A Study Of Status Quo Of Business English Teachers In Chinese Higher Education Based On Sixty

Business English courses of undergraduate program have been developed dramatically since its initiation 10 years ago.However,the issue of teaching staff development has been seriously criticized.The study,undertaken at sixty-five colleges and universities in China that provide Business English courses for undergraduate program,aims to explore both the status quo and the issues of the Business English teaching staff.Data are collected through questionnaire and semi-structured in-depth interviews.Based on the questionnaire analysis and transcripts of the interviews records,the research questions for the proposed study are:1.What is the status quo of business English teachers?2.What issues are identified in status quo of business English teachers?The research results are demonstrated as following:Business English education has evolved into a cross-disciplinary program in China.Up to now,there are 293 of Higher Education in China offering business English courses of undergraduate program,with an average increase of 30 institutions each year.The enrollment of students are reaching to a certain level.There are departments which are responsible for Business English teachers ’ recruitment,selection,training,supervision and management.The structure of business English teaching staff is relatively reasonable,which lies in the fact that the structure of professional title is continuously improving,academic background is elevated,there exists a considerable number of Business English background teachers,and the age distribution and years of teaching is advisable.Furthermore,the methods for teacher professional development are diversified.The system of workload evaluation is complete.The majority of senior management is satisfied with the status quo and professional development of Business English teachers.The sources of part-time teachers are also diversified.The data analysis also reveals some issues,such as teaching staff shortage,imbalanced gender distribution,unreasonable distributed teacher educational background,relatively low academic research level,limited social practice and imperfect appraisal.Hence,a series of corresponding countermeasures are proposed in this paper,which include strengthening academic discipline constriction,constructing teaching and researching teams to integrate teacher capacity,organizing in-service training programs to improve teacher quality and professionalism,initiating school-enterprise cooperation projects to enhance teacher business practice ability,investing more on research to encourage teachers,establishing sound appraisal system to stimulate progress,etc.These countermeasures are presented to improve Business English teaching staff and its teaching quality in colleges and universities.The findings of this report demonstrate the status quo and issues of BETs teaching staff,which may be contributive to the construction of Business English teaching staff in colleges and universities.