English as a “Global Language” in China an Investigation Into Learners’ and Teachers’ Language Beliefs

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English as a “global language” in China: An investigation intolearners’ and teachers’ language beliefs

Lin Pan*, David Block Beijing Language and Culture University, 15 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, PR China

Received 15 January 2011; accepted 25 May 2011

Abstract

This paper discusses issues related to language beliefs held by teachers and students of English in China; namely, the status of English, the learners’ expectations of English and the focus of English teaching and learning in China. These beliefs are examinedin the context of globalization and China’s ever-deepening integration into the global economy, in particular, during the periodwhen China hosted the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Both questionnaire and interview data will be presented and thesedatabases highlight the prevalence of the belief that English is an international and global language in contrast to Chinese. Belief inthe instrumental value of English, both to the country and to the individual, is also found to be common among research partic-ipants. Nevertheless, the emphasis on the learning and teaching of English is still found to be examination oriented, which may bean obstacle to the development of the students’ communication skills in English.Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: English; Global language; English teaching and learning; CET examinations (the College English Test); China

1. Introduction

While in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the view of “English as a global language” was a vague notion, from the1980s onwards it became omnipresent, leading authors such as David Crystal to make rather bold statements such as“English is the global language”( Crystal, 1997, p. 1 ). Indeed, in a questionnaire distributed globally by the BritishCouncil in 1995 ( British Council, 1995 ), 96.3% of the 1,398 respondents indicated that they either agreed or stronglyagreed that English was and would remain in the foreseeable future the dominant language of world communication.In addition, 79.2% replied that they either disagreed or disagreed strongly that another language would challenge therole of English as the world’s main language. With reference to such surveys, Fishman (1996, p. 628) concluded that:

The world of large scale commerce, industry, technology, and banking, like the world of certain humansciences and professions, is an international world and it is linguistically dominated by English almosteverywhere, regardless of how well established and well-protected local cultures, languages, and identitiesmay otherwise be.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 86 (10) 82303513.E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Pan).

0346-251X/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011

www.elsevier.com/locate/system

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

System 39 (2011) 391 e 402

mailto:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011http://www.elsevier.com/locate/systemhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011http://www.elsevier.com/locate/systemhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.011mailto:[email protected]


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While English has come to be recognized by many, if not most, as a global language ( Crystal, 1997; Graddol, 1997,2006) since Fishman’s statement, it is interesting to explore how this belief is manifested in different contexts around theworld. And with the rise of China as an economic force to be reckoned within the world today ( Arrighi, 2007 ), it isimportant to explore what theChinese peoplethink about thestatusof English. In China, languagepolicymaking hasseentremendous changes in the last half-century. Starting from 1978, with the implementation of theopen-door policy and thedrive for modernization and internationalization, there have been a number of ofcial measures to promote foreign-language education ( Hu, 2005; Lam, 2005; Li et al., 1988 ). The emphasis on learning English has continued unabatedin recentyears andat present,China boasts the largest English learning population in theworld. Over 200million studentsin China (or about 20% of the total in the world) are learning English in schools, as are about 13 million young people atuniversity ( Taylor, 2002 ). Hence, in the context of globalization and the ofcial popularization of English in China, aninvestigation into how the Chinese learners of English and teaching practitioners view English seems to be of utmostimportance. In short, we know that the Chinese are studying English in the hundreds of millions; what we don’t know iswhat they think about this.

This paper is an attempt to investigate the language beliefs, both in general terms and with regard to English, amongthe Chinese learners and teachers of English. It intends to provide answers to the following questions:

A What do the Chinese learners and teachers of English think about the status and the signicance of English inChina?

A What motivates the students to learn English?A What is the current focus of the teaching and learning of English in classrooms?

Questionnaire results are presented as indicators of teachers’ and students’ beliefs. The general patterns emergentare then brought more to life with selected excerpts from interviews with one university student and one universityEnglish language teacher in Beijing.

2. Language beliefs and discourses on “English as a global language”

As stated above, this paperexamines beliefs about the status of English, the signicance of English and theteaching and

learning of English that the Chinese learners and teachers of English hold. As background to this exploration of thesedifferent beliefs, it isnecessary toclarifyrstof all what ismeant bybeliefs and second toreviewtwo discourses on“Englishas a global language” which can be related to commonly held beliefs about the spread of English around the world.

