An Introduction of English Language Education in China:from Theory to Practice

English language teaching and learning in China has achieved enormous prosperity in recent years.It is said that the number of people learning and speaking English in China possibly exceeds the total population of the United States and Britain combined.However,the development of English language education in China has experienced several diverse phases and problems and controversies kept emerging especially when a new teaching approach was introduced.Based on the current situation,this paper tries to provide a comprehensive and in-depth overview on English language education in China.This paper is generally divided into two parts.Part one outlines the development of English language education in China with regard to the place of English and the development of teaching approaches.Part two discusses the recent teaching approach promoted official,its progress as well as problems.The focus of the whole paper is on secondary-level education as this is the stage when most students study English.