1-3: P1

• Students neither understood written or spoken English nor were able to speak or write very well.
• Though students started learning English at a very young age, their standard was still very low as they could not really understand or use English.

4-6: P6

• Students could not speak, read or write English well.
• Students had a low standard as they could not read, write or speak English.
• They used memorization to learn and thus the English knowledge was very superficial and confined to limited vocabulary.

7-9: F3

• On the whole, students’ standard was low. English teaching and learning was not very successful.
• Even with a poor knowledge of English students still managed to get jobs.
• This was not an international city; English was not really that important even if students did not learn well.

10. F5

English teaching and learning were not very effective as students were not working hard and they resorted to memorization to learn English. However, students managed to get into universities.

11. F5

Students had learned at least some basic knowledge about English.

12. F5

It was effective to some extent as some students became English teachers themselves, having finished their university education.

1. P1

Students started learning English at a very young age and they should be good at it. However, this could also be a disadvantage as students were too young to learn English and to understand what they were taught

2-6: P6

These respondents all commented that individual schools had great autonomy over syllabus design. Consequently, some syllabus contents were too rich to be covered within the limited time span. Therefore, it was hard to make adjustments, though students could not cope with the learning requirements. This put pressure on both teachers and students. Worse still, some schools made students learn other foreign languages apart from English, and that made the learning of English more difficult.

7-9: F3

10-12: F5

1-3: P1

• All respondents replied that teaching was mostly conducted on a didactic approach though they utilized visual aids and group activities to arouse students’ interest, as they had a very tight syllabus to cover within the fixed number of periods. This method also gave them more control over the class, which was necessary as classes were usually big, between 30-50 and could rise to 60.
• Whenever these teachers taught grammar, they relied heavily on the grammar-translation method. They used mostly Chinese (could be as much as 80%) to explain grammar, as that would make it easier for students to understand the explanation.

4-6: P6

7-9: F3

10-12: F5

1-3: P1

• Students were shy and were afraid of ‘losing face’ when they made mistakes in front of the class.
• Students basically had no interest in learning anything, especially a foreign language.
• Students had too many subjects to learn, and learning English was too bookish.
• There were too many other distractions such as surfing the Internet or going out with friends.

4-6: P6

7. F3

• Students could not relate learning English to other things they learned at school, so they had no interest.
• Students’ language learning ability was poor and they feared learning English.
• Students were allowed to repeat programs, so they could become lazy and indifferent.

8. F3

• Students spent too much time surfing the Net.
• Students put more time into science rather than language subjects.

9. F3

• Students’ foundation was weak.

10-12: F5

• Students lacked enthusiasm and ‘proper’ learning attitudes.
• Students had poor time management.
• Students were afraid of ‘losing face’ when they made mistakes in front of the class. They were shy as well.
• Students had no direction in their learning and they had no plan for their future. Therefore, they did not learn well, especially a foreign language.
• Students had many opportunities to enter universities, despite having a low standard of English.