2.1. Language beliefs

In what has come to be the must-be-cited article on beliefs in education, Pajares (1992) presented a thorough reviewof how the construct “beliefs” had been conceptualised in educational psychology up until the 1990s. Early in thisreview, there is the suggestion that the construct is very difcult to pin down:

Dening beliefs is at best a game of player’s choice. They travel in disguise and often under alias e attitudes,values, judgements, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions, conceptions, conceptual systems, preconcep-

tions, dispositions, implicit theories, personal theories, internal mental processes, action strategies, rules of practice, practical principles, perspectives, repertoires of understanding, and social strategy, to name but a fewto be found in the literature. ( Pajares, 1992, p. 309 )

Nevertheless, after discussing research by over 50 different authors, Pajares did offer a list of what he considered tobe key dimensions of beliefs. In this list, there are references to beliefs as cognitive structures which are formed earlyin life and which are resilient to change; the function of beliefs and how they inuence understandings of the world;how beliefs inuence and shape behaviour; the relative strength of different beliefs in broader belief systems; thesocially shared nature of beliefs; and nally, beliefs as a part of hierarchical cognitive architecture. Further to this list,Pajares takes on the issue of how beliefs are different from knowledge. This distinction is summed up nicely in laterwork by Devon Woods (1996) and Anita Wenden (1998) . Woods (1996, p. 195) suggests that while knowledge “refersto things we ‘know’- conventionally accepted facts . [,] [b]eliefs refer to an acceptance of a proposition for whichthere is no conventional knowledge, one that is not demonstrable, and for which there is accepted disagreement”.

392 L. Pan, D. Block / System 39 (2011) 391 e 402


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Meanwhile, Wenden (1998, p. 517) suggests that in contrast to knowledge, “beliefs are viewed as individual subjectiveunderstandings, idiosyncratic truths, which are often value related and characterized by a commitment not present inknowledge”.

The more subjective and idiosyncratic nature of beliefs vis-a `-vis what is known as knowledge has remainedconstant in research over the past two decades in which beliefs have been a key construct. In addition, as Kalaja (2003)notes, there is a need to consider the socially situatedness of beliefs, as emergent in moment-to-moment interaction.However, perhaps most relevant to this paper is work which links individually expressed beliefs to larger social forces.As Barcelos explains, because “ [l]anguage learning is embedded in a political and historical context and learners’views will inevitably touch upon these” ( Barcelos, 2003, p. 237 ), beliefs necessarily “relate to the wider socio-politicalcontext”. This concern might be addressed drawing on Bakhtinian notions of heteroglossia and polyphony, the ideathat individually expressed beliefs draw on the voices of many as opposed to being a purely individual matter. Dufva(2003) expresses this view as follows:

. beliefs . consist of different voices that may be attributed to various sources . Thus some elements mayseem to be directly related to the individual’s own lifespan and . personal experiences. Others would reectthe linguistic attitudes of the community at large and still others would be related to the discourses withinlanguage education, language policies, curricula, syllabi and teachers’ practices. (p. 138)

2.2. Discourses on “English as a global language”

In this paper, it is two broad discourses of English and its role as a global language which are the focus. The rst of these discourses emerges in the work of De Swaan (2001) and his world linguistic system theory. Accordingly,a single coherent global language system is now operating around the world and all known languages are connectedin a strongly ordered, strongly connected, hierarchical, multi-tiered pattern. At the core of the system is hypercentralEnglish, which is linked to a dozen supercentral languages, each of which in turn serves as a focal point for a clusterof peripheral languages. This world language system is held together by bilingual speakers and De Swann assumesthat when speakers of a central language learn an additional language, more often than not, they learn a language thatis perceived to provide them with some kind of greater communication advantage. In other words, they choose to

learn a language occupying a higher level than their L1 in the hierarchy, as there is an attraction felt by the speakers of the peripheral languages towards the centre. Calvet (2006) has described this attraction as a gravitational force.Though De Swaan’s account of the global language system is not without its limitations (see Ferguson, 2006;Blommaert and Pan, 2007 ), it is a useful conceptualization of the hierarchical ordering of languages in the worldand it offers a reasonable explanation for the relationships that exist between and among languages as well as theglobal spread of English. It also highlights the evident inequalities between languages and takes into account how theEnglish language has become a valued commodity ( Gray, 2010 ), a notion which links to the second discourse of English in the world.

