Pioneering English language education in 19th-century China: John Fryer’s teaching approach at the Shanghai Anglo-Chinese School (1865–1868)

In this paper, we highlight the importance of teaching initiated by missionary societies in the early development of English education in China. We particularly focus on the first missionary school in mainland China to establish an English language course, the Shanghai School (1865–1868), taking a close look at the nature and role of English teaching in this school. Aspects of practice which are highlighted include the professional approach taken to organisation of the curriculum, emphasis on a bilingual approach to English instruction and avoidance of explicit Christian content. We explain these emphases by means of biographical research into the life and career of the school’s headmaster, John Fryer (1839–1928), whose later work as a translator and pioneer of Chinese studies in the USA is much better known. Overall, the article shows that practice-oriented, biographical research can provide a relatively holistic and complex picture of 19th-century English language teaching in a Christian missionary institution, within a context of competing, sometimes conflicting, motivations, intentions and vocations.