English in China

Bolton, Kingsley; Botha, Werner; Zhang, Wei

doi:10.1002/9781118791882.ch21

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Being an international language, English is frequently studied as a second language in many different nations, mainly in Asia (Kobayashi, 2023;Kim et al, 2022;Mishra & Lee, 2021;Bolton et al, 2020;Zhang, 2020;Takeshita, 2020). Therefore, everyone needs to speak and understand English effectively to compete on a national and international level and ensure that the language is regarded as a unifying force essential to life, particularly in education (Isadaud et al, 2022).…”

Section: Ideology Of Globalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Position of English in the Linguistic Schoolscapes in an Indonesian Islamic Boarding School

Eliawati,

Ngadiso,

Putra

2024

IJEFL

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The choice of use of languages in schools, including in the linguistic schoolscapes, represents the contestation of language identities, ideologies, and power. This study looks at the position of English, as opposed to Indonesian, Arabic, and Javanese, in the linguistic schoolscapes in an Indonesian Islamic boarding school in Central Java. A descriptive qualitative method and the theoretical framework of language planning and policy (Spolsky, 2004) are used to analyze the data. The findings show that Javanese and Indonesian are used in daily communication. English and Arabic are taught in the language program. In the signs at the boarding school, English is the second language to be used frequently at the linguistic school cape, after Indonesian, while Javanese, as the students' everyday language, is far behind. The implication of the linguistic school landscape finding in this research is that foreign languages such as English, Arabic, and others considered necessary have the potential to become a new development in language teaching and learning.

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Section: Ideology Of Globalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Position of English in the Linguistic Schoolscapes in an Indonesian Islamic Boarding School

Eliawati,

Ngadiso,

Putra

2024

IJEFL

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“…Chinese language as a lingua franca (Zhang, 2019). Chinese was legislated as the national language starting in the 1970s concurrently with the promotion of English in the Chinese education system (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020), showing Chinese government's contradictory ideologies of Chinese and English. Although it is positioned as a foreign language in China with limited utility in everyday life, English has evidently achieved an important de facto status as the most preferred foreign language across all levels of education in China's education system (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020).…”

Section: Learning English With Exposure To Conflicting Ideologies Of ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chinese was legislated as the national language starting in the 1970s concurrently with the promotion of English in the Chinese education system (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020), showing Chinese government's contradictory ideologies of Chinese and English. Although it is positioned as a foreign language in China with limited utility in everyday life, English has evidently achieved an important de facto status as the most preferred foreign language across all levels of education in China's education system (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020). In other domains, English has played pivotal roles for Chinese people at different stages of China's social and economic development (Fong, 2021;Wen & Zhang, 2021) and English learners and users are expected to have a good command of English to serve the needs of the country (Mulvey & Lo, 2021).…”

Section: Learning English With Exposure To Conflicting Ideologies Of ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language (or the 2000 Language Law) legislated Chinese as the only official language to be used in the Chinese mainland. This law does not acknowledge foreign languages (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020) and official approval is required if foreign languages are used on the radio or television. Chinese translation must be provided if foreign languages are used in Chinese-language publications (Xiong et al, 2016).…”

Section: A Chinese Dominant Sociolinguistic Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While policymakers wish to engrain standard Chinese as the national lingua franca as well as an international language (Gil, 2021), they also need to acknowledge the status and impact of English as a global language (Shao & Gao, 2017). English as a foreign language does not enjoy an official status in China, but is highly valued by Chinese society (Bolton, Botha, & Zhang, 2020). English is of significant importance and plays a gate-keeping role in education.…”

Section: A Chinese Dominant Sociolinguistic Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Experiences of International Students Learning English at Chinese Universities: A Case Study from the Perspective of Yin and Yang

Liu¹

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<p>As China’s power and influence grow on the international stage, increasing numbers of international students choose to pursue their tertiary education at Chinese universities. Some of them also aspire to learn English, the global lingua franca, while taking degree programmes in China. However, there is little research into the phenomenon of international students learning English in a non-English speaking environment in an Asian country like China. This study used qualitative case study methodology to investigate how international students from Southeast Asia experienced learning English during their tertiary study in China. Three universities in two Chinese cities were chosen as subunits of the wider phenomenon of learning English in China. Four international students from Southeast Asian countries from each university were selected as participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, then interpreted within the context of university documents and government policies and regulations. The layers of tensions which were revealed in the thematic data analysis were further analysed through the framework of Yin and Yang theory, which was chosen for its cultural and philosophical fit with this study of Asian international students in the context of China. The findings suggest that learning English in a rapidly changing national and global environment was an unsettling experience for the participants. Contradictory ideologies associated with learning English and Chinese appeared to compete for the participants’ attention and affect the indexical values of these two languages. In response, some participants shifted their focus away from learning English as they began to prioritise learning Chinese and taking Chinese medium courses. Nevertheless, they planned to resume English studies in the future. Participants did not appear to view the Chinese dominant macro-environment as an optimal context for learning English. Although many participants spoke highly about affordances of the campus micro-environment, they appeared largely to ignore the campus facilities and resources available to support independent learning. Most participants considered that they did not have equitable opportunities for learning College English in comparison to local students. The limited College English courses available rarely matched their levels of English proficiency. Since English classes were often instructed through the medium of Chinese, most participants struggled to understand their lecturers. This challenging College English learning environment was exacerbated by teacher-dominant and book-centred pedagogy, which conflicted with participants’ strong desire for opportunities to engage in classroom interaction. While some institutional structures were intended to support participants with their English learning, not all Chinese universities were able or willing to implement them. These environmental characteristics combined to reduce the participants’ chances to learn and use English meaningfully. This study has implications for managing and teaching international students in Chinese tertiary education. It raises the question of whether it would benefit the learning of international students when Chinese universities privilege international students and treat them differently from local Chinese students. International students appear to want more social interaction and equitable opportunities for a quality education. This suggests that policymakers at Chinese universities may need to implement convergent management of Chinese and international students. Moreover, Chinese universities could revise the College English curriculum to accommodate international students’ proficiency levels and differentiated educational and professional aspirations. Finally, to meet the expectations of international students as well as current pedagogical practices, College English lecturers may need to develop their pedagogical knowledge and English competence to effectively teach international students without a shared first language in class. This study suggests that such endeavours could allow inclusive and engaging English language learning experiences for international students, contribute to the quality of Chinese tertiary education and attract more international students to study in China.</p>

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Unveiling the English proficiency of Chinese older adults through a national survey

Fan,

Chiang

2024

Educational Gerontology

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English in China

Cited by 5 publications

References 62 publications

The Position of English in the Linguistic Schoolscapes in an Indonesian Islamic Boarding School

The Position of English in the Linguistic Schoolscapes in an Indonesian Islamic Boarding School

The Experiences of International Students Learning English at Chinese Universities: A Case Study from the Perspective of Yin and Yang

Unveiling the English proficiency of Chinese older adults through a national survey

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