should be leaned as a whole,” I thought with a little excitement. I looked up; the free discussion had already begun. So I listened to the ideas of the students in my group and aired my opinions. I found all the students in class were speaking in English whether their pronunciations were good or not, and they were trying to communicate, i.e., to share what they knew about the question the teacher had posed, or to inquire of their group members about information on the question, or to give their responses. And the confident students became the leaders of the groups spontaneously, while the reserved ones spoke a little less. That was totally different from what I had often observed in oral English classes before: some students would probably be off the point, some would soon speak in Chinese, and some would keep silent for a whole class. “It must be the friendly environment and the sufficient preparation that account for the differences,” I said to myself. I was quite pleased with the speculation because my projects also emphasized comprehensible input and relaxed atmosphere, but I was not so sure about the results for it’s still under experiment. My team members and I had been and were trying to find a hybrid way to help students to learn English (including acquiring English to some extent) effectively. I decided to observe the class again. Each time class ended I had a chat with some students. For I had enjoyed the fruit of HE myself (at that time I still had no idea of HE. I didn’t know

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HE until I read the articles the teacher sent to me by E-mails after I had observed the class twice), I asked them about the problems that were nagging them. By far I know they mainly have two problems. First, they have to spend too much time on the homework of the oral English class. They believe it is necessary and helpful to do the preliminary work before the class, but they sometimes can’t afford the time to do all the work by themselves because they have their majors and they have three kinds of English courses, for each of which they have many tasks or much homework to do. In order to finish all the homework within the limited time, they have to decide which will be the most important, which will be important, and which the least. They sometimes have no choice but do their homework according to its importance. For those they have no time to do, they will probably copy others’. If it is the case, could we expect the students to be well-prepared for the class? I remembered the teacher had mentioned self-discipline in class. I couldn’t agree more with him on it. But are the students really not disciplined? Were they not hard-working? They were post-graduates from the 1st tier university. Comparatively speaking, most of them were more selfdisciplined than those from the 2nd or even lower tier universities (I was just plain speaking with no prejudice against students who were not from the 1st tier university. I myself was an English teacher from a 2nd tier university). What they said above has explained the phenomenon: the HE course was helpful and they were interested in it, but sometimes the academic workload was too much for them to bear. Should they have three different English courses in one semester? After I observed the oral English class twice and read the articles about HE, I thought that HE should not be only an oral English course on curriculum, and that taskbased teaching approach and HE could work effectively together for adult English learners, so the three courses could be combined into one, which would surely ease students’ academic burden so that the students could do all the preliminary work by themselves. Second, some students thought the teacher didn’t respect them. One student told me that once the teacher said a girl’s English name sounds like a prostitute’s after he got her name. And the girl was ashamed and angry because she thought she was humiliated. And her classmates felt sympathetic to her and indignant with the teacher. But as I see it, it’s not about the question of respect, but about the cultural differences. The teacher just said the thing in itself and didn’t mean to hurt any student. To me, he was kindly suggesting the girl have another English name at that

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time because the name dropped a sexual hint when dealing with foreigners. But to students growing up in Chinese culture, it’s not suggestion but indignity. Although every English learner knows it’s very important to know cultural differences, and many of them have known much theoretically, as adult English learners, they are affected by their own culture deeply rooted in their minds unconsciously when they speak or act. So it is very difficult to be a teacher of English, whether they are Chinese teachers or teachers from overseas. Whichever English teaching approach is adopted, the problem concerning with cultural differences is still a knotty one to solve. Chen Yuling

Chen Yuling, a teacher from Guangzhou Sport University, graduated from Henan University with a degree of B.A. in 1985. Most students are fascinated with watching movies, in particular, American movies. Unfortunately, all they want to do is have fun or get a laugh. Of course they do get something about the language and the culture, but this is far less than the teacher had hoped.. To satisfy them we selected the movies that are humorous and funny, with simple plots but without much depth. My students prefer to watch in class, they watch, laugh and then get out of the classroom with little left in their mind. In 2009, I am doing my visiting scholarship in Sun Yat-sen University. By observing and participating in the class of “Holistic English”, I got to understand what I, as a teacher, do in class that failed to help my students to improve their English. The teacher ought to design additional activities

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concerning the movie so that students can participate in and practice their English, such as writing, group discussion, role playing etc.. What is more, students should also learn to appreciate the American movies critically and effectively.

I. Topics for discussion As for the movie “The Terminal”, students are stimulated with the following topics for group discussion or pair work: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

What do you think of the characters in the movie? Who do you like or dislike? And why? Who impresses or touch you most? What are the characteristics of Victor Navorski? What moves you most? Do you think Victor Navorski is a gentleman? What is a gentleman like in your mind? Is wealth a criterion for a gentleman? Amelia said to Frank Dixon “there is something a guy like you could never understand.” What is that “something”? How did Victor Navorski manage to survive in the strange and unfriendly environment during the nine months while he was detained at the airport? How did Victor Navorski pick up his English? How did Victor Navorski win respect and friendship from others?

The main purpose of the above topics is for communication among students. There are some conclusions on the nature of communicative activities, and they are the principles I follow in the process as well. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Students must have a desire to communicate. If they do not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective. Students should have some kind of communicative purpose: in other words they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective. While the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not intervene, such as telling students that they are making mistakes, insisting on accuracy or ask for repetition, etc. There are no controls to restrict the students’ choice of how to say it.

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II. Role play Students are required to watch the movies clips more than once and use the transcripts to play one of the characters, for the purpose to improve their pronunciation and intonation. While doing that, students are reminded to be aware of the characters’ identity, feelings, and situations and so on. Take the conversation between Victor Navorski and Frank Dixon as an example: Frank: I’ve figured out a way to get you out of this airport. You can go to New York City tonight if we can establish a credible fear. Victor: fear? F: Mm, fear. V: From what? F: Well, that is the best part. It doesn’t matter what you’re afraid of. It’s all the same to Uncle Sam. So I’m going to ask you one question. If you give me the correct answer, I can get you out of the airport tonight. V: So, I answer one question; go to New York City tonight. F: Tonight. V: Tonight. Ok. F: All right. Do you, at this time, have any fear of returning to your own country? V: No. (Note: he answers swiftly, without any hesitation.) F: Ok, let me try it again. (Note: He paused, for the answer was out of his expectation.) Your country’s at war. V: Yes, war. F: There are men in the streets with guns, political persecution. V: Yes, it’s terrible. F: it’s terrible. And God only knows what could happen. Innocent people are torn from their beds and thrown into jail. V: On Tuesday. I hate Tuesday. F: So you are afraid. V: From what? F: Krakozhia. You are afraid of Krakozhia. V: Krakozhia? No, I’m not afraid of Krakozhia. I’m a little afraid of this room. F: I’m talking about bombs. I’m talking about human dignity. I’m talking about human rights. Victor, please don’t be afraid to tell me you are afraid of Krakozhia. V: Is home. I’m not afraid from my home. (Note: with determination.) So? I go to New York City now? F: No. V: No.

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As teachers, we should also combine the training of language skills with the Humanities, with social and natural sciences for the purpose of general education. From the above, what we learn is not only the language , but also Victor’s patriotism, principles of not betraying while faced with temptation, which agrees with the Chinese traditional value: To be a true great man , neither riches nor honours can corrupt him; neither poverty nor humbleness can make him swerve from principle; and neither threats nor forces can subdue him.(䋿䌅ϡ㛑⿏ᆠ䌉ϡ㛑⎿࿕℺ϡ㛑ሜ.) Maybe, that is also what students should learn from the movie to grow up to be mature.

III. Writing task Students are also required to do some writing after watching the movie “The Terminal.” They are to write a letter to their friend and tell him/her why they should see or not see the movie. In the process, the students will have to review the movie, offer their comments from their own perspectives, practice skills of giving suggestions, learn to convince and write letters in the right way. That is what I have obtained from “Holistic English”. The February 26, 2009 lecture at Sun Yat-sen University “The Secret To Making Your English Better” resonated with my students. The following are a few of their representative comments: 1. I was deeply impressed by the speaker’s humor and style of speech. After all, the best way to learn English is that we should create a language environment by ourselves. The following steps could be helpful: 1. Try to keep in touch with a foreigner so as to communicate with him/her in English. 2. Listen to some English songs instead of Chinese songs. 3. Watch English movies or TV programs and learn about English culture, ideas and so on. 4. In our daily life, speak English as much as possible. 2. It’s unrealistic for us to learn English abroad, we just can’t afford it. I agreed with the speaker on the point that interest is extremely important in learning English. 3. I agree with the speaker that reading is an excellent way to improve your English. For example, when a new word appears in a sentence or a story, the context is often enough for me to guess the meaning. Coming across the word again and again in reading helps me learn it and use it

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correctly in my speaking and writing. However, we should try to find something easy to read, and read it for pleasure. 4. I think the present system of teaching English in school is not good for non-native English learners. The main task of English class seems only to pass examinations, correct grammar mistakes, all in a passive way. We just accept all kinds of English knowledge without using them. 5. It is not easy to create a foreign language environment, but we can take advantage of the opportunities for practice. Practice makes perfect. YU Yi

YU Yi, a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University (2008-2009), works as a teacher of English in Shenyang Institute of Engineering. She got her M.A. from Shenyang Normal University, Liaoning, China.

A Holistic English Classroom Teaching Observation Narrative I first heard about the HE class from my tutor Professor Xia. She suggested that I observe the class to see a new way of teaching oral English. It was 2:30 p. m. on May 6, 2009. When I got the classroom, the foreign teacher was busy reading through and marking students’ workbooks. There was a big pile of them on the teacher’s desk. Above the blackboard a slogan said, “How can I make my English better? Read, write, speak, listen more English.” On the wall were more signs on which English sentences were written, such as “If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail”, or “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. In the back

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of the room there was a water machine besides which some tea bags, coffee and paper cups were available. Seats were arranged in a way that 6 or 8 students can sit around tables. In the center of each table was a cute, lovely green plant. Students came in and put their English name tags on the table before them. I noticed they all took red baseball caps with them which read: SPEAK ENGLISH. The class then began. It was arranged for me to join in a student’s group of 4 women and a man. As I took my seat, they greeted me with friendly smiles and “welcome to join us”. They spoke English quite naturally. The students were post-graduate non-English majors. They took this course as a compulsory one and had a class every two weeks. The teacher began the class by emphasizing the right format of students’ emails. He then triggered group discussions on the movie “War of the Roses” by asking some questions. For each question, the students were allowed several minutes for discussion before giving their opinions. The teacher would comment on students’ opinions or just ask more questions to make the discussion go deeper. Here are some of the questions: Why do women fight first in Chinese domestic violence affairs while in the west men fight first? What does love have to do with marriage decisions in China? What is the traditional and current attitude towards divorce in China? What makes the difference? While I was observing the students discussing, I expected to find the common phenomenon in oral English class: students would soon digress from the topic and begin to speak Chinese. Yet these students did not do that, instead they spoke English all the time and they seemed to have much to say. The group spokesmen summarized their viewpoints and their presentation would now and then bring out laughter. The teacher constantly led the students to give a thought to the difference between eastern and western culture; or he would keep asking more questions, to some of which he would not elicit answers, but ask them to search online for the information. There was no argument about who would be the spokesman. They just took turns. Everyone concentrated on the discussion, but some talked much and some barely spoke. In my group, two women just listened and the man was obviously the organizer. They looked confident and relaxed. They were allowed to sit instead of standing up while making presentations.

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For that day’s homework, the teacher assigned a new movie “Eat a Bowl of Tea” for the students to see. They were also expected to study the workbook which would help them comprehend the movie. When I heard the teacher say “see you in two weeks”, I was surprised how time flew by. After class I talked with the teacher and got to know more about how the course was conducted. When I inquired of the teacher about the use of the baseball cap, he told me it was one of the prompts for students to speak English on campus. Some Reflective Ideas: 1. To create a true English speaking environment is a base of the HE course. It calls for the administrative and financial support from the school authority, and above all, the good English competence of teachers, even the staff. How can Chinese teachers compete with foreign teachers? What is a qualified HE teacher? 2. Language acquisition is not language teaching. It is the students not the teacher who should be the center of the class. Students speak. The teacher just provides scaffold. 3. Make the students confident and relaxed so that they can feel free to express their own opinions. 4. In the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier institutions of higher education where the unreachable and unteachable students peaked as high as 5%, what can be done for those students in their required English class. Zhang Fang

Zhang Fang, a visiting scholar at Sun Yat-sen University (2008-2009), works as a teacher of English in Taiyuan University of Technology, Shanxi, China.

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A Holistic English Classroom Teaching Observation I didn’t hear about the HE until I came to the HE class .Even my tutor Professor Xia and other visiting scholars who had gone to the class didn’t mention the word ‘HE’ to me. They just told me that it was worth the time and energy to observe the class, because a new way of teaching English is implemented in it, which shed some new light on the time-consuming and low-effect English teaching in China. I went to the HE class on May 6, 2009. Though two hours’ observation on the class and the talk with the teacher I got to know the HE course. Teaching model The HE class is student-centered instead of being teacher-centered. Students are given as many opportunities as possible to practice oral English in class. Learning materials Here I use ‘learning materials’ rather than ‘teaching materials’ because I didn’t see the teacher give his lesson with the book such as giving the explanation about the text and doing some exercises, which were often seen in traditional English teaching in China. Both the electric version and the workbooks are used by the students out of class. Learning materials for HE course include English moves with no Chinese script and a workbook about the movies. Movies appeal to students, which combines education with recreation and makes English learning no longer boring. With movies, students are exposed to large amounts of real-life colloquial English, which are quite different from the formal written English in traditional textbooks in China. English learning environment in the classroom As it was a major barrier to friendly environment, there was no lectern in the classroom. You couldn’t find the rows of neatly-arranged desks and chairs like those in a traditional classroom. Instead, two desks were put together in order for 6 students to sit comfortably around “each table”. But this didn’t surprise me, because this was often seen in the classes given by foreign teachers. What did impress me was that the students were provided as many prompts to speak English in class as possible. For instance, above the blackboard there was a red banner with a slogan which said, “How can I make my English better? Read, write, speak, listen more English.” On the wall around the classroom were more colorful signs on which some thought-provoking English sentences were written. In addition, every student came with a red baseball cap with ‘SPEAK ENGLISH.’ printed on

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it and they were called by their English names. So what the students saw, heard and said in the classroom were all English .but it’s a pity that they had such a class only once every two weeks. This is far from meeting their needs. Teacher’s role 1. Guider At the beginning of the class the teacher taught the students the right format of writing emails and he also mentioned how to write a resume, which were very practical for their life and future career. During the discussion, the teacher consciously led the students to think more about the differences between China and the west. At the end of the class the teacher give the students clear guidance on what they should do after class. 2. Organizer The teacher triggered group discussions on the movie “War of the Roses” by asking a question. The students were allowed several minutes for discussion before giving their opinions. After the spokesman in each group gave a presentation about the opinions in their group, the teacher would comment on students’ opinions, state his own and then ask more questions to make the discussion go deeper. So the class is well-organized. We didn’t see any waste of time. 3. Listener and Supervisor During the discussion the teacher went around the classroom, listening to the students, answering their questions and trying to find those less talkative ones, whom he would give more chances to state their opinions in front of the class. 4. Commenter Commenting is a very important skill for a teacher. Strategic comment could encourage students and prompt them to learn more. I found that the teacher seldom pointed out the students’ language mistakes which Chinese teachers often focus on. Each time he commented on students’ remarks, he always gave them encouragements and some new ideas on the topic. Students’ role 1. Autonomous learner out of class Before they came to the class, the students watched the movie assigned by the teacher and did the exercises in their workbooks, which helped them with their listening, reading and writing.

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2. Participants and dominants in class discussions In order to observe the students better, I was made to join in a students’ group of 6 boy-students. During the group discussion, I found that not all students were equally active in the discussion-some talked more and some talked less, but no one digressed from the topic and spoke Chinese. Though sometimes they spoke Chinglish, that didn’t have a bad effect on their communication and all of them were brave and confident enough to state their own opinions. Maybe they had got sufficient in-put before class or perhaps they are very interested in the topic, they seemed to have much to say in discussions. The questions were discussed in such an easy and happy atmosphere that we couldn’t help laughing now and then. Most of the class time was taken up by students’ discussion .and most students have the opportunity to speak in front of the class. Some questions for further discussion: 1. The students taking the course are post-graduate non-English majors. Their English level is comparatively higher than that of under-graduates. So is the HE course suitable for students with lower English level? 2. With the increasing enrollment in the universities, we usually have more than 60 students in a class. So how can we conduct the HE course in largesized classes? 3. It is demanding to be a qualified HE teacher. Firstly, he or she should have a good command of English. Secondly, he or she should be capable of coming up with good questions for students to discuss in class. By good questions I mean those which can lead students to think about the underlying culture differences between the east and the west and those which can help students develop moral standards and healthy personality. Finally, the ability of making strategic comments is also very important. In order to achieve these we need constant teacher training. But where, when and how can we get it? 4. In our university students will not be granted Bachelor’s degree if they fail the CET-band 4. So both the teaching and learning are exam-oriented instead of ability-oriented. However, the purpose of the HE course is to cultivate students’ ability to use English. So how can we achieve the balance between them?

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Administrative Perspective Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) introduced the Holistic English (HE) program in spring 2009. Since the very beginning, HE has been greatly welcomed by the postgraduates at SYSU. I participated in the orientation lecture and I was fascinated by the students’ enthusiasm. Over five hundred students attended the lecture. Some of them couldn’t find a seat, yet they stood through the whole lecture and echoed with the speaker. The students watched the movies and took two forty-minute HE classes every other week throughout the semester. The majority of them watched the movies at the university theater hall, while the rest did so through the university’s intranet. Dr. Niu Qiang and Dr. Martin Wolff selected all the movies for HE and we created an English Movie Library on SYSU’s intranet. Students are fascinated with the movies and most of them watched the movies many times. Armed with a sufficient input in both language and culture through the movie-watching, students were greatly self-motivated to air out their understanding and perspectives in class and were always welcoming the responses from both the foreign facilitator and other class members. As the deputy dean of the department and the director of EFL Programs for Postgraduates, SYSU, I received over 200 Emails telling me their fascinating experience with HE: How much they have benefited, how much they will continue their HE later on by themselves. Here are some of excerpts from those Emails concerning students’ feedback upon finishing the HE program.

