Are the students from rural areas disadvantaged in English
learning? Evidence from a national survey
Zheng Yue (郑悦), Xi'an
Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Jiangsu
This
study adopts an empirical approach incorporating data from a national survey,
CGSS (Chinese General Social Survey) 2015, to compare English learning outcomes
in urban and rural areas. By implementing SPSS as the statistic tool, a
regression model is established based on age, hukou (urban/rural areas), and
education level, which all passed the assumption checking for
multicollinearity. The regression model is presented as the following: English
Learning Outcome = 1.26 + .14 Education + .04 Hukou - .01 Age + e, F (3, 9846)
= 2250.5, p<.001, adjusted R2 = .41. This indicates that the model explains
41% of the variance in English learning outcomes. In this regard, education is
the most determinate factor in predicting English learning outcomes. This
offers some insights that, by improving education in rural areas, upward social
mobility could be realized for unprivileged students. Furthermore, this study
sends the insightful message that personal effort in pursuing higher education
level outweighs other fixed social factors, such as age or hukou, in
determining English learning outcomes, or to a larger extent, determining an
individual’s social status.
Zheng
Yue is a research
fellow in the Applied Linguistics Department at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool
University, the largest Sino-foreign university in China. Her research area is
mainly in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and TESOL, focusing on the
elderly students in rural areas and sexual minorities in the classroom.
The impact of digital English education: The practice of online courses
in rural areas in China
Li Zhixin (李芷昕), MetenEdtechX
As
English education moves into the digital realm, it becomes ever more important
that students from disadvantaged/rural areas benefit from online teaching. We
put forward questions that revolved around three aspects: teaching, learning,
interactivity, and novelty. For instance, what online learning activities and
learning processes are necessary or desirable to achieve the intended English
learning outcomes? Does the remote English instruction support student-student,
student-instructor, or student-content interaction? As a relatively new form of
English education, are English teachers in rural schools equipped to deal with
technical difficulties? To answer these concerns, Li interviewed 46 rural
headmasters throughout China. He also outlined three techniques to establish an
active community of rural learners in online English courses: teaching
presence, cognitive presence, and social presence.
Li
Zhixin holds a TESOL EXPERT Certificate and currently works as an online and
face-to-face English teacher at MetenEdtechX, teaching K-12, academic writing,
and business English in China, Pakistan, and Japan.
Effective teaching modes of senior English reading in minority areas
under New Curriculum Standard
Zhou Lili (周里理),
Xingyi No.1 Middle School, Guizhou
With
the further development of the new curriculum, the goal of English teaching in
senior high school is gradually “geared to the needs of modernization, the
world, and the future of students.” Therefore, in the process of effective
teaching, schools should focus on the core literacy of a subject and students’
lifelong learning ability.
However,
in rural areas, especially among minority communities, education resources are
relatively poor. Among the basic subjects, English can be a real headache,
especially among students with a weak foundation, those who lack confidence or
those unwilling to commit to studying. Therefore, it is necessary to research
effective teaching modes of senior English reading (new curriculum).
Our
team focused on these problems and carried out our research using classroom
observations, evaluations, and teaching method discussions to cultivate an
effective teaching mode. By doing so, we found out there are three contributing
factors influencing English reading in senior high schools in minority areas.
The
first factor is the influence of the English language on reading teaching. In
minority areas, although students generally weak in English, they work hard to
memorize English words and master English grammar. Therefore, we focused on improving
students’ language skills and achieved good results by using specific teaching
strategies.
The
second factor is the capability of teachers. The most significant reason is
that most of the teachers in minority areas often lack modern teaching ideas
and effective reading teaching methods. Some may even neglect the importance of
cultural knowledge or social emotion in English reading.
The
third factor is the influence of learning motivation. Therefore, stimulating
students’ learning motivation is the key to improve their learning ability in
English reading.
Based
on those factors, we have adopted practical teaching methods for students and
effective teacher training strategies through our tests; for example, we
combined reading texts with relatable life elements to stimulate students’
learning motivation. We found that the reading speed of our students increased
by 20% through the data analysis, and overall, our study achieved good results
in current situation analysis, actual investigation, and teaching practice.
In this
research, we focused on minority areas. The English resources and students’
foundation in minority areas are poor. Therefore, there is much room for
improvement in many aspects. If we hasten for quick success, we will achieve poor
results. Therefore, it is essential to accumulate gradually and make gradual
progress. We should do to combine English reading with other disciplines. At
the same time, we should pay attention to the role of young teachers and get
them involved in research teams to promote the modern development of the
effective teaching mode for English reading.
Zhou
Lili is a
special grade teacher of the Xingyi No.1 Middle School, and vice-chairman of
the Foreign Language Society of Qianxinanzhou Middle School, Guizhou. She is
also a provincial famous teacher, a provincial backbone teacher in Guizhou
province, and an intern instructor of Guizhou Normal University.
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