University students’ and teachers’ perceptions of China English and world Englishes: Language attitudes and pedagogic implications

Abstract

This article explores and compares Chinese university students’ and teachers’ perceptions of China English and world Englishes in the context of English being the uncontested world language. Although the global spread of English and the relationship between standardized English and local varieties of Englishes have been discussed abundantly, the voices of learners and teachers of English have not been sufficiently reported, especially from the perspective of the differences in view between these two parties. This article attempts to address the issue. It drew upon a comprehensive data base from 984 university students and their teachers at four universities in China. With two cross-validated research methods, the article found that the student participants were comparatively positive to China English whereas the teacher participants thought standardized English was preferable. The results suggest that the well codified features of China English should be incorporated into the native-speaker-based teaching model. Teacher-student differences in their language attitudes are worthy of close attention so that a more practical and efficient pedagogic model could be developed.