This second broad discourse of English of interest in this paper frames English according to its instrumental value. Inboth policy and lay circles theEnglish language is often described as a gatekeeper to the modernization of a state and theacquisition of social and economic prestige for individuals ( Pennycook, 2000; Ferguson, 2006; Phillipson, 2010 ). Asthe world’s foremost additional language today, English is regarded as a form of linguistic capital ( Bourdieu, 1991 ),which is easily convertible into other forms of capital, such as cultural capital (in the form of educational qualications)and economic capital (in terms of the income accrued from having a well remunerated job which results, to a greatextent, from having the right cultural capital). This idea of English as necessary for economic advancement, both of individuals and of entire societies, is often voiced from what Kachru and Nelson (2006) terms the Outer and ExpandingCircles, where people (as second language learners or foreign language learners) regard English as a window on theworldand a tool that empowers them. This belief is also apparent in thelarge sumsof money a lot of people are willing tospend on English language education so as to equip themselves with a competitive edge.

The preceding discussion of beliefs as a construct and discourses of English in the world serves as backdrop forwhat is to come in the remainder of this paper, that is, an attempt to address language beliefs by investigating whetherthe two types of discourses outlined above are present in the context of China. However, before moving to examine thequestionnaire and interview data which will serve as bases for such answers, we rst discuss the research methodologyemployed.



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3. Research methods

This study is part of a larger project which aimed to investigate English language ideologies in China ( Pan, 2010 ).In that project, university students and English teaching professionals were the main research subjects and data wascollected via a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. Seven items from the original 48-item questionnaire and twoexcerpts from the interviews have been selected as they touched upon issues of language beliefs. It should be notedthat the questionnaire was designed, piloted and administered simultaneously with the interviews, which means thatthe questions asked during interviews were very similar to items on the questionnaire. Indeed, the questionnaire wasseen as ground-clearing, temperature-taking exercise while the interviews were designed to explore in depth salienttrends emerging in the questionnaire data. The research was carried out from July to September in 2008 when Chinawas hosting the Olympic Games. This period was chosen because it was seen as an epoch-making turning point forChina with accelerated internationalization, which in turn, it was anticipated, would have an impact on teachers’ andstudents’ beliefs about the English language as well as the teaching and learning of English in China.

3.1. The questionnaire

As explained above, this paper focuses on seven questionnaire items which directly relate to the research questions.Most items are rating scales except item 2 and 4 which are multiple choice questions to clarify reasons. These itemslook as follows:

1. English is the current dominant global language.2. English is popular in China because:3. With the popularization of English, China will be more globalized and internationalized.4. (Only students) The reason I learn English is because:5. The current English education in schools and universities is exam oriented.6. The current English exam emphasizes more on the grasp of English grammar.7. (Teachers) The English education my students receive meets their expectations and needs.

(Students) The English education I received meets my expectations and needs.

The aim of these questions is to examine how prevalent particular beliefs are among the teachers and students.Items 1 to 3 probe the students’ and the teachers’ beliefs on the status of English and their expectations of English inChina. Item 4 is a question only to the students to investigate their motivations in learning English. Items 5 to 7 aim tond out whether the students’ learning expectations are being met by exploring the current focus of English teachingand learning both from the teachers’ and students’ perspectives.

The questionnaires were distributed to 53 university teachers and 637 students in 6 universities in Beijing, coveringrespondents majoring in different subjects such as humanities, social science and science and engineering. The returnrate for teacher questionnaires was 77% and student questionnaires were all returned. It should be noted that students’questionnaires were all lled out in classrooms and some scholars ( Cohen et al., 2007 ) pointed out that such kind of administration may often generate a high response rate but exert a sense of compulsion on the respondents. In ordernot to make our respondents feel threatened or uncomfortable, it was made clear to the students in particular that theywere under no obligation to respond to the questionnaires. Indeed, the teachers administering the questionnaires wereasked to make it clear to students that “this questionnaire is to help with a research project” and “it is not compulsoryto ll it out”.

