Research On English Teachers’ And Students’ Attitudes Towards English As A Lingua Franca And Their Identity Formation

English as a lingua franca(ELF) has been a controversial topic, especially in the field of English language teaching. China has the largest English learning population in the world, thus it is quite essential to conduct study in Chinese environment. However, the number of previous related studies is limited and many of them mainly consider the reasons for the existence and development of ELF and its influence on English language teaching.In this study, the author tries to examine the students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards ELF and the related identity formation based on critical discourse theory, identity construction theory and poststructuralist theory. The research subjects are 3 English teachers from three schools in Hebei province and 152 students of English major from five universities in Hebei province, including 119 graduates and 33 postgraduates. The research instruments are questionnaire and semi-structure interview. The questionnaire is used for 152 students, accompanied with SPSS to analyze data. The interview is used for 3 teachers and 15 students that are selected according to the questionnaire results.There are four main findings in this study:(1) 98% student participants realize that English has become a global lingua franca. However, students are affected by the native speaker norms and admire the native-like accent and the native speaker status, leading to low-esteem;(2) postgraduate participants were less affected by native speaker norms;(3) teacher participants with more rich overseas experience and teaching experience and higher academic levels tend to be less affected by the native speaker norms and feel more confident about their identity;(4) students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards ELF and identity formation are similar and all affected by different variables. This article to some extent echoes the results of previous studies in the aspects of the attitudes towards ELF, considering that the non-native English speakers are affected by the native speaker norms. The study is also useful for reconsidering the goals of English language teaching and the status of non-native English speakers. However, the sample size is small and it is better to broaden the sample size and then retest in other places.