A Study Of Local College English Education Policies From The Perspective Of Language-in-education Planning

Nowadays,with the rapid process of economic globalization,talents with foreign language proficiency and international competitiveness are in urgent demand.How to reasonably plan college foreign language(English specifically)education and cultivate students'comprehensive language ability,has become an important issue in China.Language planning and language policy has been a hot topic in sociolinguistics.It is evident to observe that a significant branch of this work pays particular attention to language-in-education planning and policy.However,most studies have only examined the text of a certain national College English education policy through static analysis,or discussed an aspect of English education.There has been less dynamic analysis on College English education policies and their development.Furthermore,how College English education policies in a certain university change under the influence of national policies has rarely been investigated systematically.This paper examines the backgrounds,characteristics and development of three most significant national College English education policies with Fairclough's three-dimensional model.Then,it investigates dynamic implementation of College English education policies at the level of universities and their influence on local policy making,during which a longitudinal descriptive case study of XXNU is conducted,mainly based on file data and interviews.Last,this paper concludes some implications for colleges and universities in formulating local College English education policies.All the above investigation will be explored in curriculum policy,methods policy and materials policy,from Kaplan and Baldauf s perspective of language-in-education planning.The result reveals that social context at different periods endows national College English education policies with distinct characteristics.Furthermore,it can be observed that College English education policies at XXNU have been influenced by national policies.In detail,the curriculum policy changes from regulating specific English courses to advocating a flexible integral curriculum system.Methods policy develops into being more student-centered and technology-based,and beneficial for students'autonomous learning and individualized development.Materials policy requires that teaching materials should be authentic,but it pays little attention to academic,professional and career-related teaching materials.There are some implications for local College English education policy making,to enhance students' comprehensive language competence.Generally,colleges and universities should make the curriculum policy,methods policy and materials policy abide by the national College English education policy and be oriented to the talent cultivation goal of each college and university.Besides,they should encourage more teachers and students to participate in policy formulation and revision.Specifically,the curriculum policy should include a flexible and systematic system with diverse courses,to meet the needs of students at different levels.Teaching methods policy should advocate student-centered teaching methods,to promote students' autonomous learning and individualized development.Teaching materials policy should provide suggestions on employing comprehensive,authentic,academic and profession-and career-related teaching materials.Finally,the research concludes with recommendations that future steps in this research will likely focus on widening the scope in regards of colleges and universities and more data at different periods should be collected and analyzed.Moreover,some other policies in Kaplan and Baldauf s theory could be analyzed.