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Sunday, November 11, 2001, updated at 11:49(GMT+8)

English Becoming Beijing Preschoolers' Compulsory Lesson

English is almost a compulsory subject in Beijing's kindergartens as a growing number of parents want their children better equipped for future.
Statistics show that there are more than 3,000 foreign languages training institutions in China with the annual turnover exceeding 10 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars).


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English is almost a compulsory subject in Beijing's kindergartens as a growing number of parents want their children better equipped for future.

At the Beijing Sunshine Bilingual Artistic Kindergarten at Jiaomen, a dozen children imitate their foreign teachers and practise pronunciation.

They can clearly pronounce English words like "apple ", "banana", "rabbit", "panda" and each has an English name given by the teachers.

Zhang Xi, the nursery school's youngest, aged one and a half, has picked up more than 30 words after only two months.

Seeing her greeting people in her limited English, Zhang Yongxiang, her father, could not hide his joy and said, "I can't believe she learns so quickly."

According to the school dean Zhang Yuxiang, although China's educational authorities do not require kindergartens to open foreign language classes, the school has employed four foreign teachers from Britain and Canada to meet the parents' requirements.

Statistics show that there are more than 3,000 foreign languages training institutions in China with the annual turnover exceeding 10 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars).

Chinese Universities to Use Textbooks Written in English

Eleven million university students in China will use textbooks written in the English language within three years, sources told a work conference held in October in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

The Ministry of Education requires Chinese universities under its direct administration to use English textbooks in teaching the English language, information technology, biology, finance and law.



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Chinese Universities to Use Textbooks Written in English