An Analysis of College English Teaching and Classroom Interaction in China

Abstract

CET (College English Teaching) is a compulsory course for non-English majors in China. It has recently become a focus in higher education in China and abroad. Most research concentrates on ESL (English as Second Language) classroom interaction strategies, factors affecting classroom interaction and forms of classroom interaction. For decades, students who have been spending years studying English in China continue to have very limited communication ability due to antiquated teaching strategies of drills and memorization. Little research considers fundamental problems of CET and learning in China, let alone how to guide a Chinese college English teacher to consciously strengthen effective classroom interaction. Thus, this paper reviews China’s current college English classroom teaching situation that has been influenced by the confluence of China’s political history, past English education, and English teaching approaches in China. There are fundamental connections between CET approaches and Chinese college students’ learning efficiency. This paper proposes a new CET teacher-training program that is designed to CHASE (cultivate, help, activate, supply, and establish) protocol for CET in China. This program attempts to change the drill and memorization teaching common in China today and encourage teachers to become more effective by creating a more accessible interactive classroom that results in more fluency for students learning English in China.