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China, as one of the biggest counties in the world. There are over 70 billion people in China. I could say, China has the largest population who learns English. From the new born babies to the older people. It is a good news but if these students didn’t use the right way to learn English, that will be a big problem. Next, I will introduce some common problems in China. The first one was very normal in the last century. When those students first learn English, they only have course book, and maybe some tapes. They only chance they have to practice is so limited. Those students didn’t have enough materials to study or read. If you can speak English, you would be speak highly of your knowledge. Therefore, there are not so many English learners. After 1980s, more and more students started learning English. More books, resources can be reached. Lacking of materials is not the major problems anymore. But, another problem showed off. These students learned a lot in the class, they can write a beautiful article, get perfect scores in the exam but they can not speak English well. Or, you would notice that they are afraid of talking with a native speaker. When they speak English, it is not as good as their written English. I used to be one of these students, and I was wondering why. The reason was easy to understand: these students practiced a lot on their written English, they had so many English tests, exams, but they don’t have enough time to practice their oral English. So they don’t know what to say and how to talk well. If you only imagine what you will do when you meet someone, you still don’t know what to do when you really meet them. That’s the problem. And now, kids has plenty books, videos and English classes to take, they also have friends and teachers to practice oral English. Even a native speaker teacher! Talking is not a problem for them anymore. But I think they got too much pressure from their parents or their friends. Yes, peer pressure. More and more kids started learning from a very young age. Even 2 years old! Therefore, more and more students are forced to take English exams to prove their English ability. I’ve heard that some primary school students already passed FCE test! Compare to the English course in the public school, PET equals to the college entrance exam. They are just kids, they take exams in order to get the certification. They can barely understand what they learned, for example, a scientist is talking the theory of relativity to a kid. Maybe the kid can remember and write them down, but he definitely can not understand it. it is not good for their study. And also, we could say, these kids learned English outside of the school. What they learned in their public school is too easy for them. I think the problem for the recent English learns, especially the young learners, is too much pressure and learning too advanced. If they study with too much pressure, they may lose interest in English. There’s an old Chinese saying: “The ‘interest’ is the best teacher.” If someone lose interest of something, it will be very hard for him/her to learn it very well. With time went by, there were different problems for learners in China. Some problems solved but new problems still show off. It is because all the problems were occurred with different social/historic environment. As we keep working, I’m sure they will be all solved with efforts.
