Has English been increasingly tested as an international language? Evidence from 1956–2016

A previous study (Ke, I. 2012. From EFL to English as an international and scientific language: analysing Taiwan’s high-school English textbooks in the period 1952–2009. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25(2), 173–187) on the trend of English textbooks in Taiwanese high schools showed that the proportion of the lessons embedded in Anglo-American cultures decreases in the 1990s along with the globalisation trend while the proportions of local and intercultural lessons increase after the 2000s. The general trend corresponds to the changing role of English becoming an international language. To further confirm the trend, the current study examines whether the cultural trend observed in high school English textbooks can also be found in the college entrance exams in Taiwan. The total number of exams examined is 85, dating from 1956 to 2016. The results show that the cultural contexts did shift in the similar vein as found in the textbook study. The proportions of Anglo-American cultures gradually decreased from the 1990s while those of international cultures appeared more often after the 2000s. Questions based on the local culture started to appear from the late 1980s, but the percentages fluctuate and decrease recently. The overall findings suggest that English has been gradually tested as an international language, but not as a local language in the local college entrance exam

Art · Curriculum · English language · Foreign language · Globalization · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Period (music · Political science · Sociology · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Law · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Second Language Learning and Teaching

• A call for international recognition of culture-specific words from the Middle East

  Esmat Babaii, Mahmood Reza Atai et al.•Asian Englishes•2020

  Incluir item

• The role of informal digital learning of English and a high-stakes English test on perceptions of English as an international language

  Open Access•Ju Seong Lee•Australasian Journal of…•2020

  Incluir item

• Translingual practices of foreign friendship talks in ELF

  James H Yang, Leimin Shi et al.•International Journal of…•2025

  Incluir item

• English as an International Language

  Open Access•Patuan Raja, Flora et al.•Education Research International•2022

  Incluir item

• Native-speaker norms and International English

  Ivor Timmis•ELT Journal•2002

  Incluir item

• Repositioning English and multilingualism in English as a Lingua Franca

  Open Access•Jennifer Jenkins•Englishes in Practice•2015

  Incluir item

• Assessing Multilingual Competencies

  Open Access•Elana Shohamy•Modern Language Journal•2011

  Incluir item

• The 150-year history of English language assessment in Japanese education

  Open Access•Miyuki Sasaki•Language Testing•2008

  Incluir item

• Background and culture as factors in EFL reading comprehension

  Open Access•Tetsuro Chihara, Toshiko Sakurai et al.•Language Testing•1989

  Incluir item

• The impact of EFL testing on EFL education in Korea

  Open Access•Inn-Chull Choi•Language Testing•2008

  Incluir item

• From EFL to English as an international and scientific language

  I-Chung Ke•Language Culture and Curriculum•2012

  Incluir item

• Impacts of the Test of English Listening Comprehension on students' English learning expectations in Taiwan

  Mu‐hsuan Chou•Language Culture and Curriculum•2015

  Incluir item

• English as a “global language” in China

  Open Access•Lin Pan, David Block•System•2011

  Incluir item

• Whose Norms? International Proficiency Tests in English

  Open Access•Alan Davies, Liz Hamp‐lyon et al.•World Englishes•2003

  Incluir item

• Assessing English proficiency in the Expanding Circle

  Open Access•Peter Lowenberg, Peter H Lowenberg•World Englishes•2002

  Incluir item