Reviews and Comments on Chinese Papers of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English ()
1. Introduction
On December 7, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping at the National College Ideological and Political Conference pointed out that other courses must be accompanied by ideological and political theoretical courses to form a synergistic effect [1] . In June 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the “Guidelines for the Construction of Morality Cultivation in Higher Education” which clearly stated that “comprehensive promotion of morality cultivation construction was a strategic measure to implement the fundamental tasks of strengthening moral education in cultivating people.” On September 22, 2020, the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued Opinions on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Postgraduate Education in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as Opinions), which defined the guiding ideology, strategic objectives and reform measures for the reform and development of postgraduate education in the new era. Morality cultivation in curricula was a new strategy for college education in the new era and a new curriculum concept [2] , which referred to the purposeful and targeted integration of integrating ideological and political elements into the teaching of professional courses so that students can receive positive value-oriented education while learning professional knowledge. The key to the morality cultivation in curricula lay in “three aspects education”: building a pattern of whole-person education, whole-process education and all-round education to show the effect of morality cultivation in curricula and carry out three-dimensional moral teaching, so that the moral education function could be shown in various courses, such as specialized courses, general courses, basic courses and practical courses. According to the course requirements in China, non-English-majored graduate students in China are required to learn graduate English courses. How to integrate the elements of morality cultivation into the graduates’ English courses to achieve objectives of morality cultivation in graduates’ English courses: the unity of imparting knowledge, training ability and cultivating values would be the necessary research tasks for Chinese scholars to study. From 2016 to 2023, Chinese scholars paid attention to morality cultivation in graduates’ English courses. Nowadays, Chinese scholars have made great achievements in the study of moral education in English courses for non-English majors in colleges and universities in China. Papers on moral education in English courses for non-English majors in colleges and universities in China, written by foreign scholars cannot be found. This paper took Chinese scholars’ Chinese research papers on moral education in non-English-majored graduates’ English in colleges and universities as the research subject. As of April 2023, there have been 21 published Chinese journal papers on morality cultivation in non-English-majored graduates’ English (short for graduate English) by searching “Studies of morality cultivation in graduate English courses” on China National Knowledge Network. Among the 21 Chinese journal papers on studies of morality cultivation in graduates’ English, these papers were published in different years: 2019 (1), 2020 (3), 2021 (10), 2022 (5), and 2023 (2), respectively (shown in Table 1). These 21 research papers on studies of morality cultivation in graduates’ English would be reviewed, and then comments on the 21 research papers on studies of morality cultivation in graduates’ English would be provided in this paper.
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Table 1. Years and numbers for 21 Chinese journal papers on studies of morality cultivation in graduates’ English published.
2. Classification of Research Papers on Morality Cultivation for Graduates’ English
According to teaching content, teaching models, implementation paths and theoretical base in teaching graduates’ English, 21 Chinese journal papers on the ideological and political science of graduate English courses can be classified into four categories.
2.1. Teaching Content of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
In general, the teaching content of morality cultivation in graduates’ English can be divided into English for General purposes to graduate students and English for Academic Purposes for graduate students. Chinese scholars [3] - [12] have conducted research on morality cultivation in English for General Purposes for graduate students. And Chinese scholars [13] - [22] have conducted research on morality cultivation in English for Academic Purposes for graduate students.
2.2. Teaching Models of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
The teaching model is a stable structure frame and procedure of teaching activities established under the guidance of certain teaching ideas or theories. Chinese scholars [17] [20] have explored the teaching models of morality cultivation in graduates’ English. He [19] studied the teaching mode of morality cultivation in graduate English courses in music colleges as the organic integration of English for General Purposes, music English teaching and morality cultivation. Wu and Li [20] proposed the teaching model of morality cultivation for medical graduate English courses: “English for General Purposes for graduate students + Medical English + morality cultivation”.
