Teaching English as a foreign

language in Chinese universities:

The present and future
Z H E N H U I R AO A N D C H U N H U A L E I

An appropriate way to teach English in China is to balance

teaching activities for elaborating linguistic details and
developing students communicative competence

Introduction the prospects for EFL teaching in Chinese univer-

sities in the 21st century.
In the past two decades, there have been two
important events in English as a Foreign
Language (hereafter, EFL) teaching in Chinese
universities throughout the country. The first
event was a gradual growth in student enrolment
in universities, and the second was the EFL teach-
ZHENHUI RAO is a
ing reform that aimed to introduce Communicative Professor at Jiangxi Normal
Language Teaching (hereafter, CLT) into the University, China. He has a
English classroom (Rao, 2010). There is an appar- PhD in applied linguistics
ent conflict between the increase in student numbers from the University of South
in each class and the use of CLT in the language Australia. His recent
classroom, thus resulting in a series of problems publications have appeared
for current EFL teaching in Chinese universities. in journals such as ELT
On the one hand, frequent contact with foreigners Journal (2007), Modern
speaking English nowadays makes it necessary for English Teachers (2009),
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
English teachers to develop students communica-
Development (2010), and The Language Learning
tive competence. On the other hand, some problems Journal (2012). His main research interests are in
such as large classes, high demands on English tea- English teaching methodology and language
chers and a lack of financial resources prevent tea- learning strategies. Email: rao5510@jxnu.edu.cn
chers from getting their students involved in the
communicative activities in their teaching process CHUNHUA LEI is a
(Rao, 1996; Yu, 2001; Hu, 2002). Lecturer in Jiangxi Normal
There are two types of EFL teaching at the ter- University, China. He is
tiary level in China. One is for English majors currently a PhD student in
and the other is for non-English majors. As applied linguistics in Jiangxi
non-English majors account for a great majority Normal University. He has
been teaching English for
of Chinese university students (more than 90%;
13 years, and has published
Jin & Cortazzi, 2006), we devote this paper to several articles in academic
describing EFL teaching for non-English majors journals. His main
only. Three aspects are considered here, i.e. issues research interests are in English teaching
revolving around teachers, issues revolving around methodology and second language acquisition.
students, and the English Intensive Reading Course Email: chucklei@126.com.
in Chinese universities. Following this, we explore

doi:10.1017/S026607841400039X
40 English Today 120, Vol. 30, No. 4 (December 2014). Printed in the United Kingdom 2014 Cambridge University Press
Teachers
EFL teaching in Chinese universities is conducted
by a contingent of teachers who are indigenous
Chinese and have been basically trained at home
institutions where there are only a few native
speakers of English. It is estimated that there
are approximately 60,000 university English tea-
chers, but only a privileged minority of teachers
have the opportunity of studying in English-
speaking countries (Zhang, 2010). Many univer-
sity English teachers in China have not had any
formal teacher training, but have been fully occu-
pied with a heavy teaching load because the num-
ber of university students is gradually increasing
(Borg & Liu, 2013). On the whole, English tea-
chers at the tertiary level are proficient in the
English language, but not many of them are famil-
iar with the current trends in EFL methodology.
Although CLT has been strongly advocated since
the early 1990s, most teachers in Chinese univer-
sities find it difficult and awkward to teach
English in the communicative way and still adhere
to the traditional methods and technologies (Zhu,
2003). A study conducted by Liu & Gong (2000)
revealed that many EFL teachers in Chinese uni-
versities considered memorization of grammar
rules and patterns of usage as an efficient way in
which to learn English.
Teachers in China (either in middle schools or in
universities) are not free to teach whatever they
want in the classroom. All the textbooks and teach-
ing materials are nationally uniform, and teachers
are expected to cover the curriculum developed
by the government. Teaching groups modeled on
the formal Soviet system were initiated in the
early 1950s when the structural reorganization
of higher learning was taking place. Under this
system, teachers who teach similar courses also
prepare lectures collectively, discuss teaching pro-
grams and materials, work out central or difficult
points in a lecture, watch demonstrations by master
teachers, give teaching practice to new teachers,
attend refresher training courses, and collect
and study questions or opinions raised during or
after class.
