Revisiting Chinese English learners’ perceptions of English as a global language: A qualitative case study

The increasing growth of English as an international language has resulted in many changes in sociolinguistic realities. The complex sociolinguistic landscape of the English language has led to diverse attitudes toward English as a global language and generated various concerns and debates on how the language should be taught and learned in various contexts. There are calls for a pedagogical paradigm shift from the traditional native-oriented approach to Global Englishes (GE)-informed pedagogy to facilitate students’ communication in international settings. However, GE-informed teaching in the English language classroom is rarely incorporated in contexts where English is used as a foreign language (EFL). The present study employed a semi-structured interview and student diaries to unpack Chinese university English language learners’ perceptions of GE. Findings showed that although Chinese English learners had a certain awareness of GE, the ideology of native-speakerism was still rooted in their minds, which might lead to the fixed language ideology regarding the native speaker model as a norm in English language education. The study proposes the importance of incorporating GE-informed pedagogy in the classroom and calls for a more critical approach to moving beyond the ideology of native-speakerism in English language education.