This research makes explicit that China is a country in the process of development when it comes to the teaching and learning of English language. Before I started my research, I thought that English teachers in China still focused on grammar and examinations. However, after the interviews and lesson observations, I found that the situation had undergone some significant changes. Most of the teachers expressed the desire to help students improve their communication skills. They realized that language learning is for communication and not only for passing examinations. For these teachers, all of the language tests and training should be undertaken with the goal of helping students to develop communication skills. Therefore, they try to apply more appropriate materials and think carefully about their lesson plans, trying to adopt new teaching approaches. This is done with a view to creating more opportunities for students to speak and encourage them to speak. I was pleased to see this change and hope to disseminate beyond China the current situation of teaching and learning of English in China. Furthermore, the schools are clearly providing opportunities for teachers to further develop their professional skills through various initiatives such as going to English speaking countries to study, having open classes, organising the teachers’ discussion groups and teaching competitions. Most of the teachers are very willing to attend all of these different kinds of activities, so it is important to create more opportunities for change to help them to improve themselves. I believe that, if more teachers have this ideology and pursue the improvement of English language speaking ability, in the longer term English language learning will experience a massive change in China. In addition, as argued in chapter 2, although considerable research has been conducted in the field of ELT in China, most of the studies sought to identify the existing problems rather than describe and explore the situation through accessing the voices of teachers in their working contexts. My study engages teachers in sharing their experiences regarding different aspects of English language learning. In addition, the study findings are contextually rooted. This is a valuable addition to literature on the teaching and learning of English language in Chinese secondary schools. It was difficult to find literature that discusses about the perspectives of Chinese teachers on various aspects of English language teaching and learning; hence, this study makes a significant contribution. The concept of teacher autonomy which has been addressed in this research is also a relatively new concept and so researchers in this field might find it an interesting and useful addition to the field. There exist conflicting views on the role of teacher autonomy in language learning, but this study helps to confirm the case for
This research makes explicit that China is a country in the process of development when it comes to the teaching and learning of English language. Before I started my research, I thought that English teachers in China still focused on grammar and examinations. However, after the interviews and lesson observations, I found that the situation had undergone some significant changes. Most of the teachers expressed the desire to help students improve their communication skills. They realized that language learning is for communication and not only for passing examinations. For these teachers, all of the language tests and training should be undertaken with the goal of helping students to develop communication skills. Therefore, they try to apply more appropriate materials and think carefully about their lesson plans, trying to adopt new teaching approaches. This is done with a view to creating more opportunities for students to speak and encourage them to speak. I was pleased to see this change and hope to disseminate beyond China the current situation of teaching and learning of English in China. Furthermore, the schools are clearly providing opportunities for teachers to further develop their professional skills through various initiatives such as going to English speaking countries to study, having open classes, organising the teachers’ discussion groups and teaching competitions. Most of the teachers are very willing to attend all of these different kinds of activities, so it is important to create more opportunities for change to help them to improve themselves. I believe that, if more teachers have this ideology and pursue the improvement of English language speaking ability, in the longer term English language learning will experience a massive change in China. In addition, as argued in chapter 2, although considerable research has been conducted in the field of ELT in China, most of the studies sought to identify the existing problems rather than describe and explore the situation through accessing the voices of teachers in their working contexts. My study engages teachers in sharing their experiences regarding different aspects of English language learning. In addition, the study findings are contextually rooted. This is a valuable addition to literature on the teaching and learning of English language in Chinese secondary schools. It was difficult to find literature that discusses about the perspectives of Chinese teachers on various aspects of English language teaching and learning; hence, this study makes a significant contribution. The concept of teacher autonomy which has been addressed in this research is also a relatively new concept and so researchers in this field might find it an interesting and useful addition to the field. There exist conflicting views on the role of teacher autonomy in language learning, but this study helps to confirm the case for
PEIPEI%20ethesis.docx