Research Into The Bilingual Education In Chinese Institutions Of Higher Learning

Today, with economic globalization and socialization, foreign languages, English, in particular, have been in the center of attention of both the common public and the government of every country in the world partly because foreign language level influences directly the quality and speed of information exchange, which is not only the indicator of a nation's educational level, but also decides the national economic development. After China's accession to WTO, the demand for bilingual talents with good expertise has become nationwide, thus how to improve the quality of foreign language teaching (FLT) is of paramount importance to the teaching reform of institutions of higher learning in China. Based on the deep exploration of FLT principle, and aimed at cultivation of foreign language ability, bilingual education is the new attempt, which goes with the trend since the eighties, that FLT should be combined with the contents of the discipline and which meets the national demand for bilingual talents. After its first recognition in Canada, bilingual education was extensively promulgated into many parts of the world, and got settled in China in 1990s. However, since its first debut at the universities at home, disputes emerged accordingly—whether it will degrade the teaching quality of subject matter, which courses are possible to be facilitated by it, the extent to which English should be used in the classroom teaching, etc.This paper, therefore, on a basis of a thorough analysis of the current situation and existing problems of bilingual education in Chinese institutions of higher learning, while combing its evolutionary process, defines bilingual and bilingual education, summarizes the successful experiences in Canada, the United States and Japan, clarifies the obscure understanding, and pinpoints the fundamental purpose, namely, to upgrade the FLT quality and to accelerate the process of internationalization of Chinese institutions of higher learning. Finally, in pushing the sound and permanent development of bilingual education, the paper offers a framework for its reform and some corresponding strategies.