Transcript Chinese students’ perceptions of communicative and non

CHINESE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS
OF COMMUNICATIVE AND NONCOMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN EFL
CLASSROOM
Author: Zhenhui Rao
Student: 范明麗 Olivia
I D:9822613
Introduction
 Recent attempts to introduce CLT into EFL
teaching in China have provoked a great deal of
comment and debate. The majority of accounts
have focused on the need to adapt CLT to the
demands and conditions for language learning
and teaching in China.
 Within this heated debate on English teaching
methodology, the study of Chinese students’
response to CLT deserves particular attention.
Introduction
 With these questions, researchers and English
teachers have conducted extensive studies on
Chinese students’ learning strategies.
 Asian students as ‘obedient listeners’—whether
or not it is a reflection of their actual behaviour in
class—does not reflect the role they would like
to adopt in class’’ (Littlewood, 2000, p. 33).
 Recent researches have shown that the
perceptions of teachers and their students do
not always match.
Defining characteristics of
CLT
 CLT starts with a theory of language as
communication, and its goal is to develop
learners’ communicative competence.
 In CLT, meaning is paramount. There are a
variety of communicative activities.
 Another characteristic of CLT is that ‘‘activities in
the Communicative Approach are often carried
out by students in small groups’’
Defining characteristics of
CLT
 It is considered desirable to give learners the
opportunity to develop strategies for
understanding language as it is actually used
by native speakers.
 The final characteristic of CLT is ‘‘its learner-
centered and experience-based view of
second language teaching’’
The study
 The study reported here used a case study
approach to investigate Chinese students’
perceptions of communicative and noncommunicative activities in EFL classroom.
Background: CLT in China
 students did not like to participate in
communicative-type activities and preferred
more traditional classroom work; on the other
hand, teachers felt discouraged from continuing
with CLT.
 both because of students’ negative responses
and because of their lack of training in using CLT
and low English proficiency.
Background: CLT in China
 1. What are the students’ perceptions of
communicative and non-communicative
activities in the EFL classroom; and
 2. What are their perceived difficulties in an
EFL class exclusively conducted by
a teacher using CLT?
Subjects
 Survey subjects
 The participants in the formal questionnaire
were 30 Chinese university students majoring in
English in Jiangxi Normal University, China.
 All the subjects had been exposed to CLT both in
secondary school and in university, and were
therefore familiar with the terminology applied
in the investigation.
 Interview subjects
 Instruments
 (1.) Questionnaire:
 Part A concerns the subjects’ personal details, Part B involving
communicative and real use of language included activities
characterized by student-to-student interaction with little or
no monitoring of student output by the teacher. Part C consists
of some difficulties that Chinese EFL students may have in
using communicative activities in the EFL classroom.
 (2) Semiconstructed interview
Data analysis
 Data analysis is not a simple description of the
data collected but a process by which the
researcher can bring interpretation to the data.
 I discovered the students’ perceptions of
communicative and non-communicative
activities
and identified the recurrent themes and salient
comments in regard to the constraints that
Chinese students had encountered in using
communicative activities
Results
 Reported difficulties caused by communicative activities
in EFL classroom:
 Lack of motivation for developing communicative
competence
 Traditional leaning styles and habits
 EFL learning situations
 Lack of funding
Implication of the study
 All these examples illustrate that Chinese
students’ English learning can be facilitated if
teachers can develop their own ‘‘locally
appropriate version of the communicative
approach’’
Implication of the study
 (1.)Avoiding students’ misconceptions of CLT
While trying to introduce CLT, teachers need to
consciously reorientate students to ‘‘the basic
function of the classroom, the role of the student
and the nature of language’’ (Deckert, 1987, p.
20). They should make their students fully
understand the features of CLT.
Implication of the study
 (2.)Balancing the relationship between
linguistic competence and communicative
competence
 Linguistic competence is the basis of
communicative competence. Without
linguistic competence, there is no
communicative competence to speak of.
 (3.) Creating authentic communicative
scenarios for the real use of the language.
 Because students in EFL situations do not
have many chances to be involved in the real
use of the language, it is of vital importance
for the teacher to provide them
with such an opportunity.
 (4.) Making full use of any materials available.
 The study shows that lack of materials prevents
students in EFL situations from getting exposed
to the authentic English language.
.
Conclusion
 Teachers, curriculum planners, and others
who want to be sensitive to the needs of
the students they serve cannot always rely on
their unaided intuitions .They need to realize
the students expressed their personal
opinions about communicative and noncommunicative activities, the
 researcher has discovered whether the
subjects see certain kinds of activities as
more effective than others, and whether they
are likely to be open to techniques and
practices not previously.
 Giving this type of survey to the students has
also helped the researcher identify their
difficulties in using communicative activities
in classroom.
 It would contribute to our knowledge about
learners and learner variables to know
whether and how student perceptions of
various kinds of teaching and learning would
vary with different variables such as age,
gender, personality, learning style, education
level, or proficiency level in the target
language.
 EFL students in these countries share much
of the same perception with regard to their
classroom teaching activities. In addition,
information from this kind of survey is also
crucial for teachers to develop their teaching
methods appropriate to their learner, their
colleagues and their societies.