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Liu Daoyi: Researcher of the Institute of Curriculum and Textbooks, editor of the People's Education Press. He is the former deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Education Society, and the chairman of the Foreign Language Teaching Committee of the Chinese Society of Education. He has participated in the review of English textbooks for primary and secondary schools and the development of English syllabus by the Ministry of Education. He is the chief editor of many sets of English textbooks for primary and secondary schools, including Liu Daoyi's Selected Works of English Education, and the editor-in-chief of English Education in China: History and Present Situation (English Edition). Regarding Liu Daoyi, one of the identities most closely related to us is the editor-in-chief of the high school English textbook of the Renjiao Edition. My relationship with basic English education can be traced back to the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. My experience is like a mirror, reflecting the tortuous and glorious course of China's basic English education in the past 70 years.
Famous teachers lead the practice and exercise to lay a solid foundation
I was first introduced to English in 1950 when I was in junior high school. At that time, the textbook we used was the "Standard English Reader for Junior High School" edited by Lin Handa, and my English teacher had a pure voice and beautiful sound quality, which made me appreciate the charm of the English language from the very beginning. In my hometown, Nanjing, the level of English teachers in middle school is still good. At that time, junior high school English teaching focused on vocabulary and sentence patterns, and the requirements for students' language communication skills were relatively low. I didn't feel too much pressure to study because I could get a high score just by memorizing words before every exam.
In 1953, when I entered high school, I switched to Russian, and the Russian language teacher used the original Soviet textbooks, and the lessons were taught in Russian. When it came time for the exam, he asked me, the representative of the Russian class, to help him copy the questions from Chinese to Russian on the blackboard. After studying, we had a certain foundation in Russian pronunciation and grammar, but when I went to university, I became an English "white ding" and had to learn ABC.
The three years of high school coincided with a time when the whole country was "learning from the Soviet Union". We were dressed in clothes made of Soviet floral cloth, holding Soviet ** "The Story of Zoya and Shura", "How Steel is Made", "Country Female Teacher", etc., and we looked forward to a better future in our hearts. The image of Varvara in "Country Female Teacher" deeply moved me, and I was determined to be admitted to the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University and become a Chinese teacher in the future. However, before graduating from high school, I and a dozen other students were recommended by the school to apply for the National Confidential College. These confidential colleges are all key institutions, which is supposed to be something to boast about, but I feel a little regretful, because there are neither normal colleges nor Chinese majors in these colleges, and the only school that offers liberal arts majors is Beijing University of Foreign Chinese. So I chose to study English at Beijing Foreign University to prepare for a career in diplomacy in the future. Unexpectedly, four years later, I stayed in the English Department of Beijing Foreign University to teach, and my dream of teaching came true. Since then, I have never left the education front, stepping into the classroom of primary and secondary schools from university, and then engaged in the compilation of primary and secondary school textbooks, teacher training, and teaching research.
In the summer of 1956, I entered the Beijing Institute of Foreign Chinese (now Beijing University of Foreign Chinese). The simple campus is home to Xu Guozhang, Wang Zuoliang, Zhou Yuliang, David Crook and other national foreign language elites. I have been fortunate to be taught by professors such as Chen Lin, Yang Shuxun, and Deng Yanchang, whose words and deeds have benefited me for life. In the freshman year, the training of students' basic pronunciation and grammar skills is very strict, and the pronunciation class alone lasts for eight weeks. The teacher requires each student to bring a small mirror during class, and everyone listens to the teacher's explanation of the phoneme pronunciation part while listening to the teacher's explanation of the phoneme pronunciation part in class, and at the same time finding the correct pronunciation part in front of the mirror to practice "oral gymnastics". Our students come from all over the country, and due to the influence of their respective dialects, many of our English pronunciations are fallacious. Growing up on the Yangtze River, I couldn't tell the difference between l and n and n at first, but after rigorous training, I not only mastered the correct English pronunciation, but also corrected some Chinese pronunciation.
I studied "Basic English" in my freshman and sophomore years, which laid a solid foundation for my later work and study. After our junior year, we were supposed to study English literature, but after 1957, our teachers began to compile their own teaching materials to implement the policy of "education serving politics and combining education with production and labor", and taught us between political activities and labor. Mr. Crook often told us that English is a skill and it takes a lot of practice to really master it, just like one has to go into the water to practice if you want to learn to swim. As a result, teachers such as Deng Yanchang, who taught oral Chinese, began to compile oral conversation materials based on the actual life. Although we did not read a lot of literature at that time, we learned a lot of political and labor-production vocabulary. Whenever I look back on this university experience, I feel lucky that I met many good teachers.
