Attitudinal changes among high school students toward the English language following educational reforms in China.

In 2021, China implemented a series of unprecedented educational policies that sent devastating shockwaves across the industry. Following the changes, some foreign teachers felt that the general atmosphere and attitude towards English learning had noticeably deteriorated compared to previous years. The capricious political climate exacerbated by the COVID pandemic only added to the insecurities experienced by foreigners in China. To address if there was indeed a downward shift in attitudes, this study compared perceptions towards the English language before and after the reforms for a single cohort of students in a Chinese public high school. The participants completed a questionnaire that captured their perceptions towards English when they were in their first year, and again in their final year. Paired sample t-Tests results revealed that while there were no changes to how the students viewed the language learning process, they now viewed the language itself less favourably, and find it less useful and relevant as compared to two years ago. Though these findings provide some rudimentary evidence that suggest that the reforms could have contributed to the erosion of the attitudes toward English among Chinese students, more studies would have to be conducted to substantiate this hypothesis, and if the phenomenon extend to other foreign languages as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]