Classroom discourse in college English teaching of China: a pedagogic or natural mode?

摘要

The study reported in this article aims to capture the possible changes to the discursive mode of College English (CE) teaching in China by comparing teachers' questions, feedback, and teaching exchanges across two levels of quality courses constructed at different years. Based on transcribed data of 20 videos, it reveals that the general discursive mode of CE teaching was pedagogic; constraints such as sociocultural backgrounds, CE testing system, and factors related to teacher, student, and classroom may account for this mode. Meanwhile, significant differences were found regarding teachers' questioning behaviour and feedback as years elapsed and the course level rose, which may be caused by underlying teachers' beliefs. Implications for Chinese CE teachers and tertiary-level teachers in other Asian English-as-a-foreign-language classrooms are discussed, including the urgency for teachers in teacher-fronted classes to shift their discursive mode from pedagogic to natural to foster students' communicative competence, and suggestions for how to effectuate this shift provided.