COLLEGE ENGLISH CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS IN CHINA: EXPECTATIONS AND RESPONSES

The purpose of the research reported here was firstly to examine the expectations placed on university teachers of English in China in relation to curriculum changes as evidenced in the College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation, 2004), designed for non-English majors (hereafter CECR 2004). It further reports on a study of responses to these changes on the part of teachers, administrators and policy-makers as revealed in interviews. The study adopts a mixed method of inquiry to deal with how teachers made sense of multiple realities and constructed complicated interactions between CECR and themselves. Additionally, some aspects of the work of Bourdieu and Bernstein are taken to analyse and interpret the issues. The findings show that CECR gives the impression of being forward-looking, making reference to contemporary English language teaching (ELT) concepts. This leaves a great deal of freedom for individual universities to flesh out the details and adapt the content to their own contexts. However, teachers feel either frustrated with the lack of real change in the syllabus or threatened by new challenges such as the emphasis on speaking and listening for which they believe they have not been adequately prepared.