I. Introduction
Studies of Chinese learners' learning approaches have produced contradictory findings. Some(e.g. Ballard & Clanchy, 1997, cited in Biggs, 1998) have found Chinese learners 'passive', dependent on teachers, or 'reticent', or 'unwilling to take much responsibility for their own learning', while others(Cheng, 2000 & 2002; Stephens, 1997) have argued that Chinese learners can be active and full of initiatives in learning. In the debate over Chinese language learners' learning approaches, many researchers (e.g. Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Hu, 2002; Wen & Clement, 2003) have used Chinese traditional cultural values as an important resource to support their arguments, findings, and interpretations. Central to this cultural debate on Chinese learners, as other researchers (e.g. Kubota, 1999; Kumaradivelu, 2003) have cautioned, is the problem that concepts, such as 'Chinese learners' or 'Chinese cultural values', often evoke notions of monolithic ethnic groups and ethnical cultural values and tend to suppress the reality of existence of many different sub-groups of individual learners and sets of divergent sub-values.

In fact, most of the established research (e.g. Gu & Hu, 2002) on Chinese learners involves learners broadly categorized as 'Chinese' at different localities including North America, Europe, Southeast Asia as well as mainland China. Among the limited studies undertaken in mainland China, research efforts seem to have concentrated on language learners from high-profile cities or universities (e.g. Cheng, 2002; Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Gan et al, 2004; Gao et al, 2002; Gu, 2003; Gu & Johnson, 1996) while there are huge inter- and intra-regional differences in teaching and learning English experienced everyday by different learners (Hu, 2003; Lam, 2003). As an alternative, some researchers (Holliday, 1996; Kumaradivelu, 2003; Littlewood, 1999) have recently advanced a non-cultural approach or 'small culture' approach to understand learners' language learning approaches, in which researchers take a step back from the position of national/ethnic culture to focus on processes and interactions in small contexts. Along similar lines, Benson and Voller (1997, p.12) recommend more rigorous research on 'the content of learning and the relationship between students, teachers, and institutions', which helps to reveal the developmental process of learners' language learning approaches, especially their autonomous learning approaches.

In this paper, I intend to use two mainland Chinese English learners' (Ling and Feng, pseudonyms) learning experiences to illustrate how particular learning contexts and social processes pushed them to adopt highly examined-oriented learning approaches and be dependent on teachers in an extremely competitive learning process. I chose the learners out of a larger and undergoing learners' biographical enquiry for reporting because I found them an unusual pair of learners. Both learners went to secondary vocational schools and were granted opportunities to pursue tertiary vocational opportunities by the recent educational reform in mainland China (Shen & Li, 2004). They were, apparently close friends, always appeared together in and outside of classrooms, but both complained about isolation in learning yet neither of them was willing to form an alliance with each other. Moreover, Ling was a high-profile learner with glittering academic record, but Feng was an under-achieving one with little academic achievement. In the following sections, I will firstly describe the study and the participants before moving on to present two learning biographies based on the learners' own narratives. Then I will highlight important themes and issues from the biographies for analysis. Finally, I will close the report with some reflections on how the two Chinese learners' stories are able to inform teachers and researchers interested in English learners from mainland China.

II The Study
The enquiry concerning two Chinese learners, Ling and Feng, started with a broad research question: How can learners' experiential learning accounts inform us about the developmental process of their language learning approaches across various educational settings in mainland China?

1. Research Participants and Setting
Ling and Feng were two third-year students from the English Language Department at a tertiary vocational college, doing a three-year diploma program in Business English. The tertiary vocational college is ranked lowest in China's hierarchy of tertiary institutions. Similar such Colleges admit graduates from secondary technical schools or regular high schools, who would never become tertiary students without the recent expansion of China's higher education (Shen & Li, 2004). Characteristic of such type of colleges, there are more students coming from rural and low-income families, where they receive less educational and financial resources to support their learning, have fewer further educational opportunities and bleaker employment prospects than their counterparts in urban centers or high-profile universities (Hu, 2004; Shen & Li, 2004). However, they probably represent the majority of English learners in mainland Chinese schools.

