Struggling with EFL speaking: The experience of mainland Chinese students in a Bachelor of Education programme in Hong Kong

Abstract

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of universities offering English-medium curriculum in Asian countries where English is traditionally considered a foreign language. With such a growing presence of non-English background students in English-medium university classrooms, it is important to recognize that the linguistic demands of academic contents learning and the subsequent professional employment in the workplace pose challenges that are not being effectively addressed in many content curricula. Motivating this qualitative longitudinal study was the need for research to examine how university EFL content curriculum might afford opportunities for students’ English language improvement, oral language development in particular. Data were collected through two rounds of in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve fourth-year ethnic mainland Chinese students who were undertaking a Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme at a Hong Kong university preparing them to become secondary English teachers in Hong Kong schools. Results showed that in most of the BEd courses, lecturers had no language-related goals for their classes. The responsibility for expanding the students’ spoken English skills appeared to be borne solely by the students themselves. Implications of the results for changes in the curriculum to better facilitate students’ oral language development are discussed.