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English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language

Teaching Materials in Contemporary China

Chapter · June 2022

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-1935-0_4

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Chapter 4

English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of ELT Materials in

Contemporary China

Huawei Shi

Fei Victor Lim

Abstract This chapter adopts multimodal content analysis (Bell, 2001; Joo et al., 2019)
to examine an introductory video to an online English course, the textbook
accompanying the course, as well as the online course itself, for students in China. The
analysis aims to surface the discursive construction and representation of values and
the expression of ideologies on English in the ELT materials (Hu & Mckay, 2014). In
particular, the analysis highlights the privileging of Anglocentric representations and
dominance of the native speaker model (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Such representations are
observed to persist in the Chinese society despite the present status of English as a
world language with an increasing number of English language speakers from many
parts of the world in the outer circle (Kachru, 1992). Through the analysis, we discuss
the expressions of cultural hegemony (Gramsci, 1971), in this case, the western cultural
bias implicit in ELT materials propagated to students in China. We advance the
argument that such ideological positioning (van Dijk, 2011) of ELT materials is
unproductive as such an essentialist definition of EL proficiency is unattainable for non-
native speakers (Kirkpatrick, 2007). Even worse, such an association between the
English language and nationality can be deleterious as it propagates the unhelpful
notion of English where standards and norms are determined by nationality rather than
by use.

Keywords: China, content analysis, Englishness, multimodality; online course

H. Shi (correspondence)
Yantai University, China
E-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

Digital technology has brought to the fore new ways of teaching and learning through
providing unprecedented access to online courses for students across the world. Online
courses, many of which achieve a wide reach as MOOCs (massive open online courses)
are becoming increasingly pervasive and popular in many countries (Brahimi & Sarirete,
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
2015). In particular, China has experienced a boom in MOOCs, with a growing number
of courses developed on platforms built in recent years. According to a recent document
released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) of the People’s Republic of China, over
240,000 courses are freely accessible across 22 online course platforms1. The reach of
MOOCs is also staggering, with an estimate of over 490 million learners who have
signed up for at least one online course2. Language courses are no exception, as
searching “English” as a keyword in a Chinese University MOOC
(https://www.icourse163.org/), one of the largest MOOC websites in China, yielded
more than 800 courses on English language learning (last retrieved, May 6, 2021).

The trend towards online learning has also led to the need to broaden our definition of
English Language Teaching (ELT) materials to include digital content and resources,
such as online courses, video lectures, and e-assessments that are part of the English
course (Sokolik, 2014). Our study adopts the more expansive definition of ELT
materials that include both digital and print resources. We examine the multimodal
representation of English and Englishness in the video lectures and the accompanying
textbook of an online English course.

The interest in the ideological representation of English and Englishness in ELT

materials is not new. Previous studies have explored the expression of such values,
biases, and beliefs across many different English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts
in print ELT materials. For example, Matsuda (2002) examined the representation of
characters in Japanese EFL textbooks and reported that they included mostly people
from countries of the inner circle (Kachru, 1985, 1992) rather than Japanese or English
speakers from other contexts. Xiong and Qian (2012) and Hu and Mckay (2014) also
reported similar findings in their studies of print ELT materials, such as English
textbooks used in China. Joo et al. (2019) examined Korean EFL textbooks and found
similar results. Building on this trajectory of work and given the global reach of online
courses, the ease in the scalability of digital content and resources as well as the appeal
of the English courses developed in China for the Chinese students, it is of interest in
this study to examine how the current ideological representations in both digital and
print ELT materials are depicted. We apply a multimodal content analysis approach to
answer the research question on how English and Englishness are represented and
expressed in the ELT materials of a popular online course.

English and Englishness in ELT Materials

The notion of Englishness centres on the issues of native-speakerism and a western-

centric view of the English language. Native-speakerism refers to the belief that native-
speaker teachers are regarded as representative of a Western culture, as opposed to non-
native speakers. Native-speakerism has been described as “a pervasive ideology within
ELT” (Holliday, 2006, p. 385). By placing native speakers of English at the centre,
native-speakerism effectively segments speakers at the core and those who are at the
margin, with the ‘othering’ of English speakers to refer to those outside of the English-
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
speaking west as ‘non-native speakers’ (Holliday, 2006).

