Researching Chinese English: the State of the Art PDF
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Multilingual Education Zhichang Xu Deyuan He David Deterding E ditors Researching Chinese English: the State of the Art Multilingual Education Volume 22 Series Editors Andy Kirkpatrick Department of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia Bob Adamson Chair Professor of Curriculum Reform, Department of International Education & Lifelong Learning, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR Editorial Board Jan Blommaert, University of Tilburg, Tilburg, The Netherlands Kingsley Bolton, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Feng Anwei, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China Ofelia Garcia, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA Saran Kaur Gill, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Mingyue (Michelle) Gu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR Gu Yueguo, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Hartmut Haberland, Roskilde University, Denmark David C. S. Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR Li Wei, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK Low Ee-Ling, National Institute of Education, Singapore Tony Liddicoat, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Ricardo Nolasco, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Manila, The Philippines Merrill Swain, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada Virginia Yip Choy Yin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR The book series Multilingual Education publishes top quality monographs and edited volumes containing empirical research on multilingual language acquisition, language contact and the respective roles of languages in contexts where the lan- guages are not cognate and where the scripts are often different, in order to be able to better understand the processes and issues involved and to inform governments and language policy makers. The volumes in this series are aimed primarily at researchers in education, especially multilingual education and other related fields, and those who are involved in the education of (language) teachers. Others who will be interested include key stakeholders and policy makers in the field of language policy and education. The editors welcome proposals and ideas for books that fit the series. For more information on how you can submit a proposal, please contact the publishing editor, Jolanda Voogd. E-mail: [email protected] More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8836 Zhichang Xu • Deyuan He • David Deterding Editors Researching Chinese English: the State of the Art Editors Zhichang Xu Deyuan He School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Linguistics Universiti Brunei Darussalam Monash University Gadong, Brunei Clayton, VIC, Australia David Deterding Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Universiti Brunei Darussalam Gadong, Brunei ISSN 2213-3208 ISSN 2213-3216 (electronic) Multilingual Education ISBN 978-3-319-53108-3 ISBN 978-3-319-53110-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-53110-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937651 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface English in China and the Continuing Story of Chinese Englishes Arguably the most important issue in relation to the story of English in contempo- rary China is that of the remarkable statistics associated with the spread of English in China, in particular the frequent reports of the many millions of people avidly learning the language. Despite this, the reality is that the statistics we actually have about the numbers of ‘English-knowing’ people in China are guesstimates at best, although some guesstimates have been informed by hard information. For instance, the benchmark national language survey of 1999–2000 reported on by Wei and Su (2012) indicated that by the late 1990s around 400 million people had studied English up to junior high school level. Such information is now 16 years out of date, and today one can only speculate about how many more millions of learners of English there have been since then, and how many people in China now ‘know’ English, to some extent at least. As far as the contemporary sociolinguistics of China are concerned, it is also relevant and important to recognise that the past few decades have not only seen the spread of English-language learning on an unprec- edented scale but also the simultaneous promotion of Putonghua (Mandarin) throughout the whole of China, where the major objective has been the ‘complete nationwide popularization for Putonghua’ and ‘removal of dialect barriers’ through- out the whole of the country (Wang and Yuan 2013: 27). As far as English is concerned, however, the essential conundrum is not how many folk are studying or have studied the language but rather how many people in China actually use the language in their everyday lives. The domain of education is obviously of key importance in this context, as English is not only taught as a sub- ject in all schools and universities but also has gained an established presence through English-language textbooks and even English-medium courses taught at many universities and some high schools. For many students, gaining a command of the language has also been of vital importance in order to study overseas, and in 2014, it was estimated that there were some 460,000 Chinese students studying v vi Preface overseas, of whom many had opted for English-speaking institutions in the USA, the UK, and Australia (Bolton 2013; Bolton and Graddol 2012; Institute of International Education 2015). In addition to the domain of education, English also has evident currency within the business community in China, in particular with those Chinese companies involved in international trade and finance, although until now very little empirical research on the use of English in this domain appears to have been done. Another domain where English has had a wide currency is that of tourism, and the numbers of international tourists have been increased substantially through such milestone events as the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou. Again, however, little research has been carried out on the role of English in this domain, with the exception of a number of studies that focused on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (Gao 2010). Finally, there is the domain of media, where, perhaps surprisingly, the use of English has grown remarkably, with a 24-hour English-language news channel, China Central Television Channel 9 (or CCTV 9), as well as the English-language China Daily, and a number of other English-language publications that are available on the Internet, including Global Times, 21st Century Weekly and Beijing This Month, among many others. Whatever the utility of such publications in providing news to foreigners and tourists in China, these government-steered media also routinely pro- mote official ideologies and policies to an international audience through English (Alvaro 2015). At the level of linguistic analysis, there has been much discussion since the 1990s concerning the extent to which ‘China English’ or ‘Chinese English’ can be regarded as a variety in similar fashion to such Outer Circle