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China English: To be or not to be? - A Survey on the Sociolinguistic Background of Its Recognition and Development

Received: 28 March 2014    Accepted: 20 April 2014    Published: 30 April 2014
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Abstract

Spreading at the present rate, English will further increase its importance as the global lingua franca in this century, not only in countries of the inner and outer circles, but also in the expanding circle. Meanwhile, with the appearance of the ‘craze for learning English’ these past years in China, one of the EFL countries, more attention is focused on the research about this language phenomenon, and ‘China English’ thus has been proposed by Chinese linguists to represent the result of the localization and nativization of English in Chinese background. However, little notice about ‘China English’has been taken by linguists and researchers in other countries. Also fewer empirical or survey studies can be found in this field since such research is only at the starting point in China. Therefore, this paper investigates the sociolinguistic background of the recognition and development of China English. 365 subjects of various levels are involved in the questionnaire survey. Their answers are about the ultimate aims of learning English and the social functions of English in their life. The results are in favor of a more objective and convincing conclusion, that is, China English is inevitably going to be an important variety of English and will exert the personal function of English for efficiency and effectiveness in both intercultural and intracultural communications. It is hoped that the discussion would help both recognition and acceptance of the new variety of English in the world. Suggestions on the relationship between China English and EFL teaching are also provided as references.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 2, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18
Page(s) 190-196
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

China English, Sociolinguistic Background, Recognition, Development

References
[1] Bamgbose, A. (1982). Standard Nigerian English. Issues of Identification. In Kachru (ed). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Pergamon Press. pp. 99 ~ 1 1 1.
[2] Cheng, Chin-Chuan. “Chinese Varieties of English”. In Kachru (ed.) (2nd edn.). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Oxford: Pergamon, 1992: 162-177.
[3] Crystal, David. English as a Global Language[M]. Cambridge University Press, 1997; Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001.
[4] Deng, Yanchang and Runqing Liu. Language and Culture [M].Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004.
[5] Du, Runqing and Yajun Jiang. China English0in the past 20 years[J]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001(1).
[6] Ge, Chuangui. Talking about the Problems in Chinese to English Translation [J]. Translation Communication, 1980(2).
[7] Hu, Xiaoqiong. A Study of World Englishes and China English and Its Implications [J]. Journal of China Three Gorges University(Humanities &Social Sciences ), 2003 (3).
[8] Jin, Huikang. Research on the Pragmatic Contexts and Functions of China English [J]. Fujian Foreign Language, 2001 (2).
[9] Kachru, Braj B. (ed.) The pragmatics of non-native varieties of English, In smith, ed. 1981.
[10] Kachru, Braj B. (ed.) The Other Tongue: English across Cultures [M]. Urbana and Chicago: Uni-versity of Illinois Press, 1982/1992.
[11] Li, Wenzhong. China English and Chinglish [J]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1993(4).
[12] Pan, Zhangxian. Linguistic and Cultural Identities in Chinese Varieties of English [M]. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005.
[13] Qiu, Lizhong and Quanxin Ning. Questioning on the Nativization of China English---Discussing with Mr Du Runqing and Jiang Yajun [J]. Foreign Language Teaching, 2002(6).
[14] Wang, Rongpei. The Objective Existence of China English [J]. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages,1991 (1).
[15] Yasukata Yano. World Englishes in 2000 and Beyond [J]. World Englishes, 2001(2): 119-131.
[16] Yan, Zhiqiang. Introduction to World Englishes [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002.
[17] Xie, Zhijun. China English: Interference Variety in Cross-culture Communication [J]. Modern Foreign Language, 1995(4).
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    Jing Xie, Qiong Qu. (2014). China English: To be or not to be? - A Survey on the Sociolinguistic Background of Its Recognition and Development. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 2(3), 190-196. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18

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    Jing Xie; Qiong Qu. China English: To be or not to be? - A Survey on the Sociolinguistic Background of Its Recognition and Development. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2014, 2(3), 190-196. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18

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    AMA Style

    Jing Xie, Qiong Qu. China English: To be or not to be? - A Survey on the Sociolinguistic Background of Its Recognition and Development. Int J Lang Linguist. 2014;2(3):190-196. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18,
      author = {Jing Xie and Qiong Qu},
      title = {China English: To be or not to be? - A Survey on the Sociolinguistic Background of Its Recognition and Development},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {2},
      number = {3},
      pages = {190-196},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20140203.18},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20140203.18},
      abstract = {Spreading at the present rate, English will further increase its importance as the global lingua franca in this century, not only in countries of the inner and outer circles, but also in the expanding circle. Meanwhile, with the appearance of the ‘craze for learning English’ these past years in China, one of the EFL countries, more attention is focused on the research about this language phenomenon, and ‘China English’ thus has been proposed by Chinese linguists to represent the result of the localization and nativization of English in Chinese background. However, little notice about ‘China English’has been taken by linguists and researchers in other countries. Also fewer empirical or survey studies can be found in this field since such research is only at the starting point in China. Therefore, this paper investigates the sociolinguistic background of the recognition and development of China English. 365 subjects of various levels are involved in the questionnaire survey. Their answers are about the ultimate aims of learning English and the social functions of English in their life. The results are in favor of a more objective and convincing conclusion, that is, China English is inevitably going to be an important variety of English and will exert the personal function of English for efficiency and effectiveness in both intercultural and intracultural communications. It is hoped that the discussion would help both recognition and acceptance of the new variety of English in the world. Suggestions on the relationship between China English and EFL teaching are also provided as references.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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    AB  - Spreading at the present rate, English will further increase its importance as the global lingua franca in this century, not only in countries of the inner and outer circles, but also in the expanding circle. Meanwhile, with the appearance of the ‘craze for learning English’ these past years in China, one of the EFL countries, more attention is focused on the research about this language phenomenon, and ‘China English’ thus has been proposed by Chinese linguists to represent the result of the localization and nativization of English in Chinese background. However, little notice about ‘China English’has been taken by linguists and researchers in other countries. Also fewer empirical or survey studies can be found in this field since such research is only at the starting point in China. Therefore, this paper investigates the sociolinguistic background of the recognition and development of China English. 365 subjects of various levels are involved in the questionnaire survey. Their answers are about the ultimate aims of learning English and the social functions of English in their life. The results are in favor of a more objective and convincing conclusion, that is, China English is inevitably going to be an important variety of English and will exert the personal function of English for efficiency and effectiveness in both intercultural and intracultural communications. It is hoped that the discussion would help both recognition and acceptance of the new variety of English in the world. Suggestions on the relationship between China English and EFL teaching are also provided as references.
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Author Information
  • College of Foreign Languages, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China

  • College of Foreign Languages, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China

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