Teaching English as a foreign language in China: looking back and forward

Rao, Zhenhui

doi:10.1017/s0266078413000291

Cited by 40 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Since China opened its doors to the world in the early 1980s, English has been the dominant foreign language and is required to take as a compulsory course in primary schools, secondary schools and higher education institutions. Millions of EFL learners take regular English courses, 4 class hours a week, 18 weeks a term, for 12 terms in high school and 4-8 terms at university (Chen & Goh, 2010;Rao, 2013;Wu, 2001). In a traditional EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom, during the whole class time, the instructor explains new English words and grammar directly and orally to all students, or translates English texts into Chinese sentence by sentence; students listen and take notes for most of the time; once in a while, students are asked to answer some questions or to translate English sentences into Chinese, or vice versa.…”

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Graduate Student End-of-Term Satisfaction with Group-Based Learning in EFL Classroom

Wen¹,

Mu²

2014

ELT

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The current study explored graduate student end-of-term satisfaction with group learning, compared with traditional instructor-led instruction in EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom. Participants were 74 graduate students, including 33 males and 41 females from a normal university in southern China. The study was carried out with two classes by different teaching methodologies respectively, one was group-based (n/35) with nine groups, and the other was instructor-led class (n/39). Students were assigned randomly to the two types of classes ahead of the formal lessons and taught by the same instructor during the period of an academic term. At the end of the term, a questionnaire survey was administered to all the students of the two classes to measure their satisfaction with English class learning. The results showed students with group-based instruction were more satisfied than those who took the course under the instructor-led format. Also, no significant differences existed between groups with respect to satisfaction. The results of the analysis were discussed and directions for further study were suggested. The significance of the present study lies in the fact that it was able to explore the difference in student satisfaction between group-learning and instructor-led settings in EFL class, and both instructor(s) and students should shift their focus "from what is being taught to what is being learned" in EFL classroom.

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Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Graduate Student End-of-Term Satisfaction with Group-Based Learning in EFL Classroom

Wen¹,

Mu²

2014

ELT

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“…This led to the opening up of the country to the international community. It also led to a number of reforms and the influence of the world dominant language (English language) in the daily lives of people in China (Rao, 2013).…”

Section: Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to the Hiring of English Teachers in English Training Schools in Hefei City, China

Iddrisu

Islamjanova

Bombaes

et al. 2017

jsss

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English teaching and learning has become an integral part of the Chinese educational system. Due to the opening up policy of the Chinese government to the rest of the world, the need to reform in line with the changing demands of the time became necessary. This therefore led to the influx of potential foreign English teachers in to the country due to the demand for foreign English teachers. The study therefore explores the factors influencing the hiring decisions of potential foreign English teachers in Hefei. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents with the help of SPSS as the analysing tool. Using logistic regression model it made it possible to better understand the impact of the factors that influence hiring decisions. Results indicated that gender and experience were statistically significant. Colour and educational level were not statistically significant but important in the hiring decisions. Nationality of a potential foreign English teacher was not significant and also not important in the hiring decisions. The study concludes that professional recruiters should be put in place during the hiring process. It therefore suggests that competence should be a key factor in the hiring decisions of potential foreign English teachers in order to better learner's outcomes and to meet the objective of the state.

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“…In practice, there are some attempts for communicative or task-based language teaching, however most EFL classrooms in China are still featured by a preoccupation with careful, often painstaking examinations of grammar or vocabulary items which are always the focus of many tests (e.g., Rao, 2013). As a result grammatical accuracy is much more emphasised in practice as compared with fluency even though most English teachers agree to the fact that accuracy and fluency are both essential in language teaching and learning (Rao & Lei, 2014).…”

Section: A Efl Background In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Output Task on EFL Writing: How Far Can It Go?

Huang

2016

JLTR

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Abstract-The present study attempts to further the understanding of the effect of output in SLA by investigating to what extent an output task (i.e., reconstruction task) is effective in EFL writing. Data in the form of pre-, post-and delayed post-tests were collected from 28 students (14 in input-oriented group while 14 in output group) at one Chinese University. The results revealed a positive and enduring effect of the output task on learners' grammatical accuracy in writing as compared with input-oriented instruction that has long been prevalent in Chinese EFL classroom. However the results did not find an equal impact of the task on different rules: The rules carrying meaning (e.g., connective) or having semantic equivalents in target language (e.g. passive "-ed" or comparative "-er" or superlative "-est") are produced more accurately by the output group while less meaningful morphology (e.g. plural noun "-s", third singular "-s") or local rule (e.g. prepositions) were most difficult for these EFL learners. We argue semantic and functional awareness is the key format for learners to acquire and internalise the grammatical forms.

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Teaching English as a foreign language in China: looking back and forward

Cited by 40 publications

References 5 publications

Graduate Student End-of-Term Satisfaction with Group-Based Learning in EFL Classroom

Graduate Student End-of-Term Satisfaction with Group-Based Learning in EFL Classroom

Barriers to the Hiring of English Teachers in English Training Schools in Hefei City, China

The Effect of Output Task on EFL Writing: How Far Can It Go?

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