This differentiation resonates with Kachru’s popular classification of world Englishes

(1985, 1992). Kachru categorised English into three different yet overlapping circles:
the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle. The inner circle consists of
traditional English native-speaking countries, namely the United Kingdom, the United
States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The outer circle usually refers to countries
that used to be colonies of countries belonging to the inner circle such as India, the
Philippines and Singapore. The expanding circle includes countries where English is
mainly used as a foreign language like China and Egypt and where the norm of English,
or standard English, is dependent on the inner circle. Kachru’s model implicitly
acknowledges the powerful role of the inner circle because of its influence over the
norms and expectations of the English language. The implied higher status and
privileged recognition accorded to speakers in the inner circle over the outer and
expanding circle is also suggested in the model.

An alternative to the native-speakerism model is the development of the concept of

World Englishes (WE) that focuses on the use of English in intercultural
communication among English speakers from any part of the world (Jenkins & Leung,
2017). World Englishes include speakers from countries of all circles, that is, they can
include English of the postcolonial regions of the outer circle, English of the
Anglophone countries (the inner circle), and English of the many countries in the
expanding circle where English is learnt and used by its speakers but has few or no
internal functions (Jenkins, 2006; Jenkins & Leung, 2017; Kachru, 1992). Arguably
then, the concept of WE is more inclusive in its nature and focuses on the utility of
English through the ways the language is used across contexts and culture, rather than
the provenance of English based on geographical location and race. Given the
acceptance of WE as a paradigm, it is of interest to examine the extent to which such
understandings of the context of influence and use are reflected in the ELT materials as
an expression of Englishness.

We posit, following the work of scholars such as Curdt-Christiansen and Weninger

(2015) and others, that ELT materials are not neutral transmitters of information. Rather,
they are a result of an orchestration of semiotic choices by the designers that express
specific meanings both in the content and through the content. The analysis of the latter
is revealing of the values implicit within the discourse (van Dijk, 2011). The dominance
of certain value systems is closely related to the concept of hegemony (Gramsci, 1971;
Apple, 2019), which refers to “an organized assemblage of meanings and practices, the
central, effective, and dominant system of meanings, values, and actions which are
lived” (Apple, 2019, p. 5) that are expressed in the resources. In particular, we are
interested in the articulation of hegemony in ELT materials, especially in the expression
of ideologies of Englishness through these resources.

In this, our work builds on the earlier studies from scholars who examined print ELT
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
materials such as textbooks. For example, Xiong and Qian (2012) classified the
ideologies of English into three categories: dominant, popular, and counter-hegemonic
ideology. The first two categories acknowledge the hegemonic views of Englishness,
while counter-hegemony dismisses the uniformist view of English implied by the
dominant ideology. In the case of English teaching and learning in China, counter-
hegemonic ideology acknowledges Chinese English as a legitimate localised variety of
Standard English. Notwithstanding, Xiong and Qian (2012) reported that the first
category of dominant ideology – that of Anglo-centric values is evident in the EFL
textbook used at senior high school in China. Likewise, Hu and Mckay (2014) who
examined widely used EFL textbooks in junior secondary school in China also reported
similar findings where the dominant language ideology throughout the textbook is
native-speakerism, and the values privileged the Anglo-American cultures. The other
varieties of English among multilingual speakers were de-emphasised and scant
attention was paid to the notion of WE.

This dominant Anglo-centric language ideology is not only prevalent in China but also
in other countries of the expanding circle such as Korea (e.g., Joo et al., 2019) and Japan
(e.g., Matsuda, 2002; Yamada, 2010). As such, scholars have argued for the importance
of acknowledging the varieties of English and presenting English as a global language
rather than tying the sense of Englishness with an essentialist definition of geographical
location and race. Our study extends the work by examining the ideological expressions
in both digital and print ELT materials of an openly accessed online English course to
answer the research question on how English speakers are represented and the ideology
expressed in the materials.

To examine the representation of English speakers in the online videos and the textbook,
we employed multimodal content analysis (Bell, 2001; Joo et al., 2019; Weninger &
Kiss, 2015). Content analysis is a research method for “making replicable and valid
inference from texts to the context of their use” (Krippendorff, 2013, p. 24). The
common way of doing content analysis is to adopt an a priori coding framework or
develop new categories based on the characteristics of the data, code the data into
corresponding categories and calculate relevant frequencies arising from their
distribution (Bell, 2001; Weninger & Kiss, 2015). Multimodal content analysis regards
multimodal resources such as images and animation in addition to the linguistic texts
as sources of data.

