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This essay would examine the role of English perceived by Chinese high school students who only treat English as a necessary subject of Gaokao (National University Entrance Exam). Generally, the importance of English include two aspects: communicative function and the tool of transmitting knowledge. There are a large amount of Chinese students who are not interested in Western culture and do not expect to learn English to continue higher education. Specifically, the motivation for them to learn English is to obtain higher score and get enrolled in well-known Chinese university. The aim of this essay is to show that for this group of student, English learning during this period would not change their motivation for learning English. This essay would be divided into three parts. Firstly, we would discuss the role of English as a global language from communicative function and knowledge transmitting tool. Secondly, through the comparison between the function of English and the motivation and language level of high school students, it shows that during this period, learning English could not change their attitude towards using English to communicate with others and would not improve their career prospective. Thirdly, this essay discuss the influence of recent Gaokao reformation on global participation. English served as a global language have two aspects. On the one hand, English is spoken in a lot of countries. The fact is that learning English would help communicate globally. It serves as a tool. On the other hand, English is main language used in working place and academic area. English learning is a almost unavoidable communicative tool to transmit ideas and knowledge. For high students who are not interested in enrolling international community, due to the low language level needed for academic studying, learning English would not improve their life greatly. Through long-time drill for exam, they could obtain high score for university entrance. But it does not mean they change their attitudes towards global community and career prospective. They would continue to treat English as necessary subject without a clear understanding about its importance of communication and studying. Moreover, they still could not utilize English to study due to the relative low level. Career improvement needs more professional English and academic studying needs a high level English proficiency. In 2008, the decrease of the importance of English in all subjects have no great impact on the global participation of Chinese students. Before the decrease of English, English level do not enable high school students to communicate with people from other nations and learn professional or academic knowledge. After reformation, students would pay less attention than before to English learning. This reformation would not change the global participation for Chinese high school students. In this essay, I have argued that learning English for Chinese high school students who are motivated for famous university have little impact on their global participation. Due to low language level, they could not use English globally in daily communication or career improvement. For teachers, it would be impossible to encourage them to use English to participate in global community or utilize English to learn professional knowledge. It could be hard for them to obtain benefits directly from learning English expect exam grade.