3.2. Interviews

While questionnaire ndings will be discussed rst, to give a view of how prevalent particular beliefs are among theresearch participants, two interview extracts will also be presented to provide a more in-depth exploration into whatthe questionnaire responses might mean. The extracts are from interviews with a university teacher and a student,respectively. Extract 1 illustrates how the student perceives “English as an international language” and Extract 2discusses the current English teaching in China from the perspective of a teacher. Both extracts have been trans-lated from Mandarin to English and translations have been checked by two professional translators whose native



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languages are Chinese and English, respectively. Interview transcriptions were examined for themes arising andextracts presented in this paper have been organized into stanzas and lines, following a presentation techniqueelaborated by Gee (1999) . Each line is deemed to carry a piece of new and salient information and is numberedseparately. The letters ‘a’ and ‘b’ after some line numbers indicate that they contain the same information and belongto the same line. However, as the information contained within a single line of speech is very often too small andlimited to capture all that a speaker wants to say, a set of lines is grouped into a stanza. According to discourse analystssuch as Gee (1986, 1991 ), Hymes (1996), Scollon and Scollon (1981) , a stanza is a set of lines devoted to a singletopic, event, image, perspective or theme. Therefore, whenever there are more than two topics or issues addressed in

one extract, it is divided into stanzas and each stanza is named according to its theme. In this way, each specic themewhich arises in the interview is foregrounded to facilitate thematic analysis.

4. Findings and discussion

4.1. Questionnaire ndings

4.1.1. The status and signicance of EnglishThe questionnaire results point to a prevalent view that English is a global language. In this sense, over 60% of

teachers and students acknowledge that they agree with the proposition that English is the current dominant globallanguage (see Table 1 ). In addition, when asked why English is popular in China in a multiple choice question (seeTable 2 ), the top three answers unanimously chosen by both the teachers and the students are: “C: English is more‘international’ and ‘global’ than the other languages”; “G: as the language for international business, English isnecessary for China’s economic development”; and “H: English is a handy tool for China’s rise as a superpower”. Withregard to the benets of English to Chinese society, the questionnaire reveals that over 70% of both teachers andstudents (see Table 3 ) indicate that they agree or strongly agree that with the popularization of English, China will bemore globalized and internationalized.

These results suggest that both the teachers and students in China recognize the status of English as a globallanguage and acknowledge that English is important to the development of China. Besides this instrumental value, themajority of questionnaire respondents also describe English as “more international” and “global” than otherlanguages. This point of view resonates with De Swaan’s (2001) global linguistic system discussed above in thatresearch respondents recognize the communication advantages that English has and therefore seem to put English ona higher hierarchical level in the linguistic system.

Table 1English is the current dominant global language.

Mean SD 1 a 2 3

Teachers 1.68 0.82 62.2% b 7.8% 30.0%Students 1.59 0.77 67.5% 6.3% 26.1%

a

1, Agree; 2, not sure; 3, disagree.b Frequency distribution were presented as percentages.

Table 2English is popular in China because.

Teachers (%) Students (%)

A. it is superior to other languages in terms of language structure and grammar. 13.6% 9.0%B. it is easy to learn, to understand and to master. 21.0% 24.6%C. It is more ‘International’ and ’global’ than the other languages. 74.1% 72.7%D. Britain had great inuence in world history. 4.9% 6.2%E. U.S. is now the most powerful country in the world and it speaks English. 23.5% 19.9%F. Chinese people indiscriminately aspire to everything foreign. 2.5% 6.8%G. As the language for international business, English is necessary for China’s economic development. 63.0% 68.5%H. English is a handy tool for China’s rise as a superpower. 39.5% 50.3%

I. Others 0.0% 4.3%



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4.1.2. The motivations for English learningWhile the status and signicance of English are manifested in the above questionnaire item responses, it is essential

to probe what the learners think are the reasons which motivate them to learn English. Hence, an item only for students‘the reason I learn English is because:’ (see Table 4 ) was asked and the top three most chosen answers are “English isa kind of capital which can bring more opportunities to my career” (75.6%); “English opens a window to the world forme” (58.3%) and “English improves my status and I feel I am more ‘modern’, ‘international’, and ‘connected with the

world’” (45%). In all three answers, English is described as “a capital”, “a window” and a link to get “connected withthe world”. It seems then that it is the instrumental value of English that most attracts these students and it suggests thatquestionnaire respondents believe that a good command of English is necessary for acquiring social prestige.