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Chapter Ten Dear Dean Wang: My English semester is going to be over, I have learned a lot in this half year, to be intrinsic motivated and be on time to attend professor’s classes and so on. Besides, it helps me to know how to continue my further English study. So I write this letter to thank you for what you have done for all of us students. Best regards. (Ivy Huang) Professor Wang, Thank you so much for providing such a fantastic English learning environment for all of us. Your work did make us use English better although it sometimes took more time than it should be. But we really thank you for facilitating our English class, for providing the place for us to watch the movies, for finding such an unusual but really kind hearted and helpful and creative foreign teacher. Thank you so much for everything. (Annie) Dear Dean Wang, Thank you for building an English Movie Library for us. I'm Sarah Qiu from Lingnan College, SYSU. Thank you for caring about us, I'm sure the English Movie Library will enrich our university education. Thank you again, from my heart. (Sarah) Dear Dean Wang: I am Simone, a student of Martin Wolff from English class 21. Thank you very much for your great efforts to build a English movie library for our campus! You know there are a lot of difficulties in our English learning, the most important one is the lack of a good environment .You care about our English learning so much that you created the library to enrich our resources of English learning. Watching English movies is a most favorable way to improve our English. (Simone) Dean Wang, I write this letter to thank you for the English Movie Library which is absolutely a good way for us to improve our English. It is very wonderful that all the movies are with English subtitles. (Eris, Class 14) Dean Wang, Thank you very much that you are so caring about our English study and give us the new book "International Business Law (3rd Edition)". We had your lesson once at the beginning of this term when Ms. Hu hadn't arrived in our campus. Your lesson was impressive and helpful. And I remembered that you have told us English can be a kind of lifestyle. Your

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class is enlightening and I find that I have more enthusiasm in English when it comes to my daily life. (Jessica Xu, Class 11)

At the end of the semester, three controlled traditional oral English classes were given the same questionnaire as the HE classes. Ten per cent of the students in the former filled out the questionnaire in Chinese while all students in the latter did so in English. Small wonder that a lower percentage of students in the traditional classes feel that they have greater confidence in speaking and writing in English and have higher motivation to further polish their English. It is even more noteworthy that the students who participated in HE benefited more in their world view. They gained more cultural knowledge of the world and took a broader view of the diversified world.

Conclusion The HE program produces consistent and reliable results across a broad spectrum of post-graduate students from a diverse group of undergraduate majors, from throughout China and representing 120 undergraduate institutions of higher education. Not only do the students receive significant benefits from the HE program; the students are acutely aware of the benefits they received. The results at Sun Yet-sen University are consistent with prior results of freshmen and sophomores at six 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier universities and colleges in 4 provinces. (Appendix B) (Qiang, Wolff & Teng, 2009) Language acquisition requires comprehensible input, one element of which is that the subject matter must be of interest to the acquirer. Holistic English Workbook I needs to be changed to meet the undergraduate degree interests of the post-graduate students. A special Workbook should be developed for this purpose. For example, to meet the interests of the Economic and Finance majors, four of the Book I movies (Not Without My Daughter, War of the Roses, Joy Luck Club, Eat a Bowl of Tea) should be changed to movies with a focus on Business/Finance/Marketing. (Wall Street, Rogue Trader, Wal-Mart, McLibel, Life and Debt) To meet the needs of the law students, portions of International Business Law 3rd, with accompanying law movies, could have been utilized. (This is the only International Business Law book specifically written for Chinese students and additionally incorporates the Holistic English approach to improve the law students’ English production.) There are movies available that would appeal to the accounting majors. Even the Chinese Studies and History

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majors would benefit from a different movie mix. (Tai Pan, Sand Pebbles, Great Wall) Based on the past semester’s success of HE for the postgraduates, SYSU is ready to expand HE to the undergraduates EFL programs. The faculty members, including foreign experts, and visiting scholars will work together to compile more subject/specialty-related textbook suitable for different majors and different levels. I can imagine the feedback from next semester’s students will be more fascinating.

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APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE Class No. _______ Male ______

Female ______

Age _______

Home Province _____________________________________ Undergraduate major _____________________________ Undergraduate university _______________________________ I have Passed CET 4 yes ____ no ____ I have Passed CET 6 yes ____ no ____ I have Passed TEM 4 yes ____ no ____ INSTRUCTIONS 1) Fill in this form anonymously and hand it in before leaving the classroom. Print clearly. Question #1 Which activity was the most beneficial? 1. Victor role play day __________ 2. Chat with a foreign exchange student __________ 3. English Corner __________ Question #2 What did you like the best, or think the worst, about this Holistic English class? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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Question #3 Please circle 1 to 10: (10 – greatest help; 1 – least help) Did this course help you to improve your: Vocabulary 1 2 3 Reading skills 1 2 3 Listening skills 1 2 3 Writing skills 1 2 3 Conversation skills 1 2 3 Confidence 1 2 3 Motivation 1 2 3 Self-Discipline 1 2 3 Creative thinking 1 2 3 Autonomous learning skills 1 2 3 World view 1 2 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

Question #4 What grade do you think you deserve in this class? ______________ Why do you deserve that grade? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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APPENDIX B (2009) EFL: HOLISTIC ENGLISH --The Revolution Has Begun, but the Long March Lies Ahead, Chapter 13, China EFL – Time For Another Revolution, Nova Science Publications, New York

Spring ’08 Holistic English Freshmen and Sophomore Vocabulary – Reading – Listening – Writing – Conversation Cumulative 6 schools

N U M B ER O F ST U D EN T

600

Vocabulary

500 400

Reading

300

Oral

200

Writing

100

Listening

0

1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

Chart 7 Confidence – Motivation – Discipline Cumulative 6 schools

600 NUM BE R O F S TUDE NTS

500 400

CONFIDENCE

300

MOTIVATION

200

DISCIPLINE

100 0 1

Chart 8

2

3

4 5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

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World View – Business Knowledge Cumulative 6 schools

NUM BER OF STUDENTS

500 400 300

World View

200

Business Knowledge

100 0 1

2

3 4 5 6 7 8 10 = GREATEST HELP

9 10

Chart 9 With 10 different foreign teachers implementing Holistic English at 6 different colleges and universities in 4 different provinces (Guangxi University (2nd tier), HUARUI COLLEGE at Xinyang Normal University (2nd tier), Yang En University (2nd tier), Xinyang Agricultural College (3rd tier), CIB at Shenyang Normal University (2nd tier), Xinyang Technical and Vocational College (4th tier). 10 different foreign teachers), the Holistic English Program delivered consistent uniform results for 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier students.

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References Anderson, J.R. Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications (6th ed) 2005. W.H. Freeman and Company. Dkeyser,R.2003. Implicit and Explicit Learning. In Doughty, Catherine J.and Long,Michael H.(eds.) The Handbook of SecondLanguage Acquisition. (p.313-p.348).Blackwell Publishing. Ellis,Nick.1994. Implicit and Explicit Learning of Languages. (p.79p.114).Academy Press Limited Gass,Susan M.1997.Input,Interaction and Second Language Learner. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Krashen,Stephen D.1982.Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition.Pergamon Press. Krashen, Stephen D. (2004) Applying the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. Pergamon Press. McLaughlin, B. (1987). Theories of Second Language Learning. London: Arnold. Niu Qiang, 2001. Reexamining the role of input and the features of optimal input (I). Teaching English in China. P 6-11. Vol. 24, No.3. —. 2001. Reexamining the role of input and the features of optimal input (II). Teaching English in China. P 57-62. Vol. 24, No.4. —. 2001. On different types of output and the elicitation of optimal output. Teaching English in China. P 15-19. Vol. 24, No.1. Qiang/Wolff/Teng (2008) China EFL: A New Paradigm, Ch. 12. Education in China 21st Century Issues and Challenges P187-196, Nova Science Publishers, New York Qiang//Wolff/Teng (2009) China EFL: Holistic English, Ch. 13. China EFL – Curriculum Reform, Nova Science Publications, New York Qiang/Wolff (2009) What is Holistic English, P 21-28. Journal of Education Research, Volume 1/2 Nova Science Publishers, New York Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Reder. L. M. (1996) Implicit Memory and Metacognition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Robinson, P & Ellis, N.C. (2008). Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group: New York And London. Schmidt,Richard.2001.Attention.In Robinson, Peter (ed.) Cognition and Second Language Instruction(p.3-p.32)Cambridge University Press. Schmidt,Richard.1990.“The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning”In Applied Linguistics 11:p.129-p.156

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Schumann, John H., Crowell, Sheila E., and Jones, Nancy E., Lee, Nambee, Schuchert, Sara Ann, Wood, Lee Alexander (2004) The Neurobiology of Learning, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers Swain, M. (1998). Focus on form through conscious reflection. In C.Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics. Studies in honour of H.G. Widdowson. (pp. 125-144). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. VanPattern, B., (2003) From input to output: A teacher’s guide to second language Acquisition. The McGraw-Hill Companies.

CHAPTER ELEVEN HOLISTIC ENGLISH: THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES (FALL 2009) MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY, GUANGZHOU

Introduction The EFL “Revolution” began at Sun Yat-sen University in the Spring 2009 semester with approximately 600 post-graduate, non-English majors, in the Humanities, from 24 Provinces and representing 120 undergraduate institutions. We now chronicle implementation of the Holistic English Program at Sun Yat-sen University in the Fall 2009 semester with 700 post-graduate, nonEnglish majors in the Sciences, from 28 Provinces and representing 195 undergraduate institutions.

Real EFL Reform that Helps “The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century. The reform aims to modernize EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with better technology.”1 The utter failure of this effort is chronicled elsewhere.2

1

A Recent History of Teaching EFL in China, http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11103 (accessed July 16, 2009) 2 Wolff (2009) China EFL: What Does Reform Mean? (In press) Nova Science Publications

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Yet, as late as 2009 every Chinese college and university has a Chinese L1 intranet system. The system is beyond the use of most L1 English speaking foreign teachers and requires students to go through a maze of Chinese pages before reaching an English department page. In the early years of Holistic English development, Chinese students were encouraged to make use of www.usingenglish.org to ask questions and post resumes for correction. The web site owner was most gracious and even set up special forum topics for the Chinese students. He even established a China EFL page for China EFL articles for free download. Unfortunately this placed the students beyond the reach of the Holistic English teachers and subjected them to opinions from experts and crackpots, neither of which knew anything about the Chinese educational experience. There were problems with moderators and a lack of timely communication with the web site owner. In the summer of 2009 the situation simply became intolerable and a new web site was established, The Official Home of China Holistic English. http://chinaholisticenglish.org Certain relevant and current topics are posted and the Chinese students of English are given a limited amount of time to read the topic and post their comments. This eliminates a paper shuffle, saves a few trees and makes correction much easier. The final product becomes a part of the public record which the students can show their grandchildren in the future. Elimination of interaction with Chinese language and full utilization of modern electronic technology is true EFL reform you can count on. The uniqueness of this EFL modernization was recognized by the Open Directory listing http://chinaholisticenglish.org within 3 months of its birth and Google assigning a page rank of 2. Both recognitions usually require that the web site be in existence for at least one year.

First Day Student Culture Shock The beginning of any new academic semester is fraught with inevitable required adjustments. The post-graduate students (pgs) are no exception. They are required to take one semester of oral English with a foreign teacher. Most pgs have had prior undergraduate experiences with this inconsequential course where the grade does not count and more often than not, the foreign teacher has a guitar and only knows how to teach

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English songs. The pgs have a very strong preconceived idea of what to expect from their oral English class. As the pgs approach their 4th floor oral English classroom they are confronted by a 200 cm x 200 cm banner.

They have no idea what “Chingland” means and “Chinglish Spoken Here” goes directly against and is directly opposed to their prior teaching that Chinglish is no good. This is the pgs first indication that something may be different. As they approach the classroom door they look puzzled and double check the room number.

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As the pgs open the door, their jaws drop, they freeze in position and get a “deer in the headlights” look. Again, they double check the assigned classroom number.

As they slowly enter the room there is a Chinese buzz. The foreign teacher actually looks like a real professor. The professor loudly announces, “This is an English class and this is an English classroom. Why am I hearing Chinese? If you want to practice your Chinese, leave.” A hush falls over the room. The pgs ask permission to be seated. The professor advises that those pgs who have brought their books and a writing utensil may be seated. All others must leave and never return unprepared again. Those who did not bring their books or writing utensils are told to leave but they remain frozen in time and space. The professor explains that coming to a pg class at China’s #8 most famous university is

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intolerable kindergarten behavior and the guilty students are ordered to leave. Sometimes an entire first class must be cancelled and rescheduled at a punitive time. On the very first day of the semester the professor draws the line in the sand and demands that the pgs act like mature, responsible, serious students or get out. They have never had such an experience in their prior 16 years of education. They are in shock! Fortunately, the professor knows how to bring the pgs out of shock and within minutes the classroom is filled with laughter as everyone settles down to begin their semester of fun with English acquisition. The students were required to tell their first day culture shock story on http://chinaholisticenglish.org An independent reviewer selected several representative student posts for replication in Appendix “A”.

Students’ Lack of Intellectual Property Awareness Half (350) of the students were assigned the movie “Working Girl.” This movie is a soft introduction to the personal importance of Intellectual Property Protection. (All of the students are science majors.) Before the classroom discussion of the movie, the students were assigned to read many articles that gave a broad overview of copyright, patent, trademark, personal endorsements and corporate secrets. They also read a synopsis of the Yao Ming vs. Coca Cola case filed in the Shanghai Court. The students were given three separate questions for discussion: 1.

How could Tess have better protected her idea from theft by her boss?

The students tended to over think this issue and came up with very convoluted and complex answers. The simplest answer is sometimes the best. Tess should have made a copy of her notes before handing them over to her boss and Tess should have had her boss sign a receipt for the notes.

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Utilizing today’s technology, Tess could have sent her notes as an email attachment. 2.

Why is it important to protect intellectual property?

A super majority of the students stated that creativity must be rewarded to encourage more creativity because new inventions and things will advance society and create a better off harmonious society. 3.

What is the difference between stealing a DVD from a department store and stealing a song or movie by free download from the internet?

There were two prevalent views. First, stealing from the department store is dangerous because someone may see you and you could go to jail. The internet is anonymous and you can’t get caught. This answer raised numerous additional questions for discussion: 1. Are these students computer illiterate? Don’t they understand IP addresses and footprints? Have they not read the news from the USA about people being put in jail and fined more than $1 mil for illegally downloading music and movies for free? Don’t they know that their Government has more than 30,000 internet police tracking their every move? 2. What about morality? Stealing is ok so long as you believe you can’t get caught? Speeding is ok so long as there are no police around? And what about murder? Second, if a song or movie is available on the internet it is not stealing to download a free copy. Everything on the internet is for everyone and if it was stealing the Government would close the web site. These post-graduate students were truly surprised to learn that their ideas were completely inconsistent with reality and the rule of law in China. They were then required to read “The Best IP Protection” at http://chinaholisticenglish.org, to formulate a plan to solve the IP Protection dilemma in China and post their plan on the web site.

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The following are (unedited) representative posts: Judy Class 2 October 28th, 2009 at 1:01 pm I always think that IP protect is far from me. But through the WORKING GIRL and the class, I am now aware that it is very important for all of us. We should protect our IP and also should protect other’s. In China we do not take it very seriously. As the example was taken by Martine Wolf, we do not steal the VCD or DVD in the shop, but we download the movie from the Internet freely. This may be a big question. There are two ways in front of us: One is free, the other is that we should pay money for the same thing. Of course, we choose the first one. It would be a long way for China to go to make everyone notice the importance of the IP protect. Everybody should enroll with the help of the government Angelina Class 2 October 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am Honestly speaking, most of us download songs, movies and articles on the Internet for free. Before the discussion of IP protection, we have never realized that this behavior is illegal. That is to say, many of us are lacking of concept and knowledge of IP and IP protection. We ourselves should pay enough attention to this situation because IP and IP protection is closely related to our future work and life. Firstly, we should culture our awareness of IP that we should know the things belonged to IP. Secondly, we should know well the laws about IP and IP protection in China. Last but not least, we should obey the laws and should respect others’ labor. Only in this way, the so-called laws about IP and IP protection can be considered as meaningful. May Class 2 October 28th, 2009 at 10:53 am In our growing, we all have been told that taking others’ things without permission is a kind of stealing behavior .But we only have the traditional concept of stealing in our mind. Few of us have the IP Concept in China. Therefore, it is a very urgent task to improve IP Concept of the Chinese people. And my suggestions are as follows. Firstly, and also the most important one, just as our Pro. Wolff mentioned, the best IP protection is through education. Only by this way, can we abandon the traditional thoughts of stealing behavior and can we improve IP Concept of the Chinese people. And also, we must put more enforcement actions into practice and make the low work more efficiently. Of course, the premise is that the Chinese government must establish a series of laws base on China’s actual conditions in every field.

