A Study On The Level Of Multilingual Awareness Of Chinese English Teachers And Its Influencing Factors

The recent years have witnessed an increasing demand for multilingual talents in our country mainly driven by the Belt and Road Initiative.Against such background,some multilingual transitions have taken place in China’s foreign language education policies.Since teachers should possess sufficient multilingual awareness to achieve plurilingual teaching goals,and it is yet to be investigated to what extent Chinese English teachers have such awareness,which serves as a significant reflection of how well they are prepared to provide conditions for the goals of developing the multilingual talents in demand,this study focuses on the current level of Chinese ELF teachers’ multilingual awareness.To be specific,this study(1)investigates and compares the current level of multilingual awareness of two groups of Chinese ELF teachers: 276 high school English teachers in comparatively underdeveloped regions in China and100 university English teachers in some most developed cities,who teach in two distinct regions in terms of economic development and internalization and two education stages which can best reflect the multilingual transitions in China’s foreign language education policies,(2)explores the factors that might have influence on their multilingual awareness,and(3)surveys their perceptions of developing multilingual teaching and using multilingual pedagogy in English teaching.Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews,and both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods are used,with the former including exploratory factor analysis,descriptive statistics analysis,cluster analysis and non-parametric tests,the latter being the transcribing and analysis of data obtained through interviews.Through the exploratory factor analysis,five factors underlying teachers’ multilingual awareness were found,including Culture,Crosslinguistic Awareness,Individual Multilingual,Identity and Motivation.Based on the data analyses mentioned above,this study has four major findings.Firstly,there is no significant difference in the multilingual awareness of two groups of Chinese English teachers.The interview result shows that despite a limited multilingual environment and foreign language teaching resources,the high school English teachers in relatively underdeveloped regions could still get access easily to the multilingual phenomenon through Internet and social media,which could also be used as teaching resources.Besides,multilingual transition in teaching materials and local curriculum also contribute to this result.Secondly,both groups of teachers neglect Chinese culture in English teaching,verifying the phenomenon of Chinese Culture Aphasia existing in English teaching in China.Meanwhile,high school English teachers have a significantly higher level of the factor Identity than that of university teachers,indicating that high school students in underdeveloped regions display a significantly higher degree of affinity with Chinese culture and their Chinese national identity than that of university students in developed areas,which further highlights the culture aphasia issue.Thirdly,teachers’ degree of multilingualism,educational background,and multilingual experience do not have influence on three factors underlying the multilingual awareness,namely the Crosslinguistic Awareness,Identity and Motivation.This result shows that teachers’ proficiency in their L3-Ln might determine their ability of making crosslinguistic comparisons and their confidence in and readiness for referring to crosslinguistic comparisons in English teaching,and teachers with multilingual experience,whose motivation for learning English tends to be learning it as an international language,show more accurate knowledge about and judgement on such motivation.Finally,while the high school English teachers in lessdeveloped regions share a concern about a shortage of teaching materials and qualified teachers for multilingual teaching and display a lack of confidence of using the multilingual pedagogy in English teaching due to their limited proficiency in the L3,university English teachers do not have the same worry and turn out better prepared to taking the multilingual approach to teaching.The findings of this study indicate that to raise Chinese English teachers’ multilingual awareness,multilingual transitions should be continually promoted in teaching materials,courses setting and other aspects related to foreign language teaching.Furthermore,the education for both preservice and in-service teachers need to be strengthened.Specifically,awareness of using online multilingual teaching resources and integrating Chinese culture into the teaching of English language needs to be raised,and the training for English teachers’ second language and even more languages should be enhanced.The research results thus provide implications for both Chinese EFL teachers and other stakeholders of foreign language education in China in terms of creating better conditions for developing multilingual talents who are capable of not only participating in international communication,but also promoting Chinese culture while promoting the Belt and Road Initiative.