How English should be taught in college?

I have just seen the article on this forum by NiNi , who is an English Teacher ....The article entitled Are we wasting our time? I think being a sophomore in college ,I might don't have much to commend on the Teaching Experience ,for that I have not been actually on the teaching platform to teach ,but i have been under that platform and before that blackboard for more than ten years .so i would like to say something about my feeling in the teaching way of English. I still remember my days of days of learning English in high school ,to be frank, the classes were really boring compared with those of nowadays in college, but at that time ,we have NCEE(National College Entrance Examinations ) in front of us ,and playing truant is really beyond our courage in those days .Now ,we r in college ,being an Electronic Engineering major ,the English appears to us more of something concerning CET 4 or GRE or TOFEL then the students taking English as their major .We have to spent a lot of our time calculating and programming ,and we r reluctant to face the English consists of only cold grammars and monotonous vocabulary .So we r expecting to find English classes ,which is the only art course on our curriculum ,to be interesting . In our first year as freshman , we have small English classes made up of approximately 40 students ,and we could communicate with the teacher in English freely and friendly ,at that time ,the atmosphere is really relaxing and we enjoyed the class together ,maybe plus the fact that we r not so sophisticated as we may be now ,no one ever escaped from class at that time . But these year ,the so-called Muti-media courses were introduced to our classes ,and because of the lack of the electronic equipment ,we have to have more than 80 students in one class sharing one projector and screen .Though from then on ,we could surf the net with the teacher’s computer and see some up-to-date materials concerning the text ,but the most important thing ,the spirit of our class-used-to-be :the chances to communicate with each other ,dwindle away because the too many students in classroom. Gradually ,some classmates begun to lost interest in this kind of non-communicate English class ,and then in the classroom which ,in theory, don’t have enough desk for each student , vacant desk appeared and there are more and more of them ,the nightmare begins with our English teacher ,a overseas student returned from US. And now ,when we r having English class, the number of students once dropped to less then 40,but this 40 has different meaning with that 40 in our first year .Though our teacher now does have chance to discuss with us ,there is often little response ,why? Because a lot of us has become accustomed to that kind of class in which only the teacher and the screen monologue .You know ,this kind of things always happen ,people r easy to become used to some thing which cause them less thinking and less bothering …However ,there is still something more that help to boost this kind of situation in class, During our first semester in college ,we r told that there are 30 credits in English given according to the students’ performance at the usual time .But when we received the first semester score , we found ourselves completed fooled ,not any credit given by term-performance …Our English is one of the causality of this ,she didn’t actually know the whole matter is just some kind of misleading earlier then we do .Of course score is no substitute for real command of English ,but it does means a lot to us students in China, so I think it’s after all still way to stimulate students to attend to English class ,and the effect of this ,is much more than just compelling students to class, it could make English class more active and students will learn to communicate in English in class…Seems that I have gone a little too far from the subject .how should we learn English ,does the way ”grammar ,grammar and more grammar ” really hold water ?I have recently seen in 21st Century one article which could answer this: no matter grammar you learn by heart ,you will find yourself at a complete lost when facing concrete problems if you don’t gain a sense and understanding of the native culture…Yes ,that’s it ,culture! We need to practice to gain the understanding of the different culture .will mere grammar help us in this ?Yes, but little .we need to expand our horizon and comprehend more of the western culture ,and I hope more of this kind training could be done also in class instead of only by magazines and newspaper.Some more problems about English class could be clearly seen in this dialogue which is universal common in English corner: “Why do you come to this English corner ?”“ Er ,you know, in our English class there is few chances for us to actually open our mouth and state out my opinion in English ,so I come here to practice my oral English … ”Now you see what the problem is :few chances for the non-English-major to use English to communicate .Some teachers might defend by saying: we do have given our students lots of students to practice by asking them questions .but wait a minute, what the questions mainly about ?and what the answer might mostly be ?The W questions (questions begin with What When Which etc.) dominate the class ,and mostly correct answer expected will be A B C D or something like that .As I have mentioned ,this kind of situation is caused partly by lack of communication in class .Teachers r cracking students with something on textbook or dictionary, and students just don’t have time to ponder and state out their opinion. I say so but with no intention to criticize our teachers ,They have gone to great lengths and take great pains in preparing for class ,but the nowadays teaching system stops them from going further to teach more .To create a better atmosphere in classroom and make students competent to use English in everyday life ,I think one advisable solution is to make a class of fewer students and make teacher inside the students and sincerely communicate with them ,grammar is important ,but not to the extend that it should take the place of the essence of the languish :communication . Efforts should also be made to find various ways of teaching : drama ,presentation ,job-applying interview…and that would arouse more interest in students ….Before I know it ,I have written (typed ,to be accurate ) so many words ,maybe because this has been long in my heart .i would not deny that there maybe something immature in my opinions ,but they r my real thought as a sophomore in university. If you like ,you could share your opinion with me by mailing to leechen6@163.net.

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