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Contextual Influences on Instructional Practices: A Chinese Case for an Ecological Approach to ELT Author(s): Guangwei Hu Reviewed work(s): Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 2005), pp. 635-660 Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588525 . Accessed: 02/11/2011 09:06
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on Contextual Influences Instructional Caseforan A Practices: Chinese to Ecological Approach ELT

GUANGWEI HU
University NanyangTechnological Singapore

This article on English languageteaching investigating reports a study in in secondary-level classrooms China.A sampleof252 (ELT) practices comfromdifferent school graduates partsof the country secondary of on Analyses practices. pleted a questionnaire variousinstructional instruction socioeconomiin classroom thedata revealedthatwhereas of has callydevelopedregions takenon some features communicative in theless developed (CLT), instructional practices languageteaching methodareas are stillcharacterized traditional by languageteaching in are to differences instructional ologies.The regional practices traced The analysis factors. variouseconomic,social,and cultural showsthat in is whattranspires theforeign languageclassroom inevitably shaped and constrained contextual influences. This conclusionhigh-lights by theneed foran ecologicalperspective replacethetechnological to one that predominates international in endeavorsto reformlanguage education. concludesbydiscussing whattheadoptionofan The article in entails the Chinesecontexts ELT. for ecologicalapproach hina's rapid socioeconomic development in the last 25 years has created an escalating demand for English proficiency(Cortazzi & 1996b; Maley, 1995; Ross, 1992). Since the early 1990s, the Ministry Jin, of Education has stepped up its effortto reformELT and improve its in effectiveness response to a growingdissatisfaction with the quality of in instruction the formaleducation system(Adamson & Morris, English 1997; Hu, 2002b). As a major component of the ELT reformdrive,an imported methodology, CLT, has been vigorouslypromoted because traditionalteaching methodologies are thoughtto formthe crux of the problems with ELT in China (Hu, 2002a). The top-downpromotion of CLT has been informed by what Tudor (2001) calls "a technological perspective on language teaching" (p. 8). Such a perspective assumes that a well-developed methodology "will lead in a neat, deterministic

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manner to a predictable set of learning outcomes" (p. 9). The technological perspectiveis clearlymanifestedin the Syllabus Revision Team's (2000) commentary on the 2000 national junior secondary English syllabus. The new syllabus was developed to interface with recent developmentsin language education byupdating teaching methodology, incorporatingprogressiveand scientifictheories on language teaching and learning, and applying new research findings about language development. The Chinese policy makers are not alone in taking a technological perspective on foreign language education and viewing CLT as the solution to the perceived problems.As a matterof fact,reformendeavors informed by a technological perspective are the norm rather than the exception around the world (Coleman, 1996b; Tudor, 2001). For example, a recent study (Nunan, 2003) on educational polices and practices in seven Asian countries and regions found that all the subscribed to some form of CLT in educational systemshave officially of the effectiveness classroom teachto their top-down efforts improve are also found in other Asian ing. Similar foreign language policies countriesand other partsof the world (Ho, 2003; Holliday, 1994; D. F. Li, a 1998). As noted by the researchers,however,there is almost invariably realities in those places. gap between policy imperativesand classroom This gap raises the importantquestion of what factorsprevent official methodological prescriptions and other policy directives from being (EFL) classrooms. implemented in many English-as-a-foreign-language Motivated by that question, this study examines ELT in Chinese which has been at secondary schools-a sector of the education system the forefrontof recent ELT reform efforts,is affectingthe largest and has a vitalrole number of English language learners in the country, to play in raising the national level of English proficiency(Hu, 2002a). Specifically,this study addresses three questions: (a) What differences and similaritiesin instructionalpractices exist in secondary-levelEFL classrooms across China? (b) To what extent has the officially promoted CLT methodologybeen incorporated into classroom teaching? (c) What contextual factorsinteractwith the ELT reformpolicies to facilitateor inhibit the adoption of the officially espoused teaching methodologyin of China? Given the predominance of the technological different parts perspective over the global landscape of foreignlanguage education, a studyof ELT practices in China, where the reformendeavors embody a can technological view on pedagogical effectiveness, have wider implications for the internationalTESOL community.

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BACKGROUND
Since English was firsttaught in China in the 1800s (Bolton, 2002), firstgrammar-translation methodology (GT) and later audiolingualism (ALM) have enjoyed considerable popularity (see Fu, 1986). CLT was brought to China in the late 1970s by international ELT specialists it Initially, failed to receive support workingin some Chinese universities. (L. M. Yu, 2001). In fact,there was strong resistance to it (Burnaby & Sun, 1989; X. J. Li, 1984). Until recently,Chinese and Western ELT specialists have had a heated and continual debate on the necessity, appropriateness, and effectivenessof adopting CLT in China (e.g., Anderson, 1993; Burnaby& Sun, 1989; Cortazzi &Jin, 1996a, 1996b; Hu, 2002a; Jin & Cortazzi, 1998; X. J. Li, 1984; Liao, 2004; Rao, 1996). Despite a lack of consensus among researchersregardingthe appropriof ateness of CLT forChina, the Ministry Education (known as the State Education Commission between 1985 and 1997) was impressed by the high profile that the methodology enjoyed internationallyand was convinced that it would provide the best solution for the widespread problem of students' low competence in using English for communicain tion even after yearsof formalinstruction the language. Consequently, in CLT was promoted intensively a top-downmanner through syllabus design and materialsproduction (Adamson & Morris,1997; Hu, 2002b). Recent research (e.g., Hu, 2003; Zheng & Adamson, 2003) suggeststhat CLT has gained some ground. However,indications also show that the adoption of CLT practices does not occur across the board but varies as a result of local contexts (Hu, 2003). Furthermore,it is important to withso-called note thatcertainquarterstend to equate CLT simplistically and progressivepedagogy (e.g., Liao, 2004; L. M. Yu, 2001). good A basic assumption underlyingthis studyis that methodology is not only relevantto research on classroom practices in China but may also provide a frameworkfor investigatingthe design and procedures of classroom instruction.Some researchers and language educators may findsuch a research perspectivesuspect. The notion of methodologyhas in attractedmany criticisms recent yearsand has lost the popularitythat it once enjoyed. Some researchersand language educators question the usefulness of the notion because classroom practices subsumed under differentmethodologies can be very similar (Brown, 2000; Swaffar, Arens, & Morgan, 1982). Others contend that methodologies do not capture teachers' thinkingor reflectwhat actually transpiresin classrooms (Katz, 1996). Some note that methodologies reflecta top-down view of teaching and marginalize the role of teachers by prescribingfor them what and how to teach (Richards, 1987). Others observe that methodologies are often based on assumptions rather than research
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 637

