Talent development

Gong Yafu, director-general of the National Association of Foreign Language Education, said, "If you poll students about learning math, chemistry or just going to school, many might say they are learning only to pass exams and go to university."

Gong, who has spent more than 30 years fostering primary school English education in China by helping to write textbooks and train teachers, added, "Skills and knowledge aside, the very core of education today should be about nurturing well-developed talent physically, intellectually and morally. "In the case of English-language teaching, exposure to a foreign culture could help develop interpersonal and communication skills in a student's native culture, he added.

"Of course, it is our job to make the learning content more appealing and perhaps practical to motivate students to learn more happily."

Following the national poll, Lu's team developed a "minicourse" to tackle the problem.

The course features some 100 conversational sentences and greetings to be used in a scenario where English-speaking tourists and guests are welcomed to a village to dine.

Lu said, "As rural tourism rises to become a growth engine for many villages in China, attracting visitors from both home and abroad, students find it very useful and motivating to learn such language content."

As an example, he cited the "magic power" of the word "homemade".

"In a typical textbook, the word may not be taught or given much emphasis. But for the course, we tell the students how to relate it to the kitchen and to use it on a menu and during ordering, such as for homemade tofu or homemade sauce," Lu said.

As a result, guests are more likely to order the food on just hearing the word "homemade", and students using the word are greatly encouraged.