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This paper examines university students' perceptions towards different English accent varieties and their non-unitary and conflicting identity (re)construction responding the changing configuration of English in China. Findings from interviews and diaries indicate that the participants' perceptions appear to be under the substantial influence of the different identities they intend to assume. The incompatibility existing in their different identities leads to identity conflicts and attitude schizophrenia. The article proposes a revision of the ongoing teaching paradigm in order to project the current spread and development of English and to attend to the genuine linguistic demands and identity appeals of English language learners in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of a group of Chinese ESL learners in China, who study English by immersing themselves regularly and rigorously in English television drama. A self-directed learning pedagogy has been developed and discussed, which seems to have signposted an effective and economic way for ESL learners to improve linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence beyond the language classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid and wide spread of English has given rise to its lingua franca status, which in turn, changes the nature of English and English teaching at the tertiary level. This paper, based on a survey, discusses some of the problems with the current English curriculum used in Chinese universities and proceeds to offer some suggestions for a more appropriate university English curriculum in China in the context of English as an international language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As English language learning becomes a hot issue in China, linguists in China and abroad are becoming increasingly interested in China English—a relatively new concept. Whether China English has acquired the status of a new English variety is still an open question. This paper reviews the acceptability of China English at home and abroad and finds that China English is still not a fully accepted form of English. However, this newly‐born English variety has great potential to be accepted as a Standard English variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the emergence of the plural forms of English widely acknowledges the sociolinguistic realities in many countries and regions, it might also have an equally profound impact on English teaching and learning in those areas. The trend is for pedagogical models no longer to privilege so-called Standard English based on native varieties but to be built on the localised model. This article argues, however, that for English to continue to function as a ‘lingua franca’, certain standards should be imposed on language use by Chinese students in their academic writing, so that the variant forms will not digress too much from the standard forms and so not result in unintelligibility or misunderstanding. Focusing on selected written data produced by advanced Chinese students, a distinction can be made between interlanguage and variant forms that mark the Chineseness in China English where both features can be situated on a continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on a longitudinal study of four Chinese students' English learning experiences during their college years and explores the ways in which EFL learning has influenced their sense of national identity. The study captures the changes they have experienced in constructing identities over a prolonged period in the context of mainland China where strong sense of national identity has been historically promoted and where there is currently unprecedentedly close interaction between local cultures and western cultures. Drawing on interviews and diary studies as the primary data source, this study identifies a three-stage development in the national identities of the college students that proceeds from initial admiration of English-speaking cultures, to antagonism towards alien things, before then reaching a stage of conciliation between the national and the global. The findings suggest that China's deeply-rooted culture of collectivism and altruism plays a role in shaping English learners' national identity and that the learners also demonstrate considerable agency in constructing national identities at different stages of English learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]