difficult (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Some point out thatit is inherently of to research the effectiveness different methodologies and that the inconclusive (Ellis, results of comparative method studies are typically 1994; Freeman & Richards, 1993). Others dismissthe whole notion as a futile search for the best methodology, given the great diversityof teaching and learning contexts (Bartolome, 1994; Tedick & Walker, 1994). Finally,methodologies, especially those originatingin the West, have been criticizedforembodyinga politicallyand culturally imperialist stance (Pennycook, 1989; Phillipson, 1992). Because of these perceived problems, Richards (1987) suggests that the language teaching profession should go beyond teaching methodologies and focus on exploring the nature and conditions of effective teaching and learning. In a similar vein,Kumaravadivelu (1994) calls for"a shift awayfromthe conventional a of method towarda 'postmethod condition"' which "motivates concept based on currenttheosearch for an open-ended, coherent framework retical,empirical, and pedagogical insights"(p. 27). draw attention to a number of methodology-related These criticisms and help to fosteran awareness of the problems thatmayarise problems from the uncritical promotion of and a paralyzing obsession with the best methodology. It is important to point out, however, that the perceived problems often do not originate so much in methodologies per se as in theirmisuse. As Larsen-Freeman (1999) and Holliday (1994) have cogentlyargued, methodologies are valuable when they are used sensibly,and inquiringly.Moreover, the criticismsdo not sensitively, the usefulness of examining classroom instructionfroma methnegate odological perspectivein contextswhere one or another methodologyis clearlyexertingan influence on teachers' work.In thisregard,the influx of criticismsleveled at methodology itselfis revealing: It suggests that methodologies can influence classroom teaching in one wayor another, is though such a state of affairs considered undesirable, counterproducor problematic by the critics.Furthermore,some of the criticisms tive, themselvesimplythe need to research the interactionsbetween teaching methodologies and contextual influences. These considerationshave led to the position taken in thisarticle that to the extent Chinese EFL teachers are concerned withmethodology,it can offera useful frameworkfor examining ELT practices in Chinese schools. In this regard, there is no shortage of indications that teaching classroom methodologyis a deeply ingrained notion in China and affects in at least five ways. First, policy directives on educational teaching reform hold that teaching methodology is crucial to the quality of teaching (e.g., Chinese Communist PartyCentral Committee,1985). All these reformdirectivescall for the replacement of traditionalteaching methodologies withinnovativeand progressiveones. In response to the ELT devote call, curriculumstandardsand syllabusesforsecondary-level
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much space to methodological issues (see Curriculum and Teaching MaterialsResearch Institute, of 2001; Ministry Education, 2001). Second, several widely used textbook series have been writtenin the spirit of recent teaching methodologies (Adamson & Morris, 1997; Hu, 2002b), and the teacher's books accompanying them provide detailed methodological guidance or prescriptions.Third, to develop an understanding of major teaching methodologies is one of the professedgoals of English language teacher education programs (EFL Teacher Education Curriculum Taskforce, 1993). The major professional course found in all the teacher education programsis explicitlycalled Textbooks and Teaching Methodology. Fourth, issues of methodology feature prominentlyin teachers' staff-room talk,discussions afterpeer lesson observations,and semestralworkreports.Finally, teaching methodologyis one of the most discussed and researched topics in major Chinese journals of foreign language education for researchersand teachers. As this brief discussion shows, the notion of methodology has been given much prominence by Chinese policy makers, curriculumdesigners, textbook writers, researchers,and teachers. Given this situation,to dismissteaching methodologyas irrelevant research on whatoccurs in to EFL classrooms is to underestimateits influence on classroom teaching in China. Although this article argues for the usefulness of examining instructional practicesfroma methodological perspective,thisargument should not be construed as suggestinga simplistic linkage between good teaching and some teaching methodologies on the one hand and bad teaching and other teaching methodologies on the other. On the the contrary, article supports the view that teachers' choice of a particular teaching methodologyis shaped by a myriadof contextualinfluences and that a methodology's appropriateness cannot be investigatedindependently of the social context of teaching (Tedick & Walker, 1994; Tudor, 2001).

THE STUDY Participants

The studyinvolved 252 Chinese students attending a 6-month,fulltime communication skillsprogramat a university Singapore between in 2001 and 2003. They had just completed theirsecondary education and enrolled at 16 major Chinese universities before theycame to Singapore and attended the intensiveEnglish program.They were aged between 18 and 21. Of the participants,31% (n = 78) were female. Based on a placement test,theirEnglish proficiency ranged froma low intermediate to a low advanced level.
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 639