In 1960, in order to solve the problem of teacher shortage, the English Department sent more than a dozen students to teach at the university, and I was one of them, so I ended my studies early. Although I am glad that I have achieved my dream of becoming a teacher, after all, I have studied one year less than other students, so I often feel "congenital inadequate" and lack confidence when teaching. Fortunately, the Department of English advocates the policy of "bringing the old with the new", and my advisors are Mr. Zhang Daozhen and Mr. Zhou Xiantao, who have rich teaching experience. With their help, I not only gained a firm foothold on the podium, but also learned and explored new teaching methods - audio-visual and listening and speaking methods, and increased the amount of practice through sentence pattern training to improve students' speaking and writing skills.
In the summer of 1961, I was transferred to the School of Foreign Chinese affiliated to the Beijing University of Foreign Chinese to teach. From 1961 to 1977, I worked in the high school, junior high school, and elementary school, and also served as a class teacher and head of the English department. At that time, we were young and ambitious, and we spared no effort to train high-level foreign language talents for the country. In order to increase the amount of language input, we have adopted a combination of intensive and general teaching methods in high school, compiling our own intensive reading textbooks and using simple reading materials as extensive reading materials, which has achieved remarkable results. In primary school, we have tried the story method, translating the little book into English and directly using it in the classroom, with Chinese and foreign teachers forming teaching partners. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, we purchased the textbook "900 Sentences in English" and compiled the textbook for experimentation based on the actual situation, which greatly improved the students' oral proficiency. To address the polarization, I also worked with teachers in the same grade level to teach at a hierarchical level. I gather students who are low in English and use make-up lessons to help them improve quickly and help them build confidence. Later, most of them were able to work in foreign languages as well.
The school has very strict requirements for teachers, and must write lesson plans when preparing lessons, and Professor Xu Guozhang also personally checks the lesson plans. The school has a special training time for teachers every week, and foreign teachers give listening and speaking classes to Chinese teachers. Each month, a teacher will give a keynote speech in English and answer questions. Despite this, I still have a strong sense of worry, because I was not deeply involved in my studies during my university years, the attached school was busy with work, and the study time was insufficient, and the teaching scope was narrow, which made it difficult to improve. I have always regarded these training measures as "congenital deficiencies and acquired deficiencies", and I attach great importance to them ideologically. However, what benefited me the most was in the early 70s, when I began to read dozens of books in one sitting, from the simple original book "A Journey to the West" to the classic "Jane Eyre" and "Notre Dame de Paris". At the same time, I collected many recordings of celebrity speeches and recitations of famous books, listened to them repeatedly, and also listened to Chinese and foreign English radio programs. Through this kind of independent listening and reading, I absorbed a lot of the original English language, and unconsciously felt "deaf and clear", and my English thinking was gradually formed, and my oral expression was much smoother.
Reform and opening up, compiling books for the country, inheriting and innovating
In the summer of 1977, I was seconded by the Ministry of Education and began to participate in the compilation of primary and secondary school textbooks across the country. Since then, I have entered a new world of development and reform of English curriculum textbooks for primary and secondary schools, and have changed from a teacher to a book editor.
Compiling books, like teaching, is a glorious and arduous undertaking. Looking back on the past 40 years of compiling books, I feel that I am a lucky person to have caught up with the great period of vigorous development of education in my country. After the implementation of the country's reform and opening up policy, the whole society respected education and talents, and I was able to engage in the study of curriculum, teaching materials, and teaching methods in a down-to-earth manner under the guidance of the highly respected predecessors of the People's Education Society.
From 1977 to 1980, the compilation of the textbook was carried out in the form of conferences. Due to the urgency of the task, more than 200 editors of primary and secondary school textbooks were accommodated. Under the leadership of Mr. Tang Jun, 14 teachers from the English writing group from Shanghai and Beijing worked day and night with great energy. A year later, the Ministry of Education formulated the "Full-time 10-year English Teaching Syllabus for Primary and Secondary Schools (Trial Draft)". In accordance with the spirit of the syllabus, we have compiled English textbooks and teaching reference books for elementary, junior and senior high schools, and the workload is as large as you can imagine. During that period, everyone ate and lived together, fought every night with lights and nights, and everyone went all out, really "thinking in one place and working hard in one place", and only wanted to implement the instructions of Comrade *** to use the new teaching materials when the new students entered the school in the fall of 1978.
