Turnoi,
Since you have asked the question as to whether or not I agree with your statement regarding quality and quantity in apparent good faith, Ill attempt to answer it in the same vein.

First though, Ill admit to being a bit confused by the question, so forgive me if I go off on the wrong tangent; albeit, Ill assume that your meaning is that there is less attention paid to the quality of English education than there is to the profit to be gained from such education. True enough. In fact if youll look back a ways into the archive here, youll find a somewhat tongue in cheek post I wrote about crap, and a quote from Dick Cavett that essentially states that as long as there is profit to be gained from dispensing crap, people will keep on dispensing it. This can definitely apply to the English education scene in China. I am reluctant to admit the truth of this for two reasons: 1. It is my profession and those involved in it that contribute to the crap status of the system. 2. I dont wish to condemn a system that is still in its fledgling stages and that is attempting to right itself.

I think it fair to look at the complexities involved here and ask ourselves if we are not expecting too much. Some of my exasperation with China bashers here in this forum is based on this notion. I had the honor several years ago to meet someone very high up in the Education Bureau in Beijing. She was an honorable person and quite aware, I believe, of the problems associated with the sudden need to bring English to the Chinese table. However, as she or any right minded individual will tell you, these are not problems that can be solved overnight. As you well know, change is viewed differently in China especially such monumental changes as are needed in this system. Meaning, it cannot change overnight. And this is part of my frustration. We, as Western teachers, with Western temperaments, who are after all guests in this country, tend to observe this situation from a Western perspective. That perspective being: first recognize a problem and then set out to solve it. But again as you well know, we cannot apply that kind of thinking, as rational as it may seem, to China. Five year plans, ten year plans, twenty year plans well, you know how it is.

But, lest I digress too much, let me return to the two points above. There are a lot of inexperienced teachers here that contribute to the problem. And there are a lot of teachers here that could care less one way or the other they have their own agendas that dont match the needs of their students. And then there is that category of teachers who give me the biggest pain, and that is those who continually see the negatives and complain about the negatives without attempting to help make things better.

Actually, Ive been like that myself - so I speak from first hand experience, but I finally realized that I would think better of myself if I reevaluated my thinking and if I tried instead to just do the best job I could possibly do under what is often very trying circumstances. As Ive said before in this forum, I dont think that condemnation solves anything. Yes, ask questions. Offer advice. Submit valuable evidence of the worth of alternatives. Most importantly, be patient with a system that we can all agree has some very real problems; a lot of experimentation, ineffective and often inexperienced leadership coupled with inexperienced teachers who havent a clue as to how to teach English and whose English is often poor at best.

But China is becoming more worldly and that says a hell of a lot when you consider the years of isolation they have endured. They will learn. They are learning, but they cant be expected to move forward if they are constantly condemned by those who are after all supposed to be helping them move forward.

Of course the biggest challenge that Chinas leaders face, in terms of the education system, is how to weed out the corrupt educators. Sure, big problem no doubt about it. But corruption in developing countries is endemic and so its natural to find it in such a profitable enterprise as English education. Should we in some way challenge that corruption? Sure, why not? Should we be hostile in the way that we challenge it? Decidedly not. People tend to push back when they are pushed. Inquiries work a lot better than accusations.

Another problem, briefly discussed above is the teachers themselves. Or, as Niu Qiang and Martin Wolff in their article, EFL/ESL Teaching in China: Questions Questions Questions, have asked, is EFL/ESL teaching in China a case of the blind leading the blind? In their rush to provide English for such a huge population and to do so as quickly as possible (mainly because of the WTO and the coming Olympics), many, many teachers are hired who havent the necessary experience to truly be effective teachers. Of course you realize this and have touched on it yourself in one or more of your numerous posts. Qiang and Wolff write, Evidence that the native English teacher produces students any better equipped to speak English than their English teacher counterparts is lacking. This is partly due to poorly designed curriculum and partly due to the fact that too many native English speaking teachers are simply not trained to teach anything, let alone teach EFL/ESL, which is a highly specialized field. This you are also aware of Turnoi, and Im sure that you and I couldnt agree more on this point.

One more interesting quote from Qiang and Wolff: A flawed L2 curriculum, taught by L2 speakers who themselves are deficient in their L2 language understanding and production ability, constitutes an educational program doomed to less than stellar results. In fact, the results are so poor as to require a very lenient grading standard to avoid failing more than half of the Chinese English students in each class.

As Wolff and Qiang will be the first to admit, though, and in accordance with the title of their article, they ask a lot of questions for which they have few answers.

So, back to your original question. Yes I will agree with you on this point. Where we seem to disagree is on what to do about it. Understanding the root causes of the problem and pointing them out to others in this forum seems to raise their shackles. I and others have been condemned for doing so. Defending China for its attempts to change for the better, although seemingly at a snails pace, seems to meet with derision. Asking for a positive stance in light of so many negatives is greeted with more condemnation, derision and negative labeling. What to do then?

The simple answer seems to be doing the best we can under the circumstances. That works for me. Im fortunate to be in a position as one of a few coordinators in an EFL program at a university where my advice is at least sought if not always heeded. The leaders express and demonstrate their concern for quality English teaching to be of paramount importance at this institution. Are they profit motivated? Certainly; however, is that motivation always in direct conflict with the quality of the English instruction? Perhaps sometimes, but not always, and where the conflict seems to be most seriously imbedded is in the attempt to save money by paying low salaries to inexperienced teachers so that they pocket the savings from having done so. Its a vicious circle then isnt it?

I think too that it is important to recognize that I am not the only teacher at the only school that is at least trying to be effective. There are many teachers and many schools and universities in China that are trying to create a proper learning environment even some that are trying to remove some of the blights that have enveloped the system for so long. But it is human nature to focus on the negatives isnt it? Some of us want to change this and at least offer up the simple truth that it all aint as bad as some posters would have us believe. There are kind, caring, wonderful people out there. I bump into them often; not only in education circles but in all walks of life and in all social strata. Furthermore, even though I too have been victimized and scammed, I simply do not want to join the band of China bashers.

In closing Id like to add that I find it very interesting that though we are living in a society that has been exceedingly non-transparent for so many years, it is now quite the opposite. That transparency sometimes reveals some aspects of life and human nature that dont sit well with any of us. However, I believe that there is a grass roots movement in China that will cause a slow erosion of those aspects and that ultimately China will deserve a reputation that it has unfortunately not yet achieved. My students, many of them wide eyed and innocent, are looking toward a future that is far different than what their parents could have imagined. I think we need to help them see that future, and in small ways and big ways, show them the path that leads toward that future.

As an old American song went, accentuate the positive

Kind Regards,
KJ, DB, but definitely not Fish who is quite capable of speaking for himself and who has, in my opinion, done an admirable job of doing so.