A Study On The Attitudes Of College Students Toward Teachers’ Use Of Chinese In The EFL Classroom

As is known to all that the medium of instruction adopted by teachers during the process of teaching foreign language includes target language and mother tongue. However, whether teachers should use the L1 of their students in the EFL classroom has always been the subject of ongoing discussion and controversy for a long period of time. As the principal part of this issue, students’opinions and attitudes should be considered for the sake of improving teaching efficiency. Though researches on teachers’ use of students’ mother tongue in the EFL classroom have been done by many scholars and experts at home and abroad both from teachers’ and students’ perspectives, little attention has been given to the attitudes of students with different English proficiency levels toward teachers’ use of students’L1 in the context of the English classroom at university level. This research tends to investigate the attitudes of students with different language levels toward teachers’ use of Chinese in English classes as well as teachers’ actual use of L1 with hopes to provide some guidance for further foreign language teaching from the perspective of students’ emotional factors and teacher’s language awareness by comparing the research results. The research questions are 1) What are the attitudes of English-majors and non-English majors toward teachers’ use of Chinese in the EFL classroom; 2) What are the using degrees of the L1 by teachers in different language level classes? Whether their uses of the mother tongue are different in different classes?This study adopts qualitative research method and quantitative research methods, which include classroom observations, questionnaire surveys as well as interviews. The participants in this study are from a college of Anhui province which consists of 60 students (30 English majors and 30 non-English majors) and 3 English teachers. Classroom observation is conducted before delivering the questionnaires to prevent teachers changing their behaviors and utterances consciously. Then, questionnaires are distributed to students. After collecting the questionnaires, the researcher picks up some students randomly for face-to-face interview to gain more detailed information.This research has found that 1) Both English major and non-English major students have positive attitudes toward teachers’ use of Chinese in English classes for it can make the learning process more effective, save time as well as create a relative relaxed learning environment. However, there exists a relatively big difference between the two groups on the using degree of Chinese. The former prefer teachers to use L1 within 10% of class time while the latter’s preference is 10% to 40%. Students claim that teachers should use L1 to clarify conceptions and to explain new words and difficult grammars. Sometimes, it is also necessary for teachers to use the mother tongue to manage classrooms and to build close relationships with their students. Nevertheless, English and non-English majors have different opinions about the using degree of some functions; 2) Teachers are still using Chinese in the EFL classroom to a certain extent and the most frequently used functions of the L1 between different English level classes are basically similar. For English majors, teachers usually use their mother tongue mainly to explain and talk about learning; while for non-English majors, teachers would use L1 under the following circumstances:explaining, animating classroom atmosphere and giving instructions.This research reveals that 1) There is an obvious difference between English majors and non-English majors on the degree of teachers’ use of L1 as well as the using functions. Teachers should learn to monitor their use of L1 according to students’ English proficiency levels; 2) Teachers’L1 use in the EFL classroom does not completely accord with students’ expectations. Thus teachers should pay more attention to students’ emotional needs and attitudes, enhance their own language awareness and eventually improve teaching efficiency.