On The Objectives Of Bilingual Instruction

Nowadays bilingual instruction is prosperous in our country, yet behind the chasing after bilingual instruction by various kinds of schools hides the danger of vague objectives. Misunderstanding and ignorance of objectives of bilingual instruction make the limited human resource and financial problems worse. Focused on objectives of bilingual instruction, the essay makes efforts to set up a more comprehensive system of objectives to take place of the one-fold objective presently existing in China. It aims at providing theoretical support for the healthy development of bilingual instruction in our country. The essay is divided into four parts: Part I clarifies the concept of bilingual instruction and reflects the history of it. The essay states that bilingual instruction is a kind of teaching form based on the satisfaction of social and individual demands which uses both English and Chinese as teaching media to teach non-English disciplines. Meanwhile, the essay tends to regard bilingual instruction as a teaching idea which aims at improving the development of students' body and soul instead of only a teaching model. The history of bilingual instruction in China and the United States as well shows that bilingual instruction has a long history in the world and it has various objectives in different countries and different period of time. Part II discusses the concept and meaning of objectives of bilingual instruction. To make clear the features of objectives of bilingual instruction, the essay contrasts objectives of bilingual instruction with that of monolingual instruction and draws the conclusion that the former has moreorientations than the latter in the aspects of lingual objective, cultural objective and transfer objective. As bilingual instruction has such three functions as guidance, stimulation and evaluation, it is very essential for bilingual instruction to set up suitable objectives. Part III is the core of the essay. It discusses the specific objectives of bilingual instruction in China and the foundation of setting up these objectives. Firstly, five objectives are posed as follows: language objective; cognative objective; affective objective; transfer objective and capability objective. Secondly, the theoretical and realistic foundation on which objectives of bilingual instruction are based are discussed respectively. Part IV explores how to achieve these objectives of bilingual instruction in our country. The essay takes the angles of conception, external environment and internal mechanism of education, and suggests that having a better understanding, getting supports from the government and improving educational internal mechanism are three ways to help realize the objectives of bilingual instruction in our country. Finally, the essay appeals to enhance theoretical exploration and research of objectives of bilingual instruction in China.