Class assignments are carefully allocated to each
member of a teaching group. Each teacher looks up
background information, does research on the topic
of the text, examines difficult points and deter-
mines what is important to emphasize. A weekly
group meeting is then held where all this informa-
tion is mutually shared and discussed. After each
teachers report is reviewed by the group, teachers
write their own lectures. Teachers feel secure in
TEACHIN G ENG LIS H AS A FOREIGN LAN GUAG E IN C HINESE UNIVERSI TI ES
knowing that they are presenting collective knowl-
edge to their students which may eventually appear
in the examination.
Most of the English lectures in China are
teacher-centered and book-centered (Rao, 1996;
Hu, 2002). Chinese teachers are unwilling to risk
departure from the text because of the whole
system of teaching preparation adopted from the
former Soviet Russia straight after liberation.
Teachers prepare texts and materials that:
(1) are politically safe and sanctioned;
(2) contain texts short enough to cover in one
lecture;
(3) have appropriate grammatical and translation
exercises after each text which they feel are
targeted to the structures the Chinese have
the most problems with;
(4) have the important points already highlighted
for them.
It is also appreciated if background information
is included in the teachers manual. In general, tea-
chers do not endeavor to risk using new materials
because they know that being innovative costs
them additional work and causes potential embar-
rassment (Fang & Warschauer, 2004).
All these factors have inevitably led to teacher-
centered classroom teaching, which is repeatedly
reported in the literature. Young & Lee (1985)
compared teaching styles between over 500
Chinese teachers and 40 Anglo teachers. Using a
questionnaire designed to elicit teachers attitudes
towards teacher-directed or student-centered class-
rooms, Young & Lee (1985) discovered a highly
significant and wide difference between the two
groups. The replies from the Chinese teachers
showed consistently more favorable attitudes
towards teacher-directed classroom activities than
was the case for Western teachers. Moreover, it
was found that the Chinese teachers attitudes
were not susceptible to change by means of inter-
ventions such as in-service teacher retraining
courses designed to develop more positive attitudes
towards student-centered learning and communica-
tive language teaching. The findings of Young &
Lees (1985) study were later supported by
Paines (1992) fieldwork.
To make university English teachers in China
follow trends in modern EFL teaching and to
meet the challenges of the new century, administra-
tors and researchers in the Ministry of Education
and universities have taken a series of measures
to develop EFL teacher education, and many lead-
ing linguistics and applied linguistics programs
have been involved in organizing teacher training
41
programs (Wu, 2001). However, as there is a
severe lack of EFL teachers and a variety of
needs for teacher training, there are no suitable
models of teacher development in China (Borg &
Liu, 2013). How can we reconcile traditional
Chinese EFL teaching with modern Western teach-
ing methods? What can we do to meet the chal-
lenges we face? These are urgent questions that
need to be answered before the efficiency of teach-
er training programs can be greatly improved.
Students
Since 1977, educational institutes at the tertiary
level in China have been enrolling students by
national matriculation. At the beginning of the
1980s, competition to be admitted to a tertiary insti-
tute was extremely fierce, and only a very small
number of graduates (about 12%) from senior mid-
dle schools could enter university. In 1999, the
number of graduates from senior middle schools
admitted by Chinese universities and colleges was
2 million, but it rose to 20 million in 2004 (Jin &
Cortazzi, 2006). However, in 2010 the number
was as high as 30 million (Xinhua, 2011).
Upon admission to tertiary institutes, students
will have acquired some primary English vocabu-
lary ranging from 2,000 to 2,500 words and a
basic knowledge of English grammar with accept-
able English pronunciation and intonation (Jin &
Cortazzi, 2006). On average, these students can
read some simple English texts without too much
difficulty, but they are quite weak at writing, and
even weaker at listening and speaking. There are
some students who have attended key middle
schools in large cities and therefore use English
well above average. There are also some other stu-
dents, particularly those from small towns and rural
areas, whose English proficiency lags far behind
that of their classmates.
