Open AccessUnpacking the Emotional Experiences of English Majors Preparing for Postgraduate Entrance Exam in China
Author(s) -
Hanxiao Song,
Yu Zhang
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
english language teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1916-4750
pISSN - 1916-4742
DOI - 10.5539/elt.v15n4p117
Subject(s) - psychology , china , unpacking , ideology , language proficiency , socioeconomic status , competition (biology) , identity (music) , test (biology) , perspective (graphical) , social psychology , pedagogy , sociology , politics , political science , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , population , demography , physics , paleontology , artificial intelligence , acoustics , computer science , law , biology
As a neoliberally-driven test, China’s postgraduate entrance exam is gaining an increasing attention nationwide due to the intense competition in the local market and the dramatic size of Chinese students taking the exam. Under the neoliberal mechanism, Chinese candidates are ideologically self-regulated and emotionally-driven to mobilize their resources and maximize their opportunities to pass the exam. Seeing emotion as sociopolitically loaded and ideologically driven, this study unpacks the emotional experiences of Chinese students preparing for postgraduate entrance exam. Findings indicate that, despite their successful performance, Chinese postgraduate students have experienced a series of negative emotions imposed by various socioeconomic factors. Findings also show that their emotional experiences are intertwined with their different identity construction and negotiated between social relations and power. Overall, this article highlights the importance of addressing the need of studying the emotions and language learners from the sociopolitical perspective. The study is closed by the implications for language education and language policy.