A Survey Of The Feasibility Of Bilingual Teaching In Primary And Secondary Schools

Quite a few primary and secondary schools in China have begun bilingual teaching program. In Shanghai, more than two hundred primary and secondary schools have carried out bilingual teaching program. Bilingual teaching is a controversial issue. Is it feasible to carry out bilingual teaching on a large scale in primary and secondary schools in China? Can bilingual teaching lead to the achievement of the goal of improving the students'proficiency in English? The thesis tries to answer the above questions.From the theoretical perspective, the thesis will elaborate the connotation of bilingual teaching and further point out that bilingual education system, in essence, is subject to its society, political environment and its specific target. The thesis will introduce the purposes and types of bilingual education in foreign countries and try to make a comparison between bilingual teaching in China and that in foreign countries in order to argue that it is not feasible to conduct bilingual teaching program on a large scale in China.An investigation has been conducted in some primary and secondary schools in Shanghai. The results show that it is impossible to carry out bilingual teaching from the aspects of bilingual teachers, the actual capacity of the students and the setting of the language learning. These findings confirm the infeasibility of bilingual teaching. The thesis further argues that bilingual teaching can not solve the existing problems of English teaching. The effective English teaching depends on the improvement the English teachers'proficiency, the research on ELT and the reform of the evaluation system.The thesis finally analyzes the potential disadvantages the bilingual teaching may bring about to Chinese and argues for the importance of teaching in mother tongue in primary and secondary schools. Bilingual teaching, which originates from foreign countries, reflects a language policy in a multicultural country. It is not just a teaching method. Bilingual teaching involves the relation between the language of certain ethnical group and the language used in the main society and also relates to the heritage, the development and the dying out of the language and culture of ethnical groups.