Chinese pragmatic norms and `China English' (original) (raw)

Native Speaker Norms and China English: From the Perspective of Learners and Teachers in China

TESOL Quarterly, 2010

This article explores the question of whether the norms based on native speakers of English should be kept in English teaching in an era when English has become World Englishes. This is an issue that has been keenly debated in recent years, not least in the pages of TESOL Quarterly. However, China English in such debates has been given lesser attention, and the voices of English learners and teachers in China have not been adequately reported. This article serves as such an attempt in the context of China having the largest English-learning population in the world. The present study drew comprehensive data from 984 college students and their teachers at 4 universities in different parts of China. With three cross-validated research methods (questionnaire survey, matched-guise technique, and focused interview), this article argues that native speaker-based norms and models are the most desirable in China's English classroom at the tertiary level, but they could be supplemented by the well-codified and successfully promoted features of China English.

China English in trouble: Evidence from teacher dyadic talk

System, 2015

This paper problematizes the designation of China English (CE) as a developing variety of English. Fourteen Chinese tertiary English teachers participated in a discourse-based study, in which they completed, via dyadic discussion, an acceptability judgment test (AJT) that contains a selection of 10 features allegedly emblematic of CE. Examination of the teachers' conversation shows that they did not associate these features with "China English". Further analyses reveal that they tended to comment negatively on and reject those features they saw as unacceptable in standard Englishes (SEs) and accepted those they saw oppositely, due to their general alignment with SEs norms, except that on one occasion, one of them did challenge the native-speaker benchmark openly. Drawing on these findings, we argue that the notion of CE might still remain esoteric, and CE is facing a dilemma between lack of distinctness from SEs and stigmatization of its potentially most characteristic features.

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.

What We Know about Chinese English: Status, Issues and Trends

Research on Chinese English (CE) synchronizes with studies on World Englishes. Since the late 1970s, Chinese scholars have been studying Chinese English and at the same time introducing World Englishes theories into China. Over the years, Chinese English research has been gaining momentum, particularly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Previous research on World Englishes has discussed the status of individual varieties of English, particularly whether they constitute independent and stable linguistic systems that have their own features and norms of usage independent from those found in Inner Circle varieties (Kachru 1985). Research on Chinese English encompasses a wide range of issues, including whether it exists, how to name it, how to define it, what its linguistic features are, how people perceive it, and what people's attitudes are towards it. In this chapter, we report on the current status and major issues concerning research on Chinese English, based on a vigorous review of relevant research literature and the chapters within this volume. We also provide a background to this volume and an overview of all the chapters that it contains, and point out trends for researching Chinese English. The overall aim of this chapter, alongside all the chapters of this volume, is to showcase the current state of research on Chinese English.

Chinese perceptions of Inner Circle varieties of English

World Englishes, 2010

Research from populations around the world on attitudes to varieties of English is essential in order to have a better understanding of how the complexities of globalization play a role in the form of English as a world language. To that end, university students in China were asked to name countries around the world where they believe English is spoken and indicate what kind of impression they have of those varieties without the presentation of voice stimuli. This type of data elicitation enables the participants themselves to provide the researcher with evaluative categories and avoids problems associated with using voice stimuli. The results indicate that the effect of the cultural hegemony of US English as a variety is complex, and that, contrary to assumptions, US English is unlikely to be a model for a 'standard' variety of world English in the traditional sense.

A study of the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English

International Journal of English Studies, 2013

This study investigates the acquisition of discourse markers by Chinese learners of English in terms of gender, style and individual identity. The subjects of the study are 15 female university students and 15 male university students. The data is collected by means of audio recording in the classroom discussion and in the interviews. The examined discourse markers are like, yeah, oh, you know, well, I mean, right, ok and actually , and a total of 1292 tokens for these discourse markers are identified in the subjects’ classroom discussion and interviews. The results of the study show that: (1) the female subjects use discourse markers more frequently than the male subjects. (2) all the subjects employ discourse markers in the interviews at a higher rate than in the classroom discussion. (3) the subjects’ individual identity has the effects on their use of discourse markers. (4) the subjects display their individual variations in their frequencies of discourse markers in the interviews and in the classroom discussion respectively.

Rhetorical strategies, electronic media, and China English

2008

ABSTRACT: Scholars tend to explain or predict China English's rhetorical strategies on the basis of Chinese discourse and cultural preferences. This inference model, I argue, falls short in studying the Chinese variety of English because, first, it essentializes both China English and Chinese, treating their discursive strategies as two easily generalizable, static entities; second, it neglects context, which determines the semiotic meaning potential of any language.