Analysis of Interviews

The research team communicated and conducted surveys with 98 dropouts by way of face-to-face interviews, group interviews, telephone interviews and online interviews to get an in-depth, specific understanding of the background and reasons behind their dropping out. A total of 40 English tutors and class supervisors were also interviewed. The interview results verified and supplemented the investigative results reflected in the quantitative data above. Listed in Table 8 are key reasons why the students gave up their studies, extracted from the interviews with dropouts, tutors and class supervisors.

Table 8 Key Reasons for Giving up Studies Mentioned by Dropouts, English Tutors and Class Supervisors

By summarizing the key points in Table 8, we further derive the following causes of dropout: Dropout occurred when the English programme was very difficult relative to the students’ existing knowledge.

Table 8 shows that students themselves, English tutors and class supervisors all recognized that great difficulty in the English programme coursework did have significant influence over the dropout rate. Teachers explicitly indicated that the students were too weak in their language base, there were too few conversion subjects, the examination passing rate was low, the teaching materials were too difficult and that the courses were not interesting or practical enough. In interviews with students, some of them expressed the gap between their English knowledge background and the English programme as follows:

• When I took the English classes, I felt that I didn't know anything. I seemed to have been put in a class of Grade Five after I just finished Grade One. Little by little, I lost my interest and wanted to give up…
• I was totally unable to finish my assignment, especially when I was asked to write English compositions. I had no idea of what to begin with at all…
• Tutors gave classes in English. It was good, but I understood nothing, not even a single sentence. I was not able to follow, so I lost my interest.
• I mainly lost my confidence in the English teaching materials and methods. The teaching materials are too difficult for me to follow. Measures tailored to non-English programmes should be taken in class teaching …
• I didn't do well in handing in my assignments. I feel embarrassed to say that I maybe handed in only three assignments. They were difficult for me, especially writing.
• Why are there so few classes arranged for specialized conversion subjects. We attended the classes but still couldn't’follow. It was of no help in improving our English…
• When tutors let us ask questions, I felt that I couldn't t even ask a question. I was confused. I couldn't catch very well what the tutors said.
• I seldom attended classes. I came twice for each subject, and I thought I couldn't follow……I seldom made use of the online resources, I only studied the teaching materials. The formative assignment was difficult. The vocabulary was large, and there were many words that I didn't know. I didn't take the examinations of specialized subjects at the end of the semester, for I had the intention to shift my programme before the end of the semester mainly because of failure in keeping up.

Teachers explained their views on how the difficulty of the English programme and existing teaching materials influenced the dropout rate as follows.

• I think that the editing of teaching materials and content for the bachelor's degree programme has a definite influence over student dropouts. If the students’ weak knowledge base is not taken into consideration, a great many new words will appear in the compiled teaching materials, which lead to students’ difficulty and loss of their confidence. Meanwhile, some outdated content also affected the students’ initiative in study.
• I find it is a common problem; we don't fully understand our students, which is reflected in the difficulty that the students experience with each subject…
• In my view, the existing teaching materials have prevented the tutors from exercising their full potential and the students can't learn much useful knowledge. Teaching materials for the English bachelor's degree programme should be reformed to better accommodate the needs of the students.
• When the next edition of teaching materials is to be published, its difficulty should be eased. A set of suitable teaching materials in line with the actual situations of the students should be compiled.
• I think there is a problem with the teaching materials. They are rather priggish and difficult. The contents are somewhat outdated and difficult to use. The examinations seem to be a little adrift from the teaching materials.
• There are too few specialized conversion classes, resulting in insufficient learner support for non-English programmes and difficulty in taking care of the students with weak knowledge base in class.
• I think attention must be paid to specialised conversion subjects to keep students from falling behind. It is the most important way to help the students whose previous programme was not English to keep up with the English bachelor's degree programme. At present the few class hours for specialized conversion subjects can hardly make up for the specialised English knowledge of the associate degree programme.

The interviews above show that dropout occurs when the English programme is very difficult relative to the students' existing knowledge. By putting the key points of the interviews together, we can see that it is possible for non-English majors to face major challenges if they directly enter the English bachelor's degree programme. Although the school provides specialised conversion subjects, if they are too few and if learner support for non-English majors is inadequate, students still cannot bridge the gap between their existing knowledge and the requirements of the programme. Though the students attended face-to-face tutorials, they were unable to understand fully or digest what the tutors taught or what was written in the teaching materials, thus leading to obstacles in finishing assignments after class. The difficulty of the teaching materials relative to the students' existing knowledge was compounded when the examinations were not in line with the teaching materials. Table 2 shows that 61.5% of bachelor's degree programme dropouts were previously non-English majors, and for associate degree programme dropouts, 74.7% were previously non-English majors. The two figures reflect that most of the dropouts for the English programme were not sufficiently prepared in terms of English knowledge base. The interviews also provide a partial explanation for the study performance results of the students in Table 3 and Table 6. If the students could not catch what was being said in the face-to-face tutorials, the tutorials would lose their educational value. If the students could not understand the course content, they certainly would not be able to finish assignments designed to reinforce such content. If course material could not be grasped via face-to-face interaction with teachers, finishing the self-study tasks via distance learning would be wishful thinking. If the students encountered obstacles in understanding the most basic points, how could they spend more time deepening their knowledge? One can naturally imagine the examination scores of the students who experienced the above challenges.