2. Data-Collection
I used interviews to collect the informants' English language learning history since many researchers have found interviews particularly helpful to capture learners' voices and enhance our understanding of their learning reality (Benson, forthcoming; Block, 1998; Gao et al, 2002). There were two rounds of interview: the first interview, lasting about 45 minutes, was loosely semi-structured (refer to appendix) and engaged the learners in sharing their English learning past with me. The second interviews lasted about 20-25 minutes and were about specific issues that I felt interested in after initial readings of the transcript of the first interviews. Both rounds of interview were in Chinese and recorded on tapes for later verbatim transcription and analysis.

3. Data-Analysis
I followed the basic operations in a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to analyze the data: asking questions and making comparisons. Essential to the process of analyzing data are the questions guiding my investigation. In order to undertake the analysis procedures, I was particularly informed by Layder's (1993) research resource map. I examined learners' statements concerning learners themselves and the situated activity (English learning) at institutional settings in the macro social context. The statements related to 'social settings' were further divided into those about peer-to-peer, student-to-teacher, and student-to-school relationships, as recommended by Benson and Voller (1997) and Oxford (2001). I repeatedly compared answers to these guiding questions and clustered them according to different educational settings they had been through: junior middle schools (including any early English language learning activities), senior middle schools and the college. These steps helped me to establish answers to the central research questions:

1. What are particularly significant features of two learners' language learning approaches?
2. What has influenced the learners' English learning approaches in particular settings?

III Learning Biographies
Before I describe what the students' learning stories can inform us of in relation to the research questions, I shall present their learning biographies to pave the ground for analyzing their learning experiences.
1. Ling's Learning Story
1.1 In the Beginning

Teachers' attention and praises were crucial to her because they kept motivating her in learning English.

In her final year at middle school, she had a new English teacher. He required his students to read loudly the words in a vocabulary list from A to Z every morning but he forgot on which section of the list his students had finished reading in the previous reading sessions. Ling and her classmates were alarmed by the fact that they kept repeating themselves everyday while the school-leaving exam was around the corner. So they decided to rebel against the teacher's instructions and read the vocabulary list in their own way. This particular incident marked the beginning of her effort to manage her own English learning, as she recalled:

1.2 At Secondary Technical School
At secondary technical school, she met a teacher who had graduated from a prestigious university in Beijing and spoke English with a 'perfect' accent. In the first semester, she and her classmates did not learn anything except how to pronounce twenty-six English alphabetical letters. The teacher told her that she could learn other things easily if she could pronounce the letters accurately. The teacher also spent a lot of time correcting students' pronunciation. Ling apparently appreciated highly what the teacher had taught her.

She did seem to have learnt a lot from the teacher, particularly about how to learn English. We may notice that she took a similar approach to improve her grammar.

But why did she have such persistence for learning English in such an apparently stressful way? It was partly related to the fact that she had close access to the teacher as a student leader, which gave her a sense of responsibility for learning more English than others.

1.3 At College
She chose to take tertiary education in Business English because her mother argued that China's inevitable entry to the World Trade Organization would bring more English-related jobs. After entering the college, she found that she had more time for self-study and teachers were less involved in students' language learning. She felt quite lost in the beginning but she quickly began to value the independence.

She welcomed opportunities to discuss with her classmates about problems in learning but she could have such conversations with very few people. The class in the college, unlike classes in secondary schools, was no longer a closely bound collective group any more.

The relationship between her and her fellow students became worse on occasions, such as winning a scholarship competition or student leaders' election. She talked about the consequences of competition among the classmates for scholarship:

As a result, she felt a bit lonesome and wanted to be understood. In order to solve these problems, she was active in seeking the teachers' advice and suggestions and would even go to consult psychiatrists in the college, which was quite rare among students. After passing the College English Test (CET) Band 6, one of the key national English tests, she lost a prime motivating learning target and wondered what to do next. Meanwhile, she had been asking herself many times how she could prove that she had better English as an English major graduate.

