Abstract
Gatherings data via 202 questionnaires and 13 in-depth interviews with the students and teachers from a
Chinese university in Beijing, this paper investigates Chinese students’ lack of oral involvement in the
university classes. The findings suggest that their reticence is mostly due to the traditional Chinese beliefs
and culture, students’ previous school experiences, their social and psychological reasons based fears and
class size. Although the teachers were not mentioned as one of the key reasons, they can be the most
important agents of change. China is trying to move toward student-centred learning, but the schools and
the students are not yet fully prepared for it. The paper suggests a ‘teacher-driven, student-centred
learning’ approach for such transitional period, with teachers assuming more proactive. This paper
focuses on the classroom-interaction side. It suggests that the teachers should use questions throughout
the lecture, and prepare their slides in an interesting and thought-provoking way. Students should be
encouraged to overcome various social and psychological fears that prevent them from speaking in the
classroom. For the issue of large class size, the teachers should move around in the class or stand in the
middle to decrease the sense of distance.
Muhammad Abid Malik, Guoyuan Sang, Qiong Li. (2017) Chinese University Students’ Lack of Oral Involvements in the Classroom: Identifying and Breaking the Barriers, Journal of Research and Reflections in Education, Volume 11, Issue 2.
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