Driven by globalization, EFL has become a great concern in Chinese education. Educators in China are faced with profound challenges, including a substantial shift in teaching philosophy and practice. As is pointed out by the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, "College English is not only a language course that provides basic knowledge about English, but also a capacity enhancement course that helps students to broaden their horizons and learn about different cultures in the world" (p. 17).
In 1977 the National Entrance Examination for higher education was restored, and foreign language took its place in the school curriculum as a required course. English became a popular foreign language, but the majority of students were beginners. Textbooks contained basic grammar knowledge and simple English words and technical terms, and short passages were used for classroom teaching. The concept of English study was nothing "more than memorizing grammar rules and facts in order to understand and manipulate the morphology and syntax of the foreign language" (Richard & Rodgers, p. 5). At the time, we English language teachers described this approach as ABC English.
Classroom teaching, which was rather monotone, was delivered entirely in the native language, Mandarin Chinese.Teachers used to lead the class in reading new words aloud for a while and then spend a considerable length of time analyzing a specific grammar rule. I would write a few sample sentences on the board to present grammar rules, and their forms and functions. Then came a detailed analysis of the grammar points in each sentence in the short text. I also used to require that students practice the given rules in customized grammar drills"sentences that were constructed to illustrate the grammatical system of the language and consequently bore no relation to the language of real communication" (Richards & Rodgers, 2003, p. 4).