Less Classroom Hours of EFL Instruction to Non-English Majors in Chinese Universities Is It a Reason-Based Policy that Provokes No Response?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the phenomenon that reducing hours of EFL instruction to non-English majors in Chinese universities gets no response. It first depicts the phenomenon, pointing out that this phenomenon differs greatly from people’s response to similar events that happened in the past. It then analyzes the complicated underlying factors from perspectives of main stakeholders including university authorities, school deans and teachers, and those from the perspective of students, revealing their diversified thoughts and feelings towards the reduction of EFL instruction hours. Based on the analysis, this paper thinks that it’s not a thoroughly rational policy. In hope of minimizing the possible negative impact of the widely implemented policy, this paper proposes three suggestions for EFL instruction practice: Stratified instruction based on university-designed proficiency tests, communication oriented small-class instruction and teacher-guided autonomous learning.