However, Rod Ellis, a research professor at the School of Education at Curtin University in Western Australia and a keynote speaker at the education assembly in Hangzhou, thinks that while exposure to foreign cultures for both teachers and students certainly helps, it is not essential.

"The challenge is the availability of adequate teaching resources. If English is to spread beyond the middle-class and large urban centers, there has to be a policy to ensure competent teachers, with sufficient skills and proficiency in English to teach the language, are placed in these rural areas," said Ellis, who is also a visiting professor at Shanghai International Studies University.

In 2006, the central government introduced a program, known as "specially posted teachers", to encourage college graduates and experienced teachers to move to less-developed areas of the country. With subsidies from the central and local governments, the program offered above-average salaries and welfare packages.

The annual program, which covers 22 provinces and regions, has become one of the most important sources of teachers in rural areas. It aims to prepare teachers to go to such areas, live in them and excel at their work.

Teachers signing up for the program must complete a minimum of three years' service. They can then choose to remain in their posts, be relocated to other positions with the help of government departments at all levels, or seek employment on their own.

In some regions, however, 97 percent of the teachers who have been sent there have developed a passion and affection for their posts and asked to remain.

In the program's first year, 16,000 graduates were sent to 2,850 schools in more than 260 counties. Last year, the number of graduates rose to 85,200.

But Lu said the program still lacks sufficient teachers. Less than 10 percent of those it sends to rural areas every year have English-teaching backgrounds.