Flourishing Creativity & Literacy - A Case Study of Chinese College Students’Attitudes Toward Only English-Medium Teaching in EFL Classrooms

Oct 15, 2026

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Facing the challenge that Chinese students are weak in English productive ability, the paper proposes an only English-medium teaching mode to improve language skills and overall competence by creating a second-language acquisition atmosphere. Because few studies examine students’ attitudes from the students’ perspective, the study uses questionnaires and interviews to analyze preferences, evaluations, and suggestions. It further discusses practical application from teaching purpose, course design, teacher qualifications, students’ language level, and teaching effects, concluding that this approach is not widely popular and depends on qualified teachers and suitable courses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Only English-medium teaching and its relation to bilingual education

English learning context and the need for English-medium instruction

Review of bilingual education research and research rationale

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 6 No. 2; April 2015 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Flourishing Creativity & Literacy A Case Study of Chinese College Students’Attitudes Toward Only English-Medium Teaching in EFL Classrooms Sun Yue College of Foreign Languages, China, Three Gorges University, 8 Daxue Road, Yichang City, 443002, Hubei Province, PR, China Wang Ying College of Foreign Languages, China, Three Gorges University, 8 Daxue Road, Yichang City, 443002, Hubei Province, PR, China Liu Jingxia (Corresponding author) College of Foreign Languages, China, Three Gorges University, 8 Daxue Road, Yichang City, 443002, Hubei Province, PR, China E-mail: [clare04@126.com](clare04@126.com) Doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.2p. 174 URL: [http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.2p. 174](http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.2p. 174) Received: 12/ 12/2014 Accepted: 11/02/2015 The research is financed by Hubei Province Ministry of Education, China. No. 13y027, and No. 2013B071. Abstract Facing the current situation that Chinese students are poor in English productive ability, the mode of only Englishmedium teaching is put forward to completely improve students’English abilities and comprehensive competence by creating second language acquisition atmosphere. Since few studies have been conducted on students ’ attitudes toward only English-medium teaching in ELT classrooms especially from the perspective of students themselves, this paper, through questionnaires and interviews, focuses on students ’ attitudes to figure out their preferences, evaluations and suggestions of teaching modes, and further discusses the practical application of only English-medium teaching in EFL classrooms from five respects: teaching purpose, course design, teacher’ qualification, students ’ language level and teaching effect. It is concluded that only English-medium teaching is not of popularity among students giving their own English levels and the advancement of only English-medium teaching quality depends on the qualified teachers and suitable courses. Keywords: English teaching, Teaching effect, Teacher qualification, Students ’ language level, Course design 1. Introduction Only English-medium teaching means that teacher only uses English to lecture all the time without any other language in English classes. Only English-medium teaching should distinguish from bilingual education for it can be seen as an advanced level of bilingual education (Zhu, 2005) . As Zhou (2011) put it, there are three modes of bilingual education. First is immersion programme which is actually the same with only English-medium teaching in classroom, it requires students to be taught in the language which they are learning, and the native language or mother tongue can not be used in teaching even on campus. Second is transitional bilingual education which requires that students are taught with native language or mother tongue in the first period of learning time and after a period of study, they should be taught in foreign language or second language which they are learning. Therefore, transitional bilingual education provides a period of time for students to adapt to the language they are learning. The purpose of transitional bilingual education is to transit to immersion programme. Third is maintenance bilingual education which requires students to be taught in native language in their first learning period and later native language is still used in their learning of some foreign language or second language subjects. Accordingly, college students who have received English education for at least six years before have received the first period of transitional bilingual education for a long time, and it is proper for them to transit to the immersion programme. That is to say, they are proper to be taught only in English in English courses. English, undeniably, is an international language wher

FAQs

What is only English-medium teaching in this study?

It is defined as using English only to lecture throughout English classes, without any other language in the classroom.

How does the paper investigate Chinese college students’ attitudes?

It uses questionnaires and interviews to identify students’ preferences, evaluations, and suggestions regarding the teaching mode.

What are the key factors related to the effectiveness of only English-medium teaching?

The paper highlights qualified teachers and suitable courses, and also analyzes teaching purpose, course design, teacher qualification, students’ language level, and teaching effect.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk