Language learners as invisible planners: a case study of an Arabic language program in a Chinese university

ABSTRACT

Despite the predominant position of global English, teaching and learning of languages other than English (LOTEs) are gaining increasing attention in foreign language planning in China. This study aims to showcase the development of an elective Arabic language program in a Chinese university through the lens of agency as a spatial, temporal, and dialogical construct. We investigated how 24 participants representing three groups of actors—people with power, people with expertise, and people with interest—exercised their agency during the five stages of language planning stipulated by the process model of Language Management Theory (i.e. noting, evaluation, adjustment design, implementation, feedback). Drawing on narrative accounts and semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed constant interactions between different actors distributed through the five stages. In particular, we found that the five stages did not proceed in a linear way, and the findings demonstrated the presence of an internal cycle in addition to the external cycle in the micro language planning process. Language learners are invisible planners in the LOTE program. The study concludes that different actors in the local context need to make coordinated efforts to negotiate spaces to sustain the teaching and learning of less commonly taught languages, despite various structural constraints.

KEYWORDS:

• Language-in-education planning
• agency
• LOTE learning
• Language Management Theory

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘The Notification by Ministry of Education on jointly building The Belt and Road Education Act,’ available at http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A20/s7068/201608/t20160811_274679.html

2 We refer to the Chinese MOE’s list of World-class Universities and World-class Disciplines as top-tier universities in China: http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A22/moe_843/201709/t20170921_314942.html

3 In China students can major in foreign languages and culture, and thus are regarded as foreign language specialists. Here we use ‘non-specialist’ to refer to foreign language courses targeting students from disciplines other than foreign languages. Such non-specialist language courses are mostly elective courses.

4 In the focal university, students need to take a 16-week course (2 teaching hours a week) for 2 credits. To gain 8 credits, they need to take 4 different foreign language courses.

5 The Hui ethnic group is one of the 56 ethnic groups in China. They are often thought to be the descendants of Arabian businessmen who settled or inter-married with local Chinese around the 10th century under the unification of Islam (Gladney, 2003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ning An

Ning An, College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Yongyan Zheng

Yongyan Zheng, College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.