Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics' perceptions about research in a transitional culture

Integrating research into language teaching: Beliefs and perceptions of university teachers

“…The few relevant studies available also suggest several constraints and a large gap between what teachers believe about how research should be integrated and how they actually integrate research into language teaching practice (Borg, 2007;Hu et al, 2015;Nassaji, 2012). Moreover, the language departments in previous studies were at more teaching-intensive institutions (Bai et al, 2012), and teaching EFL to students in China has been overwhelmingly concentrated on the development of language proficiency, which many assume cannot be achieved by incorporating research into teaching practice. The fact that the teachers still value the incorporation of research into teaching is encouraging.…”

“…Integrating research into teaching can be challenging because of the disparate organisation and management of the research and teaching domains (Brew, 2010). University language teachers clearly must have a teaching focus in their work, but their administrations assess their performance, and particularly promotion possibilities, by considering their research performance (see also Bai et al, 2012;Xu, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, university language teachers face barriers that stem from other factors, such as the lack of systematic research support (Bai, Millwater, & Hudson, 2012;Xu, 2014), the issue of separate funding and assessment for research and teaching activities (Brew, 2010) and existing beliefs about research and teaching (Borg, 2009;Hu, van der Rijst, van Veen, & Verloop, 2014). Moreover, language teaching departments are traditionally more teaching-focused than research-focused, which means that the pedagogical and professional benefits of research are unclear for most language teachers (see also Bai et al, 2012).…”

Analysis of Reasons for Chinese College Students’ Lack of Oral English Proficiency

“…In response to the limited proficiency of Chinese college students' oral English ability, the Chinese Ministry of Education launched many initiatives in the new millennium which include the College English Teaching Reform (Bai, Millwater, & Hudson, 2012). A series of educational policies related to curricula, syllabi and teaching methods have made by the Chinese Ministry of Education across the country (Hu, 2003;Zheng & Davision, 2008).…”

Researchers’ perceptions of scientific research and educational research

“…In literature, there are few studies about the researchers' perceptions of scientific research. Some of these studies are specific to a discipline such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) researchers' perceptions (Bruce, Pham & Stoodley, 2014) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics (Bai & Hudson, 2011;Bai & Millwater, 2011;Bai, Millwater & Hudson, 2012). These studies focus on researchers' perceptions of significance, value and benefit of scientific research or research-teaching nexus but not directly to what research means to the researchers.…”