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues Indeed, IP protection develops rapidly in China, but it also does not develop well enough. To solve the problem of IP protection, we have still have a long way to go! Betty Class 3 October 28th, 2009 at 10:51 am To be honest, I do not want to touch on this topic. As a student who does not have some outcomes need to protect, I prefer the convenience brought by piracy and illegal downloading. In China, intellectual property rights infringement, like a double-edged sword, bring us cultural and economic development, but more drawbacks and adverse impacts following. We have clearly seen that intellectual property infringement amounts to the action killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. On one hand, it brings great harm to the original master, lower their enthusiasm of creation, and lead them to be disappointed and distrust of us. In the long run, they are no longer willing to share with us and display the new results to us. On the other hand, though it has brought the imitator temporary benefits, copying the original outcomes results in our psychological reliance, and we become more and lazier to think and innovate. Of course, China should solve these problems, but it is really a long and intricate process. To change the situation fundamentally, we need to further educate and economic development. Take pirated books as an example. When the pirated books are much cheaper than the original, we always prefer to buy the pirate which may be of poor paper quality, because we can enjoy the same content paying much less money. So, for the publishers, why not throw off the excessive gorgeous packaging and reducing the price differences between the original and the pirate. For the government, establishing and improving the framework of laws and rules on copyright piracy are still real challenges, but why not try to set up more awards to reward innovations. For the public, we still need to get more knowledge of intellectual property rights, and show our respects to the person who do the creative work. Lisa Class 1 October 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am I think the key to the IP protection lies in the education. Most of Chinese people don’t realize that it is illegal to use other’s intangible goods without paying. They think the resources are for free. China has promulgated some laws about IP protection, but many people don’t notice the laws, so it is necessary to propagate the laws effectively, using some mediums, such as TV, broadcast, newspaper and so on, punishment is not the correct way. Maybe they should educate the students about the laws of IP protection when they are very young, because the children will be the next leaders of China, and the conception of IP protection is very important, if they are not aware of the IP protection, how will they release the laws of it? And how

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Chapter Eleven will the citizens develop the consciousness of it? That will be a very serious problem. Jane Class 8 October 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pm Frankly, the Intellectual Property Protection in China has not been good. In my opinion, the following ways can be tried to resolve this problem. 1. Draw a clear-cut line between reward and punishment. Based on existing law, we should improve relevant provisions and regulations. Governments at all levels should set an example by their own action. We must ensure that the laws are strictly observed and enforced. Publishing houses and copy shops must be given strict supervision. Law-breakers must be punished strictly. While the advanced law-abiding individuals can be given certain incentives to set leading role for the rest. 2. Governments and medias should do more publicity. Television, Internet, newspapers, billboards can be made full use to give citizens information as much as possible to understand the importance of intellectual property protection. 3. While the most important thing we should do is to strength education. Education about intellectual property protection should be strengthened in schools at all levels, especially in universities where this phenomenon is quite serious. It is important that teachers should set examples. 4. Another key point is to develop the economy, which is the basis for intellectual property protection. If our income is high enough, we have naturally foundation to buy the legal ones. However, now it is more realistic for the majority of Chinese people to buy the piracy according to our income level. This problem can not be resolved within a short time, and we can only pin our hope on our long-term joint efforts.

Three students, within this group that studied IP protection, went on to subsequently plagiarize a homework assignment and received a failing grade for the course under an administrative mandate,

Four Anomalies The use of the internet for posting homework assignments and the requirement that these post-graduate students post their work at http://chinaholisticenglish.org produced some unexpected, and frankly, surprising results.

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Vulgarity A minority of the male students deemed it appropriate to show their manly prowess through the use of vulgarity and profanity. Even after having their posts rejected and receiving an email warning, some persisted. One student ended every post with “F… you professor and F… this assignment.” The posts never saw the light of day on the web site. Due to repeated offenses, the following post was placed on the web site: WARNING Contrary views, dissent and debate are welcomed. But you must disagree without being disagreeable. Stick to the issues and stay away from attacking personalities. Personal attacks will be rejected. Vulgar, profane, insulting and otherwise disgusting posts will be rejected. Do not use crude or threatening language. Do not use hateful language. Be civilized in everything you write. Violators of these rules will be banned which means your registration will be deleted and you will not be allowed to register again.

Some (unedited) student reactions: Jose class 5 November 14th, 2009 at 1:53 am Personal attacks are ignominious and this is not Chinese tradition. Emphasis on civilization is the basic essence of every Chinese people. So we should use civilized language whatever you agree or disagree. Ryan class 02 November 13th, 2009 at 9:29 pm I’m sorry that I have made some dirty words in your website. In my older opinion, this is a free area just like in the bar. But I haven’t noticed is that this is a place for our study of English, where we communicate with each other and deeply discuss. It is not for pleasure simply. My action has influenced the whole respectful atmosphere, and will harm my English expression in return. And one thing I couldn’t help to say is the excuse, which is looked down upon by many students. The answer is that it makes me feel much safer when growling in English than in Chinese. So words flew out. Luckily, the admin had stopped my stupid words.

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Plagiarism 7 students, including 3 who had watched the movie Working Girl and participated in the discussion of IP protection, plagiarized their homework assignments. The department administration ordered that the offending students receive a failing grade. This problem warranted the following post being added to the web site: China Moves to Prevent Academic Plagiarism 2009-03-19 22:14:43 Xinhua Web Editor: Xu Fei Universities in China should have primary responsibility for academic plagiarism, the Ministry of Education said in a circular Thursday. Universities should investigate and deal with plagiarism in accordance with the law, with the help of its academic committee, the circular said. This circular was the first document to deal with academic plagiarism, said Xu Mei, spokeswoman with the ministry. Cases of academic plagiarism have been frequent in recent years. On March 15, the elite Zhejiang University fired an associate professor who allegedly copied a former doctoral supervisor’s research results in eight of his theses and sent one paper to different journals for publication. According to the circular, the punishment for plagiarists could involve warnings, dismissal or even legal charges. Plagiarists’ research programs could also be suspended or terminated, they could lose their funding, or see awards and honors revoked. Plagiarists will also be ineligible for financial support and academic awards for “a certain period,” said the notice. Universities should handle plagiarism cases in a fair and open way and publish the results to the public. The notice also ordered universities to set up workshops for teachers and students to improve their awareness of academic discipline. “These measures are intended to build up a long-term prevention mechanism to keep the academic field ‘clean’,” said Xu.

One (unedited) example:

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues Steve .Class 15 November 15th, 2009 at 5:20 pm · Edit EDITOR’S NOTE: PLAGIARISM IS A FORM OF IP THEFT. THIS POST WAS STOLEN FROM http://www.amazon.com/review/RTK9DVXK2R3LI THIS POST IS ABOUT THE BOOK AND NOT THE MOVIE. UNBELIEVABLE! As for me , the movie is a little old in some point. As a Chinese, I read Iron and Silk and am amazed at how much Mark got into the soul of the ordinary Chinese people. In 30 short anecdotes, Mark gives a compassionate and humorous account of teaching English and studying martial arts in Changsha, a provincial capital in central China shortly after the opening of the country in the early 1980s. In the best manner of innocents abroad, Mark knows how to make fun of his blunders in a very charming way. He conveys his sense of wonder beautifully, and does not pass judgment on anything he witnesses. At the beginning, it is difficult for him and he adjusts himself into Chinese culture .To Mark, the students have learned many things from him, he also have learned of the Chinese character and culture. So from my standpoint, with the culture changes, the two cultures can learn each other and make a great progress. As for china ,it could become more successful in TEFL!

Some (unedited) student responses: Charlie. 15 November 16th, 2009 at 1:35 pm Unbelievable When I saw that Steve copied other’s comment as his own. He is my team member, I am dumfounded! I try my best to do the assistant’s job, and to make everyone in class 15 to do the best job, but, yes, I can not please all of the people all of the time. Most of them always complained that Marin has arranged too much homework so that they have no time to learn the major course. But in the spare time, what I saw was they were playing games all the time. So whose faults? As we are all adults we should be responsibility to ourselves but not to complain other people. Michelle-class 14 November 16th, 2009 at 4:18 pm People who steal other’s comments and ideas will hurt themselves finally. If always act like that, it will develop a bad habit which is hard to change, and some day, you must regret this. One only can succeed by his own

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Chapter Eleven effort. I can understand that those who copied the comments are just too busy to write their own ideas. Because I am busy too, but I also insist on writing comments, just making them a little shorter. If we have no much time, we can write less, but never to copy anything from others.

Unreachable and unteachable students 1.6% of the female students and 8% of the male post-graduate students refused to actively participate in the class or homework. (Compared to 1.6% overall last term for humanities students) Due to the high percentage of science students, the following post was placed on the web site: Who is Kidding Whom? You can please some of the people all of the time. You can please all of the people some of the time. You cannot please all of the people all of the time. There is no single teaching pedagogy or methodology that fits everyone in every situation. Some of you have benefited from HE while some have not. Some of you benefited from ABC day and some did not. Some of you benefited from English Corner and some did not. Some of you liked Iron and Silk while some did not. Some of you have not benefited from HE, ABC Day or English Corner but most of you have. Some of you do your own work while some copy from others. Some of you have done none of the homework. You only cheat yourself. I have 700 students which means there should be at least 700 posts on each thread. Iron and Silk Deng Xioping Trojan Horse ESE at SYSU Mute English English Corner ABC

219 posts 356 posts 234 posts 640 posts 632 posts 672 posts 686 posts

Some of you claim you do not post because I will not accept anything that does not agree with me. You have obviously NOT read your classmates’ posts. Every post is allowed unless it is vulgar or disrespectful. I give 100% to my teaching responsibilities but many of you do not give 100% to your student responsibilities.

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues In your future you will reap what you sow today. You must live with the consequences of your actions. Some of you claim to be afraid of HE class, my emails, and even me. But you are not. You are afraid of something else and to find that something else you only need to look in a mirror. If you have not benefited from HE it is because you decided NOT to benefit from HE! BELIEVE YOUR OWN LIES! I laugh when you say there were only a few people at English Corner and they were just talking Chinese so you left. You did not go to the 11-11 English Corner, you just made up a story but I allowed your post so everyone knows you now. Some of you cut and paste from another web site. You are an IP thief! Check your post for the editor’s comment. Who is kidding whom? This is a rhetorical question that answers itself. No one is kidding anyone. You are just kidding and cheating yourself.

A Couple of (unedited) examples: Fernando-4 November 13th, 2009 at 11:34 pm EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS POST IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF AN UNREACHABLE AND UNTEACHABLE. When I was a junior school student, I found the English corner in my school, from then on I have always doubt that if it make any sense. Then, I came to senior school and university, also there are English corners, at the same time, I still can’t understanding whether it does help.To be honest, I’m never willing to attend it, for I don’t think it can give any improvment to me. There are many ways to practice my English, and they are more efficient. I can watch movies to improve my listenning, and many other occasions can improve my oral English. Personally, the English corners is just a style, I don’t really appreciate it. Schools are willing to show that they own such a oringplace for English study. Besides this, I can’t imagine what benefits it can provide. So, I’d rather read aloud and chat with foreign friends than go there to do the boring Q and A.

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Chapter Eleven Andason class 7 November 16th, 2009 at 1:44 pm EDITOR’S NOTE: WHY DO I ALLOW SUCH A FALSE STORY TO APPEAR? MAINLY SO YOU KNOW WHAT IS A REAL UNREACHABLE AND UNTEACHABLE STUDENT. MORE THAN 600 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE 11-11 ENGLISH CORNER BUT MORE THAN 100 HAVE MADE UP A FALSE STORY LIKE THIS ONE. This is the first time I go to English corner, but with bad luck, when I went to there, I found there were very few people, for the chilly wind and cold small rain. For now and then I had been here, I tried to talk to a man( he looks like not a student), but at once I realized that, he had no interesting tiling to me at all, I doubt that he was just waiting for a single girl here, and then~~~, so, I passed him over and turned to another, but as the same conditions, this guy once again refused talking to me, I was very disappointed, and then as it was going to be colder, I leaved.

Some (unedited) student responses: Alice class 5 November 16th, 2009 at 8:59 pm First I must thank for Martin’s 100% to his teaching responsibility that all of us known. Maybe some of the students didn’t pay 100% responsibility to Martin’s hard works. It’s true. But what they did must be responsible for their selves. Maybe one day in the future, they will regret to do those stupid things now. What I want to say is that just catch the HE chances and be responsible to yourself. What you learned now is learning for yourself and not for any others. If you worked hard for that, I believe you will take the benefits from it at last. Don’t be lazy for a little moments and getting the regret all of your life in the end. Stacy-Class 2 November 16th, 2009 at 7:07 pm To tell the truth, at first I was very afraid of oral English class, because I was not so good at English expression. But gradually, I realized that expressing in English is not so hard, what we should do is thinking more, speaking more, saying what we want to say, no matter the grammars of our sentences are right or wrong, no matter our opinions are different from others, just be ourselves, just as the Professor Martin said: ”there are no right or wrong answers…”. So I think it is no use to copy other classmates’ comments. In real life everyone is not the same, everyone is a miracle in their own way. So just be ourselves, express ourselves’ opinions, don’t kid ourselves.

Student Demographics

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All 700 registered students were post-graduate non-English majors ranging in age from 21 to 57. Men constituted 45% and women 55%. This is a marked departure from prior undergraduate Holistic English implementation programs where the percentage of women was 96% to 4% men. This difference in gender percentage may be influenced by the students’ undergraduate majors being more attractive to men than some of the majors at other institutions where Holistic English has been implemented. Class #1 School of Life Sciences Class #2 School of Life Sciences Class #3 School of Life Sciences Class #4 School of Life Sciences Class #5 School of Life Sciences, School of Education Class #6 School of Environmental Science, and Engineering Class #7 School of Geography and Planning Class #8 School of Geography and Planning Class #9 School of Geography and Planning Class #13 School of Mathematics and Computational Science Class #14 School of Mathematics and Computational Science, Department of Earth Science Class #15 Department of Earth Science Class #16 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Class #17 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Class #18 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering CONTROL GROUP: Class #22 School of Life Science Class #23 School of Envirnmental Science and Engineering Class #24 School of Envirnmental Science and Engineering Class #26 School of Information Science and Technology The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan Hong Kong (SAR), Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang The students represent the following 195 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Agricultural University of Hebei, Anhui Normal University, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Anyang Normal Teachers University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Normal University Zuhai Campus, Binzhou University, Central China Agriculture University, Central China Normal University, Central South

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University of Forestry and Technology, Central South University, Changchun Normal University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, China Agriculture University, China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Geosciences, China West Normal University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications, Dalian University of Technology Dalian Jiaotong University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Dezhou University, East China Institute of Technology, East China Normal University, East China Institute of Technology, Foshan University, Fujian Normal University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong College of Pharmacy, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangzhou University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong University of Business Study Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin University of Technology, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University, Hefei University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan College Of Science And Technology, Henan University of Technology, Hengyang Normal University, Hohai University, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, Huanggang Normal University, Huangshan College, Huangshan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Huangzhong Agricultural University, Hubei Normal University, Hubei University of Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Hunan City University, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Hunan University, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Jiangsu University, Jiaying University, Jiamusi University, Jiliang University, Jilin University, Jimei University, Jinan University, Jiujiang University, Jishou University, JYU University, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoning University, Lanzhou University, Leshan Normal University, Liaocheng University, Liaoningshihua University, Linyi Normal University, Linyi University, Luoyang Normal University, Nanchang University, Nanchang Hang Kong University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Neijiang Teachers' College, Nankai University, Northeast Agriculture University, Northeast Forest University, Northeast Normal University, Northeastern University, North University of China, North West Normal University, Northwest University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest A & F University, Ocean University of China, Peking University, Pingdingshan University, Quanzhou Normal University, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao University, Qingdao Technological University, Qufu Normal University, Qiannan Normal College for Nationalities, Shanxi Agriculture University, Shanxi Datong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong

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University of Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, Shaoxing University, Shaoyang College, Shangqiu Normal University, Shanxi Datong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenzhen University, Shijiazhuang University Of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Normal University, South Central University for Nationalities, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southeast University, Southwest Forestry College, Southwest Jiaotong University, Southwest Normal University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Taiyuan Normal University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Three Gorges University, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin Normal University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Jinan , University of South China, Weifang Medical College, Weinan Normal University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xiangnan University, Xiangtan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xidian University, Xinzhou Teachers University, Xinjiang University, Xinyang Normal University, Xuchang University, Yangcheng Normal University, Yanshan University, Yantai University, Yantai Normal University, Yangtzeu University, Yunnan University, Yuxi Normal University, Zhangzhou Normal University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang Forestry University, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zunyi Medical College

Not all of the students have passed CET 6, the National English proficiency examination, and they are required to take oral English because their English output is deficient. This is a red flag that the undergraduate English program is inadequate. The fall ’09 Science majors exhibited markedly different characteristics from their Spring ’09 Humanities counterparts. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The Science majors had a much narrower business view and world view. The Science majors were not as receptive to developing creative thinking abilities The Science majors were not as receptive to considering new or different business, economic, educational, social or political ideas. The science majors maintained an overbearing nationalistic pride. The science majors included 1.6% female and 8% male unreachable and unteachable students as opposed to 1.6% overall for the Humanities majors.

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Student Evaluation of Holistic English The cumulative results appear in the following charts: &+$57&808/$7,9(&/$66(6 9RFDEXODU\ :ULWLQJ

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Graph 1 CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 15 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

250

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

# of students

200 150 100 50 0 1

Graph 2

2

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CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 15 CLASSES World View

# of students

200 150 100 50 0 1

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5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

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Graph 3 The students were also asked to rank the three homework assignments as to which provided the most benefit. 4. 5. 6.

ABC Day3 Foreign Student Chat4 English Corner5

25.5% 54.4% 20.1%

Clearly the students have sent a strong message that there are more viable alternatives than the traditional English Corner.