In this study, we apply multimodal content analysis to identify the semiotic choices
made in the ELT materials. Specifically, our study examines the representation of the
English Language and of English speakers by developing a coding framework based on
Kachru’s three circles model of World Englishes (1992) and aims to surface the
discursive construction and representation of values and the expression of ideologies
on English in the digital and print ELT materials.

Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
Data and Methodology

We chose the online course, College English Speaking (as shown in Figure 1), as an
example of the online ELT courses in China that are publicly accessible on a leading
online education platform – Chinese University MOOC (https://www.icourse163.org/).
The platform is jointly developed by NetEase, a leading Chinese Internet Technology
company, and the Higher Education Press in China. Chinese University MOOC offers
online courses from universities in China and has the highest number of nationally
recognised courses at more than 9000, most of which are publicly accessed for free3.
That means students can register and study any courses of interest for free, and only
when the students pass the course and want to get a certificate would they need to pay
for accreditation. There is virtually no restriction in terms of the qualification of the
registrants for any course or the number of courses one can register for. On the webpage
of each course, there will usually be an introductory video as well as a written
description of the curriculum, the content, the teaching team, and the objectives of the
course to attract potential students.

Figure 1. The layout of College English Speaking on the webpage

College English Speaking was offered when Chinese University MOOC was launched
in 2014 and it has been offered 13 times over the years. A total of over two million
English learners have registered for this course, which, according to our knowledge,
was one of the largest and most influential online courses. In 2017, this course was also
certified as a national excellent open course by the educational ministry in China4.

As our research question is focused on the representation of the English Language and
of English speakers, we select aspects of the ELT materials from the course for close
study. Specifically, we examined the introductory video to the course, all 20 online units,
and the supporting course textbook in this study. A typical online unit consists of four
sections: video lecture(s) on a specific speaking topic, video lecture(s) on pronunciation
or English-speaking tips, one video of a group discussion, and one video clip titled
“Learn English with the ‘Original Taste’” (Learn Native English). Quizzes and online
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
written discussion tasks may appear within or after each section.

The accompanying course textbook titled College English Speaking is published by the
Higher Education Press in 2016. The textbook consists of ten units which provide
exercises for practice based on the topics in the corresponding online video lectures as
well as two more new dialogues on the same topic for offline learning. Connections
between the printed textbooks and the online video lectures are made through QR codes
on the printed pages, which the students can scan, using mobile devices, to access the
digital content. There are also a skill focus and a cultural focus section to provide more
exercises or illustrations on the topic in each unit. As our interest is in the representation
of English via English speakers in the materials, we narrowed our scope to focus on
materials that are accompanied by aural resources. General information of all materials
in this online course that is aligned with our interest is listed in Table 1.

Table 1. General information of types of ELT materials

Time
ELT Materials Sub-types of Materials No. Duration
Introductory Video 1 0:01:20
Lectures on Common
Speaking Topics and 52 7:23:22
Mechanics of Speaking
Group Discussion on
Videos in Online
Common Speaking 17 1:55:46
Course (n=91)
Topics
Learn English with
“Original Taste” – a
21 1:20:18
Focus on Standard
Pronunciation
Listening in Textbook Listening
10 0:44:42
Textbook (n=10) Activities
Total 101 11:25:28

Coding Scheme
A coding scheme was designed based on studies by Bell (2001), and Joe et al. (2019).
The unit of coding was set as “a complete segment of aural interaction”; that is, either
a dialogue or a monologue. The segment must be a complete discourse on its own and
does not rely on the preceding or following segment for comprehension as one unit of
analysis. In total, we identified 117 independent segments for coding and analysis as
shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of units of analysis

Complete Time
ELT Materials Sub-types of Materials Units Duration

Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
 Introductory Video 4 0:00:10
Lectures 65 1:34:50
Videos in Online
Group Discussion 17 1:55:46
Course (n=107)
Learn English with
21 1:20:18
"Original Taste"
Listening Section in Textbook Listening
10 0:44:42
Textbook (n=10) Activities
Total 117 5:35:46

