The use of English in the professional world in China

Abstract

The status and use of English in mainland China are topics of intense interest for researchers, although most previous research has been conducted within the field of education, with few data from the professional world. The current study attempts to focus on the professionals in China and their use of English. The study has drawn data with a questionnaire from 2,247 participants in workplaces across China and 44 of them have been interviewed. The participants are from three types of organization: government, public service unit, and company. Although overall the use of English is not frequent in China's professional world, the results indicate that English plays an important role in about a quarter of the participants’ working lives and that the majority of the participants recognize the high importance of English.