Military English Teaching in Chinese Military Academies: A Review

Abstract

Through reviewing studies of military English teaching in the context of Chinese military academies, this paper is aimed at locating both research gaps and weaknesses as well as achievements in an effort to contribute to research and development of military English teaching in Chinese military academies. Seven research topics are identified and the overall situation and problems in topic selection and in research design are then discussed. It is found that over years this field witnesses an increasing number of research projects, indicating a growing recognition of military English teaching in Chinese military academies. However, for topic selection, many topics are too broad and general while students and teachers, technology in teaching, and testing and assessment receive only minimal attention. For research design, plenty of researchers fail to illustrate explicitly their research questions and are thus confusing in terms of their research focuses. While most studies are not empirical and often too subjective, empirical ones usually adopt the quantitative approach and face reliability issue generated from data collection and analysis procedures. Accordingly, the authors tentatively propose some suggestions and future research directions to improve the situation.