Language Policy and Its Impact on National Programme Students in Chinese Internationalised Schools: A Case Study

National programme students are unique and few in number in Chinese internationalised schools (CIS) because they aim to keep studying in China rather than study abroad. CIS’s language policy from the perspective of these students is investigated in this paper via nexus analysis. Data include national, regional and a typical CIS’s language policy documents, photos and field notes from a six-month ethnography, and interviews with one teacher and her 11 students. Results show that there is a policy implementation paradox between the school’s general and inconsistent bilingual policy, and national programme students’ actual experience. These students are not trained as bilinguals and do not have equal access to authentic English contexts as international students do. The paradox stems from the conflicts between individual agency and scalar education policies in China. Therefore, CIS should set more contextual language policies to create an equal language environment for its diverse student population, and also to improve its competitiveness.