2.3. Implementation Path of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
Chinese scholars have explored ways to implement teaching morality cultivation in graduate English courses from the perspectives of mixed teaching [7] , English for Academic Purposes [15] and discipline [18] . Jiang and Gu [7] Explored ways to the morality cultivation in graduates’ English by using mixed online-offline teaching methods and online learning spaces for graduate students. Li et al. [17] studied specific implementation methods and paths of morality cultivation in English for Academic Purposes. Chu and Li [20] made a study on the path of morality cultivation in graduate English in Western Chinese universities from the perspective of “New engineering”.
2.4. Theoretical Support in Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
21 research papers as subjects in the paper can be divided into two kinds: research papers with detailed theoretical support and research papers without detailed theoretical support. The teaching theory of the “Production-Oriented Approach” (POA) [8] [16] [22] was used in morality cultivation in graduates’ English. Except for POA, “Blended teaching (online and offline) and cyberspace learning” and “integrated learning” [7] [17] [19] were used in morality cultivation in graduates’ English.
3. Comments on Studies of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
The existing research results of morality cultivation in graduates’ English play an active role in promoting the development of theory and practice in teaching morality cultivation in Chinese graduates’ English, but there is still a lot of room for teaching and research on morality cultivation in Chinese graduates’ English.
3.1. Needs Analysis of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
Hyland [23] pointed out that elements of needs analysis included “learners’ objectives and background, language competence, reasons for course selection, needs of teaching and learning, situations in using English communicate, and frequently used the style”. The needs analysis of morality cultivation in graduates’ English, will provide information such as “learners’ objectives and background, language competence, reasons for course selection, needs of teaching and learning, situations in using English communicate, and frequently used the style”, is the basis for understanding the current situation of morality cultivation in graduates’ English, the curriculum design of graduate English courses and the compilation of textbooks for the morality cultivation in graduates English courses. However, few of the existing research papers on morality cultivation in graduates’ English studied specific and detailed exploration of the needs analysis of morality cultivation in graduate English courses. Although Chu and Li [20] analyzed the current situation of English teaching and the characteristics of language learning for engineering graduate students in colleges and universities in the Western part of China, they did not analyze the need for morality cultivation in graduates’ English. In the future, the scholars may study the needs analysis of morality cultivation in graduates’ English, especially, on how to connect the current morality cultivation in graduates’ English and the long-term morality cultivation in graduates’ English.
3.2. Cultivation and Construction of Teachers for Morality Cultivation in Graduate English Courses
In terms of college English, the key elements of morality cultivation are teachers and teaching materials bearing teaching content [24] . Graduate English teachers who are the core elements of morality cultivation in graduate English are the designer, participants and implementers of morality cultivation in graduate English. One of the most important factors affecting the quality of morality cultivation in graduate English is the attainment and the teaching ability of graduate English teachers in teaching morality cultivation in graduate English. Unfortunately, among the 21 papers on morality cultivation in graduate English, no researchers discussed the cultivation and construction of morality cultivation in graduate English in detail, except that Hang et al. [21] mentioned that the cultivation system and incentive mechanism of morality cultivation teachers’ education ability were needed to be further studied. The author believes that the cultivation and construction of morality cultivation among teachers in graduates’ English can be carried out from the cultivation system and incentive mechanism to improve teachers’ ability to morality cultivation in graduate English. For the system construction of teachers’ ability in graduate English, the models based on the cooperation between graduate English teachers and ideological and political teachers can be adopted. Schools or departments The evaluation and incentive mechanism for morality cultivation in graduate English shall be established to give positive incentives at both material and spiritual levels to teachers with a good evaluation of morality cultivation in graduates English.
