<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper sets out to investigate Chinese university students’ ELF awareness, which is conceptualised with regards to language education. The study, based on 24 semi-structured interviews, demonstrates that Chinese university students are still framing their understanding of English with the affiliation to idealised notions of monolingual origin of native English, despite being situated in a changing world where multilingual speakers of English are becoming the majority of English users and ELF is becoming a prominent communicative phenomenon. The participants’ account reveals the role of language education as the interface between language ideology and linguistic reality in China. Based on the study, this paper suggests ways of minimising the gap in ELF awareness. While this paper appreciates Chinese philosophy of education, the focus is on promoting awareness of English in relation to its sociocultural context and considering “imagined communities” in the learning so as to come to terms with sociolinguistic reality.</p></abstract>

This paper sets out to investigate Chinese university students’ ELF awareness, which is conceptualised with regards to language education. The study, based on 24 semi-structured interviews, demonstrates that Chinese university students are still framing their understanding of English with the affiliation to idealised notions of monolingual origin of native English, despite being situated in a changing world where multilingual speakers of English are becoming the majority of English users and ELF is becoming a prominent communicative phenomenon. The participants’ account reveals the role of language education as the interface between language ideology and linguistic reality in China. Based on the study, this paper suggests ways of minimising the gap in ELF awareness. While this paper appreciates Chinese philosophy of education, the focus is on promoting awareness of English in relation to its sociocultural context and considering “imagined communities” in the learning so as to come to terms with sociolinguistic reality.

Chinese university students’ ELF awareness: Impacts of language education in China

Englishes in Practice

This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

中国的英语教育如何影响中国大学生的ELF意识形成

This paper sets out to investigate Chinese university students’ ELF awareness, which is conceptualised with regards to language education. The study, based on...

Chinese university students’ ELF awareness: Impacts of language education in China

Published Online: Oct 14, 2015

Page range: 86 - 106

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eip-2015-0004

Keywords
ELF awareness, language education, China, imagined communities

© 2015 Ying Wang, published by De Gruyter Open

This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Chinese university students’ ELF awareness: Impacts of language education in China

Published Online: Oct 14, 2015

Page range: 86 - 106

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eip-2015-0004

KeywordsELF awareness, language education, China, imagined communities

© 2015 Ying Wang, published by De Gruyter Open

This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Keywords
ELF awareness, language education, China, imagined communities