A Study Of English Education Conducted By Protestant Missionaries In The Late Qing Period

Taking an overview of the development of English teaching in China, we must admit that the Late Qing period marks the beginning. With a combination of unfavorable factors such as the decline of the feudal monarchy and the invasion of western powers, the first step of English teaching in the Late Qing period is passive and humiliating. The Protestant missionaries regarded as the major force of English teaching played multiple roles. On one hand, they spared no effort to evangelism; on the other hand, they advocated and implemented modern education by introducing new knowledge into China. English teaching in the Late Qing period, with missionary schools as the teaching center and Protestant missionaries as the main body of teaching, experienced such a process as growing out of nothing, changing from passive to active and expanding from the partial to integrity. To clarify the process of the development of English teaching in the missionary schools and to conduct an overall study of the Protestant missionaries who implement English education can not only widen and deepen the study of the history of English teaching in China but also provide a new angle of the study of missionaries and a new perspective to study Sino-foreign educational exchange.So such questions arise as follows:How to grasp the historical track of the development of English education and the features of each stage in the Late Qing period? What are the common features of the Protestant missionaries who carried out English education? What is the process of the development of their thoughts about English education? How does this process influence the development of English education in the Late Qing period? What are the differences of their English teaching in different missionary schools of different stages? How are these differences reflected in student sources, curriculum, textbooks, teaching methods and assessment methods? This study, so as to search answers to the previous questions, based on abundant historical resources, is mainly composed by the following parts:The Introduction part explains the reason why this topic is chosen and the significance of the study is clarified. Then, it limits the scope of study and some key concepts are defined. Afterwards, previous studies both at home and abroad are examined and the way to the present study is clarified. Then, research methods that are adopted in this dissertation are provided.Chapter 1 outlines the process of development from primary education to secondary education to higher education conducted by Protestant missionaries. Then, the process of English education are divided into five stages as newborn, stagnation, recovery, promoting and blooming and the general features of each stage are summarized. Next, from the micro aspects like student source, textbooks, curriculum and teaching methods, concrete features of English teaching activities are illustrated.Chapter 2 analyzes the transmutation process of English education concepts of Protestant missionaries. Four stages are divided as follows:gestation, updating, debating and setting. In each stage, the characteristics of the change of English education thoughts are summarized and the evolution of English education thoughts of Protestant missionaries are outlined.Chapter 3 conducts an overall study of Protestant missionaries who devoted to English education-work.38 typical and representative missionaries are chosen as the study object Their home countries, missionary society, educational background and identity are analyzed in detail in order to grasp their common features as well as differences.Chapter 4 collects resources of four typical missionary schools at different stages to have a case study. Morrison School is the representative of the budding period, the Anglo-Chinese School is a typical sign in the recovery period, Anglo-Chinese College stands for the development period and St. John’s University marks the climax. The process of founding and its founders are clarified. Other concrete aspects such as teaching facility, student source, textbooks, and teaching methods are also covered. In the end, an overall evaluation of each school is proposed.The Conclusion part summarizes and evaluates the English education activities conducted by Protestant missionaries. Whether it is at the micro level of English teaching in missionary schools or at the macro level of Sino-foreign exchange, contributions made by Protestant missionaries must be pointed out and their restrictions and limitations should be made clear. English teaching activities in the Late Qing period can be served as a mirror and shed light on our present English education.