Dingfang Shu: FLT IN CHINA: PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS.

While there are numerous publications abroad on teaching foreign languages in China (e.g., Collins 2001; Gan, Humphreys and Hamp-Lyons 2004; Wu 2001), there are few local publications from China that can inform us about foreign language teaching FLT from within. Dingfang Shu's book on FLT in China provides us with a good opportunity for access to this kind of information. This volume, accessibly written in Chinese, offers a comprehensive description and analysis of FLT in China, on the basis of up-to-date domestic and international research. It focuses on EFL, particularly on some key problems, while providing some solutions as well. In recent years, EFL has received increasing public attention, especially by the government, and the EFL scene has developed rapidly since the reforms and opening up policies which were started in the 1980s. However, its problems have also become obvious and more serious as a result of a changed societal environment which demands more of it. There is now general agreement that the current EFL system and teaching methodology should be reformed.