外语能力培养与我国外语政策

The Development of Language Ability and China's Language Policy

现行的<大学英语教学大纲>规定大学英语教学的目的是培养学生具有较强的阅读能力和一定的听、说、写、译能力.但现在这个规定正受到挑战.因为一个国家的外语政策决定了这个国家对外语语种的选择、外语教育发展的规模,包括哪种能力的优先培养.通过对社会需求、教育资金和学习者基础等这些影响国家外语政策的诸多因素的分析,我们认为提出把由培养学生阅读能力为重点转变到提高学生综合性实用能力上来,全面发展学生的听、说、读、写能力是恰当的.但是,不同地区应根据不同的需要和条件有所区别,不能搞一刀切.

The main purpose of College English is to develop four basic skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. The present syllabus gives much priority over the other three skills. But now this policy is being seriously challenged. It is believed that listening and speaking skill should claim proper attention. However, which skill should be emphasized, an issue concerning national language policies, mainly depends social demands, financial ability and learning processes. After a proper analysis of the factors that influence the making of language policies , the paper concludes that while reading skill is very important such communicative abilities as speaking and writing should be assigned much importance to, especially in colleges and universities in the coastal areas and that there must be difference as to the requirement of communicative ability in different colleges and universities and even different majors.