To address the three research questions presented earlier,the participants were grouped according to two criteria. The firstcriterion was whethera participanthad completed his or her secondary education in a coastal or inland province. The categorization of the provinces was based on a geo-economic schematizationfound in Hayhoe (1996). The second criterion was whether the secondary school in question was located in the capital cityor in another part of the province. The two criteriawere intended to reflectdifferencesin socioeconomic development between provinces and within a province. That is, the coastal provinces have been more developed in the last 2 decades than the inland provinces,and the capital cityof a province, as its chief administrative, economic, and cultural center,has been generallythe province's most developed area (Hayhoe, 1996). The two criteriaresulted in four groups:' 1. CC Group: Students fromcapital cities of coastal provinces. 2. OC Group: Students fromother places in coastal provinces. 3. CI Group: Students fromcapital cities of inland provinces. 4. OI Group: Students fromother places in inland provinces. Table 1 presents the demographics of the four groups. As can be seen in Table 2, which presents the participants' selfreported biodata and background informationabout their formal Enthe glish instruction, studyrepresented 225 secondaryschools. The four in groups did not differ age but varied considerablyin the percentage of studentswho startedformallearning of English in primaryschool (3 to 4 contact hours a week), with the CC and the OI Groups having the largest and the smallest percentage, respectively.All the remaining students startedformal English instructionin secondary Grade 1, and, like the rest of the participants,had 4 to 5 hours of weeklyinstruction throughoutjunior and senior secondary education (6 years in total). Because of the differencesin the startinggrade, the CC Group outstrippedthe OC and the OI Groups byat least one year of formalEnglish instruction.The last column of Table 2 gives the number of studentsin each group who used, as their core English textbooks,the Junior/Senior English Chinaseries developed by the People's Education Press under for the Ministryof Education. Although all the students in the OI group used the two series,half of the CC Group used other textbooks,some of which were published abroad.
and broad representation the relative the twocriteria of 1 Admittedly, gave onlya simplified levels of economic, social, and culturaldevelopmentof the different regions.Nonetheless,it can be argued thatsuch classifications were adequate foran exploratory studythat aimed to broad patterns of ELT practices rather than present fine-grained identify ethnographic descriptions. 640 TESOL QUARTERLY

TABLE 1 Demographicsof the Participants Coastal Province Beijing Fujian Guangdong Jiangsu Liaoning Shandong Shanghai Tianjin Zhejiang Capital city 4 2 3 7 9 8 5 3 7 Other place 7 16 12 14 18 8 Province Anhui Chongqing Gansu Guizhou Heilongjiang Henan Hubei Hunan Jiangxi Jilin Shaanxi Shanxi Sichuan Inland Capital city 6 8 0 0 4 3 4 3 4 3 7 2 7 51 Other place 6 2 2 8 6 11 10 6 9 5 3 10 78

Total

48

75

Note. ratherthan provinces. Beijing,Shanghai,Tianjin,and Chongqing are municipalities

Data Collectionand Analysis

Data collected for the studyincluded the 252 participants'responses to a questionnaire, 40 focused interviews, and response essayswritten by a subgroup of 75 participants.

Questionnaire
A questionnaire was developed and administered to the participants shortlyafter they began the intensiveEnglish program. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. The first part elicited biodata and
TABLE 2 Biodata and BackgroundInformation Startof Englishlearning (Primary/ Secondary) 25/23 21/54 17/34 7/71 Average yearsof English learning 7.6 6.6 6.8 6.1

Group CC OC CI OI

Age 18-20 18-20 18-20 18-21

Gender (M/F) 26/22 55/20 34/17 59/19

No. of schools 43 65 48 69

Textbooks (PEP series) 24 55 32 78

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641

background informationas summarized in Table 2. The second part aimed to findout whathad motivatedthe participantsto learn English in secondary school by asking them to give and rank theirmain reasons for learning the language. The thirdpart was designed to elicit information about secondary-level ELT practices.Before thispart of the questionnaire was constructed,a survey the methodologyliterature of was conducted to classroom practices typically associated withGT, ALM, and CLT, identify which are the three most influentialELT methodologies in China. The features of each methodology in six areas of surveyaimed to identify interest: pedagogical orientation (e.g., knowledge about English or abilityto use it), instructionalcontent and its presentation (e.g., grammar rules or communicative functions), language practice (e.g., grammar exercise or meaning-focusedinteraction),teacher and learner roles (e.g., teacher dominance or active learner involvement),learning materials (e.g., materialswritten especiallyforlearnersor authenticmaterials), and assessment (e.g., knowledge about English or ability to use it). Altogether40 featureswere identified (see Table 3, p. 645). Statements were constructed to describe these features. These statements were in so written Chinese and free of terminology as to avoid confusion and the participants.Below are examples of the statemisinterpretation by ments translatedfromChinese: rules. The teacherexplainedgrammar and recitedialogues/texts. The teachermade thestudents memorize The teacherexplaineda textsentencebysentence. their ideas. used Englishto communicate The students The students engagedin pair or smallgroupwork. The participants were asked to indicate whether the instructional or occasionally, frequently, practice described by a statementhad usually, course. occurred in their secondary-level never English Pertinentto the data collection instrumentis a criticismof teaching methodologies discussed earlier, namely the similarityof classroom practicesused to deploy them. In a comparativestudyof methodologies, Swaffar et al. (1982) found that teachers subscribing to different methodologies used similar instructionalactivitiesin their classrooms. This led the researchers to conclude that "methodological labels asbecause signed to teaching activitiesare, in themselves,not informative, used" (p. referto a pool of classroom practiceswhich are universally they activities thatsupport to not difficult cite instructional 31). It is certainly Swaffaret al.'s conclusion, but that does not mean that one cannot teachers' methodological orientationsby examining their classidentify
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et room practices.For one thing,Swaffar al.'s conclusion does not apply to all classrooms or all practicesassociated withdifferent methodologies. The literature of ethnographic classroom studies has numerous classrooms where distinct sets of instructionalpractices are adopted as a result of the different methodologies subscribed to (see, e.g., Holliday, 1994). For another, considerable research indicates that differencesin methodological orientations can be captured in quantitative terms (Fr6hlich, Spada, & Allen, 1985) and that teachers committed to use principles underlyinga particular methodology tend to frequently many instructionalpractices associated with it (Mangubhai, Marland, et Dashwood, & Son, 2004). Swaffar al. also acknowledged this tendency when they said that "the differencesamong methodologies are to be the prioritiesassigned to the tasks" (p. found in the ordered hierarchy, 31). This means that the methodological orientationsof classrooms can be distinguishedbased on quantitativedifferencesin the instructional practices adopted in those classrooms. Finally,even when a mixtureof instructionalpractices associated with different methodologies is found in the same classrooms, statistical procedures can help researchers different determineifthe instructional practicesformsubsetsthatreflect dimensions and then compare the classrooms on the identiunderlying fied dimensions. One such statistical procedure, which has been used in is this study, factoranalysis.2 a is Factoranalysis a statistical procedure foruncoveringor confirming number of common factorsunderlyinga set of observed variables by studyingthe covariation among those variables (Hatch & Lazaraton, 1991; Long, 1994). Confirmatory factoranalysis(CFA) is used to test the a number of variables and the hypothexpected relationships among esized underlyingdimensions in a dataset. CFA has been chosen for this study because it could determine whether the instructionalpractices covered by the questionnaire indeed formed three subgroups to reflect the distinctions commonly made in the literature among the three methodologies of interest(i.e., GT, ALM, and CLT). Based on the CFA results, indexes (i.e., factor-basedscales) were developed for further statisticalanalyses (Kim & Mueller, 1994). These factor-basedscales reduced the large number of variables involvedto severalvalues without found in the originalvariables(Hatch & Lazaraton, losing the information The factor-based scales were then used as dependent variables in 1991). a multivariateanalysis of variance (MANOVA) and post-hoc tests to identifydifferencesand similaritiesin the instructionalpractices reported by the four groups of participants.The significancelevel was set at .05 for all the statistical tests.
2 I thankone of the anonymousreviewers forrecommending use of factoranalysis the and MANOVA in thisstudy. CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 643