Then she decided to take another test to improve her oral competency. But she could not find someone who shared similar learning objectives to work with her on enhancing communicative competence in English.

Therefore, she believed that the college should take measures to promote English learning on the campus, including establishing a campus English radio, requiring all the students and staff from the English Department to speak English, organizing English debates or speech contests, and setting up English learning places like self-access centers.

At the same time, she had developed a highly quantitative learning approach (Benson & Lor, 1999). When asked on what occasions she felt that she had improved in learning English, her initial responses were directly related to vocabulary and phrases.

2. Feng's Learning Story
2.1 In the Beginning

Growing up in countryside, Feng described her start in learning English at a countryside middle school:

Then one of her middle school English teachers took an interest in her and believed that she had potential for further improvement. He gave her special tuition to improve her learning methods, gave her extra exercises to work on, and recommended good test-preparation books to her. Somehow Feng disappointed the teacher by choosing not to respond to his 'favor' with extra learning efforts.

As a result, she soon found that she slowly fell behind others in later years at the middle school. The second teacher she met at the same school had a boring classroom teaching style. Facing the school-leaving exam, he kept giving endless exam exercises to his students.

2.2 At Secondary Technical School
Entering secondary technical school, she felt a strong urge to take a rest after going through a year of intense exam preparation activities. The school had a relaxing atmosphere and teachers there did not interfere with students' learning. English teachers at the school often had teaching duties in other schools and had to leave right after they finished teaching.

She took the opportunity to have some fun until she realized that she would graduate with limited English skills from the technical school.

So she decided to take National College Entrance Test like many others in the same school. The school organized a special class and assigned a responsible teacher for them. The teacher tried her best to boost their morale for test-preparation. In the end, she did manage to pass the exam and went to the college.

2.3 At College
At college, she had more time to study by herself and remained a low-profile learner. She appreciated that some pedagogic activities, such as classroom drama performance, helped to increase students' courage in speaking English in public. However, on many occasions, she experienced more failures than successes and became even less willing to speak English.

The peer relationship had been often quite stressful with little communication between her and her classmates before and after she came to the college. The teamwork projects promoted by some teachers might encourage them to exchange ideas among team members but it was often difficult for her and her classmates to accomplish anything because different team members might have different ideas in dealing with tasks or have different interests at stake. Consequently, Feng normally preferred tasks with clearly specified instructions from teachers.

Meanwhile, she had developed a strong desire for success. She visualized how she would feel a sense of achievement in learning:

However, her visualized success seldom happened. Meanwhile, she developed a quite extreme conceptualization of learning achievement.

She also thought that it was 'a great loss' to her if she could not prove she had better English than other degree or diploma graduates. That is why she regarded it 'a political necessity' for her to pass the CET-6 test after passing the CET- 4 test, one of the graduation requirements at the college.

She firmly believed that she was responsible for failures in her language learning but she trusted that she had the ability to learn English and optimize learning resources available at learning sites.

Although she assumed responsibilities for her own learning failures, she complained loudly that she had received little attention and support from her teachers in the past. She thought that she had been invisible to them most of the time.

In her perception, a teacher still had important roles in students' language learning. In addition to promoting independent learning skills among learners,

Meanwhile, she hoped that the college could help to make it a more legitimate thing to speak English on the campus since her fellow students would normally look at her differently if she spoke English. Because it was not easy for her to find a collaborative learning partner, she chose to prepare for the English test alone.

IV Analysis and Discussion
To some extent, the language learning experiences of Ling and Feng epitomize many Chinese English learners' struggles with learning English in similar educational settings. Based on their accounts, their adopted learning approaches seem to be highly exam-oriented and contingent on individual learners' will and effort. At the same time, they voiced their expectations of teachers' participation in their learning process. Further analysis indicates that their seemingly contradictory inclinations to be self-reliant and teacher-dependent appear to be complicated by the contextual discourses about learning English, a tense peer relationship and threatened identities as English major graduates from a low-ranking institution.

