Exploring Chinese Senior High School EFL Teachers' Application Of Microlectures In Grammar Teaching

This research aims at exploring how Chinese senior high school EFL teachers use microlectures in grammar instruction and why they teach in such ways.It adopts a qualitative design with multiple methods of data collection,including video and document analyses,observations,focus group interviews and personal in-depth interviews.The participants selected by purposeful sampling are five EFL teachers from three senior high schools in a central province of China.They share teaching experiences with grammar microlectures and factors influencing their practices in this research.Analysis of the collected data leads to the following findings:(1)With support from educational departments and schools,some Chinese senior high school EFL teachers start using microlectures to illustrate key or difficult grammatical knowledge in an ordered and learner-friendly way.The main ways to apply these microlectures include flipped classrooms,online platforms and teaching competitions.Flipped classrooms are especially welcomed by teachers and students' autonomy and participation in learning get improved.However,such application remains in its initial phase,with many issues awaiting improvement.(2)The teachers who practice with microlectures are affected by the educational environment,teaching environment,and individual factors simultaneously.The educational environment factors include college entrance examination,informational teaching,and curriculum standards.The teaching environment factors include schools' promotion and support as well as the specific environments and conditions in each school.The teachers' individual factors include beliefs in grammar teaching,microlectures,flipped classroom and autonomous study,curiosity,interest,willingness in pedagogical improvement,time,energy,and experience.This research is of both theoretical and pedagogical significance.On one hand,it innovates the research methods in this area,offers more insight into microlecture application in EFL instruction,especially the teachers' cognition,and establishes a theoretical framework that offers reference for later studies.On the other hand,it implicates the necessity of joint efforts from the educational departments,schools,and teachers to promote further development of microlecture application in EFL teaching.