Forum aims to enhance teaching of English

More than 2,600 English-language schoolteachers and leading experts in English instruction from home and abroad have gathered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, for a conference intended to enhance China's English education with a global vision.

Around 300 domestic and foreign experts and front-line teachers will address the three-day conference, 2019 Global English Education China Assembly, starting on Friday. The event employs the theme of "English Education in China: A New Era, A Shared Vision", and participants will share their experience in academic research and practical teaching through speeches, panels, workshops and teaching demonstrations.

Twelve subthemes include core literacy education, teacher development in the age of computer-assisted instruction, artificial intelligence and foreign language education and demonstrating the achievements of China's English education reform since the country's reform and opening-up started in 1978. The conference also will pass on the latest educational concepts and teaching approaches in English education internationally and ways to contribute China's wisdom to global English pedagogy.

Participants include well-known English education experts including Christopher Powers, executive director at the United States-based TESOL International Association; Rod Ellis, a research professor at the School of Education at Curtin University in Perth, Australia; and Peter Skehan, an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. TESOL stands for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

It is jointly hosted by China Daily, the Hangzhou municipal government, Shanghai International Studies University, the National Association of Foreign Language Education of the Chinese Society of Education and the TESOL association.

Liu Jianda, an expert in English testing and vice-president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said China has entered a new era, has been moving closer to the center stage of the global arena and never before has the country been listened to so attentively.

"The conference provides a platform for the world to understand English education in China and enhance the international status of China's English education," he said.

Gong Yafu, director-general of the National Association of Foreign Language Education, said he looked forward to a panel with Skehan and Ellis, who will discuss task-based language teaching.

"Such discussions will help English teachers in China have a more complete picture of the teaching approach commonly used in classrooms," he said.

Lu Ziwen, an expert of foreign language education with Xingyi Normal University for Ethnic Minorities in Guizhou province, said that he will share practices and his feelings about English education in rural China.

"I hope that teachers explore the possible paths of better development of English education in rural China and further promote the fairness of English education between urban and rural regions," he said.

Zhi Yuan contributed to this story.