Interviews Written and Responses

The questionnaire required the participants to operate within an into the and could introduce subjectivity externallyimposed framework data collected. Therefore,it was necessaryto complement the questionthatwould allow the naire withless restrictive data-collectioninstruments participantsgreaterfreedom to respond fromtheirown perspectives.To this end, data were also elicited through focused interviewswith 40 participants (10 from each group) and through essays writtenby 75 participants (CC = 17, OC = 19, CI = 15, OI = 24) in response to a recent article discussinghow the traditionalChinese culture of learning has influenced ELT practices. The studentswho wrote essayswere not the same studentswho were interviewed.

RESULTS
Analyses of the interviewsand response essays yielded patterns of differences and similarities that were largely consistent with those identified in the questionnaire data. Because of space limitations, however,only the results from analyses of the questionnaire data are and written responses are presented in thisarticle,though the interviews and discussingthe findingsfromthe questiondrawn on in interpreting naire data. As a preliminaryanalysis,a CFA was run on the questionnaire data, using SPSS (2002). To conduct the analysis,the response categories for each questionnaire item were converted into a numerical scale ranging from0 (never) to 3 (usually). Because the literaturegenerallyassociates the 40 instructionalpractices with three teaching methodologies, a 3factor solution was imposed on the analysis.The maximum likelihood method was used to extract the factors (Kim & Mueller, 1994; Long, 1994), and the factor solution was rotated using the direct oblimin method to obtain a simpler and more readily interpretable structure (Kim & Mueller, 1994). The three factorsaccounted for a reasonable amount (44.78%) of the total variance in the data, with Factor 1 explaining 27.44%, Factor 2, 10.82%, and Factor 3, 6.52%. Table 3 presents the 40 questionnaire items classifiedaccording to the methodology literatureand the resultsof the CFA. considered Although a factorloading of .30 or above is conventionally to be substantial,a cutoffvalue of .50 was used for reasons explained later. Loadings above the cutoffare in bold typeface in Table 3. An examination of the items with loadings above the cutoffon Factor 1 revealed that all 13 items describe instructional practices typically associated with CLT in the methodology literature.Therefore, it made
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TABLE 3 QuestionnaireItems and CFA Results and Direct ObliminRotation) (MaximumLikelihood Extraction Practice Instructional Pedagogical orientation 1. Focus on students'knowledgeabout English (GT) to 2. Predominantattention reading & writing (GT) 3. Emphasison formalaccuracy(GT/ALM) 4. Predominantattention aural to & oral skills(ALM) 5. Balanced attention the four to language skills(CLT) 6. Focus on students'ability use to English (CLT) contentand presentation Instructional 7. Explanationof grammar rules (GT) of 8. Illustration grammar rules (GT) 9. Explanationof textssentenceby sentence (GT) 10. Parsingof sentencesin texts(GT) 11. Contrastive of analysis Chinese & English (GT/ALM) 12. Explicit& directcorrectionof learnererrors(GT/ALM) 13. Use of Englishin conductinga lesson (ALM/CLT) 14. Inductiveteachingof grammar(ALM/CLT) 15. Teaching of communicative functions (CLT) 16. Culturesof English-speaking peoples (CLT) 17. Use of open-ended questions (CLT) Language practice 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Grammarexercises (GT) Translationexercises (GT) Sentence patternpractice (ALM) Reading-aloudof dialogues & texts(ALM) Memorization dialogues & texts(ALM) of (ALM) Prepared language performance Teacher-student interaction English (CLT) in Games & activities real-world resembling tasks(CLT) Constantexposure to new language input (CLT) Communicationin Englishamong students(CLT) Integrated practicein the four language skills(CLT) about varioustopics (CLT) Reading & writing -.459 -.401 .248 .191 -.224 .309 -.110 .721 .450 .579 .662 .465 .213 -.131 .738 .690 .602 .413 .522 .161 .114 .066 .086 .193 .768 .645 -.093 .052 .219 -.416 .153 -.307 -.146 -.449 -.425 -.317 .666 .432 .572 .515 .464 .333 .313 .529 .214 .370 .451 .246 -.457 -.450 -.484 -.337 -.173 -.175 .305 .703 .683 .588 .654 .180 .109 -.107 -.089 -.115 .730 .687 .142 -.049 -.045 .134 .636 .656 .653 .799 .696 .255 -.245 -.391 -.390 -.464 -.311 .485 .475 .464 .646 .534 .567 .536 .501 .487 .398 .431 -.477 -.460 -.392 .166 .713 .637 .033 .014 .051 .711 .134 -.064 .629 .504 .700 -.226 -.271 -.368 .439 .316 .501 .542 .521 .428 Factor 1 Factor2 Factor 3 h2

continued page 646 on CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 645

TABLE 3 (continued) QuestionnaireItems and CFA Results and Direct ObliminRotation) (MaximumLikelihood Extraction Instructional Practice Teacher and learnerroles 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. Teacher talkformostof class time (GT) instruction Teacher-fronted (GT/ALM) Teacher controlover class (GT/ALM) Pair & small group work (CLT) Peer feedback& evaluation (CLT) -.396 -.351 -.086 .674 .666 -.081 -.103 .648 .150 .109 .609 .714 .126 -.368 -.400 .145 .423 -.201 -.371 .384 .515 .423 .461 .451 Factor 1 Factor2 Factor 3 h2

