This work offers extensive and in-depth discussions on various topics regarding the teaching and learning of English in China. The major theme that ties the separate chapters together is the acquisition, teaching, and assessment of communicative competence. This book contains 17 chapters that fall into three parts, each dealing with a specific dimension of the topic under investigation.

The three parts are arranged from general to more specific. Part 1 consists of six chapters that address some general issues on English as a foreign language (EFL) learning and teaching. These issues include teachers’ views on some established language teaching methods (Liu); grammar as a dynamic system with three dimensions: form, meaning, and use (Larsen-Freeman); the social semiotic perspective of communicative competence (Kramsch); communicative competence in the electronic era (Murray); SLA as performative practices (Díaz-Rico); and collaboration between native-speaker and nonnative-speaker English teachers (Liu).

Part 2 concerns learning and assessing communicative competence. Scovel elaborates on the factors that affect the acquisition of communicative competence, and Liu investigates the critical period hypothesis. Stoynoff presents the basic principles and practices of communicative competence assessment, and Connor suggests considering cultural and ideological factors in evaluating EFL writing competence.

Part 3 includes six studies that examine communicative competence in Chinese EFL contexts and an epilogue. Among the six studies, two relate to learner factors: Snow illustrates the challenge of sustainability and proposes some strategies to cope with the challenge, and Peng explores the cultural reasons behind Chinese learners’ relative unwillingness to communicate in the classroom. The remaining studies have to do with teaching different skills: Zhao explains how visual aids can be used to teach gestures; Edwards shows some models and methods of pronunciation teaching; Xu and Liu examine the effectiveness of written feedback; and Braine and McNaught present a project regarding the innovation of EFL writing curriculum in Hong Kong universities.

This work shows the need to situate L2 research in cultural contexts and presents some interesting findings about Chinese EFL learning and teaching. Equally valuable is the identification of some new perspectives to investigate communicative competence.