ABSTRACT
The chapter analyzes how western-trained Chinese English language teachers take ownership of their instruction by localizing information they have obtained from abroad while sustaining the use of what is most relevant in their own setting. The activity theory, which emerged from the sociocultural perspective, helped to illuminate the Chinese English language teachers’ progression through a series of experiences and contexts that influenced their understanding of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach and how they could use it. Teacher Fangxue, a Chinese English teacher intended not only to provide a more comprehensive picture of student’s performance and the outcomes in his student-centered classroom, but also to make the grades more meaningful to students. The Chinese English language teachers were active in making deliberate decisions in their processes of appropriating CLT principles. In doing so, they approached appropriation with agency to initiate actions that were responsive to elements in their sociocultural context and took responsibility for their consequent impact.
