Revisiting Chinese resistance to communicative English: A counter example

Previous studies have shown that Chinese students tend to keep quiet in communication-oriented English classes. However, one Chinese university has been conducting a course, Communicative English for Chinese Learners (CECL), for over 30 years. How do they engage students in communication, when other studies have continuously reported resistance? In the current study, we observed 28 CECL class-sessions, conducted by three teachers. We also interviewed these three teachers and 16 students to understand their beliefs and experiences in CECL. Analysis revealed two types of instructional strategies, hierarchical and horizontal, that facilitated Chinese students' participation in classroom communications. Interestingly, although students enjoyed the classroom communications, they did not feel they learned as much from the communicative approach as they did from lectures.