Volume 42, Issue 2

The present study adopts a quantitative design to explore the effects of pre-designed teachers’ questions as the mediation tool to scaffold the development of students’ critical thinking and their discourse level writing skills in English from a sociocultural perspective. The participants were 39 sophomores from two classes. The results showed that: (1) teachers’ questions targeting specific critical thinking skill in the classroom and in after-class conferences, as well as in written homework feedback were effective; (2) students backslid a little while internalizing teachers’ questions concerning critical thinking; (3) students improved reliably in terms of local and global coherence in their written production with the help of teachers’ questions. The findings indicate that teachers’ questions facilitate students’ development of critical thinking and enhance their discourse level writing skill.

This study investigates Chinese university EFL teachers’ and students’ beliefs about what determines the text quality of EFL writing via a mixed-method analysis of data collected by questionnaire, interview, and diagnostic and self-diagnostic feedback on students’ essays. The results indicate that: First, both the teachers and students attached much importance to language, but the teachers put significantly more emphasis on organization and content whereas the students put significantly more emphasis on vocabulary; Second, the beliefs of students were heavily influenced by their conceptions of the purposes of EFL writing tasks and the assessment criteria adopted to mark their writing; Third, the disparity between teachers’ and students’ beliefs caused them to emphasize different aspects of an essay when giving feedback; Finally, students’ beliefs had a negative impact on the development of effective writing strategies. Pedagogical implications are suggested.

In the Chinese higher education sector, Business English, a newly emerging discipline, has attracted great attention, and since it was approved officially in 2007, about 400 universities and colleges have offered this degree course to students. Among in-service Business English teachers, some of them have transferred from teaching English for General Purposes. Business English teachers face many changes and challenges to their professional identity, yet few scholars have looked into the identity construction of these teachers. Using critical narrative as a method, this paper closely examines the identity construction experiences of the first author and two other Business English teachers. It is found that the participants, including the first author himself, have endured identity negotiations and various challenges in turning from a teacher of English for General Purposes to a teacher of Business English. These teachers’ experiences and their perception of identity construction and professional development throw light on the changing pedagogy and practice of Business English in Chinese universities.

The establishment of Business English (abbreviated as BE hereafter) as an independent discipline for undergraduate education appeals to the higher professionalism of BE teachers’ knowledge structure. This paper introduces the results of a study that, by in-depth semi-structured interviews, investigated the knowledge structure of 18 teachers across three different BE course modules. Data are analyzed based on grounded theory. Eleven knowledge types required of a qualified BE teacher across three different structures (i.e., three BE course modules) are identified. The construction of BE teachers’ knowledge structures differs in the three BE course modules. The findings are a meaningful supplement to the theoretical analysis of the “should-be” description of BE teachers’ knowledge structure and can improve the understanding of the constituents of BE teachers’ knowledge structures at a micro-level, which should, in turn, provide references for different module teachers’ development.

Business English is a newly developed applied discipline quite different from the traditional English discipline, and it requires different qualities for Business English teachers. This paper attempts to explore the specific professional qualities required of Business English teachers and put forward teacher development mechanisms for the purpose of promoting professionalism of Business English teachers and facilitating construction and development of the Business English discipline.

This study conducts an acquisition-based evaluation of four primary-school English textbook series used in China. The evaluation aims to determine whether the sequencing of grammatical structures in the series is compatible with the L2 learning sequence stipulated in Processability Theory (PT). The results show a partial agreement between the sequencing of structures as teaching objectives in the series and the PT-based processability hierarchy. The sequencing of structures in the initial stages is consistent with the learning sequence of L2 English stated in PT. However, several structures in the intermediate or high stages are taught in a deviant way against their sequencing in PT. The deviant grading of those structures is possibly associated with the theme-based guidelines adopted in the textbooks. It appears that concerns with the utility of grammatical structures in a given context take precedence over concerns for L2 development. A number of suggestions are offered to textbook writers in terms of the role of input, the learners’ developmental readiness, and the issue of heterogeneity in L2 classrooms.