English Language Education Across Greater China

This volume offers a comprehensive examination of the spread of English and English education across Greater China through sociolinguistic studies of Mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and in-depth analysis of English language use and education in economically booming areas of Mainland China such as Shanghai and Guangdong and underdeveloped regions like Xinjiang.

This volume is the first to offer a comprehensive and, at the same time, in-depth examination of the spread of English and English language education across Greater China. It consists of two parts. Part 1 presents rich sociolinguistic data for easy comparisons between mainland China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, while Part 2 explores in depth the phenomena inside mainland China to provide contrastive analysis of English language use and education in economically booming areas such as Shanghai and Guangdong and underdeveloped regions like Xinjiang and Yunnan. With the descriptive, comparative and analytical accounts of different territories ranging from nation-states to small villages in remote areas, theories on the spread of English, second/third language acquisition and identity are challenged with new concepts proposed and established.

This book offers insight into the spread and impact of English language education in China within China’s broader educational, social, economic and political changes. The author's critical perspective informs readers on the connections between language education and political ideologies in the context of globalizing China. The discussion of the implications concerning language education is of interest for current and future language policy makers, language educators and learners. Including both diachronic and synchronic accounts or China’s language education policy, this volume highlights how China as a modern nation-state has been seeking a more central position globally, and the role that English education and the promotion of such education played in that effort in recent decades.

This volume explores Chinese identity through the lens of both the Chinese and English languages. Until the twentieth century, English was a language associated with capitalists and "military aggressors" in China. However, the massive progression of globalisation in China following the 1980s has transformed the language into an important tool for China’s modernisation. Regardless of the role English plays in China, there has always been a fear there that the spread of culture(s) associated with English would lead to weakening of the Chinese identity. This fear resulted in the development of the ti-yong principle: "Chinese learning for essence (ti), Western learning for utility (yong)." Fong’s book aims to enhance understanding of the ti-yong dichotomy in relation to people’s sense of being Chinese in China, the penetration of English into non-English speaking societies, the resultant tensions in people’s sense of personal and national identity, and their place in the world. Using Q methodology, the book presents observations based on data collected from four participant groups, namely high school and university students, teachers and parents in China, to investigate their perspectives on the status and roles of English, as well as those of Chinese. Considering the growing international interest in China, this volume will appeal to readers interested in China’s contemporary society in general, its language, culture and identity. It will be a useful resource for academics, researchers and students in the field of applied linguistics, language education and Chinese cultural studies and can also be adopted as a reference book for undergraduate courses relating to language, identity and culture.

This volume gathers contributions in the closely linked fields of English language assessment and language education. The contributors from China and Hong Kong represent a mixture of established and new scholars. Areas covered in the language education section range across major developments in the redefining of Hong Kong’s secondary and tertiary curricula, as well as the huge field of China’s vocational education curriculum. Regarding assessment, the contributions reflect major changes in the marking of examinations in Hong Kong, whereby all examinations from 2012 onwards are marked onscreen, to quality control issues in the administration of China’s College English Test, which is taken by over 10 million candidates every year.

This book offers a comprehensive, up-to-date review of the recent professional developments of teachers of English in the western region of China in the context of English language teaching reform and teacher education reform. It discusses a wealth of theories, frameworks, qualitative case studies and quantitative investigations, while also covering a range of key practices that are indispensable. It equips readers with an in-depth understanding of the impact of the current curriculum reform on the promotion of teachers’ cognition, emotions, attitudes and awareness of their self-development, as well as teachers’ corresponding efforts to update their educational concepts, reassess their teacher roles, enhance their teaching skills, and implement new approaches to their professional development. It is a valuable resource for anyone pursuing research in this field as well as in-service teachers, teacher educators and education administrators. And as it offers practical help for the potential difficulties and challenges they might encounter, it is also a must-read for the student teachers of English.

This book fills the gap in World Englishes studies in terms of the pedagogic implication of China English and its use in the Chinese workplace. Using three triangulated methods, namely, questionnaire survey, matched-guise technique, and focused interview, the book adopts an innovative research methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative data from 3,493 participants. Overall, the participants still believe that the standardized Englishes are desirable models of English in China and that China English should be well codified and promoted before being adopted as the pedagogic model. In addition, the book proposes that the curriculum design of university English should include an introduction to the well-defined characteristics of China English and world Englishes. Last but not least, the book reveals that English is being used more widely and frequently in the professional world than before and has become increasingly important in China.

This book traces the history of English education in the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to the present day. It uses the junior secondary school curriculum as the means to examine how English curriculum developers and textbook writers have confronted the shifting ambiguities and dilemmas over five distinct historical periods. The study of the processes of curriculum development and the products such as syllabi and textbooks offers insights into the construction of an ‘official’ English, as well as what was considered as acceptable content in English. This book addresses fundamental and significant questions concerning the English promoted in China, namely its characteristics; its changes over time and explanations for such changes; and the kind of content that has been viewed as appropriate for textbooks. To investigate these issues, the analysis draws on qualitative and quantitative data, such as interviews with principal stakeholders and analysis of the syllabus and recommended textbooks. Specifically, it looks at the choice and organization of linguistic components, and the orientation and messages of the curriculum. “Language education in China during the second half of the twentieth century might arguably be called the world’s largest language engineering project. In this comprehensive study, Dr Adamson examines a part of that project by charting the twists and turns of English language education from the pre-revolutionary period to the present. He successfully illustrates how tensions in China’s massive educational system are negotiated from center to periphery, how textbook writers adapt to the socio-political mandates of their time to construct formal school curricula. Adamson also raises significant questions regarding the contradictions inherent in Chinese globalization.” —Heidi Ross, Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, School of Education, Indiana University at Bloomington “Bob Adamson has provided in this book one of the first detailed studies published in English of the history of a school subject in the PRC. The study provides fascinating insights into the changing nature of the English curriculum, the shifting socio-political context of the PRC and their complex inter-relationships.” —Paul Morris, President, The Hong Kong Institute of Education “The learning of English is a crucial aspect of China’s opening up to the world and increasingly prominent global role. This welcome volume provides an in-depth historical perspective on this important subject, including the recent periods of modernization (1978–1993) and globalization (1993 to the present). It should be compelling reading for all those involved with contemporary China across a wide spectrum of areas.” —Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto; President Emerita, The Hong Kong Institute of Education