1. Characteristics of Two Learners' Language Learning Approaches
Exam-orientedness is the most salient feature of two learners' learning approaches. Exams were initially imposed by the educational system onto them early in their educational experiences. The learners attached increasing importance to exams as they became fully aware that exams provided a means of competition for them to move upward in the educational hierarchy to gain better access to higher positions in the social hierarchy. Two learners seemed to have different attitudes towards examination in the beginning of their English learning careers. While Ling appeared to pursue better results more actively to secure honors and teachers' support in learning, Feng was not particularly motivated to achieve better grades in English exams even though an English teacher at middle school offered her special assistance. After they came to the college, both of them seemed to be more than willing to use exams as 'authoritative' tools to define their achieved language proficiency and 'objective' goals to upgrade their linguistic knowledge (Shohamy, 2000). As a result, Lings' language learning focused on accumulation of discrete linguistic knowledge, such as vocabulary and phrases, while Feng wished to take delight at learning that she had outsmarted her classmates although she rarely succeeded.

One of the consequences of such an exam-oriented learning approach is that learners conceive learning as cognitive activities involving memorization and reproduction of discrete knowledge. For them, learning has to be sustained and enhanced at all cost and contingent on individual learners' self-will and efforts. For Ling, her personal experiences had proven it as a truth that one could achieve good learning (exam) results if one was committed to this end. For Feng, in contrast to successful learners within reach like Ling, she felt that she was a proven case of failure due to the fact that she put too little effort into conscientious learning. Both learners seemed to be convinced that a strong will and intensive effort were crucial to learning (exam) results. However, if we fully subscribe to their conviction, we would have a blurred understanding of the reality. In fact, they have revealed, by telling their learning stories, that many other factors, such as unequal access to learning resources and different learning settings, might have also affected their learning and learning (exam) achievements.

Furthermore, they both voiced explicitly dependence on teachers, although this did not seem to negate the importance of learners' self-will and efforts as well as their growing sense of responsibility for their own learning. We often have an impression that good and autonomous learners require little involvement from teachers in their language learning. However, in fact, Ling, the apparently more autonomous learner, solicited more help and received more attention from teachers than Feng ever did. Meanwhile, neither learner expressed a desire to be spoon-fed by teachers. What they wanted teachers to do was something related to the emotional and affective aspects of language learning or learning in general, which included sharing their learning problems, offering guidance in learning, fostering the capacity for autonomous learning, and enhancing motivation for learning. If necessary, they also wanted teachers to be disciplinary forces coercing them into making intense learning efforts for high-stake exams.

2. Language Learning Approaches Under Constraints
The learners' biographical accounts provide a unique opportunity for us to understand reasons why two learners adopted such learning approaches, the social context in which their English learning took place, the socialization processes that affected their language learning paths as well as how they perceived themselves as English learners at particular learning sites. Each of these aspects-the social context, socialization processes, and the learners' identity development will be explored in turn in the following sections.

2.1 Social Context
The learners' discourses about learning English language were often linked to future employment, reflecting popular conceptualizations of education as a way to social and economic mobility, and English proficiency as a gatekeeper controlling access to material and social capital (Cheng, 1996, cited in Cheah, 1998; Pennycook, 1994; Yang, 2002; Zhao & Campbell, 1995). In the learners' learning context, English proficiency was often equal to high-stake English exam scores. Both learners knew that they needed better exam grades or more certificates in English to secure further educational or job opportunities. Therefore, they could only choose ways of learning English from those helping to achieve successful exam results. The social context did not provide other alternatives, at least in the learners' perceptions.

