Pre-service teachers’ pedagogical decisions on integrated-skills instruction in a sojourn Chinese teaching programme: The context matters

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants

Participants	Cohorts	Age	Grade (Year 2 or 3)	Practicum school	Teaching hour per week
T1	1	22	3	Public middle to high school	20
T2	1	21	3	Public primary school	23
T3	1	20	3	Public middle to high school	12
T4	1	21	3	Private primary school	12
T5	2	22	3	Public middle to high school	18
T6	2	23	3	Public middle to high school	17
T7	2	20	2	Public middle to high school	18
T8	2	21	2	Public middle to high school	21

Table 2. Data collection category

	Interviews	Lesson plans	Curriculum syllabus	Exam papers	Homework design	Activities design
T1	×	×	×	×	×	×
T2	×	×	×	×	×
T3	×			×
T4	×	×
T5	×	×			×	×
T6	×					×
T7	×	×	×	×	×
T8	×	×	×	×	×	×

Table 3. Coding system for the process of CLT localization

Initial coding	Revised codes	Example quotes
Integrated listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills instruction in CLT	Integrated-skills instruction with communicative approaches (ISI)	T7 (week5) “ … my classroom language is Chinese to create target language environment for improving their aural competence and facilitate oral practice.”
		T3 (week 4) “I demonstrated comparative sentences by asking two students with different height to come in front on both target language listening and oral practice.”
Focus-on-form teaching for certain skills separately	Segregated-skills instruction with form-focused teaching (SSI)	T4 (week 11) “I corrected every pronunciation error they made, again and again, otherwise they would think it’s standard.”

Table 4. Coding system for factors determining pedagogical selections

Coding	References	Example quotes
Positive and negative learning experiences (LE)	Mak, 2011; Moodie, 2016; Peng & Xiong, 2021	T7 (week 4) “I asked students to read vocabularies after me, we learned Chinese and English in this way.”
Professional training experiences (TE)	Turner, 2013; Yoshihara et al., 2019	T3 (week 1) “Mr Wang (university teacher, pseudonym) required us to teach in the target language.”
Contextual factors (CF)—school’s staff support and resource support	Gan & Lee, 2018; Hepple et al., 2017; Sun & Zhang, 2021	T5 (week 1) “ … the principal wants students to speak more Chinese so I focus more on speaking in my teaching.”
Evaluation of students’ response and learning outcome (SR)	Gan & Lee, 2018; Ma & Cavanagh, 2018; Orland-Barak & Yinon, 2007	T4 (week 4) “I reduced the input as even the best class can’t speak correctly.”

Table 5. Teachers’ integrated-skills pedagogy at weak-supported schools

	Early stage	Middle stage	Final stage
T1	Week 1—Week 3 Teaches self-introduction & greetings in Thai with games	Week 4—Week 11 Teaches pinyin (Chinese phonetic system) with drills Continues teaching with games	Week 12—Week 15 No more pinyin teaching Focuses on motivating students by handing over gifts without a clear focus on language learning
T2	Week 1—Week 3 Teaches vocabulary with nursery rhymes or games of colouring Target language teaching → English teaching Corrects pronunciations	Week 4—Week 9 Fewer games, repetitive drills of vocabulary for 30 minutes Teaches in Thai and demonstrates game rules Copies Chinese characters	Week 10—Week 15 Give up correcting pronunciations Drills of Chinese characters writing
T4	Week 1- Week3 Target language teaching Repeated drills on phonetics to better control the class Teaches Listening & Speaking with games	Week 4 -Week 11 Teaches in Thai and English Continues pinyin teaching in poor discipline Teaches self-introduction, greetings, relatives by reading aloud and dialogues	Week 12—Week 15 no more pinyin teaching only one month left, watching cartoons for the entertaining purpose and adding more games
T5	Week 1—Week 3 Teaches greetings and self-introduction (listening and speaking) in Chinese → in Thai Game-based speaking teaching	Week 4—Week 6 Stresses speaking more than writing Stresses pronunciation accuracy of phonetic system and characters Adds group competition games for vocabulary teaching for enhancing the engagement	Week 7—Week 15 Asks students to answer questions by calling the roll to control the class Chinese characters writing for a quiet classroom Teaches phonetic spelling with Thai annotation, corrects pronunciations
T6	Week 1—Week 5 Target-language speaking teaching →English → Thai Sets up Line and Facebook chatting groups for reading and writing skills improvement	Week 6—Week 11 Game-oriented pinyin teaching Exam-based teaching Interrupted by activities and military training, casually chatted with topics unrelated to teaching purposes	Week 12—Week 15 Teaches phonetic system Teaches character strokes Casual chatting with students or simply asking them to do self-study quietly due to the high absent rate

Table 6. Teachers’ integrated instruction pedagogy at strongly-supported schools

	Early stage	Middle stage	Final stage
T3	Week 1—Week 3 Teaches vocabulary and grammar in Chinese in context	Week 4—Week 12 Teaches vocabulary and grammar, practices new sentences with scenarios Adds more dialogue practices	Week 13—Week 15 Continues vocabulary teaching by explaining with contexts or pictures Reduce grammar teaching
T7	Week 1—Week 4 Teaches vocabulary, pinyin and speaking with CLT (greetings) in Chinese→ English & Thai Teaches speaking in scenarios Topic-based teaching Chines Today (after-class activity)	Week 5—Week 8 Continues vocabulary with flashcards and translation method (with help of TA) Reduces pinyin teaching and review by quiz Simple interaction on Facebook	Week 9- Week 15 Expects more greetings forms besides Nihao (hello) Reduces pinyin teaching Many activities, no new lesson
T8	Week 1—Week 4 Teaches pinyin with games Teaches speaking and vocabulary with CLT (greetings) with body language Theme-based teaching Chines Today (after-class activity)	Week 5—Week 8 Continues speaking teaching with CLT (greetings) by games and role play Teaches in Thai (with help of TA) Corrects pronunciations with places of articulation diagram.	Week 9—Week 15 Increases students’ output by adding student-centred games and situational interactions More activities, no new lesson

Table 7. Facilitating contextual factors for persistence in CLT at strongly-supported schools

Challenges	Supports and solutions from local schools
Students cannot understand target language teaching	Allocation of TAs to facilitate organise target language tasks require listening comprehension and oral production (T7 & T8)
Low level of motivation and engagement in task-based tasks requiring multiple skills	Conversation-based (T3) and theme-based (T3, T7 & T8) teaching materials and syllabus provided by local schools e.g., authentic menu pictures of KFC advertisement. Classroom observations by experienced teachers with quality feedback (T7 & T8)
Unsatisfactory performances on segregated skills	Assessment of cooperative communicative tasks that require reading, listening and speaking simultaneously (T3, T7 & T8) e.g., group tasks of greetings or introducing family members Extracurricular after-class learning opportunities for multiple skills integration (T7 & T8) e.g., Chinese Q&A after school tasks
Discipline problems	TAs’ management of students’ misbehaviours (T7 & T8) Professional discussions with peers on solution exchange (T3, T7 & T8)
High expectations from principals (T3) and historical teaching and assessment materials (T7 & T8) provide common aims from school management teams

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