ABSTRACT
Communication has long been considered the ultimate goal of ELT for secondary schools in China, with the goal of developing students’ language ability and performance according to the model of native English speakers. The teaching of culture awareness as one of the bases of such ability has similarly emphasised the culture norm of native speakers in the English-speaking West. The underlying ideology of this goal has been described as native-speakerism. This chapter examines the problems of such an ideology and suggests that it is neither appropriate for ELT nor realistic for most secondary level Chinese language students. It revisits the value of ELT for secondary school students in China and explores an alternative critical cosmopolitan ideology which suggests different goals and thematic content, going back to the conceptualisation of authenticity as relating to the real worlds of Chinese students, rather than the real worlds of ‘native speakers’. It proposes a multi-goal English curriculum model, which includes social-cultural, thinking and cognition goals which are equally as important as the expected communication goal. The three goals are integrated and should emphasise the development of students as citizens with social, mental and physical well-being.