4.1.3. The focus of the teaching and learning of EnglishAlthough students cite the usefulness of English both to the development of China and to themselves as individuals,

they appear to have questions about whether or not they are receiving the kind of instruction that they need. Hencequestions concerning the current English teaching and learning wereasked to explorewhether the students’ expectationfor English learning was met. The questionnaire results show that 71.5% of teachers and 56.7% of students agree orstrongly agree that the current English education in schoolsand universities is examinationoriented (see Table 5 ), while69.1% of teachers and 69.3% of students indicate (shown by strongly agree and agree) that the current English

examinations are most about a command of English grammar (see Table 6 ). While there is less difference in opinionsabout the focus of examination and grammar in teaching, teachers and students did not agree on the teaching outcome.Only 20.8% of students indicate that they agree or strongly agree that the English education they received meets theirexpectations and needs in contrast to 53.7% who disagree or strongly disagree (see Table 7 ). This result is in contrastwith that of the teachers, as only 6.7% of teachers show that they disagree that the English education students receive

Table 3With the popularization of English, China will be more globalized and internationalized.

Mean SD 1 a 2 3 4 5

Teachers 1.96 0.80 31.6% b 48.1% 15.2% 2.5% 2.5%Students 2.20 0.89 20.0% 53.6% 16.1% 7.2% 3.10%

a

1, Strongly agree; 5, strongly disagree.b Frequency distribution were presented as percentages.

Table 4The reason I learn English is because (only students).

Student (%)

A. I have an intrinsic interest in it. 30.7%B. I have to pass English exams to graduate. 44.6%C. I adore western cultures and traditions 5.8%D. I want to go abroad to study. 20.0%E. I want to emigrate / live abroad. 7.7%F. English is a kind of capital which can bring more opportunities to my career. 75.6%G. English is a kind of capital which can raise my prole among my classmates, friends and colleagues. 17.0%H. English opens a window to the world for me. 58.3%I. English improves my status and I feel I am more ‘modern’, ‘international’, and “connected with the world”. 45.0%J. English brings me competitive edge in studying, work and promotion. 3.3%

Table 5The current English education in schools and universities is exam oriented.

Mean SD 1 a 2 3 4 5

Teachers 2.35 1.08 16.7% 54.8% 9.5% 15.5% 3.6%Students 2.54 1.30 18.4% 38.3% 18.4% 20.1% 4.7%

a

1, Strongly agree; 5, strongly disagree.



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does not meet students’ expectations and needs. Both the mean and distribution are markedly higher for the students,indicating that students are generally much less satised than teachers as regards the effectiveness of English teaching/ learning (See Table 7 ). The questionnaire results point to a contradiction whereby in practice examinations areemphasized rather than the development of communication skills. It therefore seems that to the students, Englishlanguage education in China at the moment still needs to be improved to meet their expectations and needs.

To summarize, the questionnaire results present an overall view that English is the global language and that it isregarded as a more modern and international language than other languages, including Chinese. English is considereduseful to the development of both the nation and individuals. However, respondents have also indicated that althoughEnglish has communication advantages, the teaching and learning of it in universities are still examination-oriented.At this stage, it is necessary to look into what the teachers and students say about English and English learning andteaching so as to get a deeper understanding of the issues. Therefore, the interview extracts below will probe both theteachers’ and the students’ beliefs, respectively.

4.2. Interviews

Extract 1 is from an interview with a second-year university student who was, at the time, studying economics ina language-study focused university in Beijing. When asked if he agreed that “English is the only world language at

Table 6The current English exam emphasizes more on the grasp of English grammar.

Mean SD 1 a 2 3 4 5

Teachers 2.29 0.80 15.5% b 53.6% 19.0% 10.7% 1.2%Students 2.29 0.86 16.6% 52.7% 17.6% 11.6% 1.5%

a

1, Strongly agree; 5, strongly disagree.b Frequency distribution were presented as percentages.

Table 7Teachers: The English education my students receive meets their expectations and needs.

Students: The English education I received meets my expectations and needs.

Mean SD 1 a 2 3 4 5

Teachers 2.25 0.70 18.7% b 44% 30.7% 6.7% 0.0%Students 3.40 1.05 4.0% 16.8% 25.5% 42.2% 11.5%

a 1, Strongly agree; 5, strongly disagree.b Frequency distribution were presented as percentages.

Extract 1English is an international language.Stanza 1: English is an international language

1 It cannot be denied that ‘English is an international language.’2a For example, if you go abroad and speak Chinese,2b you may be understood by some in southeast Asia,2c but not in Europe or America.3 If you use English in south Asia, it is ne,4 so English is more of an international language than Chinese.5a It is possible that Chinese may catch up (with English),5b but it will take a long time.6 So I agree that ‘English is the only international language’ at the moment.

