A Periodization of English Language Teaching in China: Foreign Relations and Foreign Lanaguage Policy

Even though the status of English in the Chinese educational system has become a debated topic within Chinese society in recent years, foreign language study, which means English language in the vast majority of cases, is still one of the ‘three main subjects’ (san zhu ke 三主课) of the Chinese curriculum and of the gaokao 高考, the Chinese ‘National College Entrance Examination’. This new criticism towards English language teaching can attributed to the country’s trends in international politics and, as a matter of fact, foreign language teaching in China, and English language teaching in particular, can be regarded as a ‘barometer’ of the the country’s foreign relations (Adamson 2004; Ross 1992; Vickers & Zeng 2018). This contribution aims at retracing the stages of the history of English language teaching in China up to the present day. Following a revised version of the timeline devised by Rao (2013), six stages in its history can be identified: before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (1862-1949); after the establishment of RPC (1949-1961); the first ‘renaissance’ of English language teaching (1961-1966); the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976); the second ‘renaissance’ of English language teaching (1976-2012); and the Xi Jingping era (2012-). After a detailed exposition of the characteristics of each stage, the contribution will especially focus on the present one, so as to give an account of the current status of English in China, as the weight of foreign language lessons in the Chinese compulsory educational system has already been reduced and many political representatives call for an abandonment of the English test of the gaokao. In doing so, this contribution attempts to contribute to the academic discussion on the relationship between countries’ international relations and foreign language policy and the consequent periodization that can result from it.