Zhang Quan, director of the College of Foreign Studies under the Southern Medical University in Guangdong, says teaching English is just like teaching swimming .

Swimming instructors teach different individual skills like breath control and arm and leg strokes. But, even if you are adept at each arm and leg movement out of the pool, you cannot really learn to swim without diving in and getting wet.

"It is the same with English," says Zhang.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are deemed the four basic skills of English learning in China. For Zhang, the traditional way of teaching English in China is just like trying to teach people to swim without getting in the water.

"These skills should be integrated, not separated," he says, "otherwise students don't know what to do when they do jump into the swimming pool they could even drown."

To combine the skills, Zhang's college has adopted an innovative English teaching approach using computers.

Last year, Zhang's college issued all its English teacher with a computer, a printer, and granted free Internet access.

In the past, English teachers were armed only with a textbook, a piece of chalk and a blackboard. Now all English teachers at the college are expected to prepare lessons on their computers creating PowerPoint presentations to use in class.

"Great changes have taken place in the English classroom," enthuses Zhang, an English teacher for more than 20 years.

As Hu Zhuanglin, a professor of English at Peking University, explained on November 5 at the Third International Conference of Asia TEFL in Beijing, China has moved on in its approach to teaching English.

The three-day conference, from November 4 to 6, attracted about 500 English teachers and scholars like Zhang Quan, from over 30 countries. Nine internationally renowned scholars including Hu Zhuanglin, delivered plenary speeches.

According to Hu, during China's first stage (1949-76) approach to teaching foreign languages, there was little encouragement to learn English. Russian was the second language of choice in urban middle schools.

During the 10-year "cultural revolution" (1966-76), regular academic study was interrupted in schools, colleges and universities.

As many recall, although the ice-breaking China visit by former US President Richard Nixon started a small craze for learning English, the textbooks used were loaded with political jargon and beginners were granted a very limited glimpse into the lives of native speakers.

The two decades from 1977 to 1996 saw a period of "restoration, growth and development" in China's English education.

As far as the schools are concerned, English teaching has become more systematic.

The College English Test (CET), composed of two levels: Band-4 and Band-6, is one of the most important results of educational reform in China.

The CET has become the world's largest test in terms of the number of examinees, Hu said.

"There were only 100,000 test-takers for the Band-4 test in 1987 when it was first held, last year there were 11 million test-takers."

Though CET has exerted positive influence on China's English education over the past nearly 20 years, people today are beginning to see its limitations, Hu said.

Many universities have refused to grant a Bachelor's degree to those who fail the test, and many companies and government agencies have refused to accept applicants without test certificates. As a result, Hu said, universities have been forced to emphasize CET test scores, resulting in test-oriented education.

To tackle these problems, a CET reform project was launched last year by the Ministry of Education, with the aim of developing new forms of test, making changes to the tests in terms of content and form, and emphasizing the testing of integrated practical abilities, particularly listening and speaking.

Teachers like Zhang Quan have experimented with a more comprehensive approach, enabling students to learn one of the most popular languages in the world while also learning about connected cultures.

According to Hu, the new CET Band-4 test will be available in January 2007 and the new Band-6 test in June 2007.

It is the first time Asia TEFL (The Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) has held its annual conference in China after the previous two in South Korea.

Asia TEFL is the largest association of teachers of English in Asia and was founded in December, 2002 with its headquarters in South Korea. Some 5,000 teachers from 34 Asian countries and regions and 16 countries outside Asia are members. In terms of numbers, Chinese membership ranks second only to South Korea.

With the theme of "TEFL for Asia: Unity within Diversity," the purpose of the conference, according to Hu, the conference chair, is to "provide an opportunity for English teachers and scholars from Asia and beyond Asia to get together and share valuable experiences in teaching English as a foreign language so that English teaching in Asia will further improve and yield more productive results."

Editor: Yan