A Research on English Teaching Differences Between the Urban and Rural Middle Schools

Abstract： At present， with the position of English is increasingly consolidated， the importance of English education is gradually recognized by people all over the world. The English education reform of middle school is widely concerned with the basic education reform promoting after the 21st century. English teaching is regarded as the important subject both in urban and rural middle school. High school English teaching guides the students to develop good habits， attitudes and interest in English learning and help the students improve the basic daily communication. Therefore， English learning is the important subject for students in the process of English learning. However， the rural and urban middle school students in China have obvious differences in English learning.

Key words： English teaching； teaching differences； balanced development

It is well-known that English has become an international language for business and commerce， science and technology， and international relations and diplomacy. It is the most widely used language in the world at present. According to the statistics of 1986， nearly 400 million persons use English as their first language in the world. The people in these countries are mostly from Britain， the U.S.A， Canada， New Zealand etc. Nearly 20 countries use English as an official language or the second language in the world. The people who speak English are more than the people who speak any other language. About ten counties consider English as their mother tongue. About forty-five countries consider English as their official language. One third of people in the world speak English. For example， people in Japan speak Japanese as well as English. English is their second language and people take pride in speaking English.

English is extensively used in many fields. All around the world， more than 75% of TV programs are broadcast in English； more than 70% of e-mails written in English； more than 70% of technology articles are issued in English； 60% of broadcast programs are carried on in English. Most international conferences use English as the first all-purpose language （90% of the international conferences are held in English）. It is one of the formal working languages of the United Nations. English provides a tool for the administration of the country， causing people who speak different languages to become united. It also serves as a language of wider communication， including a large variety of different people. Learning English has become popular mainly for business and cultural reasons， especially for internet communications in the world. English has become a standard not because it has been approved by any organization but because it is widely used by many information and technology industries.

In order to boost all-round quality education and meet the needs of the 21st century and improve the quality of the national comprehension， national ministry of education requires all the schools should open English class from grade three as soon as possible. If possible， English class can be opened from grade one. Since 2001， English class has been opened up in most schools in many countries. And English class is gradually opened up in many countryside schools. Therefore， the educational department has made some regulations as follows：

Firstly， the starting grade is grade three commonly. There are four times of teaching activities at least every week. Since the fourth grade， Chinese classes decrease one time a week and the rest are solved by local class.

However， as for the English education in middle schools in the rural in Jingzhou district， due to the lagging economic development and the idea’s backwardness of people， managerial condition is poor， lacking foreign language teaching facilities， equipment shortages， qualified teachers and a series of problems. All of these have become the bottleneck of the development of the rural basic education and restricted the development of the rural basic education under the new situation.

From using the teaching material singly， learning coach book printing is given priority to mail form and the radio. Television and other analog signal transmission， remote education in education technology has gone through for nearly a century of development. The development of information technology is so rapid that remote education faces new challenges and utilizes high and new technology such as computer network technology and multimedia digital technology under the environment of digital interactive distant education. Therefore， the remote education architecture is widely used in today’s high-speed development of the Internet， full development and utilization of teaching resources on the net， and use the computer network video conference system strong interactivity and real-time， which makes two-way flow of students and teachers in the remote education more convenient， safe and reliable. Our country also realizes the importance of remote education technology application in the rural teaching and puts forward the rural middle schools modern distant education project. It is the key to strengthening the rural education work and is the important point to promote the rural education informatization. Promoting modern distance education project of rural middle schools vigorously is beneficial to enhance the level of rural education and to change the concept of ideology and culture and the construction of a harmonious socialist new countryside and to reduce the urban and rural education between the digital division. Since 2003， national and local invest $20 a year， more than $100 for five consecutive years to complete the Midwest rural areas in China and all the task of popularizing modern distant education. To implement the system engineering， it is the basic education inevitably choice to improve the quality of local education and to achieve the leap development of the rural according to the international trend of rapid development of informatization and the requirements of our country’s national informatization development strategy.

In addition， owing to lack of teaching funds， the English education hardware facilities are scarce. For instance， lack of tape recorders， computers， the projectors and so on. All of these teaching facilities are necessary for middle schools in the process of English teaching. What’s more， because parents’ personal reasons， the parents of rural students are ignorant of English. They pay less attention to the English learning. They can’t provide timely and effective help for their children. Therefore， it is not optimistic for the students who are from the rural middle schools when they are leaning English in schools.

References：

[1] Atherton， J. S. Learning and Teaching： Piaget’s developmental theory[M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2011.

[2] Conaway， A D. Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language[M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.