3.1 Advantages of learning English in the Chinese system
As Chinese students who were learning English as a second language, some of the students thought it was much easier
for them to learn a foreign language with the help of their native language. Especially for learners in the lower level, the
explanations and analysis in Chinese would help them understand the problems more efficiently:
I prefer learning English in China because I can talk with my teachers freely and ask for their help with my weak points.
But, it is hard for me to do the same thing to the teachers in the training courses in the UK because my English is not
good enough to explain my problems to the teachers.
Some of interviewees felt the Chinese teachers’ teaching was easier to be accepted by Chinese students because all the
Chinese teachers had their own experiences of learning English as a second language. So the Chinese teachers should be
very clear about the problems which most of Chinese students would meet in their learning. Moreover, the teachers who
were teaching English training courses in China had quite lot experiences of teaching Chinese students. They knew
Chinese students’ learning style and the situations students were facing in learning a second language. Thus, the
teachers could combine their own experiences of English learning and teaching together to provide the effective
teaching for the students:
The teachers were professional and good experienced. They knew the problems we would meet when we between
English and Chinese. They often focused on explaining the hard points and common mistakes to us when they were
teaching. They always reminded us about tense, articles and plural forms, which our Chinese students often felt
confused when we made a sentence. When I paid more attention on these points, I made less and less mistakes.
The interviewees had different ideas about the teaching style which only focuses on examination skills in English
training courses in China. Some of the students thought this kind of practice only brought students too much pressure by
training students doing a plenty of exercises with exam skills, which were useless for students to improve their English
abilities. However, some of the students gave high marks to the training courses because they thought such a practice
method was good for them to improve their IELTS scores in a very short time. Since the interviewees attended the
English training courses for meeting the entry requirement of English universities, they preferred the training courses
which could help them with their aim of improving IELTS scores:
After I took the English training course which focused on IELTS test in China, I had known much about IELTS. My
speed of answering IELTS paper had improved so much. Although the training course improved my exam skills more
than my English ability, it was really helpful for me because I had to meet the entry requirement of English universities
within several months. With the exam skills I had got in training course, my IELTS score improved about 1.5 point in
three months.