Recent attempts to introduce CLT into EFL teaching in non ESL speaking countries have

provoked a
great deal of comment and debate. Whereas some accounts have emphasized the
value of adopting CLT (e.g. Li, 1984; Maley, 1984; Spenser, 1986), others
have noted the importance of traditional ways of teaching and learning (e.g.
Harvey, 1985; Ting, 1987; Sampson, 1990). However, the majority of accounts have
focused on the need to adapt CLT to the demands and conditions for language
learning and teaching in China (e.g. Scovel, 1983; Anderson, 1993; Rao, 1996).
Within this heated debate on English teaching methodology, the study of Chinese
students response to CLT deserves particular attention. Do they enjoy activities
involving communication and real use of language? Are they receptive to the teaching
techniques that may be new to them? Do they agree that real-language activities
emphasizing language content are more effective than non-communicative activities
that stress formal correction? Do they believe that such activities are helpful to
them as language learners?
With these questions in mind, researchers and English teachers have conducted
extensive studies on Chinese students learning strategies. Most of these studies
revealed that Chinese students learning strategies consisted of many of the following
features: concentration on intensive reading as a basis for language study; a
preoccupation with the careful, often painstaking examination of grammatical
structure and a corresponding lack of attention to more communicative skills; the use
of memorization and rote learning as a basic acquisition technique; a strong emphasis
on the correction of mistakes, both written and oral; the use of translation as a learning
strategy (Maley, 1983; Scovel, 1983; Barlow and Lowe, 1985; Harvey, 1985). One
exception this researcher has found in literature is a recent study made by Littlewood
(2000), in which he discovered that the stereotype of Asian students as obedient
listeners
whether or not it is a reflection of their actual behaviour in classdoes not
reflect the role they would like to adopt in class (Littlewood, 2000, p. 33).
All these research reports of Chinese students learning strategies in EFL learning,
except Littlewoods, have generally been based on anecdotal evidence and the
intuitive sense of teachers and researchers. This sort of evidence can be valuable,
but it is surprising that almost nobody seems to have actually asked Chinese students
themselves to rate the extent to which they enjoy communicative and
noncommunicative
activities. Recent researches have shown that the perceptions of
teachers and their students do not always match (e.g. Kumaravadivelu, 1991; Block,
1994). Block (1994, 1996), for example, has found that teachers and learners operate
according to quite different systems for describing and attributing purpose to
tasks (1994, p. 473). Blocks findings are supported by Nunans study (1986),
in which he found clear mismatches between learners and teachers opinions about
which activities were important in the learning process.
In order to deepen our understanding of how students react to communicative and
non-communicative activities, Barkhuizen (1998, p. 86) has called for teachers to
discover their learners feelings and beliefs about their language learning experiences
and consequently to review and possibly change their teaching process. For this
86 Z. Rao / System 30 (2002) 85105

reason, I undertook a case study of Chinese university students perceptions of

communicative and non-communicative activities in the English classroom. While
this study was based on the studies previously done in second-language settings,
there was a shift in focus to a foreign-language context. Next, by directly involving
the students in the study, I explored their personal feelings and beliefs in English
learning. Finally, I discussed the implication of the findings for EFL teachers in the
Chinese context, as well as for those teachers who may share the same characteristics
of English teaching worldwide.
2. Defining

Berdasarkan research dari Zhenhui Rao yang termuat dalam jurnl yang
diterbitkan School of education, university of south australia tahun 2001
yang Chinese students perceptions of communicative
and non-communicative activities in EFL menjelaskan bahwaq banyak
sisw yang masih memilih non komunikative aktivity
sebagai perbandingan keadaan di China hampir serupa dengAN KEADAAN
di indonesia dimana bahsa inggris adalah segai bahasa asing dan bukanb
bahasa kedua. Meskipun CLT lama diperkenalkan di China tetapi
muridmasih lebih menyukai gaya yang konvesional. Their perception is
audiolingual Most students felt, on the
other hand, that such traditional classroom activities as audiolingual drill (items 12
and 13), workbook type drill and practice (items 1 and 16) were still effective ways to
facilitate their English learning.