An Investigation Into Education For International Understanding In High School English Curriculum

Education for International Understanding(EIU)has played a very important role in the communication,understanding and cooperation of the world since UNESCO proposed and advocated EIU,and it has become a vital part of national education in different countries.To practice EIU in China is the demand of globalized education,basic education reform and the development of EIU.However,the current study on EIU in high school English curriculum in China is comparatively limited.Based on the related previous studies which are about the investigation between foreign language education and EIU,this article summarized the previous research methods and dimensions,and investigated the current situation of EIU in high school English curriculum.Specifically,the research questions are as follows: 1)How do High School English Curriculum Standards show the requirements and demands of EIU? 2)What is the distribution situation of EIU resources in English textbook? 3)What kinds of EIU topics are examined in the college entrance examinations and what proportion do they account for in total scores? 4)What is the current situation of high school English teachers’ and students’ perception and practice of EIU?In this study,the participants were 50 English teachers and 300 students at a high school in Meitan County,Guizhou Province.According to different ages,genders,education backgrounds and grades,six of the teachers were chosen and their classes were observed.Besides,the teaching materials analyzed involve high school English curriculum standards,English textbooks and college entrance examination papers dating from 2014 to 2018.The data were collected through the questionnaires and classroom observation.Statistical analyses were conducted with Excel and an online data analysis tool named SPSSAU.The results are summarized as follows:First,there are obvious demands of EIU in two versions of High School English Standards,which clearly show EIU demands in terms of knowledge,attitude and competence.Second,EIU resources in English textbooks are insufficient and the distribution of EIU resources is not balanced in each unit.Specifically,too many topics are related with the different cultures,and fewer topics are about the world knowledge and world issues;the culture resources on European countries and America are comparatively more than those on others countries.Third,the college entrance examination papers examine the knowledge about EIU and the examined knowledge account for a large proportion of the total score.However,in all types of testing items,topics related to EIU in reading comprehension section are more in number thant those in cloze,grammatical blank-filling and writing secton.Fourth,high school English teachers’ perceptions and classroom teaching practice of EIU are insufficient and ineffective respectively.Teachers’ genders,teaching years and education backgrounds can slightly affect their knowledge,attitude,competence and practice of EIU,but only their education backgrounds have obvious impacts on their perception of EIU.Fifth,high school English students with different English grades have different perceptions and practice of EIU.Generally,their perception is insufficient,and the approach to UIE acquisition is limited.Exactly,the students lack EIU knowledge and understanding ability,meanwhile their EIU study resources mainly rely on the lectures from their teachers,TV programs and Internet,books and other resources are slightly ignored by students.Based on the above results,the author offers some practical suggestions from the following aspects: High School English Curriculum Standards,English textbooks,college entrance examination,high school English teachers and their teaching,high school English students and their study,with the hope that those suggestions may help to improve the current situation of EIU in high school English curriculum.