Dominant pedagogical approaches and diverse teaching conditions: Integrating CLT in a Chinese university as a danwei community of practices

Abstract

AbstractWith life stories of local and international teachers practicing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in a university in China, this article reveals how CLT ideological presumptions of individualism, egalitarianism and liberalism have been in a state of tension with the traditional methods and Chinese danwei characterized by collectivism, paternalism and conservatism. This tension explains the strong resistance against pedagogical agents of change in China. The article calls for a more sociological understanding of the seemingly linguistics-based and egalitarian communicative approaches to language teaching/learning.