The development and selection of variables in the coding scheme went through several
rounds. The final coding scheme consisted of four groups of variables, which are
composed of 11 variables as shown in Table 3. The first group of variables are the
general information of the analytical unit, and the second group of variables are related
to the sources of these units of analysis. Next, the third group of variables examine the
speaker(s), including five variables: the number, the name, the visual representation,
and the accent and nationality of each speaker in these units of analysis. To identify the
varieties of English the speaker(s) used as well as their nationality, we first relied on
explicit information from the scripts or the visual images or visual features of speakers,
if any, such as the physical characteristics like skin colour, hair, and facial features (Joo
et al., 2019). For those without visuals, we adopted impression analysis (Kang & Moran,
2018; Kirkpatrick, 2020) based on some distinct phonological features of the speaker
in accordance with different varieties of English. Those units whose categories are hard
to identify was coded as unspecified. For the last group of variables, we examined ways
of interaction or engagement with the learners from two perspectives, a conventional
dichotomy of dialogue and monologue, following Joo et al. (2019).

Table 3. Variables and categories in the coding scheme

Variables Description of Categories
General information
Time starts The time when the analytic unit starts
Time ends The time when the analytic unit stops
Sources of analytic unit
What types of materials is 1. Introductory Video
the analytical unit located? 2. Group Discussion
3. Learn English with “Original Taste”
4. “Textbook Listening”
Is the material made by the 1. Borrowed
teaching team, or borrowed 2. Self-made
from other sources? 3. Unspecified (when we could not identify the
source)
Speakers
No. of speakers The number of speakers that spoke in one analytical
unit
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
 Variables Description of Categories
Names of speakers The name(s) of speakers that spoke in one analytical
unit or the names of the original film/TV drama
where the analytic unit was directly borrowed.
Visual representation of 1. Real person in videos
speaker(s) E.g.,

2. Picture(s)
E.g.,

3. Cartoon
E.g.,

4. No visuals of speaker(s)
E.g.,

Varieties of English of
The varieties of English that the speaker(s) spoke
speakers
Nationality of speakers The background where the speaker(s) most likely
come from
Interaction type
Is this analytic unit a 1. Dialogue
dialogue or a monologue? 2. Monologue
What type of interaction 1. Expanding-expanding
does the analytic unit 2. Inner-Inner
belong to, according to 3. Expanding-Inner
Kachru's three circles of 4. Outer-outer
Englishes? 5. Expanding-outer
6. Outer-inner

Results
The analysis of the representation of speakers in both types of materials from the online
course is examined in relation to the varieties of English and the patterns in the ways
of interactions. Tables 4 and 5 present the results of the representation of English
speakers in terms of sources, visual representations, and varieties of English. Together,
we identified nine varieties of English covering all three circles: inner circle (American,
Australian, British, Canadian, Irish), outer circle (Indian, South Africa), and expanding
circle (Chinese, South Korea). Our analysis also surfaced the disproportionate
distribution of these varieties of English depending on the sources, and patterns of
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
visual representation. American English was dominant in Introductory Video (3), the
lectures of Learn English with “Original Taste” (12), and “Textbook Listening” (10),
where representing the speakers in person in the video was also the most widely used
form of representing English speakers. British English shared a similar pattern with
American English, with the second-highest representation of real persons in videos.
Other inner circle Englishes such as Australian, Canadian, and Irish English each
appeared only once. Chinese English, presumably spoken by Chinese English speakers,
occurred the highest number of times (62), but most frequently represented visually, in
the form of cartoons.

In terms of the sources of varieties of Englishes, we coded “borrowed” when we were

certain the analytic unit was not produced by the teaching team of this course, and
“unspecified” when we could not identify the source. It was clear that from Table 5
there was also a discernible pattern between varieties of Englishes and sources of the
materials. For the introductory video and lectures of Learn English with "original taste",
all content was directly borrowed, while most videos for lectures of Group discussion
(17), and online lectures (46), were created by the teaching team.

Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
Table 4. The distribution of English speakers in all types of representation

Visual South South

representation American Australian British Canadian Irish Indian African Chinese Korean
Introductory video
(n=4)
Real person in videos 2 1
Picture(s) 1
Lecture (n=68)
Real person in videos 2 2 2
Cartoon 3 39
No visuals of
speaker(s) 2 1 9 1 1 5 1
Group Discussion
(n=17)
Real person in videos 17
Learn English with
“Original Taste”
(n=21)
Real person in videos 12 8 1
“Textbook Listening”
(n=10)
Picture(s) 10
Note: Of all analytic units, three units were identified with two different varieties of English, and therefore, the total number of identified varieties
of English is 120.

Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in
English Language Teaching Materials. Springer, Singapore
Table 5. The distribution of English speakers based on sources of materials
Visual South South
representation American Australian British Canadian Irish Indian African Chinese Korean
Introductory Video
(n=4)
Borrowed 3 1
Lecture (n=68)
Borrowed 3 3 2 1
Self-made 3 43
Unspecified 1 1 8 1 1 1
Group Discussion
(n=17)
Self-made 17
Learn English with
“Original Taste”
(n=21)
Borrowed 12 8 1
“Textbook Listening”
(n=10)
Unspecified 10

Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in
English Language Teaching Materials. Springer, Singapore
Table 6 shows the interaction among the speakers from the perspective of interaction
types. The largest number of interactions was carried out between Chinese speakers
themselves in lectures and group discussion (45), followed by interactions among
native speakers (29), which centered around two types of teaching materials: Learn
English with “original taste”, and “Textbook Listening” (8). The inter-circle interaction
appeared very few times, with one case of outer-inner circle, and three for expanding
to inner circle.

Table 6. Types of interaction among English speakers

Visual Expanding- Expanding- Inner- Outer-

representation Expanding Inner Inner Inner N/A
Introductory (n=4) 4
Lecture (n=65) 28 1 2 1 33
Group discussion
(n=17) 17
Learn English with
"original taste"
(n=21) 19 2
textbook listening
(n=10) 2 8
Total (n=117) 45 3 29 1 39
Note: N/A means not applicable as the interaction is a monologue.

In Table 7, we present the result of the names of speakers across different identified
nationalities. While it is natural that typical English names were used by speakers from
inner circle countries, it was found that Chinese English speakers in the online course
also used English names, instead of using Chinese names, and this is especially true
with online lectures. An exception to the dominant representation of the English
speakers was the feature of three Chinese English speakers, with Chinese names – Jiang
Tao, Liu, and Mr. Li, in the textbook. All three were positioned as English language
learners, with Jiang Tao and Liu as university students and Mr. Li as a Chinese
immigrant to Australia. We observed that the Chinese English speakers featured in the
course were mostly positioned as language learners rather than proficient English
speakers.

Table 7. Names of speakers across nationality and types of representation

Types of Nationality Names
Representation of Speakers
Introductory Video American Martin Luther King, Star Trek1 Steve Jobs
(n=4)
South Nelson Mandela
African
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
 Types of Nationality Names
Representation of Speakers
Lecture (n=65) American Hurricane, Louis Armstrong, Slumdog
Millionaire, Toy Story 3
British A Horizon Guide to Dogs, Lord of Rings,
Chinese Amanda, John, Linda, Lucy, Peter, Janet,
Richard (21), Grace (12)
Group Discussion Chinese unspecified
(n=17)
Learn English with American Good Luck Charlie (11), Daniel Wu
“Original Taste”
(n=21)
British
Bridget Jones's Diary (5), Love Actually (3)
Chinese
Karen Mok
“Textbook American
Sophie, Steve, Leah, Rowley, Justin, Stanley,
Listening” (n=10) Jessie, Chris, Joe, Steve, Ashley, Grace,
Sylvia, Stephan, Daniel Lee, Kevin, Emily,
Mrs. McKinley, Judith
Australian Glenn
Chinese Jiang Tao, Liu, Mr. Li
Note: 1. For the analytic unit that directly borrowed from other sources, we coded and
italicized the name of the unit with the name of the original video.
3. Both Daniel Wu and Karen Mok are celebrities, Daniel is a Chinese American, and
Karen was born in Hong Kong.
4. Jiang Tao is a student at the University of Sydney, Mr. Li has migrated to Australia
for over 50 years, and Liu is a student and a friend of an American exchange student.

Discussion

Our analysis of the ELT materials focuses on the representation of the English language
and English speakers as well as the representations of the values and ideologies. Here,
we will discuss the findings in relation to the ideas of English and Englishness such as
the contestations between models of native speakerism and World Englishes (WE). In
this, we highlight the privileging of Anglo-American representations and the
dominance of the native speaker model in the multimodal selections within the ELT
materials of the online course.

