It has been said there are more Chinese learning English than there are Americans. We all have a sense that the first decades of the third millennium, including the effects of the global financial recession, signal dramatic changes to the shape of the world to come. China's emergence as a superpower is one of the few certainties in this rapidly changing world. What is less well realised is the critical role which China's decisions about English will play in the world's communication profile. This unique volume explores this question looking at the debates on identity, cultural values and communication practices. Taking a wide-ranging view and uniquely blending both Chinese and Western perspectives the volume explores the critically important cultural consequences of mass English learning in today's world.

PART I Western Dreams, Chinese Quests: Habitus and Encounter

1. Intercultural Encounters and Deep Cultural Beliefs - Joseph Lo Bianco

2. Sociocultural Contexts and English in China: Retaining and Reforming the Cultural Habitus - Gao Yihong

3. English and the Chinese Quest - Jane Orton

PART II Learners, Identities, Purposes

4. Language and Identity: State of the Art and a Debate of Legitimacy - Gao Yihong

5. Beautiful English vs. the Multilingual Self - Li Zhanzi

6. "Just a Tool": The Role of English in the Curriculum - Jane Orton

7. The More I Learned, the Less I Found My Self - Bian Yongwei

PART III Landscapes and Mindscapes

8. Language, Ethnicity and Identity in China - Zhou Qingsheng

9. Ethnic Minorities, Bilingual Education and Glocalization - Xu Hongchen

10. English at Home in China: How Far Does the Bond Extend? -Joseph Lo Bianco

11. Motivational Force-Imagined Community in Crazy English - Li Jingyan

12. Understanding Ourselves Through 'Teacher Man' - Li Zhanzi PART IV Narratives

13. Negotiated (Non-)Participation of 'Unsuccessful' Learners - Li Yuxia

14. Teachers' Identities in Personal Narratives - Liu Yi PART V English for China in the World

15. East Goes West - Jane Orton 16. Being Chinese, Speaking English - Joseph Lo Bianco

Joseph Lo Bianco is Professor of Language and Literacy Education and Associate Dean (Global Relations) at the Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. He is author of Australiaâ¿¿s first comprehensive language policy, the National Policy on Languages, 1987. In 2007 he produced a Special Issue of the journal Language Policy entitled The Emergence of Chinese.

Jane Orton is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, where she has researched, taught and supervised for many years in the area of international English, language teaching and culture, and nonverbal communication.

Gao Yihong is a professor in the English Department, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, and Director of The Association of Chinese Sociolinguistics. Her major research interest lies in the social psychology and social context of language learning.