Stanza 2: English is a survival skill in Hong Kong7 Researcher: Why do you think we can’t let English standards fall?8 Student: Studying English has almost become a trend.9a If you speak English on the street,9b many people can understand it and can speak it.9c So English has been integrated into our work and study.10 Also, competence in English is a great advantage in nding jobs.11a Films from Hong Kong show that when people from the Mainland (China) go to there to nd work,



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the moment”, he gave an afrmative answer and illustrated the importance of English at different levels of Chinesesociety:

In stanza 1, the interviewee assigns to English a higher and superior status. This hierarchical ordering of English, a de facto global language, over Chinese, his mother tongue, along with his comments on the dynamics and thecommunication value of English, echoes De Swaan’s (2001) depiction of the world linguistic system as discussedabove. This example is in line with the questionnaire results (see Table 1) and illustrates that thanks to thecommunication potential that English brings with it, the respondent places English on a higher hierarchical level in thelinguistic system over Chinese, his native language.

In the next three stanzas, the student provides three different examples to further illustrate the importance of English at different levels of Chinese society. He describes English in terms consistent with Bourdieu’s “linguisticcapital” (see Section 2.2) and he positions English as a valued resource which empowers one to gain entry intoa particular socio-economic group through employment. He states clearly that people’s upward mobility andprofessional development depend on a good command of English, a symbolic and economic asset.

It is also worthwhile to highlight the idea expressed here that the value of English to individuals lies in its being anunstated qualication for employment, further education and an imperative for career development. By “unstated”, wemean that it is not made explicit in the current foreign language education policies ( Pan, in press ) but is indicated in theremarks by both the students (see Extract 1 for example) and the teachers (see Extract 2 ). That is, similar to the statusof Chinese, which is the legitimate ofcial language, English has become the unofcial and unstated key to a person’ssuccess in China today, and to some extent determines a person’s career advancement. Such a view about English maypartly explain the students’ aspiration to learn it and it goes some way towards an understanding of the embrace of English in the education system as a whole.

While the usefulness of English is commonly recognized, as illustrated in the questionnaire responses and theinterview extract, it is interesting to see how research participants comment on the current classroom teaching. As canbe observed in Table 5 , both students and teachers often nd themselves preoccupied with the multitude of Englishexams. Here a few background explanations will be made to understand the examination culture in China. Sinceancient China, examinations have been regarded as crucial in measuring whether a person is doing well in his studies.

11b the rst question asked would be “Can you speak English?”11c A person who answered “No” immediately lost the opportunity of work.11d Later he befriended a Hong Kong girl who taught him English.12 English is needed in that work environment.

Stanza 3: English makes one competitive in the job market13a Researcher: That happened in Hong Kong, didn’t it?13b Does that also happen in the Mainland?14a Student: Of course.14b For instance, when my friends in senior grades went for job interviews,14c they said they were in an advantageous position14d because the interview was in English14e and students from our university have a higher level of English15a though in fact our university is not as famous as some other universities.15b This is because our university always pays attention to English teaching15c and learning in addition to students’ major subjects.

Stanza 4: English is a new additional skill even in a small village16 Researcher: Is English useful in your hometown? (a small village in south China)17 Student: Yes, of course. Let me tell you a story.18a One day, my brother-in-law’s younger brother,18b a taxi driver with little education,18c was reciting English vocabulary, so I asked him why he did that.19a He said he lost many opportunities to take foreigners because he could not understand what they were saying.19b20 If he did, he could have made more money.21a He then asked me to teach him how to say simple sentences like “Where are you going?” and “How much?”21b



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A written examination, the imperial exam, was held for about 1,300 years as the sole method for selecting the “best”government ofcials. Though the imperial exam was abolished at the beginning of the 20th century, the examinationculture is deep-rooted and examinations have always been taken seriously by authorities, teachers, students andparents in China ( Lee, 1996 ). In foreign language education, English had always been taught as a subject of studyrather than a means of communication ( Cheng, 1992; Lam, 2005 ). It is true that the recent two decades have witnessedthe growing emphasis placed on communicative competence and communicative language teaching (CLT) and thereforms to the English examinations; nevertheless, the present-day examination system still follows the principles of the traditional Chinese imperial examination system and English has been listed as a compulsory test subject frombasic education to tertiary education, which has resulted in a practice of “put exams rst” in current language teaching

