ABSTRACT
This chapter critiques the ‘hidden curriculum’ of tertiary oral English teaching in China, drawing on qualitative data collected among Western English language teachers at a Chinese university in 2007–8. To graduate from university, Chinese students in all non-English disciplines must pass the College English Test (CET), which tests students’ atomistic ‘knowledge about’ English rather than a communicative use of the language. In response to the consequent problem of ‘deaf and dumb’ English, where students may know a lot about English but be unable to communicate, many universities have employed native speaker teachers to teach oral English. In many cases, these are the first Westerners students have met.
