Investigating teaching approaches adopted in teaching oral English in China universities of fourth-tier cities

Globalization made English the language of international communication. Hence, the need to learn English speaking skills gained importance in English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum all over the world. For the previous decades, there were already efforts to explore the different methods in teaching oral English in China universities. However, less is known on how teaching approaches are applied in universities from fourth-tier cities. China’s fourth-tier cities are composed of less-developed cities, and people who live there represent the majority of Chinese urban population.

Many students from these universities come from poor families and have poor foundation of the English language. With this regard, English major students in Chinese universities, even after spending long years studying English during their primary, secondary, and university education, still face issues with their speaking skills. Being a teacher in one of the universities in China’s fourth-tier cities, the researcher had observed throughout the years that this situation exists especially in universities of fourth-tier cities. Unfortunately, there were no previous studies conducted yet that looked into the situation of oral English teaching in these cities. Hence, due to this issue and the lack of literature investigating the situation of EFL in these universities from China’s fourth-tier cities, particularly the speaking skill, the necessity of a study investigating oral English teaching has arisen.

Using the case study approach, this study attempted to fill the gap by documenting the teaching approaches that oral English teachers in fourth-tier cities implemented in their classrooms, the perception of the students, and what factors affected the implementation of these approaches. Further, this study applied qualitative methods to interpret and analyze the classroom data of four oral English university teachers from University A and B which are located in two of China’s fourth-tier cities. Two participant teachers were selected from each of the universities and six students taught by each teacher. Two lesson observations for each teacher were conducted together with individual interviews with both the students and the teachers.

The study revealed that the most predominant teaching approach implemented by the teachers was the communicative approach (CA). It was found out that two of the teacher participants were aware of CA and intended to use its features; however, the other two had demonstrated the features of the approach in their lessons but were not aware of CA. The students’ perceptions of the implemented approach varied depending on their oral English achievement levels. Students with high oral English level tended to be more motivated and interactive in class compared to those with medium and low oral English levels. Moreover, the teachers have encountered several challenges that affected their teaching approaches including their lack of continuous professional trainings and the limited support from the universities.

Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature by exploring the teaching of oral English in the universities of fourth-tier cities in China. The findings of this study may have significant implications for the development and improvement of oral English teaching practices and provide valuable insights for English teachers in China. There are implications pointing to a need to revise the current curriculum guidelines for the reference of administrators of different universities and the Ministry of Education (MOE) in China. All rights reserved.