Extract 2A discussion of the CET 4 Exam with a lecturer of English.Stanza 1: CET 4 exam and the university degree conferment

1 Researcher: Is the requirement for English the same for students who are majoring in different subjects?2 Teacher: Originally, the CET 4 was connected to the Bachelor’s Degree

3 now theoretically it is no longer the case, but not in reality.4 Researcher: In which year was the change in policy made?5 Teacher: in 2006 or 2007.6 Researcher: It seems that in the past students could not graduate without passing the CET 4.7 Teacher: They could not get their Bachelor’s Degree.8 Researcher: No degree?9 Teacher: Yes, no degree.10 Researcher: Is the requirement given by the universities or by the ministry of education?11 Teacher: I don’t know.12 But it seemed all the universities were following the same requirement.13 Now they are no longer connected.14 The total mark for CET 4 is 700. The passing mark is 425.15 A score sheet will be given to the students.16 Some companies will require 500 marks, while others may require 600.17 The requirements are different.

Stanza 2: CET and English teaching18 Teacher: Previously, in the nal term of a student’s second year,19 we mainly concentrated on CET 4 preparation in class.20 Now due to the disconnection,21 we teach the textbook in addition to having CET 4 preparation.22 We do both things at the same time and work on several simulated CET 4 tests.23a Researcher: In other words, it is not necessary to prepare for the university examinations23b but the pass rate is still important.24 Teacher: Yes, this year the pass rate for our university was 91.47 %25 This was good news.26 So you see pass rate is still a standard.27 Researcher: More than 90%, that is a high rate. Does your university regard it as an honour?

28 Teacher: Yes, and it is reported on the university website.29 Researcher: So the CET result is still important.30 Teacher: yes.

Stanza 3: English and job requirement31 Researcher: Just now you mentioned English as a job requirement.32 Will students actually use English in their work?33 What’s the requirement for non-English majors in our society?34 Teacher: You know the saying “when the water rises the boat rises with it.”35 English is required even if it is not used.36 For instance, some companies require PhDs but the job does not really demand a PhD.37a It is similar with English. For some small companies English really isn’t necessary37b but they just require it.



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and learning. Even teachers at various levels of teaching showed similar concerns. Extract 2 is a detailed illustration of the ”put exams rst” view, as expressed by a university teacher.The CET 4 ( The College English Test Band 4 ) examination is the central theme in this extract. From the aboveillustration, it seems the value and signicance of CET 4 exams has gone beyond an assessment of students’competence to become an indicator of the rankings of universities in the national league table ( Jin and Yang, 2006 ).CET 4 is a national standardized prociency test administered by the National College English Testing Committee onbehalf of the Chinese Ministry of Education. It is said to be designed and implemented in 1987 to meet the need forChina’s reform and its open-door policy ( Jin and Yang, 2006; Wu, 2009 ). That is, all university students (non-Englishmajors) across China are required to attend the test after completing the English foundation course in the secondschool year. Those who do not pass it are not entitled to their rst degree ( Shao, 2006 ). CET 4 then quickly became theworld’s largest EFL test in the world administered nationwide and the results of the exam soon became an importantmarker measuring the quality of English teaching ( Jin and Yang, 2006 ). Though the test was reformed in 2006, it hasremained controversial because in pursuing a high pass rate, many universities have focused almost exclusively onteaching examination techniques, leaving to the side the development of students’ communicative abilities. Inaddition, teachers are left powerless as regards deciding what to teach and how to teach ( Jin, 2008 ), as indicated in theabove extract. Another problem to be solved in CET 4 is that speaking is excluded from the testing system. Althoughan optional CET 4 oral test has been introduced gradually in some provinces and big cities since 1999, only a smallshare of students who get top in the CET 4 written exam have the opportunity to opt for it ( Jin and Yang, 2006; Wu,2009). When addressing language teaching, Littlewood (1981) pointed out that developing students’ practicalcommunicative competence is of crucial importance; hence the absence of a speaking test or the impracticality of carrying out large scale speaking tests in China contributed to the consequence that “while Chinese students tend to bevery good at grammar-based written examinations, they are by no means good speakers, and they are often ‘reticentlearners’ who lack the willingness to communicate verbally” ( Wen and Clement, 2003, p. 18 ).

