“It Was Because I Could Speak English That I Got the Job”: Neoliberal Discourse in a Chinese English Textbook Series

ABSTRACT

The issue of neoliberalism has aroused sustained interest among English language teaching (ELT) and applied linguistic researchers who are politically minded. Neoliberalism is a dominant rationality with immense economic, political and ideological consequences in all aspects of social and institutional life in globalization, including foreign language education. This article presents a critical analysis of the neoliberal discourse on English language learning in the Chinese context with a special focus on teaching materials. Informed by a political economy perspective on English language education, the study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a methodological principle. Specifically, it examines the way (a) competence in English is commodified as a desirable linguistic cultural capital, (b) English learning is portrayed as an individualized and asocial undertaking, and (c) a monolingual and monocultural dream is built to include learners in an imagined homogeneous discourse community. Implications for ELT pedagogy and curriculum are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical applied linguistics
• critical discourse analysis
• language and ideology
• neoliberalism
• teaching English

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the support from the Center for Research in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Chinese MOE Research Grant for Humanities and Social Sciences (14YJA740045) and the Jiangsu Qinlan Project (2016-15).