3

After watching and discussing the movie “The Terminal” the students were asked to role play an ABC (American Born Chinese) L1 English speaker for one entire day. In the movie, Tom Hanks, an L1 English speaker played an L2 English speaker. A 100 word essay was required about the experience. Many essays were honest about not completing the assignment due to fear of speaking English only for an entire day. Other essays were too perfect, a tall tale relating what the students thought the teacher wanted to hear. 4 After watching the movie “Iron and Silk” the students were required to locate a foreign exchange student and engage in an extended conversation. A 100 word essay was required but to avoid any tall tales, the essay had to include the foreign student’s name, home country and telephone number. 5 The students were required to attend an English corner and submit a 100 word essay relating their experience.

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Control Group Four post-graduate traditional oral English classes taught by two different teachers and randomly selected, were given the same questionnaire as the Holistic English classes. Class #22 School of Life Science Class #23 School of Envirnmental Science and Engineering Class #24 School of Envirnmental Science and Engineering Class #26 School of Information Science and Technology

&+$57&808/$7,9(&21752/&/$66(6 9RFDEXODU\

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 *5($7(67+(/3

Graph 4









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CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 4 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

# of students

40 35

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1

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Graph 5 CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 4 CONTROL CLASSES

# of students

World View

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Graph 6 The control class cumulative charts reflect a degree of chaos, uncertainty and lack of a delivery system that produces consistent and reliable results over a broad diversity of students. The percentage of dissatisfied students is very high and the degree of satisfaction by the satisfied students is low. The individual class charts may be found in APPENDIX B.

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Final Exam Shock 16% of the 700 students expressed dismay and dissatisfaction with the final examination for the Holistic English course. On the first day of the semester, all students were given the first three questions and answers, for the final examination. They were instructed to write the questions and answers in their Holistic English Workbooks. The grading system was explained on the first day of the semester as well as a couple of weeks prior to the final examination. During the final examination, 16% of the students were unable to answer two of the three questions, primarily questions #2 and #3. Question #1: How are you? Answer: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Question #2: Can you sing the song? Answer: Sing the song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (The students were provided with the playable song on the University web server.) Question #3: Can you say the tongue twister? Answer: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood The students had 18 weeks to prepare for this portion of the final examination. Amongst the 16% who were unable to answer questions #2 and #3, there were consistent responses. The most common response to question #2 was the singing of some unknown Chinese song, in Chinese. The most common response to question #3 was “What is a tongue twister?” The second most common response to question #3 was “How mucha wooda coulda woodachucka chucka if a woodachucka coulda chucka a wooda,” (This was the very Chinese English speaker pronunciation difficulty addressed by the tongue twister and thoroughly explained to the students.)

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One of the young men within this group complained directly to the administration, in the presence of the HE professor. The student complained that the final exam was unfair, even though he received a score of 80 points, which was the same exact score he stated he deserved when filling out the end of term questionnaire. When asked what solution he sought from the administration he had no answer. The students’ shock over the HE final exam was the result of their not taking the HE course seriously and treating it just like any other course where they can memorize the test answers the day before the final examination, repeat the memorized answers for the final examination the second day and forget everything on the third day. 1.6% of the female and 8% of the male students were unable to answer a single one of the three questions that they had 16 weeks to practice. These are the unreachable and unteachable students. They have absolutely no intrinsic motivation and are impervious to any negative or positive extrinsic motivation.

Creating an ESE and SYSU The students were afforded an opportunity to comment upon the creation of an English Speaking Environment through utilizing the outdoor video wall technology that is prevalent throughout China and was the subject of a student survey in the spring 2009 semester. In the north of China OVWs are found in most public parks. Chinese people gather in the parks just to watch the show. OVWs are also found on Shanghai’s Nanjing Rd, a major pedestrian street, and people gather to watch the show. OVWs are used on many buildings in southern China for advertising purposes. One block south of the SYSU south gate there is an OVW on a building.

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 And just outside the SYSU north gate there is a river cruise ship with an OVW on its port side and its stern side.

 Sun Yat-sen University is surrounded by this OVW technology but the University itself does not make use of it. “The Ministry of Education launched a new campaign to reform EFL education at the turn of the 21st century. The reform aims to modernize EFL teaching on campuses, pushing it out of its traditional track and equipping it with better technology.”6

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A Recent History of Teaching EFL in China, http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=1901&DID=11103 (accessed July 16, 2009)

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Once again, the students supported the OVW 85% in favor, 10% in favor with reservations and 5% opposed. The students’ comments are available at http://chinaholisticenglish.org In addition, some students made some very creative, practical and interesting suggestions for additional strategies of creating an ESE. An independent reviewer selected the following (unedited) examples: Charlie.15 November 5th, 2009 at 10:29 am After reading the articles—“creating an ESE at SYSU”, “China EFL” and “English Corner” which are downloaded from the website. I quite agree the opinions about creating an ESE. My plan is as follows: 1. Change all the sign to bi-lingual. When I was walking in the campus, there were always some foreigners asked me where is the geosciences department or something. The bi-lingual signs are so necessary. 2. Establish English reading room in each dormitory building. In the room, some reading materials are available. Like Crazy English, Global Times, Entertainment Weekly etc. 3. In every festivals of western country, school can provide us western festival environment in order to enjoy ourselves and learn more about the western culture. 4. Keep English corner alive and more available. Making that at Anytime and anywhere when we want to join and play ABC we can found an organization. 5. Provide counting English education to all administrator and staffs. Like martin said, making change to ESE just like to eat an elephant. It is a long-standing issue for all the universities. We students should take use of all the available resources to improve English. Armstrong Class 17 November 5th, 2009 at 9:58 pm Creating English speaking environment is essential and important at our university and other schools, which can help us get rid of mute English and improve our oral English. Then, a question comes up, how to? After consideration, my opinions are as follows: 1, Students are advocated to communicate with English, and we can set one day of the week as English Day. 2, Creating the number of English corner. as far as I know, there is only one English corner, “Xing” pavilion, at SYSU. 3, Establishing an oral English association by our students to attract more students. Holding some activities regularly. 4, Setting up an English radio, broadcasting the SYSU news, songs or stories.

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Chapter Eleven 5, As Mr. Wolff’s creative idea, erecting a double sided outdoor video wall, playing English movies. Jessica-Class 2 November 5th, 2009 at 10:52 pm ESE is a crucial factor in English learning. As we can see from the movie “Terminal”, a person can master a strange language quickly when he/she is placed in an environment totally filled with that language. When it comes to creating an ESE in our university, I think it really a good idea to improve the level of our English. There are several things we can actually do if we want to effectively create an ESE. First of all, maybe the best means does not lie in courses. Instead, it lies in our daily life. It should be “filled” with English. English movies shown every day for free in the university’s auditorium. Canteens could provide dishes from all around the world with English descriptions beside them. All signs in the campus should be bilingual. Only in this way would we provide a more intense ESE. Secondly, English speaking and writing contest can be held frequently. To promote students’ enthusiasm in learning English, such contests are indispensable. In those kinds of contests, they would be able to realize that English brings success, fame, and even money. Last but not least, I think, we can organize an English drama troupe consisting of all the students who show interest in acting. This troupe performs regularly on campus. Through this interactions of people in English communication, we can foresee great progress in students’ English ability. Louise Class 17 November 6th, 2009 at 1:28 pm Creating the English speaking environment in campus is a extremely good idea for English learning. Maybe we can do something that we are able to to build up this English speaking enviroment. 1. Change the tags (including the price and the name of the goods on sell) that placed in front of the goods to bilingual. That will help the foreigners find what they want much more easily, and also help us learn more English. 2. We can set some broadcasting receivers that broadcast English songs and news during daytime all around the campus. Just like walking in Disney, it sounds good. We can hear more and learn more just during walking. 3. The most important thing is more practice. Speak English more often with friends, teacher and parents. It will work!

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues Grace Class 17 November 6th, 2009 at 5:15 pm In my opinion, it’s necessary for us to create an English speaking environment at SYSU, in deed. However, I cannot agree with the idea that erecting a double sided outdoor video wall on the north central lawn for the nightly playing of English movies. I admit that watching English movies actually can help create an ESE in our campus, as well as improve our oral English. But we have to think over whether it works practically, such as it’s too many mosquitoes in summer, while it’s too cold in winter, the noise, the cost, and so on. So, my plan to create an ESE at SYSU is as follow: 1. All labels (including tags in canteen) in campus should be in bilingual. After the ABC assignment, I realize that I know little about food names in English. Maybe the staff work in canteen have no idea what English is, but we go to canteen couple times every day, knowing more food names in English does help with daily communication in English, I think. 2. The school newspaper Youth of SYSU should come out with English version. Remember how Victor in The Terminal learned English? The same thing may happen to us, too! 3. Nightly playing of English movies is a good idea, as long as it takes place indoor. So, find a good place for this fantastic idea. We are going to create our English social party! Once you enter the place, English is the only permission language. We watch English movies, talk about English movies and chat with each other in English. I am sure we are going to have endless happy hours! 4. Last but not least, keep on doing ABC from now on. It’s not a public method. It’s all about yourself. So, do it if you want to improve your English. Bill Class 2 November 6th, 2009 at 9:34 pm It is important to create an English speaking environment (ESE) in our college, not just in the Holistic English class, but after class. However it is not an easy task. My suggestions are as follows: a) We can install the software such as Windows, Office, etc in English edition, not Chinese edition in the public computers. b) We can invite some foreigners to give some lectures for us students. And in the lecture, English is the only one language which is permitted to be spoken. c) We can provide some English books, or newspaper or magazines, etc, for the students in campus. If a student would like to speak English, he or she would create an English speaking environment for himself/herself. But on the other hand, if a student does not want to speak English, he/she would keep silent even if an English speaking environment has been established for him/her.

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Conclusion The efficacy of Holistic English for Science majors is comparable to the efficacy of Holistic English for Humanities majors. It has been decided to further expand Holistic English next semester (Spring 2010) to the students of Lingnan College and to again try the program with the students from the School of Chinese Studies.7 The success of the Holistic English program prompted Dean Xia Jimei to write the introduction to this book.

7 Two classes from this school withdrew from Holistic English in the Spring 2009 term as previously reported.

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APPENDIX A

Jenny Class 1 September 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am I’ve been studying English for about 16 years. During these years, I’ve been taught in approximate ways so the fun of English learning fades day after day. But the first day of this new semester, something changed. I met my first foreign teacher, Doctor Wolff, kind of strict. But he’s one of the most responsible English teachers I’ve ever seen. Honestly, I was shocked at the beginning. However, when I looked around the room, everything attracted me, colorful phases on walls, smart red hats neatly placed on clean desks…Doctor Wolff treats us like his child and I always believe that every father loves his kids. Holistic English is a new approach for me to experience, I do want to follow our teacher and enjoy the new journey. Andy Class 3 September 20th, 2009 at 9:38 am Yes, yes, I must say that the things written in this article is actually true. Yes, I am in shock. I had several foreign teachers before, but none of them like Prof. Martin. Prof. Martin is really a special teacher. Did your English teacher tell you a password in the first class before? Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Did your oral English teacher tell you the questions of your final exam in the first class? And one of the questions is a tongue twister? I know that I will have special English classes I never imagined before. It may bring me a new attitude about learning English. I really look forward to my oral English classes. Tom class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 9:41 am I was taught by foreign teachers during my middle school time. But I don’t like to be taught by them. They often asked us to sing songs and to play games, which were so boring. I felt that they treated us as babies and the class looked like a kindergarten. On the first day of Holistic English, I changed my thought. Mr. Wolff is not a young boy. All the foreign teachers I have met before are also students learning in China. Mr. Wolff is a real old teacher teaching in china. I am looking forward to a new experience with foreign teacher.

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues Mindy Class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm After my first class of the Holistic English class, my impression on English class has changed completely. The professor is so harsh that I find it difficult to adapt to his style. It seems that he is teaching us the rules needed to be an excellent and successful person more than English. He said he could not accept the “just so-so” attitude, which is very popular in China. He demanded that we follow instructions seriously, be prompt and responsible and it seems that there will be no second chance if we make a mistake. I am really shocked by this culture difference but I will try my best to cope with it anyway. Dexter 8 September 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm It really shocked me to see the banner written with “Chinglish spoken here”. It might be just a trick, because it is totally opposed to my understanding. When I came into the classroom, a teacher with a full white beard was saying something loudly and clearly, it suggests, to some extent, that he knows how to help us learn English or acquire English. Then, in his speech, I find he is humorous and friendly teacher. In the first class, he emphasize two points—we need to learn or acquire English rather than study, which I consider a new perspective; the other one is following instructions, which makes me impressed. That is my experience; I met a responsible, enthusiastic, and kind of humorous teacher—professor Martin. Joanna class 9 September 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm “You come to my class unprepared? This is a university, not a kindergarten, get out!” “Oh, it would be a tough day today!” – by Martin Wolff. There’s no doubt that Martin’s attitude shocked all of us during the first day of our oral English class. Oh, my god! He is so strict! That’s my feeling. Then I found that his English is so good and I really like his accent. Yes, he is strict or even harsh. Nevertheless, he is just the right one for us. He is humorous, passionate and responsible. So I will just follow him, enjoy the class and make progress! Lily 13 September 20th, 2009 at 2:54 pm It is a new experience for me to take oral English with a foreign teacher face to face. That day, when I come in the classroom, it’s difference from any room that I have study. The room looks like a café shop or a tea shop. Every table put six hats and paper, and many English sentences hanging on the wall. First of all, I see the motto: One World, One Dream. I’m so tense, because I don’t know how to say. Is that teacher strict or lovely? It’s strict. Some minutes later we know. The different country,

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Chapter Eleven different cultures, different personalities of people raise. So, it’s a good chance for me to learn oral English, maybe some good-quality, such as responsibility, accountability, promptness and so on. This is a good beginning. Jessica-Class 2 September 20th, 2009 at 3:57 pm Holistic English course is more than an English course! Not only can we speak English, but also we can see English, smell English and drink English. Professor Wolff is as “harsh” as it can be. However, it is just because of his stricture that we’ve gained things more than English knowledge merely from the first day class, things that will aid us in our lifetime. Try your best to be as punctual and precise as you can. This is what Professor Wolff taught us in the first class. I have faith in myself that I can gain a lot from this course. Susan Class 14 September 20th, 2009 at 4:02 pm Before I went into the classroom of oral English on Thursday afternoon, I was tired and sleepily. But, it stimulated me as soon as the decoration of the classroom appeared in front of my eyes. Motto boards almost occupied the whole sidewall and the desks on which there each were six red hats with letters “SPEAK ENGLISH” were not placed in right order. Another one that attracted me simultaneously was Professor Martin. He was a fat man with bushy beard for which we almost could not see his mouth and he had a loud and clear voice. Just as he said, he was really a strict professor. You were allowed to be in the classroom unless you had the workbook and were not be late. During the class, do not nap or even inattentive, otherwise you will miss some important information. So, we should be serious every second and I believe that like teacher, like pupil. Sunny Class 2 September 20th, 2009 at 4:04 pm When I heard that my spoken English teacher was a foreigner last Monday, I was so excited and nervous, because I would learn English with a foreigner for the first time. However, when I came into the classroom, I found that the amiable teacher was so strict that I was afraid in the beginning. I was aware that I must study hard in order that I would not get an “F” in this course. However, during the class, I also found that Professor Martin was an interesting, humorous and responsible teacher. He brought us a friendly entertainment atmosphere instead of a rigorous academic education. Gradually, I began to enjoy the course and feel happy in this classroom. I believe that I can learn more oral communication skills and have a good time with my amiable but strict teacher in this term.

Holistic English: The Revolution Continues Yolanda Tsai September 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm It’s such a big shock for me in our first oral English class. Firstly, some classmates didn’t allow to enter the classroom because of no book. “You come to my class unprepared, get out”, the word made me nervous. When I entered into the classroom, I found many mottos on the wall and many red hats on the desks. I realized this oral English course is very special. Then, the professor introduced himself, he told us about his kids, his experience, and so on, all these taught me a lot thing. I really believe we will learn a lot useful thing from this course, not only about study, but also about life. Eric Class 1 September 20th, 2009 at 5:05 pm It’s an exciting class that I’ve never experienced before. When I entered the classroom, I noticed that there were no Chinese words, there were many English Inspirational mottoes on the wall. It’s an absolutely English atmosphere. Professor Martin Wolff was really strict. No Chinese was allowed in the room, except us; these who did not bring their books must leave; and many other requests. Professor Martin Wolff emphasized English acquisition in a relaxed atmosphere not English learning in a academic atmosphere, it’s a new idea to us. On the other hand, Professor Martin Wolff is humorous and have a gift of acting, he made the class vividly and the room was filled with laughter. In all, it’s an impressive class, and I enjoy it very much. Professor Martin Wolff, you are Supercalifragilisticexpialidoci

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CHAPTER TWELVE HOLISTIC ENGLISH AT SYSU SPRING 2010 MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY, GUANGZHOU

Introduction The EFL “Revolution” began at Sun Yat-sen University in the spring 2009 semester with approximately 600 post-graduate, non-English majors, in the Humanities, from 24 Provinces and representing 120 undergraduate institutions. It continued in the fall 2009 semester with 700 post-graduate, non-English majors in the Sciences, from 28 Provinces and representing 195 undergraduate institutions. We now chronicle implementation of the Holistic English Program at Sun Yat-sen University in the spring 2010 semester with 650 post-graduate, non-English majors from Business and Humanities, from 26 Provinces and representing 201 undergraduate institutions.

I’m Not Lovin It In the first two weeks of the semester a new thread was posted on chinaholisticenglish.org and the students were encouraged to make their true feelings known. This is the thread content: I’m NOT Lovin it! I am a post-graduate non-English major at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. I am required to study English for one more semester. I do not want to study English. I am only doing it because it is required by the university. I will never need to use English after I graduate. I rarely attend class, never

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 do the homework and frankly do not care if my English improves or not. When I do attend class I sit as far away from the teacher as possible to avoid any participation in the class activities. Some of my classmates feel differently. They know that English is increasingly important in the job market. They are highly motivated to study English because they realize that with English they can earn a higher salary. These classmates never miss a class and complete all of their homework assignments. They always sit in the front row and constantly volunteer for participation in classroom activities. Some of my classmates study English because their parents expect it and we Chinese do what we can to please our parents. They approach English study with a “so-so” attitude and their English capabilities are “soso.” Tell us your story, what is your attitude towards the further study of English?

