Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions On Research-based EAP Course

With the growing English proficiency of Chinese college students over the last decades, traditional teaching of general English in higher education cannot satisfy college students’ English learning needs any more. A reform of college English education is extremely urgent. Indeed, as a medium for professional study, academic English provides reform orientation for college English education. Thus, in order to explore the practical effects of EAP course, which is combined with research-based learning, students’ perceptions are investigated in the present study. The study addresses the following questions:(1) What are the freshmen’s perceptions on the research-based EAP course?(2)What are the differences in the perceptions between the higher and the lower English proficiency students in research-based EAP course in terms of teaching procedures and content?A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, semi-structured interview and non-participate classroom observation are employed in this research to examine the perceptions of 106 freshmen majoring in economics, optical engineering, biological engineering as well as computer science of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The results indicate that research-based EAP course is feasible for the freshmen in research-based universities as it achieves great success and is well-accepted by the freshmen in terms of course procedures and contents. Meanwhile, this course has brought both challenges and chances that the freshmen have never met in their high schools. Moreover, English proficiency does exert influences on students’ perceptions in terms of interest, participation and awareness of significance to student-led activities.The present study is of both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically speaking, the adoption of research-based approach in EAP courses provides a new teaching method for EAP practitioners in the following teaching. What’s more, it provides college English reform with persuasive orientations and paves the way for furthering and deepening this research field from point of empirical study. As for the practical significance, from subject students’ abstract perceptions on the research-based EAP course, detailed pedagogical implications can be drawn. In addition, the present study reveals possible problems in the implementation of EAP course so as to offer adjustments and improvements for EAP teaching.