A Survey Report of Chinese College Students’ Perceptions of the College English Course

Abstract

This study examined Chinese college students’ perceptions of the college English course. The participants were freshmen and sophomores in a Chinese university. We handed out the original English version questionnaires to 419 students. The results indicated that there were learning problems in students’ motivation with respect to empowerment, interest, and success. There were also gender and class standing differences among the participants. Data from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) illustrated that the factors of usefulness, empowerment and interest received the most attention from the participants (n=367). The results indicated that it was necessary to implement the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in the college English course. Suggestions on how to change the classroom environment were also discussed.