Representations of English

In relation to the question of the representation of the English speakers, our analysis
shows that the native English speaker is over-represented in the ELT materials in the
College English Speaking course. Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, p. 119) mused that
the kinds of represented participants in the text which are depicted as “demanding an
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
imaginary social response of some kind from the viewer” can offer insights into the
values and ideas privileged in the representation. In the introductory video, the English
speakers represented are often the native speakers of English or speakers from countries
belonging to the inner circle (Kachru, 1992). In every unit of the online course, there is
an independent section—Learn English with “Original Taste”, where almost all videos
were directly borrowed from popular British or American film and TV programmes.
A similar observation is also made from the analysis of the listening section in the
textbook. As highlighted in the previous section, most of the English speakers
represented are native speakers, with an arguably occasional tokenistic representation
of Chinese English speakers. It is also observed that when the non-native or Chinese
English speakers are represented in the ELT materials, they are often depicted in the
role of the learners of English, such as the nameless three female students who were
regularly featured in a group discussion in the units of the course, and the characters of
Jiang Tao, Liu and Mr. Li. As such, while representations of Chinese English speakers
were made, they are conferred different status – as learners aspiring towards the
idealised form of English spoken by the native English speakers.

The near absence of Chinese English speakers, both visually and aurally, in the
introductory video is of particular interest. Given the function of the introductory video
to promote the course and attract new students, the positioning of English speakers as
native speakers could reflect what the marketeers think will appeal to the potential
student customers. English is a foreign language for Chinese learners, and China has
the largest English-learning population (Bolton, 2006). Since 2001, all primary schools
in China have also introduced English as a compulsory subject4. All students in the
elementary, secondary, and tertiary institutions in China need to learn English and some
would turn to these online courses to augment their learning.

The dominant representation of native English speakers in the online videos of the
course reveals an explicit positioning of the course towards native speakerism (Holliday,
2006) where the premise is that the ideal form of English is one spoken by the native
speaker. In this, the representations in the videos also reflect the hegemony of certain
varieties of English, such as British and American English, spoken by the westerners
(Xiong & Qian, 2012). The under-representation of Chinese English speakers in the
online videos, which ironically constitute the target audience, may also be counter-
productive in ending up alienating the increasingly globalised, exposed, and educated
Chinese.

A more deleterious implication is the insinuation that the Chinese English speakers are
not competent or qualified enough to be represented as ideal English speakers. Only
those with high competence and near-native speaker language proficiency are qualified
enough. This can also be shown in the observation that the three unnamed students in
the group discussion were proficient in spoken English as indicated by their fluency
and sophisticated control in their use of the language. Another observation is the
frequent representation of Chinese English speakers in the form of cartoons, suggesting
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
that a certain trivialising of these speakers is less ‘real’ when compared to the other
English speakers represented in photos and videos (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). It is
also interesting to note that the interactions across groups of Chinese English speakers
and Native English speakers were very rare. This seems to imply an imaginary division
between these groups of speakers. Such beliefs and attitudes towards the English
language and English speakers run counter to the present developments in WE (Jenkins
& Leung, 2017) where English is positioned as a global language of communication
that is shared across speakers from different cultural backgrounds. This orientation
could arguably be more productive in engaging with the Chinese students as Chinese
English speakers, rather than to market a model of native-speakerism in which the
essentialist definition of EL proficiency is never attainable for non-native speakers
(Kirkpatrick, 2007).

Sense of Englishness

The multimodal content analysis of the videos in the online units, and the
accompanying textbook is also revealing of the cultural values expressed through the
visual choices in setting, references, appearances, and activities depicted. The sense of
Englishness that accompanies the learning of the English language is exclusively
premised on Anglo-centricity in the ELT materials of the College English Speaking
course.

The choices in the setting of many scenes in the introductory video are arguably peculiar
for a publicity video directed at the Chinese students given its lack of relatability. The
scenes in the introductory video offer a strange potpourri mix into the western culture,
with icons and symbols used to suggest a sense of Englishness. For example, the
settings of buildings and classrooms in American or British universities are depicted.
The British royal family, Prince William and his family are featured in another scene.
Interestingly, a scene depicting a same-gender wedding, suggesting liberal values, is
featured. Other scenes show images from the Star Trek movie, an American football
match, and snippets of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. One might
reasonably ask, what does the British royal family, LGBT rights, movies, sports, and
racial movements, have to do with the learning of the English language and how can
they be remotely relatable to the students in China? Perhaps they are not intended to
appeal through relatability. Rather, it can be argued that the video is commodifying the
sense of Englishness as a western-centric set of ideals and values that are aspirational
to the Chinese students, and which could be pursued through their signing up of the
online English course.

