A Case Study of Current Situation of Foreign Teacher’s Oral English Class from the Perspective of Cross-cultural Communication

Xie Chi-heng Liu Xiang-hong

【Abstract】The study shows that foreign teachers would focus on cultivating students’abilities through vivid classroom activities instead of following the textbooks rigidly in their language teaching. However，due to a lack of knowledge of English teaching methodology in China and their ambiguous teaching goals in classes，the teaching effects are not satisfying.

【Key words】foreign teachers; oral English teaching; cross-cultural communication

【作者簡介】Xie Chi-heng， Liu Xiang-hong， School of Foreign Languages，Hunan Institute of Engineering.

1. Introduction

As a worldwide communicative tool，English is becoming widely applicative in many fields，especially in college education.The essence of language teaching is communication.However，students are struggling to express themselves in English and they lack expression ability.Therefore，for the purpose of improving college students’English speaking skills，many Chinese universities have begun to recruit foreign teachers.Foreign teachers not only offer opportunities for students to talk with native speakers， but they also provide them with more chances to know different cultures. Foreign teachers’oral English teaching is a cross-cultural activity. Teaching methodology and teaching activities are restricted with culture.However， some previous studies demonstrate that foreign teachers in China have confronted with many problems in teaching English， which is largely attributed to cultural shocks caused by differences between occidental and oriental customs.

Previous researches simply stated advantages and disadvantages of foreign teacher’s oral English class. In Hu Liangcai’s view （2004）， the biggest advantage was that students were given more opportunities to express themselves in English. However， the most evident shortcoming was that foreign teacher’s oral English class lacked systematic training. In Gao Fan’s survey （2005）， foreign teachers were skilful in explaining abstract things to students in an explicit way， but there was no further discussion in oral English class， which made students think the class was too easy.However，the studies lacked discussions from the perspective of cross-cultural studies. Besides， several flaws can be found in former studies. In Wang Hongjun’s （2006） questionnaire， the questions only focused on students’acceptance on class atmosphere but lacked deep discussion in the features of oral English classes. Hu Liangcai （2004） summarized key views on foreign language teachers’ advantages from the perspective of students， but he did not investigate the foreign language teachers. Therefore，the study is not convincing enough. In order to make the classroom a more effective place for cross-cultural communication， the present study tries to find the answers to the following questions

①What are the major characteristics of foreign language teachers’oral English class from the perspective of cross-cultural communication studies？

②Regarding student and teacher’s communication in class and after class， what are the communicative frequency and barriers？

③What are students’beliefs on cross-cultural communication？

4What are foreign teacher’s perceptions of oral English teaching in China？

2. Research Methodology

2.1 Participants

The participants in this study consist of 236 university students from the International Department who completed the questionnaires.Group 1 are undergraduate students and Group 2 are college students.Among the students who participated in this study，there are 80 male and 36 female undergraduate students. For college students， there are 48 male students and 72 female students.

Of five foreign teachers who participate in this study，there are two female and three male teachers and they are from Lithuania，Nigeria， the United Kingdom and Ireland respectively. All of them have at least a bachelor degree and teaching certificates like TEFL， TESOL and CELTA. Three of them had been in China for two years and one of them for four years.Two of them have previous teaching experiences and three of them have no related experiences before they came to China.

2.2 Instruments

A Chinese questionnaire was designed for two different groups of students from International Department， and they included 28 statements or questions with a five-point Likert scale. All the items were designed to investigate the main characteristics of foreign teachers’ oral English class.

The semi-open interview questions for the foreign teachers， which were written in English， were distributed and collected by the researcher through interviewing them after class.

2.3 Procedure

First， a classroom observation was conducted in foreign teachers’ oral English class and the researcher took notes. As the class was finished， the researcher invited foreign teachers to participate in researcher’s interview and meanwhile explained that the study was meaningful to English teaching in China and it was not related with assessment from school’s administrative departments and their privacy would be protected effectively. The interview was carried out under their permission and the content of the interview was recorded with? MP3， together with the notes taken by the researcher. Second， an anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted among 236 students under the permission of teachers and students. The questionnaire was carried out during class hours. Students finished their questionnaires and submitted to their class monitors. Then class monitors transferred all the questionnaires to the researcher. Third， the researcher used SPSS 22.0 for data analysis.

3. Results and Discussion

The major characteristics of foreign teacher’s oral English class are listed as follows.First， in terms of teaching contents， foreign teachers tend to emphasize ability cultivation because they are more inclined to adopt experiential learning teaching module， which emphasizes on the process of learning. Second， regarding teaching methods， they tend to use communicative approach. Third， with regard to teaching skills， they usually use question-answering skill. In addition， foreign teachers do not use textbook often in class. Instead， they have their own teaching plan and use their own materials. Last but not least， the classroom atmosphere is free and easy.

As a whole， Chinese students do not interact with foreign teachers frequently in class and after class. Foreign teachers communicate with students actively in class， but after class， they are less likely to talk with their students. In terms of causes of communicative barriers， limited range of vocabulary is the biggest problem.

Both undergraduate and college students are not familiar with cultural background in foreign teacher’s homeland， which may lead to cultural misunderstandings when communicating with foreign teachers. They can generally accept it when foreign teacher’s behavior is controversial with Chinese culture. They hope foreign teachers could learn more about Chinese culture.

Generally， most of the foreign teachers have limited knowledge about Chinese culture. They do not know Chinese-style English teaching methods and insist on using western teaching methods in class， which may make students feel confused. Besides， they do not design their teaching plan in accordance with contents in the textbook， which could lead to a lack of systematic training in their oral English course.

4. Conclusion and Implications

For the purpose of changing the fact that foreign teacher’s oral English class lacks appropriate teaching plans and clear teaching objectives， foreign teachers are supposed to write a teaching plan before the first oral English class begins. Second， foreign teachers should pay more attention to integrating cultural teaching and language teaching in oral English class. One effective way is to choose cultural phenomenon as topics of discussion in class. Third， in order to improve students’ communicative frequency in class， foreign teachers should endeavor to give more support and encouragements to students to speak in class， especially for students whose English level is not good. If students’ English level is mixed in class， it is suggestive that the teaching content should be relatively easy， but the teaching process should be challenging.

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