Not only is there a gap in English proficiency
among students from various types of middle
schools, but there is also a great difference in the
use of language learning strategies, which is main-
ly caused by their different English learning experi-
ences in middle schools. In general, middle schools
in large cities are privileged in terms of teachers
qualifications and teaching facilities. Key provin-
cial middle schools enjoy even more privileges.
Almost all the teachers in these schools are well
trained in both the English language and English
language teaching. Some of these key schools
can even employ teachers from English-speaking
countries. Besides, these schools can afford highly
sophisticated language laboratories and other
42
modern teaching equipment. In contrast, middle
schools in small towns and rural areas are poorly
funded. Teachers there do not have much training
in English because they have learnt a limited
amount of English themselves, either by self-study
or by attending a short English training course (Hu,
2003). Undoubtedly, such a striking difference in
English teaching among various types of middle
schools will result in students different learning
habits and strategies.
Students admitted to universities continue to
have another two years of English learning.
During these two years, they receive about 300
classroom hours of English instruction. The
College English Syllabus issued in 2002 included
5,109 vocabulary items, not including phrases,
derivations and proper nouns. Also stressed in
this syllabus is the training of four language skills
(listening, speaking, reading and reading), as well
as traditional grammatical requirements. Since
English is one of the compulsory courses in univer-
sities, all the students are required to pass the
College English Test (CET) Band 4, a nationwide
standard English test. This is the minimum require-
ment for graduates in Chinese universities.
The English Intensive Reading Course
in Chinese universities
The Intensive Reading Course is the premier lan-
guage course carried out in almost all Chinese uni-
versities. There is a uniform syllabus, textbooks
and corresponding examination system for the
course. Four hours per week are allocated to this
course during the first two years of students uni-
versity study. Students learn one text per week
from a textbook such as the widely used New
College English (Dong, 2010), a course of four
levels which prepares students for the compulsory
examinations, CET Band 1 through to CET
Band 4.
The Intensive Reading Course is not designed
primarily to improve reading comprehension.
Rather, it is a multi-purpose comprehensive course
embodying the following characteristics:
(1) It is text based: each lesson consists of a model
text followed by exercises on phonetics, gram-
mar, vocabulary, translation and supplemen-
tary material. In fact, the text serves as the
basis for both oral English practice (pronunci-
ation, dialogues, questions and answers, retell-
ing and paraphrasing) and written work
(spelling, sentence-making, translation, sum-
mary and abstracts).
E N G L I S H TO D AY 1 2 0 D ec e mbe r 2 0 14
(2) It is grammar-vocabulary based: texts are
compiled in a morphology-syntax sequence
such as verb tenses and types of sentences,
which are dealt with one by one. Meanwhile,
active words are selected for sentence-making.
(3) It is teacher centered: the teacher dominates
the course by explaining the text in great detail
and telling students what they should learn
from the text. Students, on the other hand,
do what the teacher asks them to do.
A typical unit in College English begins with a
two-page text followed by a list of new words,
phrases and expressions with the pronunciations
given and meanings indicated by English syno-
nyms and Chinese translations. This is followed
by explanatory notes on the historical background
and idioms. There is then a sequence of multiple-
choice comprehension questions, more general dis-
cussion points, blank-filling exercises for word
building and sentence structure, a cloze passage,
and sentences for translation. Finally, there is a
further reading text with more multiple-choice
questions and a writing exercise which usually
focuses on a grammatical point.
Based on our observation and experience and
comments by Wu (1990), the Intensive Reading
Course enables students:
(1) to read the text aloud (or recite or paraphrase
it) with fairly good pronunciation;
(2) to learn hundreds, if not thousands, of new
vocabulary items with detailed explanations
of meanings and to use these new words in
exercises through blank filling, paraphrasing,
word formation and other methods;
(3) to learn and to practice certain grammatical
points exemplified in the text;
(4) to speak on a limited range of subjects related
to the texts;
(5) to write generally correct sentences, short
compositions and do translations based on
the content and language of the texts.
