TESOL Standards for Adults and College English Curriculum Requirements in China

Abstract

In this capstone essay, I will compare College English Curriculum Requirements (Department of Higher Education of MOE of P.R. China, 2007) and Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults (TESOL Inc., 2008). Factors leading to similarities and differences between the two will be analyzed and presented. This comparative study will result in informed suggestions for the Chinese standard to better facilitate college English curriculum reform in China. These suggestions are based on selected ideas from the TESOL standard that are also applicable to the Chinese context. The TESOL standard is appropriate to compare with the Chinese standard because it aims at helping ESL/EFL teachers worldwide to achieve professional excellence, including Chinese college English teachers. The major focus of this essay is a critical discussion of three shared elements in the two standards: the learner, content, and assessment. Discussions from these three areas lead to the major findings of this capstone essay: (1) the differences between the Chinese standard and TESOL standard can be explained by the specific linguistic and sociocultural contexts from which they developed; (2) the similarities between the two reflect the fact that they are both derived from a broader TESOL context; (3) and there are potentially beneficial ideas from the TESOL standard that can be used to improve the Chinese standard after a careful consideration of the first two findings.