Reticence in the EFL Classroom: Voices from Students in a Chinese University

Abstract

Student reticence in the English classroom is a pervasive phenomenon in the EFL context, yet limited empirical research on reticence among Chinese university students can be found in the previous literature. This study investigated the students’ perception regarding the reasons behind their reticence. Student respondents also proposed coping strategies both from students’ and teachers’ perspectives. 144 first-year undergraduates undertaking various disciplines in a Chinese university participated in the research. Methodological triangulation involving quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted. Findings indicate that low language proficiency, foreign language anxiety, introversion and teachers’ influence are strongly related with student reticence. By employing thematic content analysis, it is found that informants may respond with self-encouragement, adequate preparation and oral practice in an attempt to produce more oral output. Meanwhile, they expect teachers to organize more speaking activities, give guidance and be amicable, which can effectively promote classroom interaction. It is hoped that the findings of this research could potentially help to address student reticence in the English classroom at the tertiary level.

Perceived Psychological, Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Obstacles: An Investigation of English Communication Apprehension in EFL Learners

“…In addition to it, the results of this study also indicated that shy International Journal of Instruction, October 2021 • Vol.14, No.4 personality, introvert nature and other personality traits caused psychological barriers and anxiety in Chinese EFL university learners which are in line with the study of Liu (2008) who identified self-perceptions and personality traits an important factors in provoking reticence in EFL learners. Furthermore, the findings of this study have also shed light on linguistic factors like poor grammatical and lexical knowledge also induced CA and these findings are in consistent with Wu's (2019a) study. Lastly, the findings also indicated that some socio-cultural factors like lack of exposure to English, parental educational status, geographical background and cultural alienation caused apprehension and these findings are in line with previous studies (Tanveer, 2007b).…”

Detecting Perceived Barriers in FLSA: The Socio-Psycholinguistic Study of EFL University Learners

“…(8/8) This finding suggests that lack of linguistic and grammatical knowledge hindered them from articulating in SL or FL. This finding supports the previous studies Wu, 2019).…”

“…In the study of Olakitan's (2011), shy and introverts were more inclined to be silent and least interested in group discussion and hence, the finding of this study revealed that basically learners' avoidance is associated with their timid and introvert nature which also corresponds to the previous studies (Hanifa, 2018;I. Gopang et al 2015;Tanveer, 2007;Wu, 2019). Some learners' anxious personality is also a cause of past failures and anxiety causing issue and they cannot forget it, and hence, sometimes anxiety could become the most prominent and dominant feature of such students' personality.…”

Small-Group Student Talk Before Individual Writing in Tertiary English Writing Classrooms in China: Nature and Insights

“…They regard reticence as a way to avoid showing off one’s oral English and a respect for others ( Bao, 2014 ). Therefore, in order not to embarrass their peers and to help them save face, Chinese tertiary EFL students tend to remain quiet in English learning tasks ( Wu, 2019 ). Under such a circumstance, the instruction of writing, the most challenging skill for learners in the process of learning a foreign language ( Zhang, 2013 ), tends to focus on “error correction, dictation practice, sentence-making exercises, paragraph writing, and test-driven writing practice” ( Zhang, 2016 , p. 209; see also Zhang and Cheng, 2020 ).…”