The teaching of this course is usually carried out
in two stages: teachers and students preparation
for the new unit before the class. As noted above,
teachers prepare their lessons extensively before
they start teaching. They go over each text in
meticulous detail. Teachers own copies of the text-
book are full of penciled margin notes which
enable them to expound on every likely grammat-
ical point or word meaning which may arise. The
teachers believe that they should have authoritative
knowledge of all aspects of the text. Students also
prepare for the new unit extensively. They refer to
TEACHIN G ENG LIS H AS A FOREIGN LAN GUAG E IN C HINESE UNIVERSI TI ES
dictionaries for unknown words. They try hard to
understand the text. Many students memorize the
grammatical examples. Some will memorize the
whole text.
The classroom teaching begins with the teacher
asking students to read aloud. The teacher will
check pronunciation and intonation and ask some
general comprehension questions. The teacher
then explains new words in the text. These are
practiced in word study exercises involving pronun-
ciation, translation, use of synonyms and paraphras-
ing. Then there are comprehensive explanations of
selected grammatical points and their functions in
the text. These points are practiced by drills, transla-
tions, sentence manipulation and blank-filling exer-
cises. Further practice includes paraphrasing,
summarizing and retelling the content of the text.
The assessment of whether the text has been under-
stood depends largely on how well students can
remember the new words and grammar and how
well they are able to use this knowledge to complete
exercises and pass regular tests.
The Intensive Reading Course has been the target
of much criticism in recent years (Jin & Cortazzi,
2006), and a number of researchers and teachers
have been endeavoring to teach this course in innova-
tive ways. Fang & Warschauer (2004) reported on a
5-year (19982003) longitudinal case study of a
technology-enhanced educational reform initiative
at a university in east China. A faculty team incorpo-
rated technology into this traditional English course
to better prepare English students to use new tech-
nologies for communication. The findings of the
study showed that such technology-enhanced
English teaching greatly improved the students com-
municative competence. However, few teachers
were willing to teach this course because such
instruction is time-consuming and because student-
centered learning goes against traditional norms
and incentives in Chinese higher education. In add-
ition, Chinese EFL teachers find it difficult to change
this course because it is closely tied to the national
system of examinations (Li, 1984). All these find-
ings tell us that the Intensive Reading Course is a
product of particular cultural, social and economic
circumstances which have strongly influenced the
ways in which English has been taught and learnt
in China since the 1950s.
Prospects for EFL teaching in Chinese
universities in the 21st century
All the aforementioned information proves that
EFL teaching at the tertiary level in China is still
43
conducted in traditional ways. Although they are
encouraged to adapt themselves to the new chal-
lenges of EFL teaching and refresh their teaching
approaches by using CLT, most Chinese teachers
of English in universities feel secure and comfort-
able in sticking to their traditional methods and
techniques (Yu, 2001; Hu, 2002). EFL teaching
in Chinese university classrooms, such as the
Intensive Reading Course mentioned above, still
follows the classroom procedures employed in
the 1950s. Perhaps one of the best ways to teach
English in China in the 21st century is to reconcile
CLT with Chinese traditional teaching methods
(Rao, 1996, 2002). Numerous studies demonstrate
that traditional teaching methods can work together
with CLT, and that students English proficiency
can be greatly improved by such reconciliation of
teaching methods (Roberts, 1982; Harvey, 1985;
Rao, 2002).
To make some adjustments and to combine the
teaching methods used in English classrooms, EFL
teachers in Chinese universities should, first of all,
balance their teaching activities between elaborating
linguistic details and developing students communi-
cative competence. As stated earlier, EFL teachers in
Chinese universities devote most of their classroom
time to the detailed explanation of language points,
and then ask the students to learn them by heart.
