作者：Lai Yi
Ⅰ.INTRODUCTION
Due to the opening of international trade since the early 1990s and the increasing tourism， Chinese people increasingly realize the importance and necessity of learning English. With the increasing importance of English in China， English education with no doubt receives more and more attention. At the beginning of this century， the Central Ministry of Education initiated a “School Curriculum Reform”. One of the education policies that corresponded to this reform was the “English Curriculum Standards for the Public School System” in 2001. This policy required that all elementary schools in China must offer English lesson as a core subject beginning in the third grade. In other words， the age at which the compulsory English instruction begins changed from 11 to 9， which means that children will learn English at a younger age. With the English education becomes a national priority in China， Chinese people also become more aware of the importance and huge advantage of learning English. Therefore， parents in China tend to send their children to private English instruction schools even before they started the compulsory English instruction at public schools at 3rd grade. （Qiang & Siegel， 2012） Though there was a trend in education reforming in the late 20th century， the situation of Chinese students’ English skill was still out of balance at that time. Chinese students’ English learning style was considered to be “mute” and “deaf” English. They were good at taking English exams while really bad at the comprehensive skills such as speaking and listening.
Ⅱ.ENGLISH IMMERSION PROGRAMS IN CHINA
In 1996， a workshop conducted in Xi’an， China introduced the Canadian French immersion programs in search of better reform in English education. Then， early English immersion programs began to be implemented in elementary schools in several major cities in China. This newly introduced language program was designed to immerse students in the English language and improve their English communicative skills.
Since 1996， English immersion programs have increased in popularity in China. This language immersion system provides students an opportunity to master an L2 in a similar way as they mastered their L1， that is，， by being immersed in a language environment that provides them a large amount of L2 input and promotes natural communication in the target language. The immersion programs establish a solid base in the development of oral language skills prior to the introduction of reading and writing. Rather than focusing instruction exclusively on the direct mastery of L2 grammar and language rules， the immersion programs are carried out by adopting a content-based language approach that provides the means to increase the amount of comprehensible L2 input by delivering subject content in the target language （Genesee， 1995）.
