国际学术界的中国外语教育形象微探

Exploring the Image of China’s Foreign Language Education in International Academics

国家形象研究方兴未艾,探究海外的中国外语教育形象具有重要的理论与实践意义。本研究采集应用语言学6种SSCI期刊在2015-2019年间有关中国外语教育的文本,并对其进行描述性统计分析和主题分析。研究发现,有关中国外语教育的论文数量呈逐年上升的趋势,中国作者在国际期刊中频繁出现,中外学者的合作越来越多;采样论文中有关中国外语教育的内容多分布在引言和文献综述部分,发现与讨论部分次之,结论部分最少。涉及中国外语教育形象的主题有:英语在中国的重要地位、以考试为中心的英语教学、外语教师师资与职业发展、外语教育新方式和中国特色的教育名词等。不难看出,国际学术界在一定程度上对中国外语教育持有刻板、守旧的印象,且中国外语教育的创新举措与实践没有在采样论文中得到充分的体现。

Against the backdrop of the burgeoning studies on national image, there are significances both theoretically and empirically to explore the image of China’s foreign language education. This research investigates China’s foreign language education reflected in the articles published by six SSCI journals in the realm of applied linguistics between 2015 and 2019. Based upon the results from the descriptive statistics and the thematic analysis, it is revealed that there is an increasing number of journal articles published internationally about China’s foreign language education, with Chinese scholars proactively participating and their collaborating with foreign scholars;the descriptions or comments on China’s foreign language education appear largely in sections of introduction and literature review, with findings and discussion following, and conclusion the least. The main themes are: the indispensability of English in Chinese society, examination-oriented language teaching, the foreign language teaching staff and their professional development, the innovative ways of foreign language teaching, as well as terms with specific Chinese characteristics. It is clear that there are somewhat stereotyped impressions about China’s foreign language teaching in international academics, and the innovative attempts in China’s foreign language education have failed to receive the attention that they deserve. Hopefully, the findings of the research can provide some insight for foreign language education in China.