Furthermore, the teacher’s comment on English as a job requirement even if ”it is not used” in lines 34 e 35 of stanza 3 reveals that education is seen more as a process of accumulating knowledge than as a practical process of constructing and using knowledge for immediate purposes, i.e. oral communication in the case of English. This is inparallel with what Scollon (1999) and Wang (2001) (cited in Hu, 2002, p. 97 ) have pointed out that “traditionaleducation in China has rested on the popularly held notion that true knowledge resides in written texts, especially

classics and authoritative works” and “learning is equated with reading books and perceived as a knowledge-accumulating process”. Yu (1984, p. 35) , cited in Hu (2002) , vividly compares the accumulation of knowledge andthe use of that knowledge to saving money in the bank and spending it later: “When you put your money in the bank itis not important to be sure what you are going to do with it; but when you do need the money for some emergency, it isthere for you to use”. Such a point of view may be another contributing factor to explain the difculty in implementingCLT principles that promote teaching and learning for practical needs and downplay the importance of staticauthoritative knowledge.

5. Conclusion

This paper has drawn on questionnaire and interview data to explore teachers’ and students’ beliefs about Englishas a “global language” in China. In particular, it has investigated the status of English, learners’ motivations, and theteaching and learning of English in China. In line with the commonly held beliefs about the spread of English aroundthe world, respondents seem to view English in a relatively unproblematic and unproblematised way as part and parcelof international development and as the global language. In short, English is regarded as useful to China’s interna-tionalization and globalization. In addition, English is described by a good proportion of research participants as themost international and global language and is placed in what amounts to the hypercentral position in De Swaan’sglobal linguistic system. Furthermore, English is regarded as having an instrumental value, a linguistic capital thatcould be benecial to employment and career development of individuals. Thus, it has begun to be positioned by manyChinese nationals as equal and even superior to Chinese in some elds of social activity, such as business andeducation.

However, the perceived importance of English, and above all the importance of being able to communicate inEnglish, does not seem to have affected how it is taught and when asked about classroom teaching and learning of English, participants reveal a complex state of affairs. Thus, although English competence is believed to be useful, the



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deeply rooted examination culture leads to an exam-based syllabus, which clashes with the CLT approach whichteachers are supposed to implement. In short, there is a “put exams rst” mentality which reigns supreme. In suchcircumstances, English comes to be dened in individually and collectively held belief systems as serving two distinctthough interrelated functions in contemporary China. On the one hand, it is a commodity, dened by exam results,which can be exchanged on the job market ( Block, 2010 ). From this point of view, it really does not matter that examresults do not indicate communicative competence as “having English” comes to be embodied in a certicate whichconstitutes a part of a larger credentialisation process. On the other hand, for those Chinese nationals who have contactwith non-Chinese nationals, English actually serves a concrete communicative function. Here, the belief that Englishis necessary for China’s participation in all things global actually comes to life.

Since language beliefs are dynamic and situated, the aspiration to learn English and the dissatisfaction with currentteaching practice expressed by the teachers and students is inevitably inuenced by the social context, that is, therecent economic development of China, its need for internationalization and the accelerated social change when it waspreparing and hosting the global event of Olympic Games. And this shows how language beliefs are social andpolitical products. Hence, while allowing that “beliefs are individual subjective understandings” ( Wenden, 1998, p.517), we hope to have highlighted that language beliefs are connected to the broad social e political context andsuggest a social and political dimension in understanding and analysing language beliefs.

Of course this opens up a good number of questions in the case of China, not least how beliefs about English willevolve there over the next 25 years. In 2010, China became the world’s second largest economy and reasonableprojections place it as the largest economy sometime in the next 20 e 30 years. It is currently buying the debt of manyof the world’s most economically advanced nations, such as the US and EU member states Spain, Greece andBelgium. And nally, it is involved in extensive investment in the infrastructures of oil producing African nations,such as Angola and Nigeria, as well as various projects in most countries of the world, including India and Indonesia.Thus, the world’s economic stage is rapidly changing, as is China’s political and social role in it. From this perspective,the kinds of beliefs about English manifested by the Chinese respondents in this paper, above all those which areconsistent with de Swann’s world linguistic system, may well begin to change. And in an increasingly China-ledworld, beliefs about the overwhelming necessity of English may well wane as Mandarin comes to be seen asnecessary to economic development.

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English as a “Global Language” in China an Investigation Into Learners’ and Teachers’ Language Beliefs