2.2 Socialization (Peer) Process
The second issue emerging from their learning experiences is the stressful peer relationships, fragmentary social fabric, and feelings of alienation among language learners, which often undermined their effort to organize effective language learning collaboration. Unfortunately, in many cases (e.g. Ross, 1993; Turner & Acker, 2002), 'harmony' may not be the best word to describe social processes among Chinese learners. In the last two decades, China's educational system has institutionalized tertiary students' competition for better exam grades and performance-based academic awards under the name of ' promoting better learning' while Chinese students' pre-tertiary learning has traditionally been fiercely competitive (Turner & Acker, 2002; Yang, 2002). As an aftermath of such a competitive and exam-oriented learning process, the relationship among Chinese students can be stressful and inhibitive against learners' learning collaboration and cooperation. In both learners' accounts, it becomes quite difficult for them to have effective learning cooperation/collaboration without teachers' intervention. As a result, both Ling and Feng expected institutions and teachers to accomplish what they had failed to achieve as individual learners, for instance, creating a better learning environment, or promoting English learning on the campus and so on.

2.3 Identity Crisis
The third issue arising from their stories is that the two learners seemed to have an identity crisis. Being English major graduates from a tertiary vocational institution, both learners feared that their identity as English major learners was compromised by major and non-major graduates from other institutions of higher ranking. In the first place, they were in disadvantageous positions in comparison with other university graduates upon their graduation because of their achieved academic level and institutional reputation (Shen & Li, 2004, p.75). Secondly, there has been a national craze for learning English. For instance, Gu (2003) found his research participants spent much more time on learning English than any other subjects even though they were not English major students. The learners were aware that many university or college graduates from other academic fields had an advantage over English major graduates due to their professional expertise in their specialized fields in addition to well-documented English language competency in terms of standard test scores. Consequently, the learners felt that they were pushed to take more and more exams to prove that they were better English achievers.

V Conclusion
The paper describes two Chinese learners' language learning experiences, revealing the deep impact that their learning context and sites had on their conceptualization of language learning and self. Their adopted learning approaches, as revealed in their biographical accounts, seem to be extremely exam-oriented and dependent on learners' self-will and effort as well as teachers' support and attention. Their stories demonstrate a particular variety of language learning experiences for Chinese learners. Together with those told about mainland Chinese English learners by other researchers (e.g. Gu, 2003; He, 2003; Lam, 2003), their stories suggest that there is a range of social processes and material conditions shaping Chinese English learners' English learning at different learning sites. More than often, we, as language teachers or researchers, cannot solve (significant/major) social issues for our learners. However, perhaps through listening to learners' stories, we may help to alleviate these learners' anxiety and frustrations, reduce the intensity of competition, and tactfully reorient them towards successful collaborative/cooperative learning activities. Furthermore, their stories also give us opportunities to reflect on how much effort we have to invest into developing learners to become more autonomous and whether in fact we can afford to make such investment in particular learning contexts such as the institution reported in this study.

Notes About Transcription: […] stands for 'omitted material'.

Acknowledgement: I am grateful to Dr. Phil Benson and Dr. Chris Davison at the University of Hong Kong for their insightful comments and the editors for their editorial support.

References:
Benson, P. (forthcoming). (Auto)biography and learner diversity. In P. Benson and D. Nunan (Eds.), Learner's Stories: Difference and Diversity in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Benson, P. and Lor, W. (1999). Conceptions of language and language learning. System, 27(4), 459-472.

Benson, P., and Voller, P. (1997). Introduction. In P. Benson and P. Voller (Eds.) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning (pp. 1-17). London and New York: Longman.

Biggs, J. (1998). Learning from the Confucian heritage: so size doesn't matter? International Journal of Educational Research, 29, 723-738.

Block, D. (1998). Tale of a language learner. Language Teaching Research, 2(2), 148- 176.

Cheah, Y.M. (1998). The examination culture and its impact on literacy innovations: the case of Singapore. Language and Education, 12(3), 192-209.

Cheng, X. (2000). Asian students' reticence revisited. System, 28(3), 435-446.

Cheng, X. (2002). Chinese EFL students' cultures of learning. In C. Lee and W. Littlewood (Eds.), Culture, Communication and Language Pedagogy (pp. 103- 116) Language Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University.

