China’s Standards of English Language Ability: Voice From English Teachers at Chinese Universities

Abstract

The birth of China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSELA) marks a new era of English education in China. As the country’s first national English standard, CSELA is expected to significantly refine the current system of English assessment and further improve the quality of English education. Due to its relatively short history, there is still much unknown about the impact that CSELA may have on English teaching, learning, and testing. Therefore, this study is conducted to demonstrate how Chinese English teachers in higher education view this new standard of English. Based on semi-structured interviews with 15 university English teachers divided into three focus groups, findings demonstrate that practitioners generally hold positive attitudes toward CSELA in terms of its possible contribution to English teaching and learning. In the meantime, English teachers also share certain concerns, especially about their unpreparedness with the new standard. Finally, participants further express their needs in English teaching, as well as their desire to be more deeply involved in policy making processes. These results provide important information to enrich the field’s knowledge about CSELA. A set of implications emerge based on these findings.