Bottleneck and Breakthrough: English Majors Education in China’s Colleges and Universities

Abstract

For the teaching of English majors in China’s colleges and universities, the academic circles almost stick to the curriculum setting, teaching requirements, teaching principles, teaching methods as well as teaching testing and evaluation, which are involved in the National English Teaching Syllabus for English Majors in Colleges and Universities. However, there are few discussions about the confusion caused by the one-sidedness and loopholes of the syllabus. These problems are mainly manifested in five aspects: 1. Teaching management is not professional and department leaders have no backgrounds majoring in foreign languages. 2. The allocation of teachers is unreasonable and one-sided emphasis is placed on the structure of academic qualifications. 3. There is no bottom line for students’ access and lack of awareness of selecting talents according to different majors. 4. The curriculum is not systematic, and it is very common to set a certain course because of somebody. 5. All-in-one evaluation in schools is not conducive to the promotion of teachers’ professional titles. For the above problems, we should start with the professional teaching syllabus issued by the Ministry of Education, and embody its solution or prevention in the revision and reconstruction of the syllabus. As for how to revise and revise the syllabus, our proposition has three points: firstly, make a thorough investigation and find out the current situation of English teaching; secondly, compile the English teaching syllabuses in different classifications to make the syllabuses of various colleges and universities have similarities and differences; lastly, integrate the internal and external requirements of English major and make the English teaching syllabus into a system engineering. Only in this way can English majors in China’s colleges and universities get out of the predicament and usher in the spring of reform and development.