The Learner-Centered Topic-Based Approach:The Chinese Version Of Communicative Approach

For many years, we have reached a consensus that the ultimate goal for English language teaching is to help students to acquire communicative competence. With the development and popularization of Communicative Approach (CA), there have been a lot of discussions not only concerning the theoretical basis of CA, but also about the practical implementation in the classroom activities. Some experts and teachers have accepted it and believe that it can foster students?communicative competence, while some others still suspect it or even repel it. It is the case in English language teaching(ELT) in China. As a tool of communication, English is much more widely used than it was in the past. Large numbers of professionals with proficiency in English are in great need. A learner will not meet the needs of society if he is not able to use English in real life communication. In order to keep up with requirement for English, teachers of English are encouraged to adopt the most effective ways for teaching English. However, as we all know, any foreign language teaching should take into consideration the environment and cultural background of the native language, the characteristics of the home learners and their needs. No matter what approach is being adopted, it抯 essential to perceive it as the ultimate goal to equip the learners with language skills and abilities, so that they can be independent in society. As the syllabus and the textbooks of middle schools have already been changed since 1996, it抯 high time that we adopted a new College English syllabus and a set of new textbooks to be consistent with them. In the past decade, College English has been adopted by non-English majors in most colleges and universities in China. To some extent, it has made some contributions to the training of the students?communicative competence. However, its materials and vocabulary are old-dated, and the traditional teaching approach used in the classroom provides students with little chance to communicate with each other. As a result, many students still fail to be able to communicate in English efficiently and appropriately after many years of English study. Meanwhile, most teachers are tired of teaching the same textbooks year after year and show noii#rz~-~enthusiasm for it. Both teachers and students are eager to have a new set of textbooks. What抯 more, any textbooks need to be up-to-date as theories and methods of language teaching and language learning change and develop, and as our society and its requirements for university students change.In this paper, the author attempts to introduce a new teaching approach梩he Learner-Centered Topic-Based Approach and a set of textbooks桸ew College English, which have been popularized in many colleges and universities in China since 1999. This teaching approach and this set of textbooks aim at the development of students?integrated skills of language and emphasize students?involvement and active participation in class as well as the important part teachers plays in guiding students and providing the 揺nvironment? And they take the characteristics of Chinese students into consideration, attempting to meet their needs in language knowledge and use, in their personal emotion and in their intelligence. The author believes that this teaching approach comes from CA and reflects the application and development of CA in China.This paper falls into five parts. In Chapter I, it first traces back to the development of ELT in China, and then analyzes the necessity of training the students?communicative competence and describes the general situations of present College English teaching in China. In Chapter II, it reviews the theory of CA and discusses some misconceptions of communicative language teaching (CLT). In Chapter III, it introduces the features and implementation of New College English and the Learner-Centered Topic-Based Approach. In the application of this set of textbooks and this approach, some experts and teachers wonder whethe...