earticle

영어

This study described factors that influenced Chinese middle school English teachers’ decision to implement communicative activities in teaching. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was utilized as a theoretical framework to analyze the data. Chinese middle school English teachers’ attitude in using communicative activities, their social pressure, and their perceived behavioral control over using these activities were described along with their opinions of the 11 communicative activities that were demonstrated at a workshop. Quantitative data were collected with a survey for the 101 workshop participants. In addition, qualitative data were collected through interviews (n = 15), telephone conversations (n = 7), e-mail exchanges (n = 5) and follow-up surveys (n = 13). Data revealed teachers’ relatively positive attitude towards the using of the communicative activities and five barriers of implementation of these communicative activities. Two groups of people, parents of the students and schools, were identifies as major influencing force in influencing teachers’ decision to implement the activities. Three groups of activities were categorized according to their popularity with the teachers. Suggestions for teacher training programs were made based on these findings.