Learningmaterials textbooks(GT/ALM) 35. Structure-based 36. Adherence to prescribedtextbooks (GT/ALM) 37. Teacher-developedmaterials(CLT) 38. Authenticmaterials(CLT) Assessment 39. Knowledgeabout grammar& vocabulary (GT/ALM) to 40. Ability use the target language (CLT) -.425 .696 .002 .082 .780 -.313 .613 .485 -.166 -.197 .391 .683 .601 -.172 .080 .053 .380 .202 .154 .468

all sense to label the factorCLTpractices. Similarly, the itemsbut one that loaded on Factor 2 are practices commonlycharacterized as ALM; thus, it was reasonable to interpretthe factor as representingALM practices. but The only exception, Item 24, is generallyconsidered a CLT activity loaded on the ALM factor. In the interviews,most participants gave routine classroom expressions and teacher-student dialogues patterned on textbook models as examples of teacher-studentinteraction in interactionwould English. This way of thinkingabout teacher-student As the item loaded on the ALM factor. expected, all 13 items explain why GT. Consethat loaded on Factor 3 are widely regarded as typifying it was reasonable to take the factoras representingGT practices. quently, It should be noted, however,that 9 of the 10 items classifiedunder two methodologies in the literatureloaded on only one factor rather than two. It should also be noted that 5 instructional practices (i.e., Items 23, and 37) had loadings below the cutoffon all the factors. 26, 29, 36, Despite these minor discrepancies, there was a good match between the of and common classifications the instructional factorstructure practices in the methodologyliterature. associated withthe CFA was significant(X2= 1601.706, The x2 statistic estimate for a 663 df p < .001). The X2 test provides a goodness-of-fit factorsolution. A significant is oftentaken to indicate thatthe solution X2
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deviates from the underlying structure of the data. The lack of a good fitto the data, however,did not necessarilymean that statistically the 3-factor solution was not valid or reliable. As noted by Bentler and Bonett (1980), the magnitude of the X2tends to increase withsample size because when the sample size is large, small deviations caused by minor factors"will be treated as 'significant' substantively insignificant dimensions thatcannot be accounted forbysamplingvariability" (Kim & Mueller, 1994, p. 110), givingrise to a large X2value. Furthermore, Long (1994) points out that uses of the X2testas a measure of goodness of fit "are often unjustifiedin practice" (p. 304) because the testis based on several assumptionswhich are "generallyviolated in applications of the factor model" (p. 305). Because of these problems, Kim confirmatory and Mueller (1994) comment that it is not advisable to relycompletely on the x2 test in evaluating the adequacy of a factor solution; they recommend "substantivesignificance"(p. 110) as a useful criterionfor deciding the adequacy of a factormodel. Given the fairly large sample of involved in this study,a significantX2 statisticwould be participants expected. It is more importantthat the adequacy of the factorsolution can be defended on the grounds that it achieved the main purpose of the CFA-to identify sets of instructionalpractices which would clearly reflectdifferent methodological orientationsin Chinese EFL classrooms. Based on the CFA, an index for each of the three methodologies was constructedby summing the scores of each participantfor all the items that loaded on the relevant factor. To select only those items that unambiguouslyclustered togetherand to alleviate the problem of giving the same weight to variables whose loadings varied greatly (Kim & value for factorloadings was raised fromthe Mueller, 1994), the cutoff conventional .30 to a moderatelyhigh .50. As a furthercheck of their Cronbach's a coefficients were computed for the factor-based reliability, and the resultswere acceptable: .91 for both the CLT and GT scales, scales and .87 for the ALM scale. The factor-based indexes were subjected as dependent variables to a with the groupings of participantsas the independent variMANOVA, able. As Table 4 shows, both the ALM and GT instructionalpractices were reported by all the four groups as fairly often or frequently The group means occurringin theirsecondary-level English instruction. for the ALM practices ranged from 1.66 to 1.85, somewhat below the level of frequently (equal to 2.00 in the numerical scale). The group means for the GT practices were higher, ranging from 1.86 to 2.24. However, there was clear between-groupsvariation regarding the CLT below the frequently practices, with the CC group mean being slightly
See Kim and Mueller (1994) fora discussionof factor-based scales in practicalresearch. CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 647

TABLE 4 DescriptiveStatistics Dependent variable CLT ALM GT CC (n = 48) M 1.94 1.78 1.86 SD 6.58 6.04 7.05 OC (n = 75) M 1.49 1.73 2.03 SD 8.60 5.46 8.01 CI (n = 51) M 1.78 1.85 1.94 SD 5.88 6.55 6.85 OI (n = 78) M SD 1.02 1.66 2.24 6.43 4.64 7.55

ALM = Note. = median,SD = standarddeviation;CLT = communicative M language teaching; method; GT = grammartranslation. audiolingualism

level level at one end and the OI Group mean just above the occasionally to 1.00) at the other end. (equal Table 5 presentsthe resultsof the MANOVA. The resultsrejected the null hypothesis of no between-groupsdifference.Following Noru'is's (1994) recommendation, the univariate test resultswere examined to where the differences mightbe. The groups were found to differ identify for the CLT practices: F (3, 248) = 35.345, p < .001. The significantly for significantly the GT practices:F (3, 248) = 5.246, groups also differed < .003. However,theydid not differ the ALM practices:F (3, 248) = for p > .383. Post-hoc analyses (the Tukey honest significantdiffer1.022, p ence procedure) revealed that all pairwise comparisons except the one between the CC and CI Groups were significantat .05 for the CLT practices. In the case of the GT practices,only two pairwisecomparisons (CC vs. OI and CI vs. OI) were statistically significant. To sum up, the analyses identified several patterns of instructional regions of practices. First,secondary-levelEFL classrooms in different This is reflected China show a mixtureof methodological orientations. in Table 4, which shows that with only two exceptions (OC and OI for CLT), the group means of reportedfrequencyforthe ALM, CLT, and GT level. instructionalpractices either approach or are above the frequently
TABLE 5 MANOVA Results Statistic Pillai's Trace Wilks'Lambda Hotelling'sTrace Roy'sLargestRoot 648 Value .312 .688 .451 .449 F 9.612 11.034 12.272 37.084 Hypothesisdf 9.000 9.000 9.000 3.000 Errordf 744.000 598.850 734.000 248.000 p .000 .000 .000 .000