The privileging of western culture and values as the core of Englishness runs counter
to the narrative of WE in which a more expansive sense of English as a global language
of communication is acknowledged (Jenkins, 2006). From the analysis, it is suggested
that the sense of Englishness identified in the ELT materials is neither global nor
inclusive. Rather it is premised on the provenance of English based on its geographical
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
location, race, and nationality. Such an exclusionary definition of Englishness willfully
ignores the growth and development of English as an international language.
Notwithstanding, it must be acknowledged that such an essentialist definition of
Englishness differs from the official stance taken by the authorities in China. In the
Guidelines on College English Teaching by the education ministry in China, the value
of learning English is described in terms of first having the college students learn about
the technological progress, management skills, and ideas, as well as cultures and
civilisations from all over the world. This is followed by a nationalistic motivation that
through English, the students could help build national language power, and spread
Chinese culture (Wang, 2016). Such a position recognises the inextricable connection
between language and culture and highlights the value of learning English to appreciate
the cultures and civilisations of different parts of the world, which reflects the role of
English as a global language beyond its Anglo-centricity. In addition, English is deemed
to be a communicative tool for spreading Chinese culture to the rest of the world. Such
a view resonates with the tenets of WE, where English as a world language offers
international access and global opportunities beyond the confines of the inner circle of
English.

Unlike countries in the outer circle where their own varieties of English had become
well established, a stable variety of English is still emerging in countries of the
expanding circle. To establish a new variety of English, five criteria in terms of
phonology, lexis, history, literature, and reference works must be met (Butler, 1997, p.
10). Chinese English is still in the process of establishing itself as a variety
(Kirkpatrick, 2007) and the same can be said of the English of the countries in the
expanding circle, such as Korean and Japanese English.

Conclusion

By selecting an online course on English learning and conducting a multimodal content

analysis of the ELT materials from the course, we hope to highlight the values related
to the teaching and learning of the English language and problematise the ideas on what
constitutes a sense of Englishness. While limited in the scope and representativeness of
the data, we hope that the findings from the study offer fodder for reflection on how
English and the sense of Englishness is expressed through ELT materials targeted at
Chinese students.

We undertake the study at a time when MOOCs are growing in popularity, with access
and reach to learners not just in China but potentially to students from all over the world.
As such, the analysis of both the digital and print ELT materials are of importance,
given the potential scalability of these resources and the implicit propagation of these
ideologies to the masses. Despite the currency of our study, our findings concur with
earlier studies (Xiong & Qian, 2012; Hu & McKay, 2014) that the ELT materials
express the ideology of native speakerism and the values of Anglo-American cultures.
While affirming the earlier findings, our study points to the stasis and lack of progress
Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore
in this area.

Our study also surfaces the persistent traditional model of native speakerism where the
idealised English speaker is the native speaker rather than an evolution towards the WE
model of recognising the rich varieties of English spoken by people from different parts
of the world. We acknowledge that a stable variety of Chinese English remains nascent
at this point in time (He & Zhang, 2010). However, we posit through our study that a
simple shift, such as broadening the range of proficient English speakers represented in
ELT materials, could go a long way towards affirming the identity and competency of
Chinese English speakers and in setting up a realistic and meaningful goal for the
students in China in learning English with local exemplary models.

Notes:
1. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A08/s7056/202002/t20200205_418138.html
2. http://www.moe.gov.cn/fbh/live/2020/52717/mtbd/202012/t20201204_503496.html
3. https://www.icourse163.org/about/aboutus.htm#/about
4. http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A26/jces_left/moe_714/tnull_665.html

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Shi, H., Lim, F.V. (2022). English and Englishness: A Multimodal Analysis of English Language Teaching Materials in
Contemporary China. In: Xiong, T., Feng, D., Hu, G. (eds) Cultural Knowledge and Values in English Language Teaching
Materials. Springer, Singapore

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