English Language Ideologies in Chinese Foreign Language Education Policies

Abstract

This chapter investigates the Chinese state's English language ideologies as reflected in official Chinese foreign language education policies (FLEPs) and discusses the social implications of these ideologies. The major argument is that language policies are an apparatus for the state's political and cultural governance. They are also a product emerging out of the interaction with super-state forces in the modern world system, and they are usually formulated to guarantee the state's competitiveness in the interstate system. I will justify this argument by an investigation of the Chinese FLEPs at four levels: the status ascribed to English, the objectives and standard of English language ideologies, the handling of cultural influence and the issues of choice and inequality.