You're welcome, JN.

You're quite right about hiring practices in China being in complete disarray. It begs the question as to when this is going to all be sorted out. Following is an excerpt from the preface of a recently published book by Martin Wolff:

"EFL teaching in China is not a program in need of fine-tuning, as some suggest. It is a
program that needs to be scrapped, thrown on the rubble heap of failed programs. A complete
overhaul is required, commencing with the basic EFL philosophy, including the foreign
teacher recruitment and the student assignment systems. China needs to implement modern
second language acquisition theories; concepts such as comprehensible input, comprehensible
output and immersion to create a friendly English acquisition environment.
We conclude that the proposed major overhaul would not increase the economic outlay
but would in fact save limited financial resources and apply them in a far more productive
manner."
(From "Teaching EFL in China, What Every Foreign Teacher Should Know Before They Go," by Martin Wolff)

In the same preface, Mr. Wolff also writes:

"China routinely recruits unqualified foreign teachers to teach (sic) English as
a Foreign Language, fails to provide them with appropriate teaching materials, and then
blames the foreign teachers for poor classroom performance. But the real problem lies much
deeper and is rooted in just plain wrong thinking about what a foreign teacher of English can
accomplish. Somehow 2nd language acquisition theory has been misinterpreted and
misapplied. It is believed that if a foreign teacher of English is in the classroom for 90
minutes each week, somehow that creates an English speaking environment and implements
the communicative approach. Although this has proven untrue for the past 20+ years, it is
continued; possibly in the belief that eventually it will be successful."

I think it good that Mr. Wolff does not put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the teachers, but, essentially, suggests that the problem with hiring unqualified teachers is that they are not given the support they need that may enable them to be successful teachers. Basically, we are all in the same position and what further exacerbates the situation is the almost whimsical approach that administrators take in terms of curriculum development and materials selection. Much of the material I've seen in China, by the way - and more to the point of this thread, is written for ESL and not EFL. Personally, I'd like to see more material that is personalized for a Chinese student audience. I do recognize that there is an irrefutable link between language and culture; however, I also believe that personalizing is an effective means by which interest and motivation can be instilled.