国际科学英语和中国科技英语学科地位研究

科技英语是第二次世界大战结束后，随着英语在科技领域内地位的不断提高而出现的，“文革”后传入我国。但大学生是学通用英语还是科技英语，在20世纪80年代的大学英语界引发了激烈的争论。由于决策者倾向前者并制定了基于通用英语的教学大纲和大学英语四、六级考试，科技英语教学就此停止了发展。三十年后，随着我国科学技术的迅速发展以及英语成为国际学术交流的通用语，一个严峻的事实出现了：一个大学生如无法阅读国际期刊就不可能了解本学科最新研究情况，就不能成为一个真正合格的大学生（更不要说一流大学生）。国际科学英语能力是指具有在这些国际期刊上汲取信息（阅读）和交流信息（写作）的外语能力。在新一轮世界一流大学和一流学科建设中，科技英语将成为整个外语教学，乃至整个专门用途英语中最具有实践价值和实践意义的学科，在此背景下，我们必须重新评估科技英语的地位。

English for Science and Technology as a Discipline in China

EST (English for Science and Technology) in mainland China was initiated almost simultaneously with EST in the world as there was a strong demand for sharing the fruits of the development of international science and technology after its 10-year Cultural Revolution(1966—1976). It came under attack, however, from the policy-makers in teaching EFL（English as a Foreign Language）at tertiary level who denied the validity and necessity of EST and insisted that EGP(English for general purposes) instruction should be implemented for liberal education as well as for the improvement of undergraduates' English proficiency. They claimed that there was no difference between EST and EGP, except for terminologies and passive constructions which are used heavily in the former, and that good general English proficiency can well qualify students for their academic studies in English. Since the early 1990, EFL at tertiary level has been officially oriented towards EGP for almost 30 years. The consequence is that its homogeneity with teaching EGP at primary/secondary schools not only affects the undergraduates' learning motivation, but leads to the marginalization of EFL at tertiary level. And even worse, the lack of EST or EAP(English for academic purposes) instruction at tertiary institutions produces a generation of scientists who are neither able to read English literature in their disciplines nor able to write English research papers. With the exponential growth of international English-medium scientific journals both at home and abroad in recent years, it seems that there will be no hope for Chinese tertiary institutions to produce qualified undergraduates if they, unable to read and write in English, fail to keep updated with the developments of international research in their disciplines. This academic literacy is above all based on a good command of international scientific English (ISE), the variety of English used by scientists around the world, regardless of their linguistic and cultural background. It differs not only from EGP, but varies from discipline to discipline in terms of rhetorical structures and genre as well as language expression. Its command needs special training of EST or EAP.  It seems a puzzle, however, that foreign language policy makers still insist that EGP is more important than EST for university students, while the Chinese government makes ambitious plans for constructing world-class universities and requires that future scientists and researchers should be equipped with strong competitiveness in international contexts, More surprisingly, it is English for Business (EB), instead of EST, that is officially listed as a new discipline iby the Ministry of Education (MOE). It is estimated that EB has been offered either as a program or as a course in thousands of Chinese universities and colleges. The growing popularity it gains contrasts sharply with ESP/EAP as a marginal course. English as a lingual franca in the communities of science and technology and the challenge to China to build world-class universities and colleges highlight the need for the foreign language policy makers to reconsider the role of EST/EAP in EFL at tertiary level and to bring about a paradigm shift from EGP to ESP.