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Second, the traditionalinstructional practices (i.e., those associated with GT and ALM) still predominate or exist side by side with those endorsed methodology (i.e., CLT), despite sanctioned by the officially in recentyearsto wean teachersfromGT and ALM. the top-downefforts The predominance of traditionalpractices is particularly strong in the China (where the OC and OI Groups had their less developed areas of promoted secondaryeducation). Third, the extentto which the officially methodologyhas been taken up varies fromregion to region. Although CLT practices have a fairlystrong presence in secondary-levelEFL classrooms in urban centers (where the CC and CI groups completed their secondary education), these practices are largely absent from classrooms in the less developed areas. Because around 70% of the secondary-level student population in China is found in these less developed areas, recent ELT reform effortshave not had extensive ELT in the country.Taken together,these influence on secondary-level three patterns suggest that contextual factors are influencing which teaching methodologies are used and how much prominence is given to EFL classrooms across China. them in different

DISCUSSION
ELT thatthe studyidentified in The regional disparity secondary-level can be attributed to a host of policy, economic, social, and cultural these factorsare presented in two factors.Because of space constraints, broad groups.

Resource Factors
in The regional disparity instructional practices can be accounted for in large part by regional differences resources forELT, which include, in and the teaching force. among other things,curricula,school facilities, These differences themselvesproducts of recent policies and striking are discrepancies in socioeconomic development across China. In its modthe Chinese government,constrained by limited naernization effort, tional resources,has adopted development policies in favorof the more developed coastal regions and urban centers (Hu, 2003; Paine & DeLany, 2000). Although they have brought rapid socioeconomic advances to these advantaged places, these preferential policies have at the same time exacerbated long-existing regional discrepancies in socioeconomic development (Hu, in press; Yang, 2001). To sustain economic demands development in the advantaged regions and to address varying on education resulting from the widening regional discrepancies in
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 649

socioeconomic development, the Chinese government has staged a thatpromulgate decentralizationof educaseries of educational reforms of tional administrationand partial diversification curricula (Chinese Communist PartyCentral Committee, 1985; Lewin, Little,Xu, & Zheng, 1994; Tsang, 2000). These reform initiatives,together with uneven have not only perpetusocioeconomic development across the country, in ated existingregional differences ELT resources but have also created new ones. In line with the principles of educational decentralization and several economically developed coastal provinces and diversification, cities have been allowed to develop their own primary-and large secondary-levelcurricula and syllabi.The growingdemand for English proficiencyfrom socioeconomic advances in these areas has not only fosteredmore ELT in secondary schools but has also led to ELT in many schools since the early1990s (Cortazzi & Jin,1996a; Hu, 2002b). primary ELT in the of This studyshows the effect rapidlyexpanding primary-level areas: More than half of the participants socioeconomically developed fromthe coastal capital cities and municipalitiesstartedto learn English ELT is that in primaryschool. One importantoutcome of primary-level it secondstudentsdevelop some English proficiency, affords by helping teachers a wider range of instructionalpossibilities,including ary-level communicativelanguage learning activities.Few primaryschools in the as less developed areas, however,have taughtEnglish until recently, can be seen in the small proportion (9%) of the studentsin the OI Group who received English instructionin primaryschool. The late start of English instruction, coupled with pressures from standardized and examinations, inclines secondary-level high-stakes largelydiscrete-point teachers in the disadvantaged areas to adopt a knowledge-transmission approach (Hu, 2003). The gap in curricularresources has been further widened by the adoption of content-basedEnglish instruction(CBEI) in a rapidly growing number of well-resourcedschools in the developed areas ("How young is too young," 2001; Hu, 2002b). Because CBEI uses its English as a medium of instruction, adoption has required preparaor parallel English courses to emphasize students' ability to use tory English and to take a communicative approach to developing their language skills. The disadvantaged areas, however, have lacked the necessarysocioeconomic resources to implement CBEI in theirschools. constitutesanother Regional disparityin educational infrastructure influence on instructional practices. Many schools in the important developed areas are now provided withthe latest teaching facilitiessuch multimedialanguage labs (Ross, 2000). The availability as state-of-the-art educational hardware encourages new conceptions of educaof modern tion and facilitates new teacher-studentrelationships as well as new instructional practices. On the other hand, schools in the disadvantaged
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areas tend to be inadequately equipped. Many of them do not even have the financial resources to repair their dangerously dilapidated school buildings,let alone obtaining up-to-dateteaching facilities(Yang, 2001). Because resources are scarce, as many as 60 students are sometimes if crowded into one classroom. It is difficult, not impossible,forteachers to give individualized, interactiveinstructionto classes of this size. The general lack of adequate teaching facilitiescompels many teachers to take a textbook-dependent, and transmission-oriented teacher-centered, in their classroom instruction (Hu, 2003; Paine & DeLany, approach A thirdresource factorhas to do with the differences professional in of the teaching forceworkingin the coastal and urban areas and quality the inland, rural regions. The economic prosperityand better living standardsin the coastal and urban areas have helped theirschools attract a disproportionate number of universitygraduates and lure many qualified teachers from the inland, rural regions. Privileged schools in large urban centers even recruit well-trainednative speakers to teach their English classes and to upgrade the language proficiencyand Furthermore,many urban secondprofessional skillsof theirlocal staff. thathelp aryschools have close connections withprestigiousuniversities them with their in-serviceteacher training. In addition, local governments of the socioeconomically advantaged regions sponsor a growing number of teachersforin-service (Hu, in trainingin overseas institutions of press). For these reasons, the majority teachersin the more developed areas are professionally trained,reasonably proficientin subject matter, informedof recent developmentsin language teaching,and equipped to implementnew pedagogical approaches in theirclassrooms (Ng & Tang, 1997). By contrast, the less developed regions have a much lower proportion of teachers who meet the minimum professional requirements set by the government (Hu, in press). A very large number of teachers there,especially minban(community-sponsored) teachersworking in rural communityschools, have received neither a postsecondary education nor formalteacher training(Hu, 2005; Wang, 2002). It is no surprise that many of these teachers lack the necessary professional preparation, language competence, and sociolinguistic knowledge to cope with the demands of a teaching methodology such as CLT.