There is nothing wrong in Chinese teachers organiz-
ing their classroom teaching like this. In China, stu-
dents have little access to the English language
outside the classroom, so it is of prime importance
for teachers to help them understand the language
in a text. However, while helping students under-
stand the linguistic details, teachers should also pro-
vide them with opportunities to learn how to use the
language. They should engage students in group
work, role play, games or discussion, so as to develop
their communicative competence. One of the studies
that followed this teaching pattern was conducted by
Dai (2010), who explored the teaching of creative
writing in English to sophomores at Sun Yat-sen
University in China. The study was carried out at
two levels: the micro level and the macro level. At
the micro level, it addressed linguistic details in stu-
dents writing and helped them work on problematic
constructions in writing. At the macro level, it aimed
to teach students the craft of creative writing in work-
shops. The results indicate that such a pattern to teach
English writing is an effective way not only to
improve students writing skills but also to enhance
their personal development in general.
Another way to reconcile traditional teaching
methods with CLT is to relate grammar
teaching to meaning and use. In other words, the
44
teaching of English grammar should be given in
contexts which involve some basic principles of
appropriateness. Instead of teaching grammar as a
means to an end, teachers should realize that gram-
mar is a tool to be used in the comprehension and
creation of oral and written discourse. They should
make language situations and language material as
realistic as possible. Immediately after providing
students with adequate explanations of grammar
rules, the teacher should provide them with suitable
circumstances to practice the rules so that students
can ultimately use them in real life. A good
example of this was provided by Fotos & Ellis
(1991), who integrated grammar instruction with
opportunities for meaning communication. The
researchers presented the case for the use of a par-
ticular type of language learning task to encourage
communication about grammar. The results
demonstrated that grammar tasks successfully pro-
moted L2 linguistic knowledge of a specific gram-
matical point and produced the kind of negotiated
interaction which has been assumed to facilitate
L2 acquisition. The study proved that the grammar
task could encourage communication about gram-
mar and enable EFL learners to increase their
knowledge of a difficult L2 rule. Similar results
were also reported in the studies by Fotos (1994)
and Newton & Kennedy (1996).
The final aspect in which we can combine trad-
itional methods with CLT is to make appropriate
use of the students mother tongue. Traditionally,
the use of the mother tongue is closely connected
with the outdated grammar-translation method.
However, for most EFL students, there is a keen
interest in an exact understanding of every word
and a low tolerance for ambiguity (Harvey,
1985). To cater for this requirement, EFL teachers
often turn to translation for help and attempt to
equate a target language structure item with its
closest or most common correlate in the mother
tongue. In fact, nothing is wrong in teachers
using this teaching strategy, but they must ensure
that the use of the mother tongue is strictly con-
trolled. In teaching vocabulary, for example, the
teacher should not use this technique unless they
come across a word or phrase with a complex
and abstract meaning. They should realize that
the use of the mother tongue is to help students
have a thorough understanding of the target lan-
guage so as to lay a solid foundation for improving
their communicative competence. A recent study
by Meij & Zhao (2010), for example, investigated
the teachers and students attitudes towards
code-switching between Chinese (L1) and
English (L2) in English courses in two universities
E N G L I S H TO D AY 1 2 0 D ec e mbe r 2 0 14
in China. The findings revealed that both teachers
and students expressed the view that teacher
code-switching in English classroom teaching is
desirable and functional, and that the mother ton-
gue is a useful resource for facilitating the students
learning process.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have delineated the EFL teaching
in Chinese universities by focusing on three
aspects: issues revolving around teachers, issues
revolving around students, and the English
Intensive Reading Course. The overview of how
EFL teachers teach and how EFL students learn
at the tertiary level informs us of the current
English teaching situation in Chinese universities.
