What We Know about Chinese English: Status, Issues and Trends (original) (raw)

China English: A Developing, Functional, and Legitimate World English Variety

Sino-Platonic Papers, 2016

There has been immense pushback to the acceptance of China English (CE) as a variety of World English (WE) on several fronts, but the scholarship to date overwhelmingly agrees that CE is a "developing" but valid native variety of English. In light of all this, why has there been so much resistance to recognizing CE and encouraging its use? The opposition stems from the lack of general understanding of how CE has developed, what it is and is not, and why its acceptance and adoption is beneficial--if not necessary--for the growing Chinese English-speaking population. The goal of this paper is to increase awareness of CE and argue for its ongoing study, legitimacy, and implementation. I will first provide background on the development of WEs in general and CE in particular, then distinguish CE from other obfuscatory English "varieties" in China. I synthesize scholarship examining CE's distinct linguistic features, and finally consider commentary both advocating and discouraging the validation and adoption of CE as China's own standard English variety. Although it is not yet fully mature, the consensus of decades of research promotes China English as a legitimate and functional WE variety that has the potential to improve communications with and within China.

English in China: A contemporary bibliography

The research bibliography presented here is a contemporary bibliography, providing a listing of relevant research articles, books, and other research outputs that were published between 2003 and 2015. The main focus of this bibliography is on major works published internationally as well as in core journals from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite the problems concerning the representativeness of this current bibliography, the authors hope that the following list of references will complement the articles in this current special issue. It is intended that the present bibliography complement the earlier bibliographical article by Adamson, Bolton, Lam and Tong (2002), and serve as a guide for current and future research in this field.

English in China: a preliminary bibliography

World Englishes, 2002

The research bibliography presented here is both a`preliminary' and`partial' bibliography. The core focus of the bibliography is on work published in English and available internationally, although, where possible, references have been made to relevant Chinese-language sources. Despite the obvious shortcomings, however, the authors hope that, given the general dearth of bibliographies of this kind, the following list of references will supplement the articles in the body of this special issue, and will serve as a useful entry point for scholars from a wide range of disciplines wishing to research the development of English studies in contemporary China. 1

Chinese pragmatic norms and `China English'

In this paper we shall first consider a selection of discourse and rhetorical norms of Modern Standard Chinese and then contrast them with a comparable selection of discourse and rhetorical norms of an`inner circle' variety of English. As the transfer of discourse and rhetorical norms from a first to a second language commonly occurs, we predict that a Chinese variety of English is characterised by a number of discourse and rhetorical norms derived from Chinese. We argue that the presence of these L1 discourse and rhetorical norms should not be seen as`deviations' from Anglo norms, but that, as Chinese speakers are more likely to use the language with other English speakers in the East Asian region rather than with speakers of inner circle varieties of English, the Chinese variety of English is actually a more culturally appropriate model of English than any superimposed`Anglo' norm. Our discussion also considers the importance in China traditionally attached to`models' and`standards' and speculates on the extent to which educators and officials in China are likely to accept a Chinese variety of English as a model for the classroom.

Linguistic features of China English (lexical and grammatical levels)

The Chinese variety of English possesses distinct linguistic features at all levels of the language system. This paper describes lexical and grammatical features of China English as a result of intralingual interference and interference of Chinese into English. The Chinese regional variety of English is of special interest as an object of linguistic investigation because of China's growing role in world's politics, its plentiful economic growth and leading positions in the global economy. Expanding international contacts in different spheres are mostly carried out in English as a lingua franca. In this situation knowing the features of China English is crucial for effective and successful intercultural communication between people of different nations and the Chinese.

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics

2019

Chinese language arts: The role of language and linguistic devices in literary and artistic expressions. In Chu-Ren Huang, Zhuo Jing-Schmidt, and Barbara Meisterernst (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Applied Chinese Linguistics. (pp. 237-255). New York and London: Routledge. Pre-published version provided to meet funding guidelines. Refer to published version for final version.

Researching English in contemporary China

This article provides and introduction to the range of research issues covered by the contributions to this special issue on English in contemporary China. It is suggested that the role of English in Chinese society today cannot be considered in isolation from the sociolinguistic background, as well as the social and political context of contemporary Chinese society. With reference to the present-day sociolinguistic dynamics of China, an important issue is the current spread of Putonghua as the national language across the nation, a process linked to the demands and exigencies of the state education system. With reference to the spread of English, one continuing issue is the relationship between the learning of English, and the actual use of the language. In this context, it is relevant to consider that, in recent decades, official policies to the language have drawn their motivation from both economic and political considerations, where various ideologies have played a role.

Introduction: Interdisciplinary perspectives on English in China

The starting-point for this special issue on 'English in China: interdisciplinary perspectives' arose out of discussions between ourselves in the summer of the year 2000. 1 As academics based within the English department of the oldest university in what is not the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, a recurrent concern in both our teaching and research has been the history and development of cultural, linguistic, and literary contact between China and 'the West'. Given the current rapid spread of English in the People's Republic of China (PRC), we were particularly interested in how that contact has been mediated by the English language and 'English studies' and the current status, functions and features of English in China. Initial discussions with colleagues in the HKSAR and at universities in China revealed similar interests among many of those we contacted, and in the fall of 2000 we sent out a general call for papers to English departments throughout mainland China.