The following are some examples of the students’ (unedited) posts: Miya Class10C March 4th, 2010 at 11:31 am What is my attitude to English? Actually, after I passed the CET-6, I thought that I would not have to learn English any longer. Once upon a time, I felt that I had already gotten rid of the English䟾then I have given up on learning English. Since that, you can image how astonished am I when I saw the English courses on timetable this semester. There are not only reading and listening courses, but also oral English lessons, which are my weakness. Frankly speaking, if there are alternative, I certainly will give up the English lessons. C’est la vie. I have no choice. … George Class 1C March 4th, 2010 at 12:16 pm … Last year, in order to pass the national post-graduate entrance test, I had to restart my English study. Fortunately, I passed the exam with decent scores. From then on, I considered that I need some exam serving as impulse for my English learning. I still have no clear purpose on learning English, but I deeply adore people who are able to read essays on “economists” without effort and communicate with their foreign classmates freely. Though busy as this semester would be, I will attempt to treat this strict course study as an opportunity to enhance my confidence of English learning.

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Chapter Twelve Sarah Class 4C March 13th, 2010 at 11:09 am In contrast with the author, I like English very much. Being born and raised in the countryside, I did not learn English until I was in the junior high school. Beside, oral English of teachers in the countryside is not very good. Therefore conditions for me to learn English are terrible. In fact, I learned English so hard that I was able to keep up with my senior high school classmates, who learned English when they were in primary school. To my regret, my oral English is not very good. I have realized the problem that there are some mistakes in my pronunciation, and it is also difficult for me to speak English as fluent as to speak Chinese. To some extent, this is due to my infrequent practice. So many people, including my teachers and my friends, have told me that English is extraordinary important in this century, especially if my future job is connected to it! I agree with them, and I will practice it more from now on. Last year, in the 105th Canton Fair, I worked as a translator for an exporting company. At the very beginning, I was nervous and shy, being afraid of making mistakes. Then a foreign partner of the company said to me, “Girl, your English is good!” This encouraged me to speak English confidently! And of course I did a good job in the Canton Fair. Stella Class 3C March 2nd, 2010 at 4:56 pm Frankly speaking, I felt a little nervous when I knew I have to study English for one semester. I thought maybe I would feel scared and bored with English from then on. I really don’t know whether I can spend all of my energy on the English classes every Monday. “Sitting as far away from the teacher as possible, never participating activities in the class and rarely opening my mouth to speak English…” I must admit that I had also thought like above. But just like some classmates, I’m also aware of the importance of the English, especially for my future career. So at the beginning I try to bring up my motivation to attend the class. But after I had the first class on the first Monday of this term, there was a small change in my mind. One of the things that the teacher had told impressed me a lot is “Here is the campus. We allow you to make mistakes. Others may laugh at you, you may feel losing face, but who cares? Everyone may make mistakes. But you will make a progress after you correct them.” I was deeply motivated by these words. As I know I’m a lucky dog for still having the opportunity to study in the campus. What’s more, whenever I have trouble with the English study I still can get the help from my teacher and classmates. It’s a good idea, isn’t it? Though I may spend out all my energy and time on every Monday for the further study of English, now I won’t fear it and won’t quit it. Because I think all of the efforts I have paid out are worthy. And when I look back for it, I will enjoy this hard but meaningful experience in my memory. If the study of

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 English is predeterminated, I’d choose to join my classmates and teacher in the class. Just enjoy it. Zoey Class 10C March 4th, 2010 at 12:28 am When I read the material above, I feel so sorry of the student. There has been much controversy over learning English in the past years with each party owning convincing evidences. Obviously, the student in the passage is not in favor of studying English. He claimed that he studied English only because it was required by the university. Maybe it is really too useless to learn English in his live and even his future. But to me, I am eager to improve my English as the following reasons. First of all, my major is comparative literature, which requires good capability in English reading. In my daily life, I have to read a lot of academic passages in English. And I am also interested in reading foreign novels, which will be better if I read in English. Second, one of my favorite things is to travel. I began to travel since I was 8 years old. From then on I have already been to almost every provinces of China. But I have never been to a foreign country yet. So far I hope to visit London in 2012, because of the Olympic Games. It will be much more convenience if I speak English fluently. What is more, with English I may be able to live a better live. I have learned piano for more than 10 years, and played bass for about four years. I have a dream to deeper my musical capability. So it will be a wonderful choice to go abroad. Jennifer Class15C March 5th, 2010 at 2:17 pm We don’t need to like English, but we need to use it for communication. As obviously as we see,Chinese have been tortured by English for almost 30 years. Children were asked to learn English from the day they entered kindergarten.We are forced to love English when we are kid,and actually most of us hate it.And a big problem is that most of students are still can not use English well,after learning it for nearly 10 years. In my point of view,that is not only students’ fault,but mostly are faults of the education system.Think about the way how we Chinese learn English.Endless vocabulary memorizing,boring analysis of long sentences,endless exams with ABCD choices,etc. This is not the right way of mastering a language.We don’t learn our mother language in this way.And because of this terrible way of English educating,no doubt many people don’t like English or even hate it. Since it seems that this awful education system is going to live for a long time and single person cannot offend it,perhaps most of Chinese students have to go on be tortured. However, as the old saying”people change and survive,tree move and die”,although we cannot change the background situation,we can change

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Chapter Twelve ourselves. Firstly, we should recognise that English is a usefull tool.In career path, the one who master English will have more chance than those who don’t.In daily life,we also will meet many merchandises with their only explanation in English.It will be much more convenient for people who understand English.And no mention those interesting movies,TVplays,etc. Second,forget the idea that English is difficult and feel free of using English.I think English as a tool for communication is just like Chinese,it should be used,be spoken.Only in this way,I can master it and use it for communication. Shawn Class 15C March 8th, 2010 at 3:16 pm I understand your attitude and I have met many classmates in primary school, high school as well as college with the same attitude and performance as you. However, in spite of respecting your opinion and choice, I must say that my attitude is quite different from yours. First of all, I think that English is academic career. My major is logic, a discipline completely originating in western culture and which Chinese have known for merely about a hundred years. I don’t think that Chinese researchers have seized the essence of this discipline and kept pace with western scholars. Therefore, in order to do research in this field, good English is indispensable, although English used in logic is simpler than that in literature. For example, according to my observation, classical textbooks in this discipline are all in English, and textbooks written by Chinese researchers are often not as good as those written by western scholars. Nowadays, I have been used to using English textbooks and I will read more English books in future. In addition, I hope to study abroad and, when applying, a high mark in English test, such as TOFEL and IELTS, is required. As a result, English is one of the keys for me to study abroad. In my opinion, English is money. As mentioned above, I’m going to take an English test. If I pay more than a thousand RMB and just get a soso mark which would not help me to be admitted by universities abroad, then the money is wasted. I don’t know whether English is money as salary, but it is without doubt money as the fee of English test. Thinking in a less pragmatic direction, I would say that for Chinese people English is a road to a new world. Every old language is accompanied with a wonderful culture and English is a language in which a large number of great works are written. It’s improbable for every English book to have a Chinese translation and, even if this is realized, the translation is inevitable to leave something subtle of the original book, according to numerous researches in linguistics. As a result, being unable to use English means losing the key to the wonderful English world and this is certainly a pity in one’s life. I have made great effort to read a few English books and I enjoy them very much.

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 In closing, I need and hope to improve my English, and I’m glad that I have courses on English this semester which may be helpful. June Class 4C March 10th, 2010 at 11:41 am People hate requirement because it means something they have to do no matter whether they like it. This unconscious dislike overwhelms one’s true feelings for English. Just try to think about it in another way. Since requirement is an unchangeable fact, why not accomplish it in a more comfortable and funny way? After all, the courses are not that boring in college, at least games, movies and optional topics are added. Just enjoy this entertainment as usual! You might think that the games and the materials that the teachers prepare are stupid and so you don’t attend the class. But remember that the teachers are not the only responsible participator in this class. You are also a member of it and you should help improving it. Communicate with your teacher with your discontent and suggestion. To contribute to a harmony atmosphere is better than ruin it as being an outsider. Isn’t communication the real aim of learning English? People like to weigh the future benefit before they take actions. Utilitarianism! To them, English means salary promotion, parents’ expectation or more. But to me, English is just a simple communication tool. A foreigner is smiling to me and I want to make friends with her. I like the rhythm of a song and so I also want to appreciate the lyrics. These deserve my effort! So don’t think too much and make yourself so tired. Try to relax and enjoy it. Rita Class 4C March 11th, 2010 at 12:02 pm Even though I am non-English major, I need to use English much often. For example, I need to search many English papers from American and British academic database for my paper-writing; I need to write my paper in English if wanting it published in the magazines overseas; also, English is very helpful for me to find a good job. As we can see, English is being paid more and more attention nowadays. English quizzes are required to take in many domestic exams such as China’s Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Besides, I have heard of that not only the foreigner companies, but also China’s government institutions are going to take English interviews to find a better employee. So English is becoming more and more important in our study and work. I really want to improve my English writing, listening and speaking, so that I can find a good job after graduating. But although I realize the importance of English, I am just too lazy to study it unless required to by my English teachers. Luckily one more semester I am required to study English now, but maybe this is not enough to improve my English skills. I should be more hard-working and make detail plan to practice my English, such as reading the English magazines and newspapers, listening to

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Chapter Twelve English radios, seeing English movies and so on, other than finishing my homework. Doris Class 4C March 11th, 2010 at 5:23 pm My story about English learning I began to learn English in my junior high school. It has been ten years until now. I have to admit that my English, especially oral English, is not good enough. When I was in junior and senior high school, I didn’t have much opportunity to speak English. I just learnt so-called “dumb English”. Fortunately, I practiced a lot in listening English. As a result, listening English was not too difficult for me. When I entered college, I chose International Economics and Trade as my major. In the college, I found I still had a long way to go to improve my English. Many of my classmates could speak fluent English. I really admired their good English ability. Meanwhile, I had a feeling of inferiority for my poor English. Thanks for Lingnan College, many textbooks were in English. A lot of teachers teach us in English. And we had to use English to do many presentations, to write paper and to take examinations. After class, I often saw some English films. Practice makes perfect. I have made progress in my English during the past four years in undergraduate school. My attitude towards the further study of English. Frankly speaking, I like English and I know how important English is. English is some kind of interesting and useful language. Since China joined WTO, English has become more and more important. We can see many foreigners in school, on the street or in the company. English is a necessary tool to communicate with the world. If you don’t have good command of English, you may miss a lot of opportunity and interest things. For example, you can’t make friends with foreign people and you can’t enjoy the Hollywood blockbuster in English. As for myself, my major is International Trade now. Obviously, English is definitely important. Besides, I hope I can find a good job in the world top500 companies. But most of the world top500 are foreign companies. That means I will face a lot of English interviews in the jobhunting process. In one word, English is very important for my future career. I think the main problem existing in my English study is FACE. I am always afraid of making mistake and losing face when I speak English. In Professor Martin’s class, I hope I can speak English bravely! I will try my best! After class, I will try other ways to improve my English, for example, watching English TV and films, reading English newspaper, talking to some friends in English, etc. I do believe that nothing is difficult if I put my heart into it.

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 Marco Class 3C March 2nd, 2010 at 8:32 pm The Story of My English Name I have been studying English, and speaking Chinglish for more than ten years. Professor Martin is the fourth teacher for my oral English lessons. The former two is Chinese, the third one is an England little handsome young man, Reza. Before, we were asked to pick an English name. But the teacher did not care about what name you chose, and at that time, most of the English name of my classmates came directly from the movies they watched, as well as the textbooks, such as John, Max, Bill. I am not saying these names are not good, of course they are. But the problem is so many people picked names from the small English Name Pool, so a few of us would use the same name. The first time of my oral English lesson, I wrote “John Chen” in my Name Card before me. When I looked around, there were eight other “John” and five “Bill” there. So I had to change. However, all the names in my mind were already chosen. And this situation really got my poor teacher, a little girl just graduated form a normal university. Finally, I got my first English name as John C, followed by the first character of my family name. The other two Johns who shared the same family name got their name like “John CA” and “John CB”. By the way, the first oral English lesson only lasted for 3 times. I thought the teacher did her best in order to open our month. But as to me, I did not know what should I say if I open my mouth. Of course, the input that time was so limited was one reason. The main reason was we do not used to say English. The second oral English lesson held in Maoming No. 1 Middle School, the best high school of my home city, Maoming City, Guangdong Province. This time, an Australian teacher Ken showed up. The name picking process was a lot better. I took Max as my English name. He gave a lot advice on our English names, and told some stories about these names. For example, he told us the story of that John the movie The first Blood. I still took John Rambo as a big hero. In college, I came across Reza; after a try to change my English name to Scofield, I still took Max as my English name according to the suggestions by Reza. The days with Reza was fun, sure under great pressure. Now I like the name Marco, I just like it simple and respect. Changes will unlikely happen. Crystal Class 3C March 2nd, 2010 at 8:50 pm I am a post-graduate non-English major at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. I am required to study English for one more semester. I always like studying English since my first year in junior school. I really enjoy the process of learning so I learn English without enforcement. I use English in classes or daily life at times after I graduate. I attend class every time, finish the homework on time and try my best to improve my English.

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Chapter Twelve When I attend class I always sit with my classmates in order to take part in the class activities. Most of my classmates have similar ideas to mine. We know that English is increasingly important in the job market. As a result, most of us are highly motivated to study English because we realize that with English we can find a better job. We seldom miss a class unless there is something urgent and complete all the homework assignments. We try to sit next to each other and constantly volunteer for participation in classroom activities. Some of my classmates don’t like to study English because their week English basis. They do want to express themselves without difficulty in English but it takes much more time and energy to catch up with other good English learners. As a result, they would feel uneasy if they are required to participate in English Class activities.

Holistic English Lab March 2010

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The students not only come from varied majors but also with varying degrees of intrinsic motivation to improve their English. With 650 postgrad students there e 650 different levels of intrinsic motivation. One student stated “A discussion class with a foreign teacher who brings up ideological topics and who does not understand China and who does not know how to teach Chinese students is a waste of time. The topics are not interesting and they do not make sense.” This student failed the course. The opinion expressed in open class was rejected unanimously by the classmates but was insisted upon to the point of becoming a major distraction. It was insulting to the 8 year veteran China foreign teacher who had taught more than 10,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students and whose students not only expressed how much they found the class interesting and exciting, but repeatedly asked that the class time be expanded.

English Corner Sun Yat-sen University encourages all of its students to voluntarily participate in a weekly evening unstructured English Corner on the south lawn. There is no topic, no supervision, just students mingling and chatting at will. During the fall 2009 semester 98% of the Holistic English students attended a mandatory English Corner. Less than 30% of them claimed to have received any appreciable benefit from the experience. During this spring 2010 semester the Holistic English students were encouraged to voluntarily participate in a specific English Corner. 10% of the students participated and 100% claimed to have received substantial benefit from the activity. Those students with intrinsic motivation will seek out English speaking opportunities and will benefit in direct proportion to their motivation. Those students who have little or no interest in English should not be forced to participate in English speaking activities and should not be required to study English. English classrooms throughout China are clogged with students who do not want to be there and who benefit little from the English learning experience.

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Unreachable and Unteachable Students Every semester there are students who not only lack intrinsic motivation, they are also impervious to extrinsic motivation. They have opted out and refuse to respond to any stimulus, positive or negative. Over a span of seven years the undergraduate rate of unreachable and unteachable has run between 5% - 6%. At Sun Yat-sen University the unreachable and unteachable post-graduate students for the spring and fall 2009 semesters amounted to 1.6% for the females and 8% for the males. However, in the spring 2010 semester this rate rose to a whopping 14.2% for both genders combined. (75% males and 25% females) Two entire classes refused to do any homework, daring the professor to try and fail the entire class. This level is unacceptable and it is not manageable. Many of these students are very vocal in their opposition to further required English course participation. ”I passed CET 6 so when I come here and see my class schedule for more English I am anger.” Sic To avoid meeting English course requirements these students curse at, swear at, threaten physical violence against the teacher and make up stories to have a teacher replaced or even terminated. This is not a one-off or unique experience but rather involves multiple students each and every semester at Sun Yat-sen. In the eight year development and implementation of Holistic English, this phenomenon is unique to Sun Yat-sen University. It is noteworthy that most of the 14.2% of unreachable and unteachable students were born, raised and educated in Guangdong Province. This abnormal, antisocial and uncivilized behavior is not unknown in Guangdong. Primary and Middle school students, parents and relatives are well known for beating teachers.1 Professor Ge Xinbin of South China Normal University stated “teachers have the right to use proper ways to educate and criticize misbehaving students according to relevant laws and regulations. But the teaching environment now has become poorer compared to previous years and many teachers now dare not criticize their students in fear of retaliation.” What makes this situation unmanageable is the administrative culture that refuses to deal with this problem in any meaningful manner but rather suffers from the ostrich syndrome by simply advising to “ignore them.” 1 Zheng Caixiong, (April 28, 2010) Beating of Teacher Leads to Strike, China Daily http://chinadaily.cn/china/2010-04/28/content_9782188.htm

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This induces further proliferation. Chinese teachers are able to ignore problem students because Chinese teachers teach to a group which happens to be made up of individuals, while a foreign teacher teaches to individuals who happen to make up a group. The foreign teacher finds it difficult, if not impossible, to ignore any student but this makes the Chinese student very uncomfortable. Students unaccustomed to such individual attention tend to rebel. A striking example of the students disconnect this term comes from the stats for the website instituted to provide an opportunity for them to read and write more English. During the fall 2009 semester the students made 13,500 posts. During the present spring 2010 term more students made fewer posts, only 1,500 total posts. Commencing with the 10th week of the semester all students were informed that no student would receive a failing grade for this term. Thereafter, the class attendance rate immediately dropped by 46% across the board. Forcing students to take further English courses, when they have no intrinsic motivation, is unproductive to them and hinders the progress of serious students. As the old adage goes; you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Identifying an unreachable and unteachable student begins on the first class day of each new semester. The students are given the first three questions on their oral final examination. They are also provided the correct answers. At the time of the final examination, 18 weeks later, those students who are unable to provide one single correct answer to any one of the three previously disclosed questions and answers, has clearly demonstrated that they have put zero effort into the class and instead have opted out. They have made a conscious choice not to improve their oral English. For 18 weeks these students were unreachable. For 18 weeks these students were unteachable. Every semester a super majority of the unreachable and unteachable students stated on their end of term anonymous questionnaire that they deserved a final grade of “A” because they had a perfect attendance record. One student remarked “I deserve a B+. I did not have any expectations to improve my oral English in this class. And I engage little time in this course.” This student failed the course. Many stated that since they had passed CET 6 they were surprised and angry that they were required to take additional English classes as post-graduate students.

