发言专家：He Lianzhen （何莲珍）
发言题目：Development of language testing in China
Considered the hometown of exams, language testing did not start in China until the late 1970s with the inauguration of the English Proficiency Test developed by Professor Gui Shichun. Over the past four decades, language testing has flourished in several areas. Following a brief introduction to the history and current state of language testing in China, the presentation presents a critical review of language testing research on six themes that have piqued researchers' interest.
- Test reliability and validity.
- Factors affecting test performance.
- Rating and rating scales.
- Technology and language testing,
- Test washback.
- Classroom-based assessment.
In addition to situating the commentary on the studies within the social, cultural, and historical contexts of China, this presentation outlines these studies' scholarly contributions to the wider international field of language learning, teaching, and testing. It concludes with recommendations to Chinese scholarship on areas in need of further development over the coming decades.
专家简介：He Lianzhen （何莲珍）is a professor and director at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, Zhejiang University, China. She is also director of the National Advisory Board for College Foreign Language Teaching for the Ministry of Education. The ministry also awarded her the National Professor of Distinction in 2006. Her research interests include language testing and language teaching; she has been published widely in intentional and Chinese peer-reviewed journals and has won 10 awards at the national and provincial level for achievements in teaching and research.
发言专家：Don Snow
发言题目：Learning to speak a foreign language: eight immortals cross the sea
It is not easy for Chinese students to develop advanced speaking skills in English, especially in an education system where speaking often receives relatively little attention because it is generally not included in high-stakes tests, such as the College Entrance Examination (Gao Kao). However, some students in China do succeed in building strong speaking skills, and often they do so by engaging in various kinds of independent language learning outside class, devising and deploying strategies to help them get the practice needed for high levels of fluency and communicative competence.
This presentation is based primarily on a qualitative study of university students who passed an oral proficiency interview and were admitted to an English-medium university program in China. The presentation shares the stories of these successful learners and describes the strategies they used. Snow argues that a wide range of strategies can be effective, and that the particular strategy used is less important than the fact that learners make the choice to engage in independent language study and are able to find sustainable ways of doing so.
专家简介：Don Snow has an MA in English/ TESOL (Michigan State University, 1983), and a PhD in East Asian Language and Culture (Indiana University, 1991). He was Executive Director of the English Language Center at Shantou University from 2011 to 2014, and since 2014 has been Director of the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University. His works on language teaching include More Than a Native Speaker (TESOL Publications, 3rd edition 2017; with Maxi Campbell), From Language Learner to Language Teacher (TESOL Publications, 2007), and Encounters with Westerners: Improving Skills in English and Intercultural Communication (Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, revised edition 2014).
发言专家：Gong Yafu （龚亚夫）
发言题目：Three approaches to developing key competencies with current teaching materials
School teachers are expected to design activities that develop key competencies that meet the new school curriculum innovations. However, they face a challenge: on the one hand, they are required to use the approved textbooks; on the other hand, not all the materials in the textbooks are suitable for the latest changes. The speaker provides three solutions to solve the problem: a task-supported approach, an option-based approach, and a task-based approach. With a task-supported approach, teachers select tasks for students as additional activities after practicing structures and functions in the textbooks. In an option-based approach, teachers may use the textbook materials and ‘frame’ the tasks by asking referential questions. The third way is to use task-based materials as a school-based curriculum where tasks are employed as analysis methods. The tasks in the three approaches aim at integrating language use, thinking skills development, and social-emotional learning. The presentation will provide examples for the implementation of the three approaches.
专家简介：Gong Yafu （龚亚夫）is a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Education Sciences of China (NIES). He was president of the National Association of Foreign Language Education (NAFLE), Chinese Education Society, and now serves as the vice–president of the Children Education and Development Association, China Education Development Strategy Society. His research interests include task-based language teaching, English language assessment, curriculum development, and professional teacher development. He has published numerous articles and books and presented at many high-profile conferences.
发言题目：A Holistic Approach to
English Teaching：Will and Way
发言专家：Mei Deming (梅德明), Shanghai International Studies University
The holistic approach to English teaching advocated
in this presentation draws on the recent development in China’s national
curriculum design, pertaining to English language teaching at the elementary
and secondary levels. The holistic approach adheres to the educational philosophy
that English language teaching is more than teaching grammar, vocabulary and language
skills, but educating the learner’s mind and the heart in
addition to training the tongue. The philosophy as such is best captured in the
belief that language teaching is “whole-person education”. To pursue this goal,
English teachers will focus on the parallel development of the learner’s national
empathy, global concerns, moral health and cross-cultural competence. They will
give importance to the development of the learner’s subject literacy and task
fulfilling competence. And teaching objectives will give way to educational
goals. To achieve educational goals, we propose the big-idea teaching principle
and adopt the whole-unit teaching design and the activity-based teaching methodology.
The essential components of course contents, namely, theme, text, linguistic
and cultural knowledge, language skills and learning strategies, will be
integrated into the proposed scheme. We will change the fragmented approach to English
language teaching into the holistic approach that encourages the learner’s
parallel growth in language ability, cultural awareness, thinking skills and
learning capacity. With the learner’s competence growth as the pivot, we will streamline
language input, language interaction and language output, focusing on the
learner’s initiative and learning activities in all the key links of the
curriculum. The proposed holistic approach asks for changes to take place in teaching
modes, learning styles and activities, and achievement evaluation. It asks for
invested efforts from teachers to ensure students’ comprehensive, balanced and
favorable development encompassing the instrumental value of language use and the
humanistic value in the context of cross-cultural communication. It encourages English
teachers to follow the progressive course of development beginning with
language learning and understanding, proceeding to the application and
reproduction of what is learned, and then advancing to the replication and creative
use of the language in a novel context.
专家简介：Mei Deming (梅德明) is professor of English and linguistics at Shanghai International Studies University, Vice President of China's Academic English Teaching & Research Association, a member of the National Curriculum and Textbook Development Committee, Chief Designer of the National Curriculum Standards on Hight School English Education, and a member of the Shanghai Educational Testing and Assessment Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. He is also the author and chief compiler of over 20 English textbooks, and has published an extensive number of linguistics and applied linguistics texts.
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