Results and analysis of the pre-intervention questionnaire to both intervention and

Before the 16-week intervention began, the questionnaire to all the participants both in the intervention class and non-intervention class was conducted respectively on 1st and 3rd March, 2010 in classrooms 303 and 301 at the third teaching area of the university in Shanghai and each lasted around 20 minutes. The questionnaire was in English, but the researcher explained it in Chinese, when the participants had problems understanding any of the items.

The total number of participants was 140 including 72 (intervention class) from the Department of Electromechanical Engineering and 68 (non-intervention class) from the Department of Electric Automation. Of these, 106 (75%) students were male and 34 (25%) were female. A total of 139 questionnaires were collected because one student was absent for illness on that day.

For Question 1 (Appendix I), students were asked how long they had learned English. The results (as can be seen in the following Table 4.9) indicated that most of the students had considerable EFL learning experience. Many students had learned English for 9 or even more than 9 years and only a few of them had learned it for 6 years. Even so, as Table 4.13 shows, 53.3% of the students rated their communicative ability as bad or very bad.

92 Table 4.9: Years of study English

Years of studying English Number (n=139) Percentage

6 16 11.5%

9 36 25.8%

> 9 87 62.5%

The first group of questions were about students‘ reasons for learning English. When asked whether they liked to study English, 80.6% of the students indicated that they liked to study English and 19.4% of them indicated that they didn‘t. The following comments typified those who suggested they liked to study English:

 I like to study English because I can communicate with people in other countries and know a lot of different things. (Student 1)

 I like to study English because I am curious about the world. (Student 3)

 I like to study English because I like foreign culture, with good English, we can learn foreign culture. (Student 8)

 I like to study English because it can broaden my views and outlook towards the world. (Student 7)

 I like to study English because I can get to know different culture and spread my view by using English as a tool during communication. (Student 9)

 I like to study English because study English can help me to know western culture and in the modern society English is a must tool. (Student 10)

 I like to study English because it can help me to read more information about foreign countries. (Student 12)

 I like to study English because English can help me communicate with foreigners and know some culture about other countries. (Student 13)

 I liked to study English because I can communicate with foreigners and watching films made by USA and Europe without translation and it is useful tool to communicate with foreigners. (Student 15)

 I liked to study English because it is useful tool to communicate with foreigners. (Student 16)

The following Table 4.10 sets out major reasons why students liked studying English. The reasons were categorized and generated from what the students stated in answering why they liked to study English. The statements from the first group of students (56%) in Table 4.10 were centred on the theme ―Communicate with English speakers‖. The second group (35%) stated that they liked to study English because it was useful for their future career. The last group (9%) said that they had an intrinsic interest in English language.

93 Table 4.10: Reasons for learning English

Reasons why students liked to study English Percentage They wanted to know about western culture and communicate with

English native speakers without difficulties

56 English is important, a must skill for future career and for further study abroad

35 English has intrinsic interest as a language 9

From the above Table 4.10 and the statements from students, it appeared that most of the students emphasized communication with English speakers and developing cultural knowledge, which gives some indication that ICC was important for foreign language learning for these students.

Similarly, the reasons why students (19%) didn‘t like to study English are also worth noting. Some of them said they didn‘t like to study English because it was boring and hard. Some said that they simply could not remember words and grammar, however hard they tried and they did not know why. As one of them said, ―Even if we remembered some words today, we would soon forget them tomorrow…‖ Their answers might suggest that the method of their learning English or the teaching was boring. Or maybe there were memorising problems for them.

With regard to the importance of studying English, almost all the students (96%) thought English was important or very important for them (see the Table 4.11).

Table 4.11: Importance of studying English

Very important Important Not so important Not important at all

Percentage 59.1 36.9 2.9 0.7

Since students thought studying English was important, they might be expected to want to master it as well as they could though their motivations and reasons for studying English were different.

When asked whether they did anything to improve their English outside the classroom, 76.3% of the students answered yes, while 23.7% of them answered no. The ways in which students improved their English independently are shown in Table 4.12.

94

Table 4.12: Ways of improving English outside class

Ways of improving English Percentage

Attending English courses outside classroom to prepare for tests such as CET 6, English Examination for Postgraduates, IELTS, TOEFL and GRE

51

Memorizing words 26

Listening to the radio, watching English TV programs or films and reading English magazines and novels

23

Table 4.12 suggests that the CET examination system, along with the motivation of many students who hoped to further their study abroad, made them attend English courses outside their classes, with the aim of improving their English and passing various tests. Although the majority of the students (56%), as shown in Table 4.10, said they wanted to study English because they wanted to know about Western culture and communicate with English native speakers, they still had to face the reality of passing examinations.

Question 5 and Question 6 in this first questionnaire asked students to rate their language skills and ability to communicate. The results are shown in Table 4.13.

