In the phase of restoration from 1978 to 1985, the first national syllabus was issued by the Ministry of Education. The general aims focused on the study of basic phonetics, grammar, a certain amount of words as well as the development of preliminary language skills, such as: listening, speaking, reading and translation. During this period, The National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association (NFLTRA) was established, and two journals for school teachers of English were inaugurated, one was Foreign Language Teaching in Schools by Beijing Normal University, the other was English Teaching and Research at Primary and Secondary Schools by East-China Normal University. (Wang Qiang, 2006: 39)

The phase of rapid development was from 1986 to 1992 during which a third English syllabus was issued. It was meant to develop students’ knowledge about language, cognitive ability, positive attitude, personality as well as their basic ability in using English in spoken and written form.源:自/优尔-·论,文'网·www.youerw.com/

The phase of reform started in 1993 and ended in 2000. With the rapid social and economic development, the 1986 syllabus could no longer adequately address the changes. Therefore, a new syllabus was issued in 1993 with the aim of consolidating and developing students’ knowledge and basic language skills and developing their ability to use English in both speaking and writing for the purpose of communication. It also indicated a shift from grammar translation and the audio-lingual method toward a more communication-oriented teaching method.

This phase beginning from 2000 was characterized by a firm and urgent call from the government for quality-oriented education. The New National English Curriculum was issued in 2001. A review of the curriculum prior 2000 (Wang Qiang, 1999:15) indicated the following areas that needed to be addressed. First, there was an overemphasis on the delivery of knowledge about the language while ignoring the development of students’ language ability. Secondly, there was a lack of connection between different stages of schooling. Thirdly, little allowance was made for catering inpidual learner differences. Fourthly, assessment was done mainly using paper-and-pencil tests focusing mainly on language knowledge, giving little attention to the assessment of language ability and effective gains.文献综述

The English word “role” is derived from drama. It originally referred to the roles played by the actors on the stage, and then extends to the roles people play in their daily lives. American sociologist George Herbert Mead first defined the identities inpiduals have on social stage in the social psychology as the concept of “role”. In this way, the word “role” has become an important concept in social psychology. Most sociologists think that role is the identity, status and corresponding behavior patterns an inpidual has within certain systems. (Gao Mingshu, 1999:56)

The role of the teacher refers to teachers’ expected behavior associated with their social status and identities. It includes meanings of two aspects: first, the teachers’ actual role behavior; second, the expectation of teachers’ roles. (Gu Mingyuan, 1992:14) On one hand, it is the behavior reflected in teachers’ work. Teachers need to play different roles in their teaching process, such as: designer of the teaching contents; researcher of the teaching materials, etc. On the other hand, it also refers to the expectation of teachers for they are not isolated from society or student group. Therefore, the specificity of the job of the teacher and corresponding norms require teachers to show different characteristics from other professions.

Learning is a social activity with no fixed places and it can occur between father and son, classmates and friends. Confucius says, out of three men, there must be one that can teach me. Where there is learning, there must be teaching. (Li Wei & Zu Jing, 2000:56) Naturally, classroom has been determined as the place of teaching. Teachers can organize the teaching procedures with a variety of activities so that the role of teachers in classroom is clearly reflected in the teaching activities.