CHANGE AND CONFLICT: INTRODUCTION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN CHINA

Chinese resistance to the Communicative Language Teaching approach is often dismissed as the classic traditional versus modern approach debate. "The Chinese will soon change." However, because this is an exampleofcross-cultural exporta­ tion of educational innovations, there are many conflicts that must be resolved. This article examines how the beliefs, pedagogy, and structures that have devel­ oped in the Chinese English language classroom culture restrict pedagogical change advocated by foreign and Chinese change agents. The issues raised serve to acquaint the reader with some of the complexities of pedagogical change. The issues are also of significance to educators who are considering teaching in an EFL context. China's modernization program and increased foreign contact have neces­ sitated the expansion of English language training. At the request of the Chinese government and increasingly through foreign initiatives, foreigners have been acting as curriculum consultants and developers, researchers, English teachers, and teacher trainers at both tertiary and secondary levels. After 1979 the Ministry of Education, now the State Education Commission (SEC), launched numerous English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher training projects. For example, the Advanced Teacher Training Courses (ATTCs) focused on the teachers practicing at the college level (Gatey, 1990a, 1990b). Ambitious plans were also made to train or retrain all secondary EFL teachers (Wang, 1986). China serves as an example of the problems inherent in the direct export of educational methodology across cultures. More specifically, this article outlines the conflicts that foreign and Chinese educators experienced when pedagogical change, intrinsic to implementing the Communicative Lan­ guage Teaching (CLT) approach, was first introduced in EFL teacher training programs and EFL classes in China. Examples are drawn from teacher train­ ing and EFL classrooms because it was commonly assumed that the innova­ tion presented to the Chinese English teachers would manifest itself in the teacher's own classroom.