Author(s): Zhang Yu, Mohamad Jafre Bin Zainol Abidin

Abstract: Constrained by multiple factors such as the examination-oriented education orientation, unbalanced distribution of educational resources, and limitations in teachers' professional capabilities, English pronunciation teaching in rural primary schools in China has long been trapped in a development bottleneck. Taking 10 EFL teachers from rural primary schools in 5 counties of Nanning as the research objects, this study adopted a qualitative research method combining non-participatory classroom observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews and grounded theory to systematically explore the practical status quo, core problems and deep-seated dilemmas of English pronunciation teaching in rural primary schools. Through a three-level analysis process of open coding, axial coding and selective coding, the core category of systematic dilemmas in English pronunciation teaching in rural primary schools was extracted, and its closed-loop cycle mechanism formed by the mutual nesting and dynamic reinforcement of three secondary categories, teachers' development dilemmas, English pronunciation teaching dilemmas and educational ecology dilemmas, was revealed. Insufficient professional capabilities of teachers lead to inefficient teaching implementation, which further weakens the willingness of external environmental support and ultimately exacerbates the lag in teachers' development. The study found that the pronunciation classrooms of EFL teachers in rural primary schools in Nanning generally present a rigid model of teacher-led plus mechanical drilling, and problems such as the lack of suprasegmental feature teaching, the scarcity of effective feedback mechanisms, and the insufficient response to the negative transfer of mother tongue among ethnic minority students are particularly prominent.

Keywords: rural primary schools; English pronunciation teaching; systematic dilemmas; grounded theory; EFL teachers

Article Info: Received: 19 Mar 2026; Received in revised form: 21 Apr 2026; Accepted: 25 Apr 2026; Available online: 28 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.87