Location
Atrium
Session Format
Poster Presentation
Research Area Topic:
Qualitative Research
Abstract
I propose a study on China’s English Fever under the interdisciplinary framework of cultural studies. Having taught English at the university level in China, I have had the opportunity not only to witness such a English-learning phenomenon that has been sweeping the country for about three decades, but also to teach students who are incredibly enthusiastic in learning English, regardless of their majors and of their initially drastically different English proficiency levels. What always intrigues me is the question of why: Why are Chinese people so dedicated to learning English? The proposed study is an attempt to look for some plausible answers to this central question from two related yet separate, not always aligned perspectives: the perspective of the government and that of the common people.
Situating China’s English fever under the broad and discursive framework of cultural studies, I will mainly draw on poststructuralism and Derridean deconstruction. The proposed study will begin with a review of the development of English language education in China, tracing back the history of how English replaced Russia in the late 1970s in the national school curriculum. The second part of the study will explore the Chinese government’s two contested discourses on English education—“English for everyone” vs. “English not important”—via analyzing the news and editorials from China’s most authoritative media outlets, such as China Daily and Xinhua News Agency. The third part will investigate Chinese people’s continuing obsession with English despite the government’s recurring backlashes against English by analyzing people’s discussion about reasons of learning English on major Chinese social media, such Baidu Tieba and Douban.
My major augments/findings are: 1) China’s English fever is much more than an urge to master a global language; instead it is driven both by the government’s pro-English language education policy and by people’s yearning for mobility and flexible citizenship. 2) The Chinese government’s contested discourses on the English language education reflect its ambivalent attitudes towards the West, as well as an undercurrent worry about its national identity in an age of globalization and cultural hybridity.
Keywords
English language education, China, Discourse analysis, National identity, Social mobility, Flexible citizenship
Presentation Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Start Date
4-24-2015 2:45 PM
End Date
4-24-2015 4:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Jin, Yiming Ms., "Behind China’s English Fever: The Contested Discourses on English Education and People’s Yearning for Flexible Citizenship" (2015). GS4 Georgia Southern Student Scholars Symposium. 131.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2015/2015/131
Included in
Behind China’s English Fever: The Contested Discourses on English Education and People’s Yearning for Flexible Citizenship
Atrium
I propose a study on China’s English Fever under the interdisciplinary framework of cultural studies. Having taught English at the university level in China, I have had the opportunity not only to witness such a English-learning phenomenon that has been sweeping the country for about three decades, but also to teach students who are incredibly enthusiastic in learning English, regardless of their majors and of their initially drastically different English proficiency levels. What always intrigues me is the question of why: Why are Chinese people so dedicated to learning English? The proposed study is an attempt to look for some plausible answers to this central question from two related yet separate, not always aligned perspectives: the perspective of the government and that of the common people.
Situating China’s English fever under the broad and discursive framework of cultural studies, I will mainly draw on poststructuralism and Derridean deconstruction. The proposed study will begin with a review of the development of English language education in China, tracing back the history of how English replaced Russia in the late 1970s in the national school curriculum. The second part of the study will explore the Chinese government’s two contested discourses on English education—“English for everyone” vs. “English not important”—via analyzing the news and editorials from China’s most authoritative media outlets, such as China Daily and Xinhua News Agency. The third part will investigate Chinese people’s continuing obsession with English despite the government’s recurring backlashes against English by analyzing people’s discussion about reasons of learning English on major Chinese social media, such Baidu Tieba and Douban.
My major augments/findings are: 1) China’s English fever is much more than an urge to master a global language; instead it is driven both by the government’s pro-English language education policy and by people’s yearning for mobility and flexible citizenship. 2) The Chinese government’s contested discourses on the English language education reflect its ambivalent attitudes towards the West, as well as an undercurrent worry about its national identity in an age of globalization and cultural hybridity.
