Students in Taiwan respond to English in the world: Discourses, practices, and identities

Globalization has bolstered the status of English, and in turn, English-language hegemony has expanded across continents and reinforced globalization by further enabling the speedy exchange of information and goods. Taiwan serves as a good example of how the intensification of globalization and the spread of English in the world have intersected. What is unique about Taiwan is its socio-historical situation surrounding ethnic identity and unification-independence politics that complicate language choices at every level, both in terms of mother-tongue languages and English-as-a-foreign-language.; This is a qualitative multiple-case study that aimed to explore the phenomenon of English from the perspectives of the students in Taiwan. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine how English was experienced and understood by university and college students in Taiwan, namely, their English-language discourses, practices, and identities, and how they relate to forces outside of classrooms. Multiple methods of data collection were used, including focus group interviews, individual interviews, participant observations, and a researcher journal. Findings were reported through four individual case studies, followed by a cross-case analysis.; Findings suggest that participants embody different lived experiences with the English-language, and have varying levels of English-language competencies. Yet they relate to English in very similar ways: as a means through which they can construct an identity of themselves as international intellectuals, as belonging to the global community, and as someone who is upwardly mobile. Such an understanding of English reflects the government's discourse of English as relating to competitiveness and also the international and global. The consequences are that participants exercise their human agency both through their effort to make the most of English to their advantage, and at the same time, finding ways to resist its dominance in their lives. This study also underscores that, as a result of how the global status of English positions its learners and their languages, the teaching and learning of English needs to take into account of the power relations that are very much a part of how the language is understood and used in relation to global dynamics.