After 1982, the English textbooks for primary, junior high and high schools were revised and put into use, which can be said to be the longest and most widely used English textbooks in the history of China. This set of English teaching materials has stabilized the order of English teaching, improved the quality of basic English teaching, put an end to the situation of starting English teaching from "zero" in colleges and universities, and also trained a large number of English teachers and researchers. English learning is becoming more and more important by the state and society.
From January to August 1981, I participated in the first editorial study group sent by the China Publishers Association, and was invited by the British Publishers Association to study the publishing industry in the United Kingdom. I interned at Longman Publishing Company in the United Kingdom, learned about the editing, publishing, distribution and sales of various textbooks, reference books and audio-visual products at home and abroad, visited British schools, and inspected British education. The openness, diversity and competitiveness of overseas education opened my eyes. The UK's major educational publishing companies, such as Longman Publishing, Cambridge University Press, and Oxford University Press, have a large international market, and their authors have written English textbooks for many countries around the world, adopting modern teaching methods, authentic language, innovative content, and distinctive design and binding. Since then, I have had the idea of co-authoring English textbooks.
In the years following my return from the UK, I was often sent abroad to attend UNESCO meetings as a ** delegate (only in English). Although I have completed the tasks assigned by my superiors every time, I am secretly anxious about the lack of foreign language talents in my motherland. In order to change this situation, I have appealed more than once that the foreign language editors of the Human Education Society, who are also researchers at the Institute of Curriculum and Textbooks, need to go abroad for further study like university teachers to improve their professional level of foreign language and the level of foreign language teaching theory. The old president, Ye Liqun, was a far-sighted person and attached great importance to my suggestions. So, I passed the exam and went to the University of Sydney in Australia in January 1985 to study applied linguistics. Since then, many of my colleagues have also been given the opportunity to study abroad.
At the University of Sydney, I listened firsthand to a functional grammar class taught by renowned linguist Halliday. What is more valuable is that during this period, I read many books on linguistics, pedagogy, and language teaching theory, thinking about the problems in foreign language teaching in China, and comparing English courses and textbooks at home and abroad. I have studied books on the curriculum and translated the main points of the English syllabus for primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong into Chinese. In January 1986, I returned to Beijing as scheduled and wrote articles such as "The Reform of English Language Teaching in Hong Kong" and "The Purpose and Methods of Foreign Language Teaching in Secondary Schools", expressing my desire to integrate China's national conditions, absorb the advantages of modern language teaching methods, and explore ways to reform secondary school English teaching materials. After reading the article "The Current Situation and Future of Secondary School English Textbooks" drafted by me, Mr. Zhang Zhigong enthusiastically supported my idea as a junior, revised the article by himself, and co-published this article with me.
From 1985 to 1986, under the leadership of the State Education Commission, East China Normal University cooperated with 15 provincial teaching and research departments across the country to conduct a survey on the teaching of English in middle schools. The survey found that the overall level of English proficiency among Chinese students is low, which is deeply disturbing to us, and the time has come for secondary school English teaching and textbooks to be changed.
After the promulgation of China's Compulsory Education Law, the State Education Commission started the work of formulating the syllabus for all subjects of compulsory education in junior high schools. I participated in the development of the syllabus together with experts from the People's Education Society, Beijing Municipality, and Beijing Normal University. We have conscientiously summarized the experience and lessons of previous secondary school English curriculum research, referred to foreign curriculum research materials, especially absorbed the results of linguistics and language teaching research in European Community countries, and introduced the idea of communicative language teaching, which has had a great impact on this round of curriculum reform.
The English syllabus for junior high schools of compulsory education clearly states that the purpose of English teaching is "to enable students to acquire basic knowledge of English and the ability to use English for communication through training in listening, speaking, reading and writing". The communicative function of doing things with language is emphasized here. The syllabus stipulates: "English teaching should focus on cultivating students' communicative skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing using phonetics, vocabulary and grammar in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, in the process of training, do not do too much practice of language form, but make the language form related to the meaning of the language, and make the language form related to the actual situation of the student, so that the language skills can be developed into the communicative ability to use the language. ”
The syllabus with the spirit of reform has laid the foundation for the reform of teaching materials, and has also brought opportunities for Sino-foreign cooperation in the compilation of teaching materials. In 1987, through the State Education Commission and the International Technical Exchange Center of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the People's Education Society applied to the United Nations Development Programme for a subsidy for Sino-foreign cooperation in the compilation of junior high school English textbooks. Due to the significance of the project, teachers and students have benefited greatly, and it has received support from all parties, including UNESCO, the implementing agency of the project. After the project was approved, through international bidding, President Ye Liqun and I went to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to select the bids and determine the partners of Longman Publishing Company in the United Kingdom. At the end of October 1988, we invited Mr. Alexander, a senior adviser to the British side, and Mr. Grant, the editor-in-chief of the British side, to China. Alexander gave a lecture entitled "European Views on Language Textbook Design in the 80s of the 20th Century" at the Renjiao Press, which opened the prelude to the Sino-British cooperation in the preparation of junior English textbooks for China. Since then, the textbooks compiled by combining structure and function have occupied the dominant position of primary and secondary school textbooks in the 90s of the 20th century.
