The purpose of this study is to understand the quality of teaching at school of foreign languages, Quality of teaching in terms of (Teachers’ Classroom Preparation, Subject Knowledge, Teaching Methodology, Assessment, Time Taken for Assessment, Course Contents, Classroom Environment, Consultation Hours, Learning Material used, Pace of Course, Course Requirements and Outcomes, and Students’ Respect). And to identify the factors that influence the Chinese students to prefer English as their major at undergraduate and graduate level of their study programs at university; rather than choosing other languages; such as Korean, German; French, Russian or other; as their major. The scope of this study is limited to the school of foreign languages; Northeast Normal University; where students come from different parts of China; most specifically from Southern, Central and Southeastern parts of China. Research Design: Mixed method research design is adopted in this study; in which “four point likert scale questionnaire” and “structured interview” are used to collect data. Quality of teaching is measured through questionnaire; which measures the “Teacher’s Performance” on the basis of twelve factors: Teachers’ Classroom Preparation, Subject Knowledge, Teaching Methodology, Assessment, Time Taken for Assessment, Course Contents, Classroom Environment, Consultation Hours, Learning Materials (Lesson Plans, Course Notes etcetera), Pace of Course, Course Requirements and Outcomes, and Students’ Respect. While structured interviews were conducted to identify the factors that influence Chinese students to prefer English as their major. Findings: Out of these twelve evaluation bases for teaching quality; almost every base has different rankings but the; Pace of Course; is ranked good and pedagogy and classroom environment; ranked poorly. Study also shows that there are three main factors which influence Chinese students to choose English as their major in university education, First and most common factors are the psychological factors; such as ‘getting new experience and wish to see other countries, preferably western countries. Second are the social factors; such as high school teachers and friends and family influence specially the suggestion of parents make Chinese students decide to learn and choose English as their major in university and prefer English over other languages. Third are the economic factors; that Chinese students perceive that after getting 4 years undergraduate and graduate degrees in English as major language will increase the job opportunities for them locally in China as well as in other countries
Keywords: Chinese students, English Language, Influencing Factors, Quality of Teaching