Table 4.13: Students‘ self-rating of language skills and ability to communicate N=139

Language Skill Communicative Ability

No. % No. % Very good 3 2.2 2 1.4 Good 17 12.2 13 9.4 Average 93 66.9 50 36.0 Bad 19 13.7 66 47.5 Very bad 7 5.0 8 5.8

As seen in Table 4.13, only 18.7% students rated their language skills as bad or very bad while 53.3% of them rated their ability to communicate with English native speakers as bad

95

or very bad. This might suggest that many students were much less confident in their ability to communicate with English native speakers than in their language skills and that from the perspective of these students, one‘s sense of language skills mastery does not mean one is confident to communicate well with native speakers.

Another group of questions explored the students‘ attitudes towards the current implementation of EFL teaching programs for non-English majors at the university. The results showed that 33.1% of the students were satisfied with the current English class at the university, while 66.9% of the students were not. Main reasons for dissatisfaction centred on teaching content and methods. Most of the students said that their English class was mostly focused on reading, vocabulary and grammar and they found it hard to speak English, and especially hard to communicate with native English speakers. For example, one of the students stated: ―Whenever I met with English speaker, I didn‘t know how to begin a talk.‖ Another student said: ―Sometimes I need to write an English letter, but I don‘t know how because in English class our teacher never taught us.‖ Their complaints indicated that what they learned in English class was not always applicable to their communication with English native speakers either in writing or speaking..

The reported focus of the current English class at the university is shown in Table 4.14. Table 4.14: Focus of current English class at the university

Focus of English class Percentage

Grammar, vocabulary and reading 52.5

Language skills 37.4

Target language culture 3.5

To answer the question whether their English teacher used various teaching approaches, 53.2% of students suggested their English teacher as using various teaching approaches while 46.8% of them did not.. When students explained the various teaching approaches used by their teachers, responses were mostly focused on power point, watching English movies, listening to English songs and music, and presentations. No one mentioned that the culture of English-

96

speaking countries was systematically introduced into the English class and no one said that their teachers attached much importance to intercultural communicative competence.

In answer to questions 10 and 11, 60% of the students answered that English teaching at the university prompted ‗fear‘ or ‗an unpleasant feeling‘. They were asked what caused this and the results are shown in Table 4.15

Table 4.15: Fear or unpleasant feeling of current English teaching

The cause of fear Percentage

Ways of teaching 45

Examinations 30

Making mistakes when speaking and writing 20

No progress 5

As table 4.15 shows, an unpleasant feeling or fear mostly originated in ways of teaching (45%). The fact that 30% of the students had fear of examinations, 26% had fear of making mistakes when speaking and writing and 5% had fear of no progress might suggest that students lacked confidence in their English.

The last group of questions investigated students‘ attitudes towards English, culture and ICC learning. Asked how often their teacher introduced culture, 10.07% of the students said their teacher did it often, 89.20% said sometimes and 0.71% said never. Table 4.16 shows the results of their responses to this last group of questions.

Table 4.16: Knowledge and attitudes towards ICC and culture teaching

Statements 14-18 Yes No

I know what intercultural communicative competence is. 56 (40.2%)

83 (59.7%) I think culture knowledge of target language can help me

improve my ability to communicate with native speakers.

130 (93.5%)

9 (6.4%) Culture knowledge of target language is interesting to me 116 23

97

(83.4%) (13.8%) Do you like English teaching materials focused on discussions

related to target language culture?

131 (94.2%)

8 (5.7%) Do you like your English teacher to integrate the teaching of

culture into the English curriculum and classroom?

135 (97.1%)

4 (2.8%)

As Table 4.16 shows, although intercultural communicative competence was a new term for nearly 60% of the students, 94% agreed that cultural knowledge related to the target language would help them improve their ability to communicate with native speakers. Culture knowledge of the target language appeared to be interesting to the majority of the students. Also a vast majority of the students liked English teaching materials focused on discussions related to target language culture and liked their teachers to integrate the teaching of culture into the English curriculum and classroom.

They were also asked what English teaching should be focused on. The results are shown in Table 4.17 below.

Table 4.17: The focus of English teaching

N=139 What should English teaching be focused on? Number of

students

%

Developing speaking skills 16 11.5%

Developing reading skills 2 1.4%

Developing writing skills 2 1.4%

Developing all language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)

7 5.0%

Developing intercultural communicative competence and all language skills

112 80.5

On the basis of Table 4.17, it appears that most of the students thought that English teaching should be focused on developing both intercultural communicative competence and all

98

language skills. However, it should be acknowledged here that the design of last option in Table 4.17 was somewhat predisposing and leading. As to the teaching approach, 10.8% of students preferred a teacher-centred approach, 15.8% of them preferred a student-centred approach, while 73.4% preferred a combination of a teacher-centred and student-centred approach.

4.3.2 Results, analysis and comparison of the pre- and post-intervention questionnaire