Against the backdrop of multilateral people-to-people exchange under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study identifies an attitude-competence gap that divides positive English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) dispositions among Chinese Expanding Circle university learners from their limited practical capacity for in-person cross-cultural communication. Grounded in a revised developmental diffusion model reconstructed from Kachru’s classic three-concentric-circles sociolinguistic framework, ordinal generalized linear model (GLM) analysis of 183 valid student survey responses and three-stage thematic coding of 15 semi-structured interviews demonstrate that receptive reading and listening ELF input only cultivate superficial abstract cultural awareness, whereas sustained, scaffolded oral ELF training acts as an indispensable prerequisite for mediating real-time cross-cultural misalignment and negotiation conflict. This research extends core ELF and intercultural communication theory for Expanding Circle populations and generates granular, empirically grounded suggestions for restructuring exam-centric university foreign language curricula across disciplinary tracks.
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- Dr. Stephen Antwi (Author), Li Xin (Author), Lu Yanling (Author), 2026, English Proficiency, Cross-Cultural Competence and Lingua Franca Participation, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1761295