3.3. Construction of Teaching Materials for Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
Teaching materials, the key elements, were the practical basis and basic guarantee for promoting and guiding teachers to improve their awareness of morality cultivation, enhance their teaching ability in morality cultivation, and implement the effect of morality cultivation in courses [24] . The teaching materials for morality cultivation in graduates’ English are the carrier of teaching morality cultivation in graduates’ English and important ways to achieve the goal of “cultivating people with the moral education”. Few of the existing research involve detailed research on the construction of teaching materials for morality cultivation in graduates’ English. Although Liu [8] believed that all textbooks, before the official launch of the morality cultivation project, should be considered new textbooks, and the development of graduate English textbooks could take “theme” as the writing principle, Liu’s study only mentioned the writing principle of textbooks for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English, and did not discuss how to construct textbooks for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English in detail. The author believes that the construction of teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English can be divided into two categories: teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English for General Purposes and teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English for Academic Purposes. The construction of teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English for Academic Purposes can be subdivided into the construction of teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English for General Academic Purposes and the construction of teaching materials for the morality cultivation in graduates’ English for Special Academic Purposes. In September 2021, the new morality cultivation in Graduates’ English for Academic Purposes Academic English published by Nanjing University Press provided a new choice for realizing the goal of cultivating people with a moral education.
3.4. Evaluation System of Morality Cultivation in Graduates’ English
The evaluation system refers to the working system which is composed of interrelated evaluation elements such as the objective, principle, organization, personnel, content, method and technology. Among 21 Chinese research papers, three research papers by Chinese scholars involved the evaluation methods of morality cultivation in graduates’ English: He [19] proposed the evaluation method of morality cultivation in graduates’ English; Chu and Li [20] proposed to explore multi-dimensional evaluation models and multi-approach evaluation models according to curriculum differences; Hang et al. [21] called for the establishment of evaluation standards for the achievements of morality cultivation. From the above scholars’ research, Chinese scholars rarely studied the specific achievement evaluation standards and methods of morality cultivation in graduates’ English. The lack of evaluation standards and methods for the achievements of morality cultivation in graduates’ English makes it difficult for the teachers of morality cultivation in graduates’ English to effectively evaluate the effect of students’ learning achievements of morality cultivation in graduates’ English. In the face of evaluation choices: process evaluation, terminal evaluation, teacher evaluation, student evaluation and other evaluation methods, which methods are selected to effectively evaluate the learning effect of students? In the face of multi-dimensional evaluation models and multi-approach evaluation models, which dimensions and ways should be chosen for teachers of morality cultivation in graduates’ English to evaluate students’ learning effects more objectively and fairly? The author thinks that: 1) The evaluation system of morality cultivation in graduates’ English can be provided by the teachers and graduates in the morality cultivation in graduates’ English; 2) Colleges or departments can explore the establishment of evaluation standards and evaluation methods for morality cultivation in graduates’ English so that teachers can effectively evaluate the morality cultivation in graduates’ English.
4. Conclusion
Morality cultivation in graduates’ English is a measure to carry out the fundamental task of cultivating talents through moral education in graduates’ English and realize the organic integration of imparting knowledge, leading values and cultivating ability. More and more Chinese scholars have studied morality cultivation in graduates’ English. From 2019 to December 2022, there were 21 Chinese papers published by Chinese journals on morality cultivation in graduates’ English selected on CNKI. Through 21 Chinese papers on the morality cultivation in graduates’ English, the scholars have achieved a lot of academic achievements in the morality cultivation in graduates’ English in China, but Chinese scholars can also study further in the aspects such as teacher construction of the morality cultivation in graduates’ English, the textbook construction of the morality cultivation in graduates’ English, and the evaluation system of the morality cultivation in graduates’ English. The literature source of this paper is only from a database on China National Knowledge Network, which is very limited. More papers on morality cultivation in graduates’ English in China should be selected from more databases. We hope that this paper will make a few contributions to the construction of morality cultivation in graduates’ English.
Funding
This article is phased results of Yangtze University’s teaching research program (Program title “An Action Research on Graduate EAP Teaching under the Concept of Ideological and Political Education in Curricula” (Program NO. JY2020055). This article shows the Chinese scholars’ contribution to Graduate EAP Teaching under the Concept of Ideological and Political Education in Curricula.