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This situation presents an interesting conundrum at Sun Yat-s en University because the administration claims that their students are “all highly motivated.” While it is common practice for Chinese administrators to accuse foreign teachers of not understanding Chinese students; apparently this is like the pot calling the kettle black. Prior to the final examinations a class ranking was provided to the Vicedean. The ranking was based upon the percentage of students who appeared to be performing at a university “A” level. This pre-final exam ranking is to be found in the left column of the following chart. Post-final exam the class ranking was adjusted to reflect the actual percentage of “A” students and to reflect those students who should have failed (no one actually fails in China) and could not properly and adequately answer any one of three questions given on the first class meeting of the semester. (The answers were also given along with the questions.) The percentage of unreachable and unteachable students is staggering and contradicts the administration’s claim that “all of our students are highly motivated.” This post-final exam ranking is to be found in the right hand column of the following chart.

Class Ranking Chart The following is an analysis of the classes prior to and subsequent to the final examinations.

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CET 4 and CET 6 The National English proficiency examinations know as CET 4 and CET 6 have become the gatekeeper to further education and employment.2 Students who have passed these examinations feel assured in their further education and eventual employment because they have attained the National standard in English reading comprehension and writing ability. (Oral English is not tested) At the beginning of this semester the students were given the following written instructions:

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Chapter 2 infra

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Within 72 hours, send an email to [email protected]. Put your English name and class number followed by the letter C in the title bar. In the email body state your undergraduate institution and your home Province, in English. TITLE BAR EXAMPLE: BODY EXAMPLE:

John Class 12C Guongdong Province Zhongshan University

40% of the Lingnan College students failed to comprehend and follow this simple instruction. (These students were reported to be the smartest in the entire Sun Yat-sen University system.) 98% of these students have passed CET 6. 100% of the Department of Philosophy students comprehended and followed this simple instruction. 18% of the remaining students failed to comprehend and follow this simple instruction. The proficiency level represented by the CET 4 and CET 6 certificate is apparently so low as to essentially be meaningless. This should be viewed as a National tragedy since these examinations represent the culmination of 10 to 16 years of English study.

Make a New L2 Friend There are three extracurricular homework assignments each semester, English Corner, ABC For A Day. and Make A New L2 Friend. The assignment Make A New L2 Friend was posted on http:// Chinaholisticenglish.org MAKE A NEW FRIEND This is your final and most difficult homework assignment. You have two weeks to complete this assignment. Introduce yourself to a foreign exchange student who is a complete stranger to you.. Engage in an extended conversation or even an activity such as inviting them to join you at English Corner, go to climb a mountain, go shopping, have lunch or just coffee, etc.

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Chapter Twelve Write a 250 word summary of your experience. At the beginning of your summary put your new foreign friend’s name, home country and telephone number. Post your summary here. THE NAME, COUNTRY AND PHONE NUMBER WILL NOT APPEAR ON THE PUBLIC WEB PAGE. The name, country and phone number is required because if I think you are making up a story I will call your new friend. The foreign exchange students have classes in the same building as HEL both on the 3rd and 4th floors. Most foreign exchange students also speak English as L2 and will appreciate having a new Chinese friend to practice English. Last semester this was the most successful and appreciated homework assignment. Just read “Holistic English, A Revolution, not an Evolution” to confirm this.

The students who refused to even try this homework assignment were the same students who made excuses for nervousness during their final oral examination. Not a single student who completed this assignment had any discomfort or difficulty with nerves during their final examination. The following are some representative posts from student who completed the assignment: Cidney Class 3C April 27th, 2010 at 12:14 am … After our nice Conversation, I know more about Thailand and Thailand people. And it is a very interesting experience in SYSU campus because I wouldn’t accomplish this task without pressure from this oral class. Allen Class 2C April 27th, 2010 at 12:50 am … I think this assignment is difficult but really interesting and inspiring, since it provides us with a golden opportunity to make new friends, share different experience and acquiring more English. Selina Class 16C April 27th, 2010 at 12:07 pm It is a most impressive experience to me…. . It is another strange but surprising experience

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 Rose Class 2C April 27th, 2010 at 12:28 pm … I think this experience will be a good memory. Ci Ci Class16c April 27th, 2010 at 1:16 pm … However, now I think to have some foreign friends is a good idea, it will let me know more about different things and can bring me different ways to view the common things. Amber Class 8C April 28th, 2010 at 12:37 am …. In short, I felt happy to have the first foreign friend. If I can always insist on talking like this, I believe that my English will certainly make a lot of progress. Nancy Class 1C April 28th, 2010 at 2:51 pm “Experience is the best teacher.” Through this experience, I realized that practice was the most important element for English learning. Ken Class 15C April 28th, 2010 at 5:37 pm ... That night, we overcame our fear for foreigners. Paul Class 16C April 28th, 2010 at 8:56 pm … . Thanks to the homework, I made a real friend. Jassie Class 4C April 28th, 2010 at 11:07 pm … I think it is funny to make friends with foreigners, not only for knowing more about foreign culture but also having mew friends and enjoying ourselves. From this experience, I went through cowardice and become natural and confident. In the future, I will be more brave and smooth to facing new strangers and new things. Doris Class 4C May 3rd, 2010 at 2:39 am … Thanks for the tough assignment, I have foreign friends now. I have finished the tough job and enjoyed a lot of fun. In the future, what I should do is to be more confident and never be afraid of losing face. And I will tell my two foreign friends more about China.

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Chapter Twelve Chloe Class 5C April 18th, 2010 at 3:05 pm … I would not view this assignment to be an ‘assignment’. It is an amazing trip helping me to get English-speaking confidence as well as a very good foreign friend. Bruce Class 14C April 18th, 2010 at 11:42 pm … What a good and important experience for me! What’s more, I made a kind foreign friend. Samuel Class 14C April 20th, 2010 at 11:08 pm … I thought it was a unique experience in my school life and I enjoyed it. Eric Class 16C April 23rd, 2010 at 12:32 am … Thanks, Martin! You gave me an endless and interesting assignment.

Experimental Strategies Class 11 and 12 from the School of Education and the School of Management had the highest percentage of intrinsically motivated students going into the last movie discussion of the semester at 87%. This presented a unique opportunity to experiment with a discussion format previously untried. The movie was Gandhi, a three hour epic with British English, the only movie of the semester exposing the students to British English. The usual discussion format is 15 minutes for groups of six students to discuss teacher generated questions to reach a consensus answer. Then each group delivers their extended answer in turn. Due to the high motivation and accelerated development of these two classes, liberty was taken in changing the format. The students, working in groups of six, were given only five minutes to discuss a teacher generated question and to develop a one sentence answer to be delivered group by group in rapid fire succession. The entire exercise for each question and set of 5 group answers was limited to 10 minutes each. Then the teacher would deliver the definitive answer and move on to the next question. The questions included:

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Who killed Gandhi, a Hindu or Muslim and why was he killed? Why is China concerned about the relationship between India and Pakistan? Why does China have closer economic ties to Pakistan than India? Why didn’t Chairman Mao use Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy? Who unified China?

These students performed admirably and beyond expectations. Classes 4 and 5 from Lingnan College were assigned the American documentary “Super Size Me” as their next to last movie of the semester. At the commencement of the semester, the administration claimed that the Lingnan College students are the smartest in the entire Sun Yat-sen University system. It was not until week 10 that this misinformation was corrected, but it was too late, the damage had already been done. Initially the bar was set higher for these students but they floundered and resented the extra pressure. Due to the unnecessary friction and hostility created through this unfortunate circumstance, a role reversal was instituted. Instead of groups of six students discussing a teacher generated question for 15 minutes, the students were given 15 minutes to generate movie related questions to ask the teacher. There was adequate time for each group to pose two questions. Surprisingly the students centered their questions around sociological issues not business or economic issues. When business or economic answers were given by the teacher, the students seemed to be operating without a sufficient grounding in either business or economics. Unusual for post-graduate economics majors. Classes 1, 2 and 3 from Lingnan College were assigned the American documentary “Life and Debt” as their last movie. This movie was scheduled because at the commencement of the semester, the administration claimed that the Lingnan College students are the smartest in the entire Sun Yat-sen University system. It was not until week 10 that this misinformation was corrected, but it was too late, the damage had already been done. Initially the bar was set higher for these students but they floundered and resented the extra pressure.

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This movie was scheduled because it fits with their major. Although the Lingnan students are economics majors, they lacked basic information about the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. This movie proved a real eye opener for them but their discussion was shallow and very superficial. Classes 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16 were assigned the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” When asked how they liked this romance movie there was unanimous protest that the movie was a war picture and not a love story. This is a typical response from Chinese students who are inundated with war movies on Chinese TV. Any day of the week there is at least one war movie on some channel at all times of the day and night. However, the introduction to the movie in the Holistic English Workbook reads as follows: Exercises before Watching Movie – Read Movie Review Tagline: When the world closed its eyes, he opened his arms. Plot Outline Don Cheadle stars in the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsis refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda. Plot Synopsis: Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

Clearly the students either failed to do their homework or their reading comprehension level is unacceptable for post-graduate students. This movie is a love story in a wartime setting. The love story is the front story and the war is background. The students saw the war as the front story and the love story was almost ignored.

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The students’ interpretation of this movie is consistent with a predisposition emanating from over exposure to a single ideology. In China there is at least one war movie playing on at least one TV channel every waking hour.

Student Demographics All 650 registered students were post-graduate non-English majors ranging in age from 21 to 34. Men constituted 43% and women 57%. This is a marked departure from prior undergraduate Holistic English implementation programs where the percentage of women was 96% to 4% men. This difference in gender percentage may be influenced by the students’ undergraduate majors being more attractive to men than some of the majors at other institutions where Holistic English has been implemented.

Holistic English Classes March 2010 Class #1 Lingnan College Class #2 Lingnan College Class #3 Lingnan College Class #4 Lingnan College Class #5 Lingnan College Class #6 Research Center of Hong Kong and Macau Class #7 School of History Class #8 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #9 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #10 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #11 School of Education Class #12 School of Education, School of Management Class #13 School of Sociology and Anthropology Class #14 School of Sociology and Anthropology Class #15 School of Philosophy Class #16 School of Philosophy, School of Tourism, School of Asia-Pacific CONTROL GROUP: Class # 18 Class # 19

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Spring 2010 The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang The students represent the following 191 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Anhui University, Anhui University of Technology, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Minzu University of China, Beijing Normal University, Captial Normal University, Central South University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Centre China Normal University, Chang'an University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology, China University of Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, China Women's University, Chongqing Jiao Tong University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Southwest University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing University, Chongqing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Chongqing University of Technology, Dalian Nationalities University, Dezhou University, Dongguan University of Technology, Fudan University, Fuzhou University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong Education Institution, Guangdong University of Business Studies, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangdong University of Foreign Study, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University, Guangxi Normal University, Guangxi University, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Guizhou College of Economy and Finance, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Hanshan Normal University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei Agriculture University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan University of Finance and Economics, Hengyang Normal University, Hubei Normal University Huaqiao University, Huaqiao University in Fujian province, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Changjiang University, Hubei National University, Hubei University, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangnan University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jiaying University, Jilin University, Jinggangshan University, Jishou University, Lanzhou University, Liaocheng University, Linyi Normal University, Mianyang Normal University, Minzu University of China, Nanchang Hangkong University,

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Nanchang University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Audit University, Nankai University, Naval Aeronautical Engineering Academy Qingdao Branch, Normal University, Northeast University, Northeast Normal University, Northwest A&F University, Northwest Nationalities University Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry, Northwest University, Northwest University for Nationalities, Pingdingshan University, Qinghai University, Qufu Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Economic University, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Shandong Institute of Light Industry, Shandong Jianzhu University, Shandong Liaocheng University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University, Shandong University, South-central University for Nationalities, Shanxi North University of China, Shanxi University, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Shijiazhuang Railway Institute, Sichuan International Studies University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, South-Central University for Nationalities, South China Agricultural University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southern Medical University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Tangshan normal University, Tianjin Foreign Study University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Wuhan Institute of Technology University, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xi'an International Studies University, Xiamen University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an Post and Telecommunication University, Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, Xiangtan University, Xidian University, Xinjiang University, Yanshan University, Yulin Normal University, Yunnan Normal University, Yunnan University, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management, Zhengzhou University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhoukou Normal University, Zunyi Normal College

Student Evaluation of Holistic English At the end of each semester the students are asked for a self-analysis of their perceived benefits from the Holistic English program,. They fill out an anonymous questionnaire indicating their appraisal of the benefits they believe they have received in the areas of vocabulary, reading, conversation, writing, listening, confidence, motivation, discipline, creative thinking, autonomous learning and world view. The individual class results of the end of term anonymous questionnaire for 15 HE classes and 3 control classes appear in Appendix A.

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The cumulative results of the end of term anonymous questionnaires for 15 HE classes and 2 control classes appear in the following charts.

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Cumulative 2 Control Classes3

CUMULATIVE 2 CONTROL CLASSES

N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

Vocabulary

Reading

Oral

Writing

Listening

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

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5 6 10 = Greatest Help

7

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N u m b e r o f S tu d en ts

Confidence Creatice Thinking

Self-discipline

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

3

Motivation Autonomous Learning

2

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5 6 10 = Greatest Help

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4 control classes were promised but staff with a “so-so” attitude only provided 2

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CUMULATIVE 2 CONTROL CLASSES World View

N u m b er o f S tu d e n ts

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 10 = Greatest Help

7

8

9

10

These consistent results, every semester, must be rather perplexing for the Sun Yat-sen administration for two reasons. First, there is the claim that the post-graduate students are highly motivated, mature, well disciplined and autonomous learners. Second, Sun Yat-sen University has developed its own oral English program that has won many National awards. If either or both of these claims were realistic, the Holistic English Chart #1 would be flat lined in comparison to the Control classes Charts #1; and both The Holistic English and Control classes Chart #2 would be flat lined. The charts constitute conclusive proof that the Sun Yat-sen award winning program is still deficient and the students are not well understood by their Chinese administrators.

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Easter in the Holistic English Lab

The Holistic English students’ questionnaire responses included a plethora of written comments that the HE course was interesting and exciting but should be longer than 2 periods, should meet more than once every other week and should last mote than one semester. The Control Class students’ questionnaire responses overwhelmingly stated that their traditional English course was boring, not interesting, lasted too many hours and students are not given enough opportunity to speak.

Ominous Warning At mid-term a senior administrator warned that relations between China and the US were strained and at a flash point over the RMB valuation, sale of weapons to Taiwan, Dali Lama and trade relations. The safety of US teachers was a question mark because Chinese students react emotionally and not intellectually. (This is a known truth with respect to uneducated Chinese farmers, peasants and migrant workers.) It was suggested that controversial issues should be avoided, students should not be pushed into creative thinking and homework levels should be greatly reduced to appease the students.

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Chinese post-graduate students reacting to controversial or thought provoking issues with an emotional mode is a blatant admission that China’s higher education system concentrates on core knowledge while ignoring psychological and social development. The system fails to develop a well rounded citizen. This also relegates China to a future generation of educated idiots and uncivilized leaders. Although some Chinese scholars lament students’ lack of creative thinking ability, China’s higher education system discourages this at every level. This is primarily because the colleges and universities are actually administered by CCP secretaries assigned to every department in every school. All decisions must be approved by the Party Secretary who insures that any decision comports with CCP objectives. Academic freedom and creative thinking are not in the best interests of the Party. One dean stated, “The purpose of this college is to train future Party cadres. We need people who will follow orders and not think independently.” And if the most highly educated Chinese are so immature, then the CCP is correct to limit personal freedoms, censor the internet, censor news, censor foreign books, foreign films and TV; for how else than this uncivilized hoard of humanity be kept under control? Admission to a Chinese college is seen as the key to a prosperous future. A college education is required for the most menial government job. Government jobs include SOE’s such as government owned hotel where the doorman must be a college graduate. This also explains a man wearing a 3 piece suit along the roadside working with a shovel or pick axe, the project is a government job and everyone is a college graduate. College graduation is seen as entitlement, a reward for the hard work that resulted in receiving the most coveted prize of college entrance. The college students feel that college is a kind of reward for all of their prior hard work and college is a place to relax and not engage in further hard work. Homework is seen as unnecessary or unwelcome. Holistic English is the serious pursuit of English proficiency in a manner to which the Chinese student is totally unaccustomed. Every semester begins with a degree of student complaints due to both a culture shock and an educational shock. However, a majority of the students make the adjustment and progress greatly in their English development.