Despite the fact that a variety of modern teaching
methods, such as CLT, have been introduced into
English classrooms since the 1980s, most
Chinese teachers of English encounter a number
of problems, and still cling to traditional teaching
methods. In addition, Chinese EFL students are
accustomed to their traditional ways of learning,
and find it uncomfortable to sit in a student-
centered classroom. By exploring the prospects of
EFL teaching in the 21st century, we may come
to the conclusion that the best way to improve
English teaching in the future seems to be to recon-
cile the modern methodologies with those trad-
itional ways of language teaching in China.
References
Borg, S. & Liu, Y. 2013. Chinese college English teachers
research engagement. TESOL Quarterly, 47(2), 270299.
Dai, F. 2010. English-language creative writing in mainland
China. World Englishes, 29(4), 546556.
Dong, Y. F. 2010. New College English, Book 1, 2, 3, 4.
Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Fang, X. & Warschauer, M. 2004. Technology and
curriculum reform in China: a case study. TESOL
Quarterly, 38(2), 301323.
Fotos, S. 1994. Integrating grammar instruction and
communicative language use through grammar
consciousness-raising tasks. TESOL Quarterly, 28(2),
323351.
. & Ellis, R. 1991. Communicating about grammar: a
task-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 25(4), 605628.
Harvey, P. 1985. A lesson to be learnt: Chinese approaches
to language learning. ELT Journal, 39(3), 183186.
Hu, G. 2002. Potential resistance to pedagogical imports:
the case of communicative language teaching in China.
Language, Culture and Curriculum, 15(2), 93105.
TEACHIN G ENG LIS H AS A FOREIGN LAN GUAG E IN C HINESE UNIVERSI TI ES
. 2003. English language teaching in China: regional
differences and contributing factors. Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 24(4),
290318.
Jin, L. & Cortazzi, M. 2006. Changing practice in Chinese
cultures of learning. Language, Culture and Curriculum,
19(1), 520.
Li, X. 1984. In defense of the communicative approach.
ELT Journal, 38(1), 213.
Liu, D. & Gong, Y. 2000. Foreign language education in
Chinese schools. Paper presented at the International
Symposium on 21st Century Foreign Language Education
in Schools, Beijing, China.
Meij, H. D. & Zhao, X. 2010. Codeswitching in English
courses in Chinese universities. Modern Language
Journal, 90(3), 396411.
Newton, J. & Kennedy, G. 1996. Effects of communication
tasks on grammar relations marked by second language
learners. System, 24(3), 309322.
Paine, L. 1992. Teaching and modernization in
contemporary China. In R. Hayhoe (ed.), Education and
Modernization: The Chinese Experience. Oxford:
Pergamon Press, pp. 78102.
Rao, Z. 1996. Reconciling communicative approaches
to the teaching of English with traditional Chinese
methods. Research in the Teaching of English, 30(4),
458471.
. 2002. Chinese students perceptions of communicative
and non-communicative activities in the EFL classroom.
System, 30(1), 85105.
. 2010. Chinese students perceptions of native
English-speaking teachers in EFL teaching. Journal
of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 31(1),
5568.
Roberts, J. L. 1982. Recent developments in ELT. In
V. Kinsella (ed.), Survey 1 and 2. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 138161.
Wu, Z. 1990. Reading with a purpose a reassessment of the
English reading programs adopted in China. In Z. Wang
(ed.), ELT in China. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching
and Research Press, pp. 287298.
Wu, Y. 2001. English language teaching in China:
trends and challenges. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1),
191194.
Xinhua. 2011. China wants to produce more competent and
innovative people. Xinhua News Agency, 26 August.
Young, R. & Lee, S. 1985. EFL curriculum innovation and
teachers attitudes. In P. Larson., E. Judd &
D. Messerschmitt (eds.), On TESOL 84. Washington,
DC: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages,
pp. 121146.
Yu, L. 2001. Communicative language teaching in
China: progress and resistance. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1),
194198.
Zhang, J. 2010. A study on status quo and problems in
college English teacher team construction. China Higher
Education, 17(1), 5354.
Zhu, H. 2003. Globalization and new ELT challenges in
China. English Today, 19(4), 3641.
45
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.