Paradigm is the soul of data-driven research． From the perspective of research paradigms ，the present paper at- tempts to identify the new growth points in English education research in China． The whole argument consists of 3 sections． First ， paradigm theoretical perspectives ( positivism vs． interpretivism) for quantitative and qualitative studies are analyzed in terms of philosophical assumptions concerning ontology ，epistemology and methodology． Second ，based on survey results from MLJ ，TQ and SSLA journals ，the paper justifies a paradigm profusion trend in recent second / foreign language teaching and learning re- search ，and further explores co-adaptive decision-making processes in quantitative and qualitative designs ，especially the explicit / implicit influences from paradigm theoretical perspectives and grand theories． Finally ，in view of the current situation of English education research in China ，the contributions of interpretivist qualitative research are predicted in terms of research topic expan- sions and new theoretical explorations．