ChineseStudents’PerceptionofEnglishLanguageLearningActivitiesintheclass

王淑芳

【Abstract】Nowadays， an increasing number of strategies are offered to language learners， but whether these strategies can meet learners expectations and preference still needs us to investigate. There is also a fact that many students， especially for university students find it boring and useless for them to study in the class， as a result， they kill time by means of playing their mobile phones. In order to analyze this factor， we ask 20 students in China to finish our questionnaires online and they all learn English as a foreign language. Among them， 10 students are high school students and the rests are university students， who are mostly first- year students. We seek to find students preferred classroom learning activities by analyzing four main types of leaning styles and learning strategies， that is， communicative activities， non-communicative activities， receptive activities and productive activities Then， this paper finds that students prefer communicative activities， and it gives some suggestions on how teacher should adopt different methods to meet different students demand.

【Key words】Perception； English Language； Learning Activities

Some Previous Work on Students Preferred Classroom Learning Activities

When it comes to study of learns preferred classroom learning activities， Id like to talk about Littlewoods study worked in 2010. The author focuses on investigating into the perceptions of ‘ideal English lesson in four Asian countries （Hong Kong， Japan， Mainland China and Singapore）. He concludes three main lesson types and analyses the reason why students prefer each types， and students preferred the communication-oriented lesson than others， that is， the form-oriented lesson and the control-oriented lesson. The communication-oriented lesson mainly focuses on talking to friends， listening to native-speakers；the form-oriented lesson like study grammar， reading， finding their errors by themselves；however， teachers play a vital role in the control-oriented lesson because teachers will explain everything for their students. Littlewood also analyses the variation between four countries. In Singapore， Mainland China and Hong Kong， students preferred communication-oriented lessons， whereas in Japan， students showed a slight preference for form-oriented lesson.

The second study I want to talk about is conducted by Peacock in 1998. The sample of the study is 158 university students in Hong Kong and this research includes 11 activities. He asked students to rank the usefulness of these 11 activities. As a conclusion， students hold the opinion that the non-communicative activities are more useful， by contrast the communicative activities are less useful， which are highly valued by the teachers. （Peacock， 1988）endprint

The Present Study

Due to the negative effect on the lessons in our daily lives， students always think they cannot study new things in the class， which is very boring and useless. In order to investigate the students preference of classroom activities， we make up a questionnaire in group of three. The sample of our study is both high school students and university students in mainland China， each number is 10. We choose 20 items through the classification of communicative activities， non-communicative activities， receptive activities and productive activities.

When we look at Table 1， the result of our questionnaire is that， for high school students， they think the communicative activities are the most enjoyable than other three ones， while they think the non-communicative activities are the most useful for them. At the same time， they enjoyed receptive activities more than productive ones.By contrast， they argued that productive activities are more useful for them.

Table 1 high school students means of classroom activities

High school Student Mean/ useful Mean/ enjoyable

It can be seen from table 2 that there is also difference between usefulness and enjoyableness when university students consider the classroom activities. To be more specific， university students think communicative activities are more enjoyable than the non-communicative ones but they do not think communicative is more useful. By comparison， they think productive activities are both enjoyable and useful.

Table 2：university students means of classroom activities

University Students Mean/useful Mean/enjoyable

Variation between middle schools and universities

The tables show the similarities and differences on classroom activities of students from high school and universities. There is a clear preference for communicative activities， for example making presentations in the class， debating topics with classmates， because students can have a good communication with others and they can form a good relationship with them. However， students tend to believe non-communicative activities are more useful. In my opinion， this phenomenon is related to traditional educational notions in China， which focuses on hard-working， being an industrious person and does not emphasize on the importance of cooperation and discussion in process of learning. In this way， more people， due to the influence of traditional Confucianism notions， they prefer to adopt non-communicative learning strategies. I personally suggest we can combine the communicative learning with non-communicative learning approach. Only by uniting these two strategies can students reap more benefits.endprint

As for receptive and productive activities， we can use input activities （e.g. reading， listening） and output activities （e.g. writing， speaking） to make a clear distinction between them. For high school students they enjoy receptive activities， but university students enjoy more productive activities.

Conclusion：

This paper has reported on a small-scale study of students preferred classroom activities through the classification of non-communicative， communicative， productive and receptive activities. Subjects were 10 high school students and 10 university students in China. From the study， clear differences exist in terms of preferred classroom activities. Most students show a preference for communicative activities and productive activities， while students think non-communicative activities are more useful.

The result of my study is the same as the ones conducted by Littlewood （2010） and Peacock （1988）. Although we use four different terms defining the classroom activities， we conclude the same results with Littlewood. For Littlewood （2010）， they make a conclusion that “except in Japan， the students preferences were more inclined towards communication-oriented teaching than towards the form-oriented and the control-oriented lessons.” For peacock （1988）， he also showed that for the students the non-communicative activities are more useful， by contrast the communicative activities are less useful， which are highly valued by the teachers.

Appendix 1. The Questionnaire

NO. （Filled by designers）

Perceptions of English Language Learning Activities in the class

Name：__________ Age：__________ Gender：__________

Secondary School：______ University：______ Grade：______

We are members for “Language Development Study Group” in Hong Kong Baptist University. Nowadays many secondary and undergraduate students find English classes boring and useless. So they often find reasons to skip English classes.

This questionnaire is designed to understand students preferred activities in English Classes and assist English teachers to build a productive learning environment. Thanks for your cooperation and your contribution to improve classroom activities.

Ticking in the following table according to usefulness and enjoyment.

（1= least useful/not enjoyable； 2=not so useful/ not so enjoyable； 3= useful/enjoyable； 4=very useful/very enjoyable）：

Activities How useful？ How enjoyable？endprint

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

1. Accepting answers corrected by teachers

2.Reading English texts which are interesting for me

3. Making study plan by myself.

4. Imitating native speakers speeches

5. Previewing the book and underline what I dont understand.

6. Doing exercise by myself

7. Communicating with international exchanged students.

8. Listening to teachers explanations on grammar rules

9. Answering teachers question actively

10. Following teachers instructions step by step.

11.Writing notes while the teacher is teaching

12. Watching videos played by teachers

13.Using new structures youve learned recently to write

14.Making group presentation on a given topic

15.Discussing problems with my peers

16.Debating with classmates on topics

17.Expand vocabulary through reading

18.Analyzing long and difficult sentences individually

19. Critical analyzing contents on the book.

20. Doing role play with my classmates.

Thank you so much for your precious time?。。?！

References：

[1]Littlewood，W.（2010）.Chinese and Japanese Students Conceptions of the “Ideal English Lesson.RELC Journal，41（1）， 46-58.

[2]Rao，Z.（2002）.Chinese Students Perceptions of Communicative and Non-Communicative Activities in EFL Classroom.System， 30（1），85-105.

[3]Wong，L.L.C.，&Nunan，D.（2011）.The Learning Styles and Strategies of Effective Language Learners.System，39（2）， 144-163.endprint