Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

DURING the “two sessions” earlier this month, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the country would leverage comprehensive and high-level openness to the outside world to promote the dual-circulation development pattern.

It is surely important for China to keep economic openness to boost exports and imports, as well as to attract foreign investment and invest overseas. Nevertheless, it is even more important for China to keep spiritual openness in a gradually protective and isolated world.

In a proposal to the annual session of the top political advisory body this year, Xu Jin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, proposed that English should no longer be a core subject and a compulsory subject for the National College Entrance Examination like Chinese and math, and more school hours should be distributed to courses such as physical education, art and music.

According to Xu, while English takes much class time, few Chinese university graduates will use the language at work. Moreover, smart translation devices nowadays supported by AI and other new technologies can offer qualified translation, thus making translator one of the most unnecessary professions in modern society.

Such a proposal has triggered heated discussion in China with both agreement and disagreement. In my view, simply removing English as a core subject for primary and secondary school students cannot show our cultural confidence. To the contrary, it may be a symbol of our lack of cultural confidence.

As far as we know, English is still the most commonly used language in the world and will continue to keep its leading position for a long time. One of the reasons why China can achieve great economic and social achievements during the past 40-odd years by reform and opening up is the use of English as an important communication bridge.

Most Chinese students, even pupils in some developed regions, can now speak English. The Ministry of Education made English a compulsory course all over the country from grade three in primary schools in 2001. The educational policy has proved to be a successful one since millions of Chinese students, no matter rich or poor, have broadened their horizons, enhanced their linguistic proficiency, and improved their cultural awareness and critical thinking by learning the language free of charge. Some experts worried that removing English as a compulsory course will further enlarge the knowledge gap between urban and rural students in China as wealthy families can afford expensive after-school English training but poor families cannot do so.

On the one hand, simply dropping English as a compulsory course may be unwise. On the other hand, the proposal is also thought-provoking. Why is it that some students cannot use English even after learning it for years in schools? Such a failure should not be attributed to the language itself. The key is to reform China’s exam-oriented education system so that English teaching will focus on improving students’ language proficiency, not exam-taking skills.

It is an obvious phenomenon that English teaching in Chinese schools concentrates more on helping students get higher scores in examinations than grasping the ability to use the language in real situations. So instead of curtailing English classes, it is more reasonable to reflect on our teaching methods and gradually improve how English is taught in schools.

Language is conventional. In its essence, except for those English learners and sophisticated linguists, English is just a communicating tool. Rather than paying much attention to grammar, more emphasis should be given to the improvement of oral, listening, reading and writing skills.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)