A New York Times Notable book, this memoir by a journalist who lived in a small city in China is “a vivid and touching tribute to a place and its people” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be. “This touching memoir of an American dropped into the center of China transcends the boundaries of the travel genre and will appeal to anyone wanting to learn more about the heart and soul of the Chinese people. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal “This is a colorful memoir from a Peace Corps volunteer who came away with more understanding of the Chinese than any foreign traveler has a right to expect.” —Booklist

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on English literacy in China, while the other volume is on Chinese literacy. In modern day China, English has enjoyed an increasingly important status in education, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in English literacy practices and literacy instruction in China from the first English school in the 19th century to recent curriculum reform efforts to modernize English instruction from basic education through higher education. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early childhood English education, uses of information technology to teach English, and teaching English to Chinese minority students. This work is essential reading for those who want to expand their understanding of English literacy education in China.

Tens of thousands of Western teachers, many of whom would not be considered teachers elsewhere, are employed to teach English in public and private education in China. Little has previously been known, except anecdotally, about their experiences, about the effect they have on education in the context, or on students perceptions of the West that result from this contact. This book is an ethnographic study of Westerners lived experiences teaching English in Shanghai, China. It is based on three years of groundbreaking research into the pre-service training, classroom practices, personal identities and motives, and local socially constructed roles of a group of backpacker teachers from the UK, the USA and Canada. It is a study that goes beyond the classroom, addressing broader questions about the sociology, and politics, of transnational education and China s evolving relationship with the outside world. "

With the name inspired by a racial slur coined by his student's, Teacher Black delves into the experience of James Prescott-Kerr, a young Black graduate who lived in China for a year. James threw himself in the deep end of a culture that has obscured itself from the Western world, to see whether he would be able to sink or swim. Through euphoric highs and dehumanising lows of a whirlwind year, he strives to embrace his new environment and the challenges that come with it. But the question was, will the environment embrace him?

This book examines the importance of English language teaching in China, but also the need for this teaching to be modernised in order for China to better join the world economy. The current trend within English teaching in China is for 'communicative competence' - that is, being able to communicate with linguistic, pragmatic, discourse and strategic competence. This volume argues that such a theoretical framework of communicative competence needs to be expanded to address both global needs and local contexts, if English language teaching in China is to be successful. The contributors to this volume examine every aspect of language teaching and suggest new ways in which communication and grammar can be balanced. The chapters include coverage of: * the importance of English in a global world * the theoretical framework of communicative competence * the role of grammar in learning English * assessing and evaluating communicative competence * the starting age of learning English * teaching language skills in the post-methods era * using multimedia in teaching and testing * online learning and self-learning * teacher training through empowerment. With its balance of theory and practice, and internationally renowned contributors, this guide to new approaches, perspectives and standards in language teaching will be essential reading for academics interested in applied linguistics and second language acquisition, and English language teaching professionals.

Teachers are obsessed with telling you what to learn. The problem is, nobody teaches you how to learn. This is all about to change. In his new book, How To English, Adam David Broughton shares a revolutionary and powerful system that teaches you exactly how to make incredible progress in all aspects of English. In How To English, you will learn 62 practical techniques to become an independent learner in 31 days, and everything you will ever need to get the level you've always wanted in English and enjoy the process. How to master English fluency How to listen perfectly in English How to stop making mistakes in English How to improve your pronunciation How to expand your vocabulary in English How to have perfect English grammar How to stay motivated, be disciplined and create a habit ...and 55 other amazing techniques. Everyone knows that it's not what you do in class that determines your progress in English, it's what you do when you are not in class. However, English learners often don't know what to do. As a result, at some point, every English learner stops making progress. Then they get frustrated. How To English is the antidote to this frustration. When you learn how to learn English, you never need to worry about what you learn in English.

This volume is the first to offer a comprehensive and, at the same time, in-depth examination of the spread of English and English language education across Greater China. It consists of two parts. Part 1 presents rich sociolinguistic data for easy comparisons between mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, while Part 2 explores in depth the phenomena inside mainland China to provide contrastive analysis of English language use and education in economically booming areas such as Shanghai and Guangdong and underdeveloped regions like Xinjiang and Yunnan. With the descriptive, comparative and analytical accounts of different territories ranging from nation-states to small villages in remote areas, theories on the spread of English, second/third language acquisition and identity are challenged with new concepts proposed and established.