Comparative Research Of Design Theories And Framework Of Foreign Languages Curriculum In China And Europe

There inevitably exists educational internationalization in the wake of the fast development of economic globalization and so does foreign language education serving the purpose of communication.More and more countries(regions)include foreign language education as part of citizenship's education and design and compile curriculum standards aimed at improving the quality of English education.After 21~stt century,China successively released two important English curriculum standards.In2003,English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools was implemented,which involved English education for senior high schools.In 2011,English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education,covered the foreign language education of compulsory education,was implemented.The above-mentioned two documents are not only the epitome of the English curriculum reform of our country in the last decades.Coupled with some remarkable achievements in the basic education stage,there remain some contradictory issues regarding China's English Education.For instance,curriculum understanding is in conflict with curriculum implementation;English language is out of step with language qualities;there exist some unequal development in different regions concerning English learning;humanities and instrumentlaities.don't co-exist harmoniously.In a gesture to polish up the formulation and implementation of China's foreign language curricula,Common European Framework of Reference for Language(CEFR)published in 2001 is specially selected as reference so that proper comparison with regard to design theories and structures can be made and some improvements can be made between China and Europe.Research questions to be addressed by the essay are where design theories and curriculum structure of two curriculum guidelines lie.Some aspects including historical process,text structure,curriculum goals,teaching concepts,curriculum nature,teaching contents,language ability standards and curriculum assessment are adopted to compare the standard texts of English curriculum between China and Europe.Through the medium of comparison and analysis,these two documents share some similarities as follows.Firstly,they both cater for international and global backgrounds to appeal to high-quality English education.Secondly,they aim to improve all students'all-round and life-long development.Thirdly,curriculum nature strikes a balance between task-driven tools and meaning-seeking humanities.Fourthly,systematic curriculum goals highlight comprehensible and social language abilities and focus on spirits of humanities and science and cultivate across-the-culture communication awareness and abilities.Fifthly,selection and organization of curriculum contents rely on views of knowledge?activities?abilities and attitudes.Finally,they develop comprehensive,developing and diverse assessment systems.Meanwhile,there exist striking differences between them.Striking differences lie in the following aspects.Subjects of English curriculum are different,one controlled by government and the other directed by various subjects.The status of learners is whether they are language learners or social agents.Based on the fact that there exist diverse languages and cultures,EU has adopted and enacted multicultural educational policies;action-oriented teaching theories are adopted and define learners as social agents;scientific and effective language assessment scales have been set up so that they have consistent assessment standards for teaching and learning.Richness of curriculum content varies,four skills or five skills,examination-driven competence or life–driven competence.They have different motivations for English learning:dissolving motivation for Europe and extrinsic motivation for China.Socialization of evaluation differs with EU proficiency scales leading the way.There is no perfectour curriculum but one curriculum which needs perfection.The comparison is intended for approaches to polishing up our foreign language curriculum.Our suggestions are as follows.Firstly,legal guarantee should be given to make foreign curriculum authoritative and scientific.Secondly,in an effort to promote language diversity,values of language resources and ecology should be founded and a new curriculum value orientation should be promoted and carried out.Thirdly,Strike a balance on educational quality in different regions to ensure citizens'educational rights.Fourthly,curriculum designing involves all wisom and features common efforts and individualities and embodies tansparent?comprehensive and coherent curriculum framework.Fifthly,curriculum designing features foreign language pedagogy,which focuses humanities and instrumentalities.construct an assessment system conducive to learners'healthy sound development.Sixthly,enrich curriculum content featuring human-centeredness.Seventhly,design whole evaluation systems beneficial to learners'development and evaluation serves the purpose of learners'growth.Finally,promote professional competence of teacher to comprehend and implement curriculum design theories and become a role model of life-long learners.