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English has been taught in China for over 300 years and English language learning has a long and fascinating history in China (Adamson, 2002; Gil & Adamson, 2011).Foreign language learning had existed in imperial China since late 1289, when languages were learnt by aristocrats to enhance commerce with countries in Southeast Asia (Gu,1996). In the 17th century, because of burgeoning international trade, pidgin variety of English was used between Chinese compradors and businessmen from European countries. Since her humiliating encounter with the West in the 19th century, China has displayed ambiguous and shifting attitudes towards the English language (Adamson,2002; Bolton, 2003; Gao, 2014). In the late Qing Dynasty, in response to external aggression and the technological inferiority exposed in the Opium War (1840—1860),a strategy of synthesis was provided by scholars in the Westernization Movement ( yang wu yun dong ) [ 洋务运动 ]: the principle was “study China for essence, study the West for utility” ( zhong xue wei ti, xi xue wei yong ) [ 中学为体，西学为用 ]. Influenced by such a strategy, foreign languages were learnt to gain access to Western technology and English became one of the subjects in the mainstream curricula in secondary schools. The study of English came to be a conduit for the introduction of new philosophies, religions and social theories at the time when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. When the government of the Republic shifted to reform its education system by following the U.S., English assumed greater proportion in China’s education system (Adamson, 2002).
After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, English had long been regarded as a language associated with “military aggressors” and “a threat to national integrity”; it had also been seen as a strategic language that helped the nation learn advanced technology and essential knowledge from the West for her modernization (Adamson, 2002, p.231). Thanks to the reform and opening-up policy,the 1980s witnessed rapid economic growth and tremendous sociocultural changes.During this period of time, English was regarded as “barometer of modernization” (Ross,1992) and was progressively associated with promoting international exchange, learning technology, fostering economic progress, and participating in international competition.
In the new millennium, English is still deemed vital for modernization, but it has taken on another role: “English for international stature” (Lam, 2002, p.246). The Chinese nation has embraced English as an index of global identity and Chinese learners have embraced English learning as central to their future careers and professional lives (Graddol, 2006). The significance of English can be seen from a macro-policy perspective that the new language policy and curriculum reform (MOE, 2001) officially required Chinese students to learn English from the third grade in elementary school through college to graduate school. Chinese English learners view English as a key to a vast range of opportunities: to enter and graduate from university, to study abroad, to secure jobs, especially in international companies, or to get promoted in professional or higher education institutions (Liu et al., 2016).
However, because of a vast territory and regional economic unbalanced development,English language teaching in China is facing diverse problems. In spite of being long criticized as not efficient enough and wasting time, a variety of factors have been identified that constrain the implementation of English teaching and learning, for example, class size, limited teacher proficiency, insu ficient resources and instructional time, examination pressure, and cultural resistance (Hu, 2002; Nunan, 2003; Trang &Baldauf, 2007). Based on the interviews with English teachers from various primary and secondary schools in urban and rural areas in three diferent Chinese cities. Li and Baldauf (2011) identified five constraining factors of English teaching, namely, teaching materials, teachers, educational system, teaching methodology, and assessment (p.795).Additionally, some large-scale cross-sectional surveys discovered that, though Chinese students (in secondary schools and in universities) in general are favorably disposed towards studying English as a foreign language (You & Dörnyei, 2016), they reported reading and writing as strengths and speaking and listening as areas of weakness.Additionally, learner characteristics such as gender, major, hometown, home dialect,extramural studies, and parents’ level of education were statistically significant (Liu. et al., 2016).
In order to present a holistic background for the present study, a brief history as well as problems and tensions of English language teaching are delineated. In the next section, the rural-urban gap in basic education in China will be described.