2000).

SocioculturalInfluences
Along with the resource factors, some sociocultural factors also underlie the regional differencesin instructionalpractices. One such factoris the varyingavailability authentic English-languagematerials. of socioeconomic development in the advantaged regions and their Rapid
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 651

growing contact with the outside world have brought an influx of cultural artifacts from English-speakingcountries, such as newspapers and magazines, TV programs,Web sites,movies,pop music, and literary texts (Bolton, 2002; Guo & Huang, 2002; Jiang, 2003). These cultural artifacts serve as authentic English-language materials and cater to the differentneeds of English language learners in the socioculturally advantaged regions. They provide the learners with considerable exposure to authenticuse of English and create a condition forthem to learn of the language experientially. Given the availability such materials,it is not surprisingthat more than half of the participantsfrom the developed regions reported frequent use of authentic learning materials in their secondary-level English classes. By contrast, authentic Englishlanguage materials are rare in the more isolated and less developed regions. Students in these regions are exposed to English mainly English througha single set of textbooks-in most cases, theJunior/Senior for China series. As a result, these students have little opportunityto experience authentic English. This lack of authentic materials not only for makes developing communicativecompetence more difficult them, but it can also incline them to take an analytical approach to English language learning (Hu, 2002a). A second factoris the differing perceived values and uses of English in the developed and less developed regions. Since the 1980s, the economic progress of the advantaged coastal and urban areas has brought ventures,expatritechnological transfers,joint along foreigninvestment, overseas tourists,and commercial imports.This ate management staff, influx of English-dominantculture has contributed to a growing demand for English proficiency from a whole range of professions, businesses, workplaces, and enterprises (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996a). Given this increasing number of opportunities to use English for social and has vocational purposes, English proficiency become an importantsocial and economic capital (Nunan, 2003). The value of English as capital is reflectedin the reasons given by the CC and the CI Groups forlearning the language: More than half of the participants (60.42% for the CC Group and 56.86% for the CI Group) gave a career-or communicationrelated consideration as their most important reason for learning English. The more numerous opportunitiesto use English have heightened awareness of the importance of communicativecompetence in the language and exerted pressures on classroom instructionto move away from transmissionof knowledge about English to the development of students' abilityto use it for communication. The less developed areas, however,offerfewer opportunities to use English for social and vocational purposes. English has been largely restrictedto the domain of education (Zhao & Campbell, 1995). Studentsstudythe language mainly is This priority clearlyreflected institution. to secure a place in a tertiary
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in the proportion of students from the OI Group who gave various educational requirements as their most and second most important reasons for learning English. More than 90% of these studentsstudied English mainly to pass various English testsand to obtain admission to all universities. and response essays Virtually of the OI Group's interviews clearly indicated the straitjacketeffect of the high stakes tests on classroom instruction. A finalsocioculturalfactoris the Chinese culture of learning,namely, the expectations,attitudes, beliefs,values, perceptions,preferences,and behaviors that characterize Chinese educational practices. Much has been written thistopic (see, e.g., Burnaby& Sun, 1989; Cortazzi &Jin, on 1996a, 1996b; Hu, 2002a; Paine, 1990; Rao, 1996; Watkins& Biggs, 1996; C. C. Yu, 1984). To generalize somewhat, in the traditional Chinese culture of learning, education is conceived more as a process of knowledge accumulation than as a process of using knowledge for immediate purposes, and the preferredmodel of teaching is a mimetic or epistemic one that emphasizes knowledge transmission.It is also generallyagreed that the traditionalChinese culture of learning favors teacher-learnerroles, learner qualities, classroom etiquettes,and learning strategies that often conflict with those required by a learnercentered teaching methodology such as CLT but are highlycompatible with teacher-centeredmethodologies such as GT and ALM. Although the influence of the traditionalChinese culture is pervasive (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996a), its strengthseems to varyacross China. As a result of the increasingopenness of the coastal and urban areas to the outside world, people there have been exposed to foreignsociocultural influencesvia movies, music, literature,television,radio, the Internet,overseas travel, and contact with foreign tourists and expatriates living in China. Consequently, they are more amenable to such influences and less influenced by the traditionalChinese culture of learning. On the other hand, no substantiveexposure to sociocultural influences fromabroad has occurred in the less developed, isolated areas, where the traditional Chinese culture of learning still prevails and influences instructional Some evidence in support of the varyingcultural practices pervasively. influence comes fromthe response essayscollected forthisstudy. great A of the participants from the CC and CI Groups majority (81.25%) disagreed with the source article that some features of the traditional Chinese culture of learning constrained the adoption of CLT and provided counterexamples to show that a certain feature was largely absent fromtheirown learning processes or theirteachers' instructional practices. By contrast,83.33% of the participantsfrom the OI Group agreed that the various featureswere indeed major sources of resistance to pedagogical innovations and gave personal examples as evidence of the learning culture at work.
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 653

