Build rapport to encourage Chinese students to speak up

Working at a UK degree-awarding university in China, I constantly balance the need to create an inclusive and effective learning environment with meeting the academic quality assurance standards of our UK partner institution. As British educators, we are trained with an emphasis on student-centred learning, critical thinking, creativity and independent problem-solving. We’ve internalised the role of facilitator, leading students in discussions and group work. However, in my Chinese classroom, I am acutely aware that a significant number of my students are used to a more teacher-centred approach with the teacher acting as a conduit for knowledge.

Chinese students’ reticence to speak English is widely documented. While many ed-tech platforms can help involve students who are uncomfortable with oral communication, the reality is that with 12 weeks to prepare my students for a B2+-level speaking assessment, I need to get them confident speaking English, and fast. 

Given student shyness and the potential culture shock induced by the differences in pedagogical approaches, how can I achieve this? 

Learn names

The importance of calling people by their names cannot be stressed strongly enough. In my opinion, names are the most powerful weapon in your classroom management arsenal. To ensure I learn my students’ names, during the first class, I ask them to write theirs in large font on a piece of A4 paper. I then take photos of my students holding their name cards up and memorise them outside of class time. Using these photos, I can learn 90 students’ names and faces by week two. I collect the name cards and then try to give them out to the students when I feel confident I have memorised them. 

Build a routine

To establish a positive teacher-student relationship, it’s important to establish routines as early as possible. Keep your class structure consistent so that students understand the routine: “now we read, now we listen, now we discuss in pairs, now we work in small groups”, and so on. Make sure that students are aware of their responsibilities, and yours. Be prepared to reiterate the important information that students need to know. There is no such thing as repeating yourself too often, especially in the first few weeks as late arrivals join the class. To build rapport between students, rotate pairs and groups to make sure that everybody has worked together within the first two weeks.

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Make yourself relatable

The next step is to humanise yourself. Take time to talk to students off-topic. Ask them about themselves and tell them about yourself. Tell stories. Self-deprecate. Make deliberate mistakes and give students the opportunity to correct you. Remember who you were before you were a teacher and tap into that. As teachers, we are not the experts of everything and there is no shame in admitting that. That shy student who is afraid to speak up? Give them an empathetic smile. 

Finally, understand students’ wants and needs. Why are they here? Are there family pressures at play? Are they particularly interested in their programme of study, or has it been chosen for them? Most of my students’ principal motivation is results, not learning for learning’s sake, so it is important to explicitly link classroom activities to assessment – make sure students know why we are doing what we are doing.

I will never be able to read my students’ minds and fully understand their lived experiences; but by implementing these steps in the first two weeks of the semester, I can help alleviate their anxieties and apprehensions. The result? A classroom full of students ready to speak up. 

Ritchie Bowen is a lecturer in English for academic purposes at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China.

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