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Every semester there is a certain percentage of unreachable and unteachable students. Pandering to their complaints to appease them brings the level of education down to the lowest common denominator. This is not higher education, this is babysitting. Administrators who are guilty of this are more concerned with their own job preservation than the quality of education. When Chinese students are treated like babies they act like babies. When they are treated like responsible young adults most rise to the occasion and act like responsible young adults. The Chinese educational system turns them into perpetual babies. Holistic English treats them like the responsible young adults they should be. However, due to the ominous warning from the senior administrator, many adjustments were made in the Holistic English Program mid-term. These changes did not go unnoticed by the students, many of whom complained about the changes. Some representative student reactions follow: Shaw Class 9C Sir, I respect you, I like you, and I really prefer the tough you, the real "WOLFF" that you used to be. … Sir, as I have mentioned I respect you and I really like you. Don’t lose your heart. You have changed some of the students. Don’t just pay attention to those who hate you. You have your fans! And I wish, even if someday you leave SYSU, I am still allowed to send you e-mails and keep in touch with you. Best wishes and cheer up! Caren Class 6C Yes, I was drowned in you assignments. The beginning was hard to me, and I would feel tired and a little bit scared of your e-mails. But now, I nearly regard reading your essays and posting comments as a part of my daily routine. I used to be confused by seeing you afford so many controversial materials in you web site, but just after your second class when you asked us to do comments in a rational and neutral attitude I got my answer. E-mail you sent yesterday made me upset and hard to believe it. As you’re changing us gradually and making yourself be heard more and more, why you chose to leave? Now I know your reason, and I just feel that it’s a pity you will leave and it’s my honor to be one of your last students in SYSU. Best regards.

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Chapter Twelve Oray Class 6C Dear teacher, Although I know nothing about why our dear teacher has changed his mind a lot about the requirements, what I want to say is: you are actually a good teacher, even the best one that I have met with. I usually think for myself if I have met you much earlier, maybe my English has already been improved greatly, and maybe now I have become an extremely successful girl. And now I begin to see why every of your children has been so successful during their lives and career. One of the most important reason should be they all have a very fantastic father who can teach them a lot. So I am very proud of having been one of your students, and I promise you that I will keep working hard throughout my life and trying my every effort to learn more, create my own career, and become an outstanding girl who is able to help others a lot. And thanks again for your approval and recommendation for my certificate of appreciation. Best wishes, Yours sincerely, Evelyn Class 6C I gotta say your pedagogy works on me and I love it. No exaggeration and compliment. Why can we teachable and reachable just continue this once-in-alifetime experience of English? But I know that it's all late for those complains that ruined all these. I really appreciated your effort. U R GREAT! After all, having fun and feeling respected is beyond all.. Amy Class 12C I think, Martin is a earnest and responsible teacher. Sometimes, several students complain that there are lots of homework and assignments, even some students are afraid of his English class. In my opinion, we grow up in China and we never receive such strict and systemic English lessons before. Facing with Martin’s special teaching, we often feel very difficult at the beginning. But I believe, we can accept Martin’s teaching style by degrees and at the end of this term we can get great progresses. Rebecca Class 8C Dear sir, I feel sad when I see your new letter ,for visiting your web site has become one part of my daily life. I can feel the efforts you have made to improve our English. At first, I am writing to tell you that I want you can send me private letter if I have not post successfully,for I can't know whether I have finished my homework or not if I have not get the inform.

Holistic English at SYSU Spring 2010 But now, it seems unnecessary for it has nothing to do with our course. Even that, I will insist visit the web site. At last, thank you for all the things you have done for us! BEST WHISHES! your, Anonymous by request Class 11C Dear professor: When I came in the classroom this afternoon, I found a little unhappy on your face, in a word, there is something different, I do not know whether it is just because you caught a bad cold. in fact , I wanted to write to you to tell you something , especially you sent us an email named ‘clear?’ , in which , some friends and I found you were upset about the teaching situation , and we feel strange that you say so . We do not hope to see that, and we know that you must be misunderstood. From the email we guess your department leader may find you and tell you something frustrated. … Another situation of us is that, before a postgraduate student, some of us do not come from this university; they are from parochial college which education in china is not so good, you may know this, so there may be some difficulties in reading English passages and give a comment on those sensitive issues. When facing “too much “English passages, and have no idea how to finish on time, some will lodge a complaint and doubt what are you doing and why you want us to face the political sensitive issues? Although in fact, you do not mean so, just as they think, to the contrary, you teach us so much, we should thank you for your effort. In a word, I do not want to see and feel sorry to this situation now, and I do not know how to do , maybe what I can do is to tell you something you should know , communication is important , misunderstanding make both unhappy . of course , I do not know whether I have misunderstand your feeling , if so , please forgive my guesswork . Ok, it is time for supper, to write this letter, I have spent an hour, I think it is a progress for me to type so long without spell in a paper before so, thank you again and hope you get better soon. … Best wishes Yours sincerely Peter Class 12C I think the reason why many students misunderstand or even hate you is that you are radical for Chinese students, and strict on the other hand. In fact, there are many teachers students believe to be radical, but most students like them because young people like the person whose ideas are different. And it’s natural that at the same time many students dislike them, just like the case of you. So I think you don’t have to worry about it, it’s common. The difference between the radical Chinese teacher and you is that you are strict with students. This brings about anxiety, not angry.

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Chapter Twelve Many of us worry about whether their are able to follow your requirements(My class mates said: unless I do not do have to do other things, I can not follow his instructions) and whether you would let them fail(In fact, I was worried too, but I can understand you). The perceived anxieties magnify students’ angry. In any case, you have opened a window for us to understand how foreigners think about China, so many of us value what you have done. I don’t know what I have written above is right or wrong, I just want to help you to understand why. Have a good day! Linda, Class 14C Dear Prof. Wolff, I feel upset after reading your last mail. I should say that you are a good and responsible teacher in my heart. You are, as you said, a teacher I have never met before. You open a window for me, through which I see more; give a platform for me to say more and share more. I appreciate what you have done to us very much. I do not want to judge my peers. But as to myself, I would like to express my profound appreciation to you. It is my honor to have you as my teacher. And it would be SYSU's loss to lose you. Thank you again. Look forward to seeing you in two weeks. Best,

Conclusion A Sun Yat-sen administrator (not in the English teaching department) disregards students’ opinions and does not disguise his contempt for those he is supposed to serve: “You mean you believe in their moody frustration in learning (yes, learning) English? — I fully understand them, especially if they have no use of Englsih (sic) in their life and work. But I would treat what they say with a grain of salt”

He claims to understand the students but it was the very student comments in this article to which he was responding. This is so typical of Chinese administrators attempting to guard their perceived turf. As pointed out elsewhere[1], this pervasive denial mode is one of the factors that impedes higher education in China and brings it so low. The Holistic English Program is based upon student input. .Students in 6 Provinces, at 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, 4th tier, Business Institutes and Joint Ventures all contributed to development of the program.

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Their concerns, complaints, criticisms, suggestions and praise all played a significant role in program development. 12 foreign teachers also listened to the students. Holistic English is the only successful English acquisition program available in China at the University level. Holistic English satisfies the “moody frustration in learning English? Especially if they have no use of English in their life and work.” Holistic English brings excitement and satisfaction to those treated with a “grain of salt” by the Chinese educational system Holistic English has proven its efficacy at every level of higher education in China. The success of Holistic English is because it is a program OF THE STUDENTS, BY THE STUDENTS AND FOR THE STUDENTS. Some student comments: Kevin Class 15C March 27th, 2010 at 9:22 pm I was surprised of the comment coming from the mouth of a university teacher. A teacher should treat the students’ opinions seriously; no matter it’s wrong or right. The point is to listen instead of to ignore. If the teacher doesn’t believe his/her students, how can he/she educate them? I confess I didn’t feel comfortable of the opinions made by Prof. Wolff at first, because they always points out the defects in China. However, sometimes criticism works better than appraisement in provoking the desire of thinking. I believe the purpose of HE is not only encourage us to learn English but also to think independently, which is what the current university education lack in most time . Bill Class 15C March 28th, 2010 at 12:10 am Frankly speaking, I’m not surprised at what the administrator said. In China, administrative arrogance is a very common phenomenon especially in the government. Administrative organizations in universities are no exceptions. Many administrators are lack of service awareness. They consider themselves as rulers and have the absolute power to govern students. They take it for grant that there is no obligation to care about the students’ opinions. It is the bureaucracy that is slowing the progress of our universities and the entire society. …

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Chapter Twelve Tina Class 2C April 1st, 2010 at 11:20 pm It should be said that the administrator mentioned in the article is not a particular example in our current education system. Many Chinese teachers have been used to the way that they stuff knowledge into the students’ brain without any consideration of their acceptance and feelings. They hold a short term view in their teaching job and do not care the real effect of their backward teaching style at all. The result is, the students lose the pulse to learn more and think more, and our education is trapped in an embarrassing failure. Holistic English Program is the oasis we are longing for. It makes a difference in our traditional way of English study. It gives us new access to the English world and provides us a platform to express our ideas and thoughts. I sincerely hope that more and more students can benefit from this program. Matt Class2C April 11th, 2010 at 3:30 pm “Administrative Arrogance” is really very common in China. Some people, especially those in administrate department, always put down others` enthusiasm acting as he already knows everything, and any try to change the reality is ridiculous. Actually, those people just lose belief in everything, and self-conceit out of imagination. What they always say are “impossible”, “take it as a grain of salt”, “I know it”. Hoo! Nonsense. Just pay no attention to them, and walk our own way seriously. Things will be better!

[1]

Wolff (2009) CHINA EFL: A Market Driven Model: PetroChina Embraces Holistic English Program http://chinaholisticenglish.org (accessed July 15, 2010) Qiang/Wolff (2007) Chinese Business Institute Students Speak Out, Frontiers in Higher Education, Ch. 12, Nova Science Publications Wolff (2009) China EFL: Corporate Training and Holistic English are not Compatible, http://chinaholisticenglish.org (accessed July 15, 2010) Qiang/Wolff (2007) China EFL: The Unqualified, Teaching (sic) the Unmotivated, in a Hostile Environment Frontiers in Higher Education, Ch. 12, Nova Science Publications

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN STUDENT/CONSUMER SATISFACTION SURVEY: HOLISTIC ENGLISH VS. TRADITIONAL ORAL ENGLISH MARTIN WOLFF, SUN YAT-SEN UNIVERSITY

Sun Yat-sen University Sun Yat-sen University is a first tier institution of higher education in China Under the leadership of Dean XIA Jimei, PhD and Vice-Dean Wang Zhe, PhD, Sun Yat-sen University (Zhongshan), Guangzhou, a top tier university, arguably has one of China’s most innovative, progressive and successful English teaching programs (TEFL), having received numerous national English teaching awards. In the pursuit of English teaching excellence, commencing in March 2009, Holistic English has been taught to post-graduate non-English majors.1 At 1

Spring 2009 The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan,, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Zhejiang The students represent the following 120 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Army Institute of Xian, Beijing Institute of Business, Beijing Normal University, Central China Normal University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Central South University, Central University of Nationalities, Chang An University, Changchun

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University, Changchun Normal University, Changchun Taxation College, China University of Mining and Technology, Chin South Normal University, Chinese University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing University, Chongqing Jaiotong University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Dalian Nationalities University, DongBei University of Finance and Economics, Finance and Economic University of Tiang Yi, Fudan University, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou University, Gannan Normal University, Guangxi University, Guangdong Academy of Fine Art, Guangdong Business University, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangdong University of Business Study, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies , Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guizhou Institute of Nationalities, Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou University, Hangzhou DianZi University, Hainan University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Henan Agricultural University, Hebei Normal University, Hebei Economic and Business University, Hebei University, Hefei University of Technology, Henyang Normal University, Hohai University, Hongshan Normal University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Coal Industrial Teacher’s College, Hubei University of Technology, Hubei University, Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, Hunan University, Hunan Normal University, Jiaying University , Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University, Jishou University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Lanzhou Commercial College, Lanzhou University, Liaoning University, Ludong University, Minzu University, Nanjing Agriculture University , Nanchang University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nankai University, Nanyang Institute College, Nanyang Normal University, NorthEast Agricultural University, NorthEast Normal University, North China Electric Power University, Northeastern University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest University, Northwest Polytechnic University, Peking University, People’s University of China, Qingdao University, Renmin University, Shandong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenzhen University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, South Central University for Nationalities, Sijiazhuang Railway College, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, South China University, Southwest JiaoTong University, Southwest Finance University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, South China University of Technology, Sun Yat-sen, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan University, Xian Economic and Financial College, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian Institute of Technology, Xian University of Finance and Economics, XiangTan University, Xiamen University, XiDian University, YanShan University, Yantai University, Yunnan University, Zhanguan Economy and Law School, Zhanjiang Normal University, Zhengzhou University,

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Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongshan University Fall 2009 The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan Hong Kong (SAR), Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shanghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejia The students represent the following 195 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Agricultural University of Hebei, Anhui Normal University, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Anyang Normal Teachers University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Normal University Zuhai Campus, Binzhou University, Central China Agriculture University, Central China Normal University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Central South University, Changchun Normal University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, China Agriculture University, China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Geosciences, China West Normal University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Post and Telecommunications, Dalian University of Technology Dalian Jiaotong University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Dezhou University, East China Institute of Technology, East China Normal University, East China Institute of Technology, Foshan University, Fujian Normal University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong College of Pharmacy, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangzhou University, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong University of Business Study Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin University of Technology, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou University, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University, Hefei University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan College Of Science And Technology, Henan University of Technology, Hengyang Normal University, Hohai University, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, Huanggang Normal University, Huangshan College, Huangshan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Huangzhong Agricultural University, Hubei Normal University, Hubei University of Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Hunan City University, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Hunan University, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Jiangsu University, Jiaying University, Jiamusi University, Jiliang University, Jilin University, Jimei

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University, Jinan University, Jiujiang University, Jishou University, JYU University, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoning University, Lanzhou University, Leshan Normal University, Liaocheng University, Liaoningshihua University, Linyi Normal University, Linyi University, Luoyang Normal University, Nanchang University, Nanchang Hang Kong University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Neijiang Teachers' College, Nankai University, Northeast Agriculture University, Northeast Forest University, Northeast Normal University, Northeastern University, North University of China, North West Normal University, Northwest University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest A & F University, Ocean University of China, Peking University, Pingdingshan University, Quanzhou Normal University, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao University, Qingdao Technological University, Qufu Normal University, Qiannan Normal College for Nationalities, Shanxi Agriculture University, Shanxi Datong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University of Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong University, Shaoxing University, Shaoyang College, Shangqiu Normal University, Shanxi Datong University, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenzhen University, Shijiazhuang University Of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan Normal University, South Central University for Nationalities, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southeast University, Southwest Forestry College, Southwest Jiaotong University, Southwest Normal University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Taiyuan Normal University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Three Gorges University, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin Normal University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Jinan , University of South China, Weifang Medical College, Weinan Normal University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xiangnan University, Xiangtan University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xidian University, Xinzhou Teachers University, Xinjiang University, Xinyang Normal University, Xuchang University, Yangcheng Normal University, Yanshan University, Yantai University, Yantai Normal University, Yangtzeu University, Yunnan University, Yuxi Normal University, Zhangzhou Normal University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang Forestry University, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zunyi Medical College SPRING 2010 The students represent the following provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Tianjin, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang

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The students represent the following 191 undergraduate institutions of higher learning: Anhui University, Anhui University of Technology, Anhui University, Anyang Normal University, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Minzu University of China, Beijing Normal University, Captial Normal University, Central South University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Centre China Normal University, Chang'an University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology, China University of Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, China Women's University, Chongqing Jiao Tong University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Southwest University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing University, Chongqing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Chongqing University of Technology, Dalian Nationalities University, Dezhou University, Dongguan University of Technology, Fudan University, Fuzhou University, Gannan Normal University, Guangdong Education Institution, Guangdong University of Business Studies, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangdong University of Foreign Study, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University, Guangxi Normal University, Guangxi University, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Guizhou College of Economy and Finance, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Hanshan Normal University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Hebei Agriculture University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Normal University, Henan University, Henan University of Finance and Economics, Hengyang Normal University, Hubei Normal University Huaqiao University, Huaqiao University in Fujian province, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Changjiang University, Hubei National University, Hubei University, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Inner Mongolia University, Jiangnan University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jiaying University, Jilin University, Jinggangshan University, Jishou University, Lanzhou University, Liaocheng University, Linyi Normal University, Mianyang Normal University, Minzu University of China, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Audit University, Nankai University, Naval Aeronautical Engineering Academy Qingdao Branch, Normal University, Northeast University, Northeast Normal University, Northwest A&F University,, Northwest Nationalities University Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry, Northwest University, Northwest University for Nationalities, Pingdingshan University, Qinghai University, Qufu Normal

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the end of each semester the students/consumers are asked to answer an anonymous questionnaire indicating the amount of benefits they perceive to have received from the Holistic English program, ranking them from 1 – 10, with ten being the most beneficial. The areas of perceived benefits are: Chart 1 Vocabulary Reading Oral Writing Listening Chart 2 Motivation Self-Discipline Confidence Creative Thinking University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shandong Economic University, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Shandong Institute of Light Industry, Shandong Jianzhu University, Shandong Liaocheng University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University, Shandong University, South-central University for Nationalities, Shanxi North University of China, Shanxi University, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Shijiazhuang Railway Institute, Sichuan International Studies University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, South-Central University for Nationalities, South China Agricultural University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southern Medical University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Tangshan normal University, Tianjin Foreign Study University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Wuhan Institute of Technology University, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Xi'an International Studies University, Xiamen University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an Post and Telecommunication University, Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, Xiangtan University, Xidian University, Xinjiang University, Yanshan University, Yulin Normal University, Yunnan Normal University, Yunnan University, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management, Zhengzhou University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhoukou Normal University, Zunyi Normal College

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Autonomous Learning Skills Chart 3 World View The students’ questionnaire answers were then tabulated and depicted in graph form. The graphs in the following right hand column summarize the Holistic English students’2 perceived benefits. (600 students for the 2

Holistic English Classes March 2009 Class #1 Economics Class #2 Economics, Finance, Marketing Class #5 E Business, Economics, Management Science Class #6 History Class #7 Chinese Studies Class #8 Chinese Studies Class #11 Law Class #12 Law Class #13 Accounting, Finance, Management Science Class #14 Accounting, Business Administration, E Commerce, HRM Class #17 Information Management. Marketing Class #18 Economics, medical Informatics Class #21 International Relations, Political Science, Sociology Class #22 Demography, Public Administration, Sociology HOLISTIC ENGLISH CLASSES September 2009 Class #1 School of Life Sciences Class #2 School of Life Sciences Class #3 School of Life Sciences Class #4 School of Life Sciences Class #5 School of Life Sciences, School of Education Class #6 School of Environmental Science, and Engineering Class #7 School of Geography and Planning Class #8 School of Geography and Planning Class #9 School of Geography and Planning Class #13 School of Mathematics and Computational Science Class #14 School of Mathematics and Computational Science; Department of Earth Science Class #15 Department of Earth Science Class #16 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Class #17 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Class #18 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering HOLISTIC ENGLISH CLASSES MARCH 2010 Class #1 Lingnan College Class #2 Lingnan College Class #3 Lingnan College

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spring 2009 term, 625 students for the fall 2009 term and 650 students for the spring 2010 term.) See graphs B, D, H, J, L, N, P, R T and X. The Department of English Teaching administration selected a group of 3 classes for the March 2009 semester; 4 classes for the September 2009 semester3 and ____ classes for the March 2010 semester, to use for comparison of students’ perceived benefits. The control group classes of post-graduate non-English majors were taught a traditional oral English program, by some of the Department’s best Chinese teachers. At the end of each semester the students/consumers in the control group were also asked to answer the same questionnaire as answered by the Holistic English students. The students’ questionnaire answers were then tabulated and depicted in graph form. The graphs in the following left hand column summarize the control group students’ perceived benefits. (129 students for the spring 2009 term, 172 students for the fall 2009 term and ____ students for the spring 2010 term.) See graphs A, C, G, I, K, O, Q, S and W.

