The official trilogy and public paradox: understanding mainland Chinese policies of ELT on secondary level from the perspective of culture politics

Fuli Liu

doi:10.1186/s40862-016-0017-4

Abstract

The history of English test reform on secondary level in China is a reflection of Chinese development in recent 30 years. The stress on English language helps move on Chinese reform-and-open process. On the new historical step, there are some criticisms of English language and English language education in China. Particularly some people hold that it is necessary to reform the English tests, to re-understand the significance of English, and to lower down its weight in education. Meanwhile some others still emphasize the importance of English language and English language education in China, refusing to weaken the status of English in school education. The two trends of thinking could be explained by the cultural politics of English education in mainland China. Though English helps in Chinese reform-and-open history, it produces difficulty in education because of its role as a foreign language, and it would bring about some possible problem in the field of ideology.

Highlights

For over 30 years, Chinese policies of English language education, the national direction of NSHSEE (National Senior High School Entrance Examination) and NCEE (National College Entrance Examination) on secondary level education, varies along social development, and very possibly the variation would continue
The attempt to control the weight of ELT in 2013 In the year 2013 and 2014, Chinese governments made two plans of English language tests on secondary level school education
English test for NCEE would be implemented by the way of “socialized” examination system twice a year, that is, the English tests would not be organized by the official school education system any longer

Summary

Background

For over 30 years, Chinese policies of English language education, the national direction of NSHSEE (National Senior High School Entrance Examination) and NCEE (National College Entrance Examination) on secondary level education, varies along social development, and very possibly the variation would continue. The public complaints over the matter would change with the variation of the policies, whether English is believed to be over-heated or under-estimated. For individuals or for governments, what English brings is alphabetical syntagmatic or paradigmatic presentation, and the culture embodied through the language vehicle. In this way, the policies of English language education in China have. Liu Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education (2016) 1:11 to be weighed carefully, and the paradox of public attitude toward English is an inevitable social occurrence. “Language itself, in other words, is a political-linguistic-rhetorical construct” (Joseph, 2006, p. 9)

Discussion

Findings

The three major subjects in NCEE

English does