Study Of Contemporary Chinese High School English Courses

English curriculums of senior school have always been the major components of curriculum studies after the foundation of the people's republic of China. Especially after the implement of reform and opening policy, English is becoming more and more important. Altogether 9 syllabus and 3 standards have been issued on senior English curriculum after the foundation of the people's republic of China. Though each syllabus (standard) was developed and perfected by the next, and had a certain promoting effect, yet they haven't changed the basic problems thoroughly in senior English curriculum. The major problem lies in curriculum itself, including the setting of its objective, the choice of its contents, the implementation of its teaching period and the lack of experiential conclusions and rational thinking. Curriculum documents are the programmatic documents guiding the curriculum objectives and implements issued by education administrative departments. They are also the concentrated reflections of outlooks of education and curriculum in a certain period of history, and at the same time, the objects and achievements of education reform. By way of a comparative analysis on the senior English syllabus or standards in different stages, by further analyzing the materials existed, this dissertation tries to describe, decode and explain the past, drawing a rational conclusion about English curriculum and providing plenty of historical facts for decision-making and forecast for the future. Thus, it is of great referential significance to both theory research and teaching practice of a nation wide implement of new English curriculum standard.With the method of documentary analysis and history comparison, this dissertation gives a general description of senior English objectives, curriculum contents and teaching period in different periods by way of horizontal and vertical comparisons, discusses preliminarily about the trend of the evolvement and development of English curriculums and tries to draw some experiential conclusions.Therefore, on the basis of curriculum documents, sorting and generalizing the curriculum objectives, textbook contents and teaching period of senior English in different stages, makes one of the efficient approaches to perfect the senior English curriculum.There are six parts in this dissertation. Part I is about the background and problems concerning this study. The necessity and significance of making such a study are listed in the background part, especially during the transition of the centuries. The problems are focused on carding and analyzing the senior English objectives, curriculum contents and teaching period of senior English syllabus (standard).Part II is about researching methods and contents. Documentary analysis is used to analyze the policy texts issued by our country, Ministry of Education and the leading group of curriculum reform. Comparative method, both length wisely and cross wisely, is employed to make problems analyzed and pondered. Historical comparisons and epochal reflections are in progress to various document data. The senior English curriculum objective, curriculum content and curriculum teaching period are included in researching contents.PartⅢis about one of the focused problems: senior English curriculum objectives. The dissertation first analyzes the transition of English objectives from instrumentality to humanity, and then the developmental course of the two's combination.Part IV is about the second one of the focused problems: senior English curriculum contents. Beginning with the analysis of government guidelines, this dissertation illustrates the transition of policy purpose from knowledge to communication, curriculum contents from communication only to both communication and application, and curriculum words from political ideology to practicality.Part V is about the third one of the focused problems: senior English teaching period. In this part, there is a discussion about teaching period and the nation's need, students'age and time planning, as well as the teaching period comparison of English with other subjects.PartⅥis about conclusions and discussions. Sum up the pathway of our nation's senior English curriculum in the past 50years and we can find that it is an unsmooth development process from heavily emphasized to belittled, and then to a comparatively rational consideration. At last, a few discussions are listed: the Chinalization and internationalization of senior English curriculum; who will be the leader in China's English curriculum, British English or American English? And what kind of teaching period is reasonable? This dissertation tries to make every effort to be innovative to analyze the problems, with the hope of offering some valuable considerations and reference to our nation's senior English curriculum reform and development.