What do They think and How do They feel? EFL Students?Attitudes towards the Spread of English in China in a Global Context

[[abstract]]Since the World War Two, the English language has rapidly spread in the world since it is used and serves as various functins in different countries and regions. In China, English is also spreading at an increasingly fast pace and penertrating into almost every area in the society, particularly in education and economic domains. In education, English is taught in elementary, secondary and tertiary schools. Evern self-taught learners across the country have to pass PETS (Public English Test System) in order to get a diploma (China Daily, 2001). In the ecomic area, English manifests the ongoing ecomic reform in China, promotes the economic growth and reinforces the reform outcomes. The English language plays an important role on the job market, where most jobs require English proficiency either as a must or a prioirtyu (Zhang, 2003). Due to the status and role of the English language under the sociolinguistic context in China, public has been generous with respect to English language training, and ?English industry? or ?English economy? is blooming and thriving reporting an annual profit of 20 to 30 billion RMB (China Daily, 2002). The unexpected fast-paced spread of the English language in Chian arouses various attitudes towards the English language, among which most often seen are hot attracks in the media on the spread of the English language in China as lingusitc hegemony or imperialism and a threat to the Chinese language and Chineas identiy, even though English has not become a lingua franc in China. Few academic researches, however, have been conducted to study Chinese attitudes towards the Enlgish language in China. Hence it is high time we studies the issue