A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Foreign Language Education Planning in Higher Education

Cheng Jingyan

Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2021, Vol. 6 ›› Issue (2) : 14-23.

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Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2021, Vol. 6 ›› Issue (2) : 14-23. DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20210201

A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Foreign Language Education Planning in Higher Education

  • Cheng Jingyan
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Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed a rapid development of research on foreign language education planning (FLEP) in the East and the West. This study compares current practice and research of foreign language education planning in some western countries and East Asia. The comparison shows that universities in western countries are entitled to establishing their own FLEP which is not necessarily in line with macro government policies. In marked contrast, universities in highly centralized education systems of East Asia are more concerned with the implementation of top-down macro policy. Secondly, current research in some western nations mainly focuses on the stakeholders’ language practice, belief and agency. In the future, more research is supposed to be conducted on the process of FLEP formation and implementation in universities, the agency of different stakeholders and the analysis of language education from the perspective of language management, etc. Thirdly, although present FLEP studies in East Asia are still dominated by interpretation/implementation of macro policy and major language problems, micro empirical studies on agency in FLEP are gradually receiving researchers’ attention under the growing influence of postmodernism. The implications are that micro-level empirical studies and Chinese researchers’ self-positioning should be given more prominence in FLEP research in China.

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foreign language education planning (FLEP) / language policy / macro-level policy / micro-level policy / comparison of the West and East Asia

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Cheng Jingyan. A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Foreign Language Education Planning in Higher Education[J]. Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2021, 6(2): 14-23 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20210201

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