Cortazzi, M., and Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: language classrooms in China. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Society and Language Classroom (pp. 169-206), Cambridge: CUP.

Gan, Z., Humphreys, G., and Hamp-Lyons, L. (2004). Understanding successful and unsuccessful EFL students in Chinese universities. Modern Language Journal , 88(2), 229-244.

Gao, Y., Li, Y., and Li, W. (2002). EFL learning and self-identity construction: three cases of Chinese College English Majors. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 12(2), 95-119.

Gu, Y. (2003). Fine brush and freehand: the vocabulary-learning art of two successful Chinese EFL learners, TESOL Quarterly, 37 (1), 73-104.

Gu, Y., and Hu, G. (2002). An annotated bibliography of selected researches on Chinese ELT contexts and EFL/ESL learners. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 12,229-267.

Gu, Y., and Johnson, R.K. (1996). Vocabulary learning strategies and language learning outcomes. Language Learning, 46 (4), 643-679.

Holliday, A. (1996). Large- and small-class cultures in Egyptian university classrooms: A cultural justification for curriculum change. In H. Coleman (Ed.) Society and the Language Classroom (pp.86-104) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hu, G. (2002). Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: the case of communicative language teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 15 (2), 93-105.

Hu, G. (2003). English language teaching in China: Regional differences and contributing factors. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 24(4), 290-318.

Hu. J. (2004). The report for employment of graduates. Beijing: China Compilation and Translation Press.

Kubota, R. (1999). Japanese culture constructed by discourses: Implications for applied linguistics research and ELT. TESOL Quarterly, 33 (1), 9-35.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Problematizing cultural stereotypes in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly 37 (4), 709-719.

Lam, A. (2003). Language policy and learning experience in China: six case histories. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 57-72.

Layder, D. (1993). New strategies in social research : an introduction and guide. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Littlewood, W. (1999). Defining and developing autonomy in East Asian contexts. Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 71-94.

Oxford, R. (2001). 'The bleached bones of a story': learners' constructions of language teachers. In M. Breen (Ed.), Learner Contributions to Language Learning (pp. 12-24). Harlow: Pearson Education.

Pennycook, A. (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman.

Rao. Z. (2002). Chinese students' perceptions of communicative and non-Communicative activities in EFL classroom. System, 30(1), 85-105.

Ross, H.A. (1993). China Learns English. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Shen, H., and Li, W. (2004). A Review of the Student Loan Scheme in China. Bangkok/Paris: UNESO Bangkok/International Institute for Educational Planning.

Shohamy, E. (2000). Using language tests for upgrading knowledge: the phenomenon, source and consequences. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 1-18.

Stephens, K. (1997). Cultural stereotyping and intercultural communication: working with students from the People's Republic of China in the UK. Language and Education, 11(2), 113-124.

Strauss, A., and Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. London: Sage.

Turner, Y., and Acker, A. (2002). Education in the New China. Hampshire: Sage.

Wen, W.P., and Clement, R. (2003). A Chinese conceptualisation of willingness to communicate in ESL. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 16 (1), 18-38.

Wen, Q., and Johnson, R. K. (1997). L2 learner variables and English achievement: a study of tertiary-level English majors in China. Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 27-48.

Yang, F. (2002). Education in China. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 34(2), 135- 144.

Zhao, Y., and Campbell, K.P. (1995). English in China. World Englishes, 14(3), 377-390.

Appendix: Interview Schedule
1. Can you share with me your past English learning experiences?
2. When did you start learning English?
3. How did you like English at that time?
4. How did you learn English at junior(senior)middle school?
5. How about life at junior (senior) middle school?
6. What was an English lesson at junior (senior) middle school like?
7. Could you share with me your memories of your English teachers?
8. Any other memories of significant people or events related to your English-learning at junior (senior) school?
9. How are you learning English at college?
10. Any changes in your life and study at college in comparison with the past?
11. What was an English lesson at the college like?
12. Any interesting events or people at college you wish to talk about?