Chinese academics writing for publication: English teachers as text mediators

•Many English teachers at the university level mediate scientist article manuscripts in China.•Close communication with authors help them allay the double challenges of ignorance in disciplinary knowledge and poorly written texts.•Their mediating effort has been mostly successful.•Institutional support is needed to encourage cooperation between English teachers and scientist authors.

This paper discusses a key aspect of Chinese scholars writing for publication in English: the role played by local English teachers as literacy brokers or “text mediators”. Increasingly, academics in China are required to publish their research in prestigious international journals to progress their careers, and are turning to local English teaching colleagues for assistance. The expense, uncertain competence and sometimes dubious ethical practices of professional editing services, combined with the co-present contact and personal relationships formed with local colleagues, mean that Chinese English teachers are rapidly becoming a valuable resource for turning the massive number of Chinese submissions into publishable papers. This relationship, however, is complicated by the lack of institutional funding for language mediation of this kind and by the uncertainties of appropriate reward for this work. This paper examines the kinds of cooperation and difficulties experienced between local English teachers and scientists in some Chinese universities.