Class #4 Lingnan College Class #5 Lingnan College Class #6 Research Center of Hong Kong and Macau Class #7 School of History Class #8 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #9 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #10 School of Chinese Language and Literature Class #11 School of Education Class #12 School of Education, School of Management Class #13 School of Sociology and Anthropology Class #14 School of Sociology and Anthropology Class #15 School of Philosophy Class #16 School of Philosophy, School of Tourism, School of Asia-Pacific 3 CONTROL GROUP March 2009 Class #20 Philosophy Class #23 Political Science Class #24 Journalism, Tourism, and International Communications CONTROL GROUP September 2009 Class #22 School of Life Science Class #23 School of Environmental Science and Engineering Class #24 School of Environmental Science and Engineering Class #26 School of Information Science and Technology CONTROL GROUP MARCH 2010 Class #18 Class #19

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In the spring 2009 semester 10% of the students in the control group filled out the questionnaire in Chinese instead of English. In the fall 2009 semester 14.5% of the students in the control group failed to follow the simple written English instructions causing numerous Questionnaires to be invalidated. Class 22 - 6 Questionnaires invalid Class 23 - 1 Questionnaire invalid Class 24 - 6 Questionnaires invalid Class 26 – 12 Questionnaires invalid

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Summary The control class cumulative charts reflect that in the traditional oral English programs there is a degree of chaos, uncertainty and lack of a delivery system that produces consistent and reliable results over a broad diversity of students. The percentage of dissatisfied students/consumers is very high and the degree of satisfaction by the satisfied students/ consumers is low. The Holistic English program charts reflect the consistent delivery of an educational product that produces uniform results to highly satisfied students/consumers. All of the SYSU students’ questionnaire responses have been delivered to the Department of English Teaching administration for verification of this report.

480

Chapter Thirteen

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481

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482

Chapter Thirteen

C G (3 Classes) MARCH 2010

SYSU

CUMULATIVE 2 CONTROL CLASSES Vocabulary

Reading

Oral

Writing

Listening

N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 10 = Greatest Help

C G (3 Classes) MARCH 2009

7

8

9

10

SYSU

# o f s tu d e n ts

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey

483

H E (15 Classes) MARCH 2010 SYSU

Chart 1 - 15 classes cumulative Vocabulary

Reading

Oral

Writing

Listening

N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 10 = Greatest Help

7

8

9

10

H E (12 Classes) MARCH 2009 SYSU

# o f s tu d e n ts

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

Motivation Autonomous skills

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

Self-Discipline

8

9

10

484

Chapter Thirteen

C G (4 Classes) SEPT 2009

SYSU

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 4 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

40

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

# o f s tu d e n ts

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

C G (2 Classes) MARCH 2010

8

9

10

SYSU

CUMULATIVE 2 CONTROL CLASSES Confidence Creatice Thinking

Motivation Autonomous Learning

Self-discipline

N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 10 = Greatest Help

7

8

9

10

Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey

H E (15 Classes) SEPT 2009

485

SYSU

CHART #2 CUMULATIVE 15 CLASSES Confidence Creative Thinking

250

Motivation Autonomous skills

Self-Discipline

# o f s tu d e n ts

200 150 100 50 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

H E (15 Classes) MARCH 2010 SYSU

Chart 2 - 15 classes cumulative

Confidence Creatice Thinking

Motivation Autonomous Learning

Self-discipline

N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 10 = Greatest Help

7

8

9

10

486

Chapter Thirteen

C G (3 Classes) MARCH 2009 SYSU CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 3 CONTROL CLASSES World View

# o f s tu d e n ts

20 15 10 5 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

9

10

C G (4 Classes) SEPT 2009 SYSU CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 4 CONTROL CLASSES

# o f s tu d e n ts

World View

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey

487

H E (12 Classes) MARCH 2009 SYSU CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 12 CLASSES

# o f s tu d e n ts

World View

140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

8

9

10

8

9

10

H E (15 Classes) SEPT 2009 SYSU CHART #3 CUMULATIVE 15 CLASSES World View

200 # o f s tu d e n ts

150 100 50 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = GREATEST HELP

488

Chapter Thirteen

C G (2 Classes) MARCH 2010

SYSU

CUMULATIVE 2 CONTROL CLASSES World View 12 N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

10 8 6 4 2 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = Greatest Help

Christmas 2009 Holistic English Lab SYSU

8

9

10

Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey

489

H E (15 Classes) MARCH 2010 SYSU

Chart 3 - 15 classes cumulative World View 160 N u m b e r o f S tu d e n ts

140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1

2

3

4

5 6 7 10 = Greatest Help

8

9

10

Conclusion 2,200 post-graduate non-English major students/consumers, representing every province representing 396 undergraduate intuitions of higher education, have spoken. In their collective opinion, the Holistic English Program consistently delivers a superior educational product that produces a significantly higher degree of student/consumer satisfaction. You can please some of the students/consumers all of the time and all of the students/consumers some of the time, but you can’t please all of the students/consumers all of the time. Holistic English is no different. However, with the Holistic English 2nd language acquisition program you can please more of the students/consumers, more of the time, with a higher degree of satisfaction, than with the traditional oral English learning curriculum.

490

Chapter Thirteen

English is not something you learn in a 2 hour classroom every other week. English must be lived 24/7. You must eat, sleep, drink and even dream in English. The end of term anonymous questionnaire also asks the students to express what was best and what was worst about the Holistic English class. For three consecutive semesters at Sun Yat-sen University there was a consistent thought, to paraphrase: What we like the best about the Holistic English class is that we have the environment and encouragement where we can speak Chinglish without condemnation and that allows us to build our self-confidence which increases our intrinsic motivation and we speak more. The worst thing about the Holistic English class is that the teaching period is not long enough, the class does not meet often enough and it only lasts one semester. Imagine, Chinese college students complaining that they are not getting enough time in a course. The Control Class students’ questionnaire responses overwhelmingly stated that their traditional English course was boring, not interesting, lasted too many hours and students are not given enough opportunity to speak.

What SYSU Students are Saying When the students/consumers have completed the Holistic English program and their final grades have been submitted, they are afforded an opportunity to post their comments about the program at http:// chinaholisticenglish.com. The following are some representative examples of what the students of the Fall 2009 term are saying about Holistic English. Katherine Class4 December 30th, 2009 at 3:39 pm · The class is over, but learning English just begins. I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. From the class I learned how to learn English well, read more, listen more, and speak more. Now I do learn English more in my free time, and I know many difficulties lay ahead, but I will continue to learn English—even in the toughest times. The journey of learning English will go on!

Student/Consumer Satisfaction Survey Robert-Class16 December 30th, 2009 at 9:19 pm In HE we can learn, talk and speak freely. There are no right answers or wrong answers. And we can discuss with others. This class model helps my oral English a lot. I love this class! Eric class4 December 30th, 2009 at 9:36 pm After finishing your class, I found that I made some progress! The most important thing is that you taught me how to continue to learn English even after finishing the class. Finally, I must say thank you to you! Maggie class5 December 30th, 2009 at 11:40 pm I thank you for giving me a very different kind of English class, which make me very impressed. For I had never written, listened and spoken as much English as this semester done before. As a result, I make progress in learning English. What’s more, I learned knowledge of economy by watching movies which makes me so excited. So I thank you sincerely. Maxwell.5 December 31st, 2009 at 3:21 pm I never did it like this semester to study English. HOLISTIC ENGLISH have impressed me deeply, I will never forget it. I am really moved a step on my English learning road, really improved not only in my oral English, but also in my confidence. A wonderful class and an excellent teacher, Thank you very much! Sunny Class Three January 4th, 2010 at 4:17 pm I cannot believe that this class has come to end. No more Emails from …, no more homework we should do in the future. I have to admit that this class is the most impressive, interesting and helpful English class. And it is not only an English lesson. We get to other knowledge beyond our major, think more and deeper about the world, our country, and our future, ourselves… We begin to talk with others confidently in Chinglish, no matter what other people is thinking of. Steel sharpens steel. We believe that firmly and we will do so. I am so lucky to take Holistic English… Gloria Class 8 January 4th, 2010 at 5:19 pm The Holistic English experience is very unforgettable and valuable for me. After ten years of English learning, I have got more from this than ever. This class not only taught me English-learning experience but also analytical perspective and so on. I can’t express my gratitude for this class in words especially the founder, our professor.

491

492

Chapter Thirteen joe Class 2c Submitted on 2010/05/11 at 12:28am SYSU Professor Martin is leaving, and I don’t know the reason why. I admit that I didn’t read much and neither of my comments on this websit. But I feel my English has improved a lot this semester, so I thank him and I will miss him. Wishing him a good trip around this country and the world. He really had done a very wonderful great work.

Listening to the voices of the students/consumers is in vogue. Asking students’ opinions about school may be trendy, but integrating their views must be a part of educational policy development.

LIST OF 396 UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS REPRESENTED

Agricultural University of Hebei, Anhui Normal University, Anhui University, Anhui University of Technology, Anyang Normal University, Anyang Normal Teachers University, Army Institute of Xian, Baoji University of Arts and Sciences, Beijing Normal University Zuhai Campus, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing Institute of Business, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Minzu University of China Binzhou University, Captial Normal University, Central South University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Central China Agriculture University, Central China Normal University, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Central South University, Central University of Finance and Economics, Central University of Nationalities, Changchun Normal University, Chang'an University, Changsha University, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology, , Chengdu University of Technology, China Agriculture University, China Pharmaceutical University, China University of Geosciences, China West Normal University China University of Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, China Women's University, Chongqing Jiao Tong University, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing Southwest University, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing University, Chongqing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Chongqing University of Technology, Chang An University, Changchun University, Changchun Normal University, Changchun Taxation College, China University of Mining and Technology, Chin South Normal University, Chinese University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing University, Chongqing Jaiotong University, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian Nationalities University, Dalian University of Technology, Daqing Petroleum Institute, DongBei University

494

List of 396 Undergraduate Universities Represented

of Finance and Economics, Dezhou University, Dongguan University of Technology East China Institute of Technology, East China Normal University, East China Institute of Technology Finance and Economic University of Tiang Yi, Foshan University, Fujian Normal University, Fudan University, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou University, , Gannan Normal University, Guangdong Education Institution, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangdong University of Foreign Study, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou University, Guangxi Normal University, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Guangxi University, Guangdong Academy of Fine Art, Guangdong Business University, Guangdong College of Pharmacy, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangdong University of Business Study, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangdong University of Business Study, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou University, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou Institute of Nationalities, Guizhou Normal University, Guizhou University, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Hainan Normal University, Hainan University, Hanshan Normal University, Hangzhou DianZi University, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin Normal University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Hebei Agriculture University, Hebei Economic and Business University, Hebei Normal University, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Hebei University, Hefei University, Hefei University of Technology, Heilongjiang University, Henan Agricultural University, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Henan Normal University, Henan College Of Science And Technology, Henan University of Finance and Economics, Henan University of Technology, Henan University, Hengyang Normal University, Hohai University, Hongshan Normal University, Huaqiao University, Huaqiao University in Fujian province, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huangshan University, Huaibei Coal Industry Teachers College, Huanggang Normal University, Huangshan College, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Huangzhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Agricultural University,

Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students

495

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hubei Coal Industrial Teacher’s College, Hubei Changjiang University, Hubei National University, Hubei Normal University, Hubei University, Hubei University of Technology, Hunan Agriculture University, Hunan City University, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan University, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Hunan University, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Hunan University Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Jiaying University , Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jishou University, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi Science & Technology Normal University, Jiangsu University, Jiamusi University, Jiliang University, Jimei University, Jinan University, Jiujiang University, JYU University, Jiangnan University, Jiangxi Normal University, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University, Jinggangshan University, Kunming University of Science and Technology Lanzhou Commercial College, Lanzhou University, Liaoning University, Lanzhou University, Leshan Normal University, Liaocheng University, Liaoning Normal University, Liaoningshihua University, Linyi Normal University, Linyi University Luoyang Normal University, Ludong University, Mianyang Normal University, Minzu University of China Nanchang University, Nanchang Hang Kong University, Nanjing Agricultural University, , Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, Nankai University, Neijiang Teachers' College, Northeast Agriculture University, Northeast Forest University, Northeast Normal University, Northeastern University, North University of China, North West Normal University, Northwest University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Northwest A & F University, Naval

496

List of 396 Undergraduate Universities Represented

Aeronautical Engineering Academy Qingdao Branch, Nanyang Institute College, Nanyang Normal University, NorthEast Normal University, North China Electric Power University, Northeastern University, Northwest University, Northwest Polytechnic University, Normal University, Northeast University, Northeast Normal University, Northwest A&F University, Northwest Nationalities University, Northwest SciTech University of Agriculture and Forestry, Northwest University, Northwest University for Nationalities, Ocean University of China, Peking University, People’s University of China, Pingdingshan University Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao Technological University, Qingdao University, Qinghai University, Quanzhou Normal University, Qufu Normal University, Qiannan Normal College for Nationalities Renmin University, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong University of Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong Economic University, Shandong Institute of Business and Technology, Shandong Institute of Light Industry, Shandong Jianzhu University, Shandong Liaocheng University, Shandong Normal University, Shandong University, Shandong University, Shandong University, Shaoxing University, Shaoyang College, Shangqiu Normal University, Shanxi Agriculture University, Shanxi Datong University, Shaanxi Normal University, Shanxi North University of China, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Shanxi Normal University, Shanxi University, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenzhen University, Shijiazhuang University Of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Sichuan International Studies University, Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University, Sijiazhuang Railway College, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, South China University, Southwest JiaoTong University, Southwest Finance University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, South China University of Technology, South Central University for Nationalities, South China Agriculture University, South China Normal University, South China University of Technology, Southeast University, Southwest Forestry College, Southwest Jiaotong

Of the Students, By the Students, and For the Students

497

University, Southwest Normal University, Southwest University for Nationalities, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Southern Medical University, Southwest University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Sun Yat-sen University, Taiyuan Normal University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Three Gorges University, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin Normal University, Tangshan Normal University, Tianjin Foreign Study University, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, University of Jinan , University of South China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Weifang Medical College, Weinan Normal University, Wenzhou University, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan University Xiamen University, Xian Economic and Financial College, Xian Institute of Technology, Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology , Xian Jiaotong University, Xi'an Post and Telecommunication, Xian University of Finance and Economics, XiangTan University, Xiamen University, Xiangnan University, Xiangtan University, Xidian University, Xinjiang University, Xinyang Agricuktural College, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang Vocational College, Xinzhou Teachers University, Xidian University, Xinjiang University, Xuchang University Yang An University, YanShan University, Yantai University, Yangcheng Normal University, Yantai University, Yantai Normal University, Yangtzeu University, Yuxi Normal University, Yulin Normal University, Yunnan Normal University, Yunnan University Zhanguan Economy and Law School, Zhanjiang Normal University, Zhengzhou University, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhangzhou University, Zhangzhou Normal University, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang Forestry University, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management, ,Zhengzhou

498

List of 396 Undergraduate Universities Represented

University, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhoukou Normal University, Zunyi Normal College, Zunyi Medical College

THE STUDENTS HAVE SPOKEN BUT IS ANYONE LISTENING? Chinese teachers, teaching English as a foreign language, to Chinese students, in Chinese, in China; supplemented by young and inexperienced foreigners who play the guitar and teach songs and games, while experienced native English teachers over 60 years of age are routinely rejected by National policy; all for the purpose of passing National examinations of dubious value;

DEMANDS ANOTHER REVOLUTION