ABSTRACT
The notion of a Chinese culture of learning was introduced to ELT by Cortazzi and Jin (1996, p. 170). Since then, “the term traditional Chinese culture of learning is used to refer to a set of expectations, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviours that are considered characteristic of Chinese society with regard to teaching and learning” (Hu, 2003, p. 306). The notion of the traditional Chinese culture of learning (TCCL) and the related one of the Chinese learner, however, have not gone unchallenged and have been debated in English Language Teaching over the past two decades. Moreover, riding the twin waves of China’s growing affluence and of globalisation, Chinese students are going abroad for their education in ever-increasing numbers. Thus, in this survey of literature, we will examine the notions of the Chinese learner and TCCL as well as the English learning experiences of students from the People’s Republic of China in two study-abroad contexts, namely, Singapore and Western settings.
