Objectives Structure in the National English Curriculum (2001)
The National English Curriculum (2001) is designed to promote the students’overall language ability, which is composed of five interrelated components, namely, language skills, language knowledge, language affects, learning strategies and cultural understanding. Each component is further divided into a few sub-categories as shown in the diagram. Language teaching is no longer aimed only at developing language skills and knowledge, but expanded to developing learners’ positive attitude, motivation, confidence as well as strategies for life-long learning along with cross-cultural knowledge, awareness and capabilities. The following graph was taken from the National English Curriculum (2001).
Figure 1.1 Teaching Goals in the National English Curriculum (2001)
Based on teaching goals of the National English Curriculum (2001), principles of design for the National English Curriculum (2001) is composed of six parts which aim at educating all the learners, and putting emphasis on quality-oriented education; promoting learner-focused education and respecting individual differences; developing competence-centered goals, flexibility and adaptability of cultivation; paying close attention to learning process, and advocating experiential and participation learning; attaching particular importance to process-focused assessment, developing language competence, refining learning resources, and giving more opportunities of using the language for the learners. These principles of design are taken from English Curriculum Standards for Nine-Year Compulsory Education (Revised Version) by the Ministry of Education in China published in 2001.
The description of standards for all the levels matches the overall goals in terms of the five components: language knowledge, language skills, motivation and confidence, learning strategies, and cross-cultural awareness, as shown in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2 The Above Graph Is About the Design of Standards for All the Levels Taken from A Course in English Language Teaching (the Second Edition), p.46.