At that time, on the question of what kind of way China should adopt to compile new textbooks, I analyzed the advantages and problems of the current middle school English textbooks in the article "The Current Situation and Future of Secondary School English Textbooks", and discussed the problems that need to be studied and solved in the reform of textbooks. The article reiterates Mr. Zhang Zhigong's consistent proposition, that is, "more scientific analysis and less subjective arbitrariness; Engage in more materialist dialectics and less extreme and absolute; Pay more attention to practical results and less formalism. As a result, we both criticize and not completely reject the structural methods adopted in the past, and affirm but not copy all of the functional methods. I also clarified in the article "Research and Experiment of English Textbooks for Compulsory Education Junior High School": "The functional method can grasp the essential function of language, reflect the law of language development, and mobilize students' initiative and enthusiasm for learning. In the study and reform of English teaching in middle schools in China, the functional method should be referred to. However, when drawing on the experiences of others, we must give full consideration to China's realities and pay attention to inheriting and carrying forward the good experiences that our country already has. We are determined to "base ourselves on reality and look to the future", introduce advanced language teaching theories and methods, inherit traditional and effective methods, and make bold reforms in the compilation of teaching materials.
This is the first time that China and foreign countries have cooperated in the compilation of English teaching materials, but my idea is clear: the cooperation is based on the spirit of taking China as the mainstay, foreign countries as China's use, and China and foreign countries complementing each other, and adhering to the principle of combining reform and innovation with inheritance and development, which has made this cooperation a success. In the process of cooperation, we have always adhered to this principle. For example, the preparation of the first part of the first volume of junior high school went through several twists and turns, mainly because foreign authors did not understand the actual teaching situation in China and could not grasp the degree of difficulty, but we insisted that the British side revise the plan three times before the preliminary draft was finalized. When we disagreed with the senior advisors of the British side on the teaching of alphabet and phonetic transcription, we took the British authors to Chengdu Dujiangyan Middle School to listen to the lectures and have a discussion with the teachers. Through practical research, they learned about the difficulties of Chinese in learning English pronunciation and the role of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Subsequently, the pronunciation teaching materials in the textbook were prepared by Chinese personnel, and the British side never objected to this part. The British authors respected the stipulations of our syllabus, especially the article on "integrating ideological education into language teaching," and resolutely revised the texts they wrote when they encountered them that were not conducive to the ideological education of young people or did not conform to China's national conditions. Sometimes, we propose to replace the texts with texts from old textbooks, which are acceptable to the English authors.
In the autumn of 1990, the Chinese-English English textbook for junior high schools was tried in some parts of the country, and in 1993, it was tried nationwide, causing great repercussions. With the renewal of teaching concepts, English teaching methods have also changed.
First, teaching starts from the actual meaning of the language, not from the form of the language; Carry out a variety of activities through a more realistic context, especially the continuous stories (Li Lei, Han Meimei and other characters) compiled in combination with students' lives, instead of too much boring and detached sentence pattern exercises; It is required to carry out a lot of listening and speaking practice activities between teachers and students, and not rely too much on reading, that is, "eye management"; Teachers are required to use English as much as possible when organizing lessons, and to use their mother tongue only when necessary. Second, change the dull and closed classroom teaching to realize lively and open classroom teaching. Thirdly, the textbook has changed the structure-based and linear arrangement system to a circular arrangement system, arranging similar topics in several different teaching stages, and the difficulty of the language has gradually increased from simple to complex, which has greatly increased the repetition rate of the language. Fourth, change the "one-word hall" of teachers and form a "group speech hall" of teachers and students, and students will change from passive to active. Teachers no longer simply play the role of lecturers, but need to change their roles with the changes of teaching activities, and become demonstrators, organizers, conductors, supervisors, etc., so as to promote emotional exchanges between teachers and students, and create a relaxed, democratic and harmonious teaching atmosphere.