CONCLUSION
This study identified has some broad patterns instructional of differencesin secondary-level acrossChinaand related ELT themto a number of social and material An factors. overarching conclusionthatcan be from study that is drawn the instructional in are practices EFL classrooms to contextual influences. Thisconclusion in line is fundamentally subject a with growing 1993;Holliday, 1994; bodyofresearch (e.g.,Canagarajah, van Lier, 1988) suggesting that contextualfactorscan Tudor, 2001; impingeon language teachingand learningin numeroussignificant a the ways.It also highlights major cause underlying failureof recent ChineseELT reform efforts effect in China'svast to CLT underdeveloped That is, the reform efforts have takena technological regions. perspectiveand made methodological that contextual prescriptions disregard diversity. can fromthisstudy policyefforts Severalimplications be derived for directedat improving effectiveness ELT in China. One obvious the of is needs to greatly increase implication thatthe Chinese government in for and investment theinfrastructure ELT in theinland,ruralregions narrowthe gap in economic and materialresourcesbetweenthese regions and the more developed coastal, urban areas. There are, to limits the government's to however, ability do so. Giventhe current the socioeconomic between levelofChina'sdevelopment, great disparity the availdifferent partsof the country, meagereducationalresources able, and the huge student regions, populationin the underdeveloped of there is everyreason to believe that significant improvement the of and educationalinfrastructure the undersocioeconomicconditions developed areas will take yearsto occur. This ratherbleak prospect the to that makesit imperative look forstrategies can improve effectiveThis conclusion constraints. contextual ness of ELT under the existing An of leads to the second implication the study: ecologicalapproachto a ELT offers viablereform strategy. interacthe on An ecologicalperspective ELT recognizes multifaceted ecoand the particular tion betweenthe languageclassroom political, context and institutional educational, historical, nomic,social,cultural, whichis in whichit is situated.Unlike the technological perspective, of effectiveness abouttheuniversal based on an autonomous assumption the best teachingmethodology (Coleman, 1996a), the ecologicalperand the operateson an ideologicalassumption rejects notionof spective of teachingand learning (Hu, 2002a). universally appropriateways of element language as it methodology an essential Although recognizes no stressesthat a particular the perspective methodology, teaching, but a howlogicaltheunderlying matter are, principles "offers potential
does not in itselfguarantee that a given resultwill be obtained" (Tudor,
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of 2001, pp. 7-8). The effectiveness a methodologydepends cruciallyon its appropriateness for the situated, local, and dynamic realities of teaching and learning. Though the very nature of the ecological perspective precludes a priori specificationof a specificset, or even several sets,of instructional practices to be adopted for teaching English in China or in a particular it part of the country, does not invalidate a general description of what such a perspectivewould mean forELT policy efforts China. in adopting It would require thatthe policymakersrecognize the manywaysin which social, economic, and cultural factorscan influence instructionalpractices in the EFL classroom and grapple squarelywith,ratherthan ignore, contextual diversity. This approach would entail abolishing centrally imposed pedagogy (i.e., curricular objectives, instructionalstrategies, learning materials,and assessmentprocedures) inasmuch as such pedagogy inevitablydownplays or disregards contextual divergences and forces homogenization around assumed universal principles. This approach would also entail encouraging pedagogical practices that are "sensitiveto a particulargroup of teachers teaching a particulargroup of learners pursuinga particularset of goals withina particularinstitutional contextembedded in a particularsocioculturalmilieu" (Kumaravadivelu, 2001, p. 538). In principle, then, whatevermethodologyworksbest in a specific context to help studentsachieve theirgoals of English learning should be adopted, be it a traditional one like GT or a more recent innovation such as task-based methodology. In practice, however, no single established methodology is likely to suffice because all the established methodologies have been developed in particularcontextsto achieve particular instructionalgoals (Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Although the contextsand instructionalgoals associated witha particularmethodologyare likelyto overlap withthose found in a particular part of China, theywould not likelymatch exactly.The ecological approach necessitates adopting an informed pedagogical eclecticismthatencourages teachers to draw on practicesassociated with differentmethodologies in light of student needs, contextual constraints,and instructional resources (Brown, 2000; Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Tudor, 2001). A vital step toward ensuring the success of ecologically oriented ELT in policy efforts China would be to overhaul and reform the English language teacher education programs,especiallythe professionalpreparation components of the programs (Hu, 2005). Rather than prescribea particularmethodologyor a specificset of instructional practicesforpreand in-serviceteachers,as is the currentpractice, the teacher education programsneed to raise theirparticipants'methodological awarenessand familiarize them with differentmethodologies and perspectives on language teaching so as to enrich their repertoires of instructional
CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES 655

options. In addition, the programs need to help them develop a contextual awareness, useful contextual analysis skills, and a situated understanding of teaching and learning (Bax, 2004; Holliday, 1994). The programs should also guide participants in developing a set of guidelines, such as those found in Kumaravadivelu (1994, 2001) and Richards and Rodgers (2001), for making effective and coherent pedadecisions. gogical Although an ecological approach is stronglyrecommended as a productivesolution, such an approach is not a panacea thatcan solve all the major problems that plague ELT in China. One problem that it cannot address concerns the large number of studentsin the underdeveloped areas who are forced to studyEnglish simplybecause it is part of the compulsorycurriculum.These studentshave no use forEnglish and are not motivated at all to studythe language. As a matter of fact,an of majority these studentswillnever move beyond a 9-year overwhelming education. For these students,the question is not how to compulsory teach them English but whether to teach them English. By its very nature, an ecological approach answers the firstquestion but not the has second one. That question, which is highlycontroversial, been raised and debated by a number of people (Niu & Wolff, 2003; Nunan, 2003). Another problem that an ecological approach cannot solve completely concerns the issue of social and educational inequity (Hu, 2005; Nunan, 2003). An ecological approach essentiallytries to cope with and make but does littleto eradicate the the best of existingcontextual constraints fundamental social, economic, and cultural causes of inequity.Furtherconceivable thatpedagogical practicesinformedbyan more, it is entirely contextsachieve their ecological perspectiveto help studentsin different of learning English can lead to differentforms of proficiency, goals by knowledge, and competence that are valued differently society.Both issues are larger societal ones thatwould take more than of these thorny an ecological approach to address. This fact, however, should not diminish the value of such an approach as a much more viable and practical alternative to the technological perspective that is currently taken by the policy makers. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS reviewers and Suresh editor I wouldliketothank anonymous Canagarajah thethree of on comments earlierdrafts this article.Their valuable for theirinsightful are All it have however, my errors, respects. remaining suggestions improved inmany
own.

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THE AUTHOR
Guangwei Hu is an assistantprofessorat the National Instituteof Education, on NanyangTechnologicalUniversity, Singapore.His articles language teachingand learning have appeared in various academic journals, including Studiesin Second and Record. College LanguageAcquisition Teachers

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