Accounting for classroom curriculum: Test driven EFL practices

Abstract

Literature in the recent decade shows that test-driven teaching in Chinese schools, among other reasons, has led to unsuccessful implementation of the national English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum (see, e.g., Li & Baldauf, 2011; Zhang & Liu, 2014). EFL teachers in studies of Li (2010) and Li and Baldauf (2011) agreed that the curriculum itself was well designed on the theoretical side and was in line with the international trends in its standards and norms. However, teachers regarded it as a document for reading but not for implementation.