In accordance with the requirements of the new high school syllabus, we applied to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the High School English Textbook Project**. Despite the tedious and rigorous process of vetting, our application was approved again. Since 1992, Renjiao has continued to cooperate with Longman Publishing Company for three years. Senior English for China was tested in some regions in 1993 and put into trial nationwide in 1996. This set of textbooks has the following characteristics: First, the topic, structure and communicative function are combined. Through the survey, we learned about the interests and requirements of high school students, and identified 16 topic areas. Second, the content of the textbook mainly reflects modern society, embodies Chinese and foreign cultures, and has a sense of the times, ideology, knowledge and authenticity, which is helpful for students to correctly understand the world, cultivate good thoughts and emotions, and improve cultural literacy.
The Chinese-English co-edited English textbooks have generated a lot of "shock waves" in teaching, and many teachers feel uncomfortable when they first use the new textbooks, and they gradually accept them after many trainings and practices. By 1996, teachers generally believed that this was a relatively complete, reasonably designed, scientifically arranged, and ideal middle school English textbook in China, and it opened up a new way for the compilation of middle school English textbooks. At that time, many people said that this set of textbooks had triggered a revolution in the middle school English world, especially the students' listening and speaking skills had been significantly improved. I think it would be more accurate to say "development" in the British editor-in-chief, Mr. Grant. English teaching in secondary schools is a step forward, but this progress is based on the foundations that have been made.
In 1993, I was fortunate enough to be selected as the number one.
4th and 5th (1993-2000) Chairman of the Foreign Language Teaching Committee of the Chinese Society of Education. The activities of the society mainly focus on five aspects: the study of the theory and various practical problems of foreign language teaching in primary and secondary schools; Organize various academic activities and exchange foreign language teaching and teaching and research experience; Carry out international academic exchange activities; Reflect the situation of foreign language education reform in primary and secondary schools to the educational administrative leadership department, and make suggestions; Do a good job in the self-construction of the society. We have overcome the difficulties of lack of experience and lack of funds, and organized a variety of academic activities, such as academic annual conferences, international seminars, and competitions; Carry out teaching and research seminars, high-quality course displays, excellent teacher evaluations, and carry out international academic exchange activities with Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries; Cooperate with the Ministry of Education to actively carry out work, such as participating in the "Cross-Century Quality Education Project" and "Cross-Century Gardener Project" in the "Action Plan for the Revitalization of Education in the 21st Century", assisting the Ministry of Education in organizing a symposium on foreign language teaching in middle schools, conducting a survey on the opening of foreign language and Japanese courses in primary schools, and reporting on the teaching situation of foreign Chinese schools nationwide every year. With the mission of exploring the way of foreign language teaching with Chinese characteristics, the society has led the foreign language teaching and research staff of primary and secondary schools across the country to carry out theoretical and practical research.
Lifelong learning, dedication to research, laying the cornerstone
At the turn of the century, I was retired, but in good health. In addition to compiling books, I still participate in some academic seminars, teacher training, lectures, and class evaluations from time to time. Since 2002, I have been concentrating more on teaching materials and research. I have a deep understanding of the arduousness of the cause I am engaged in, and I never dare to have the slightest sense of arrogance or slackness. I often say that some people rely on Reiki, but I rely on "coolies", which can also be said to rely on diligence.
The criteria I put forward in the article "Evaluation Criteria for English Textbooks" are the ideal state of my textbook compilation and the perfect state that I have pursued all my life. I know very well that perfection is always ahead, and no matter how much you pursue it, it will be difficult to achieve it. Besides, I knew that I was old and my memory was declining, so I had to keep studying. That's why I read books, read English newspapers, and listen to English radio every day. "Live and learn" is my philosophy of life, because the reason why I have been able to do some work in English education in China in my life is because I have always insisted on learning and keeping pace with the times. My life is a testament to the truth that education can bring out the full potential of human beings.
After many years of writing textbooks, people say that I am "fruitful", and when young people see me, they like to say, "We grew up reading your books", and my response is "I hope my books don't delay you".
The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and the future belongs to young people. They are full of vigor and high spirits, and I would like to take advantage of the thrust of the future waves to continue to study and devote myself to research by following the example of my predecessors. To this end, I and my friends and I have written "English Education in China: History and Present Situation" in English, reviewing and reflecting on the experience and lessons of the development of basic foreign language education in China over the past century and since the founding of the People's Republic of China. At present, I have edited a series of 15 books on foreign language education theory, published by Guangxi Education Press, aiming to make a serious and in-depth summary of foreign language education and teaching from the theoretical level. At the same time, I am also working on a research project on the theory of English subject textbooks. What I have done in my old age is nothing more than the hope of laying a foundation for future generations, and also hoping to tell the world the story of the development of foreign language education in China. 