varieties as Indian English, Malaysian English and Philippine English (Kirkpatrick and Xu 2002; Bolton 2003). This debate continues to the present and to a large extent turns on the issue of whether distinctive features at the levels of phonology (accent), lexis (vocabulary), morphology and syntax (grammar) and discourse are sufficient (and sufficiently regular or stable) to warrant the description of such forms of language in terms of a ‘variety’ (Xu 2010a, b). One essential problem is coming to grips with the indeter- minacy of applying the notion of variety to what have traditionally been regarded as clusters of features associated with the use of English in an Expanding Circle con- text, that is, an EFL rather than ESL context. The question then raised here as in similarly indeterminate settings is how to classify and analyse distinctive features of linguistic use, as varietal features, or as instances of language learner varieties, Chinese-English interlanguage, language learner approximative systems and so on. These are all interesting questions, and issues deserving greater attention and research, as evidenced by the interesting and illuminating contributions to the pres- ent volume, which, as explained in the introduction, wishes to ‘unpack’ the notion of ‘Chinese English’, and its relevance to the wider fields of Asian Englishes and world Englishes. The volume comprises key sections on Chinese-English phonol- ogy, vocabulary, grammar and discourse, cultural linguistics and research scholar- ship on the topic of Chinese Englishes. Once again, many of the contributions usefully and understandably focus on the use of English within various domains of Preface vii education, as it appears clear that it is here within the context of schools, colleges and universities that ‘communities’ of users (if that term truly fits) may be most vis- ibly found (Bolton and Botha 2015; Botha 2014). This volume also achieves another important aim in expanding our thinking about future areas of research in the study of English in China, including new areas of analysis in phonology, morphosyntax, cultural linguistics, rhetoric, attitudes and multilingual creativity. In addition, I would suggest there is also a real need for much more research on the sociolinguistics of English in China from both a macro- and micro-perspective. At the level of macro-description, we still lack detailed case studies of English in the business sector, in relation to international trade and com- merce and in relation to the tourist industry. At the micro-level, we also lack detailed studies of the impact of English in the lives of the Chinese students who are now learning English to what are by any description rather high levels of language pro- ficiency. In addition, there are not many fine-grained descriptions of the role of English in the language worlds of these young people (Bolton 2013), at a time when the Chinese nation continues to experience rapid economic, social and linguistic change. In this context, other new frontiers for research include the code-mixing and ‘translanguaging’ habits of increasing numbers of young people in China (Zhang 2012, 2015). This is a fascinating and important area of study, and this volume provides new perspectives and opens new possibilities for future research and scholarship with particular reference to the role of English in China’s education system. The editors are to be greatly commended for bringing together an important selection of inter- esting articles into a volume that describes both the continuing story of the English language in China, as well as providing a benchmark study that will serve as an important point of reference for a number of years to come. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Kingsley Bolton References Alvaro, J. J. (2015). Analysing China’s English-language media. World Englishes 34(2), 260–277. Bolton, K. (2003). Chinese Englishes: A sociolinguistic history. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Bolton, K. (2013). World Englishes, globalisation, and language worlds. In N.-L. Johannesson, G. Melchers, & B. Björkman (Eds.), Of butterflies and birds, of dialects and genres: Essays in honour of Philip Shaw, 227–251. Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Bolton, K. & Graddol D. (2012). English in China today. English Today, 28(3), 3–9. Bolton, K. & Botha W. (2015). Researching English in contemporary China. World Englishes 34(2), 169–174. Botha, W. (2014). English in China’s universities today. English Today, 30(1), 3–10. viii Preface Gao Y. (2010, June). Speaking to the world: Who, when and how? An ethnographic study of slogan change and identity construction of Beijing Olympic Games volunteers. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 2010, 1–26. Institute of International Education. (2015). China’s students overseas. http://www.iie.org/ Services/Project-Atlas/China/Chinas-Students-Overseas. Kirkpatrick, A. & Xu Z. (2002). Chinese pragmatic norms and ‘China English’. World Englishes, 21(2), 269–279. Wang, H. & Yuan Z. (2013). The promotion of Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese): An overview. In Y. Li & W. Li (Eds.), The language situation in China (vol. 1, 27–40). The Hague: Mouton De Gruyter. Wei, R. & Su J. (2012). The statistics of English in China. English Today, 28(3), 10–14. Xu, Z. (2010a). Chinese English: Features and implications. Hong Kong: Open University of Hong Kong Press. Xu, Z. (2010b). Chinese English: A future power? In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge hand- book of world Englishes (282–298). London/New York: Routledge. Zhang, W. (2012). Chinese-English code-mixing among China’s netizens. English Today, 28(3), 40–52. Zhang, W. (2015). Multilingual creativity on China’s internet. World Englishes, 34(2). 231–246. Contents What We Know about Chinese English: Status, Issues and Trends ........... 1 Zhichang Xu, David Deterding, and Deyuan He Part I Researching Chinese English Pronunciation The Pronunciation of English in Guangxi: Which Features Cause Misunderstandings? ........................................................................................ 17 David Deterding The Hong Kong English Syllable Structure ................................................. 33 Lian-Hee WEE Part II Researching Chinese English Lexis, Grammar and Pragmatics Lexis-Grammar Interface in Chinese English: A Corpus Study of the Prototypical Ditransitive Verb GIVE ................................................. 49 Haiyang Ai and Xiaoye You Researching Collocational Features: Towards China English as a Distinctive New Variety ............................................................. 61 Jianli Liang and David C.S. Li A Corpus-Based Study of Syntactic Patterns of Nominalizations Across Chinese and British Media English .................................................. 77 Ying Liu, Alex Chengyu Fang, and Naixing Wei A Study on Modified-Modifying Sequence in the Compositions by Chinese Advanced Users of English ......................................................... 93 Wendong Jiang Pragmatics in Chinese Graduate Students’ English Gratitude Emails ............................................................................................. 109 Wei Ren ix
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