A Contrastive Study Of Foreign Language Education Between China And Australia:Theory,Practice And Inspirations

Chinese foreign language education has had a history of more than sixty years. During these years, China achieved a lot in terms of foreign language teaching. Many foreign language schools were established and many foreign language talents were cultivated, which promoted the development of economy and society. However, foreign language education in China is problematic. English is overemphasized nowadays while other minority languages are ignored, which can not meet the increasing need of economic and social development. Australia is a country of multi-culture and multi-language due to its migration history. Its foreign language education policy is made at a strategic level, and many foreign language education policies are made due to need of economic development or diplomatic establishment. The government made long term effective policy to solve its language problems and achieved remarkable results. The thesis is going to make a contrastive study of foreign language education between China and Australia so as to draw some inspirations from Australia.The thesis mainly adopts two kinds of method:literature method and comparative method. Literature method refers to the collection of materials related to Chinese and Australian foreign language education, and chooses useful information from the materials after identification and arrangement to form a scientific understanding of the fact. Comparative method is a kind of basic method to perceive things and find similarities and differences between the Chinese foreign language education and Australian foreign language education through observation and analysis.After comparison, it can be seen that both policy making and practice implementation concerning foreign language education is poor in China, which hindered the development of Chinese foreign language education. Australia issued several language policies like National Policy of Language, Australian Language and Literacy Policy and National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian School Strategy, which emphasize the status of English as the national language and at the same time pay attention to the development of other foreign languages and aboriginal languages. These policies help Australia form a united and powerful nation around the world. Australia’s success in foreign language education offers China with inspirations such as making long-term policy, establishing special agencies for foreign language education researches, showing multi-lingualism in curriculum setting, showing flexibility and diversity in curriculum implementation, showing comprehensiveness in curriculum evaluation and enhancing teachers’training.