The 9th International Conference on English Language Teaching (ELT) In China (ELT2020)

449 / 2020-03-06 14:22:54

College English Language Teaching Reform and EFL Lecturers’ Reflection on Teaching: A Case Study in China

College English Language Teaching Reform; EFL Lecturer; Reflection on Teaching

“Teaching Guidance” and College English Teaching Reform > “Teaching Guidance” and College English Teaching Reform

The rapid development of newly-upgraded colleges and universities across China witnessed a corresponding demand for the teaching and learning of English as Foreign Language (EFL). Accordingly, the Ministry of Education of China implemented the College English Language Teaching Reform (CELTR) to improve the teaching and learning of English language at tertiary institutions. The aim of this paper was to investigate EFL lecturers’ perspectives of the CELTR and to what extent the CELTR had enhanced the EFL lecturers’ reflection on teaching, which on converse influenced the effect and implementation of the CELTR. The study involved a total of 92 EFL lecturers from a newly-upgraded university located in Nanyang City, China. Data for the study were collected by using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with eight EFL lecturers adopting purposive sampling. The findings indicated that the EFL lecturers had moderate level of understanding and knowledge of the CELTR, and the lecturers’ reflection on teaching had witnessed some improvement with the implementation of the CELTR, and there were increasing intentions and usage of reflection on teaching by the EFL lecturers under the CELTR. They conducted reflection on teaching through different approaches. The findings showed that during the process of implementation of the CELTR, the EFL lecturers constantly reflected their teaching contents, methods and events to improve their teaching practice to meet the students’ specific needs better, and they believed that reflection on teaching could not be separated from teaching practice.