Chinglish or English?——Reflections on CulturalAspect of Foreign Language Teaching in China

XU Jing

(College of Foreign Languages,Zhengzhou University,Zhengzhou 450001,China)

1 .I ntroduction

When students say:“good good study,day day up”,do their foreigner teachers understand what they are talking about?Most probably no,but their Chinese teachers understand what they mean is to“study hard everyday”.This isone typical“Chinglish”(Chinese English)sentence.Students are criticized for using Chinglish because it is regarded as“wrong”ways of using English:speaking English with a Chinese accent,constructing an English sentence according to Chinese grammar,translating directly some Chinese idioms into English and greeting people in English in a Chinese way.However,under the circumstance of globalization,Pennycock states that everyone should“think globally”.Therefore,“Chinglish”may mean something other than language problems.As Levine points out that there are no“right”or“wrong”in cultures,only cultural differences.Chinglish,as a social practice with unavoidable cultural elements,has certain implications that should be explored from cultural perspective.But this is the aspect that has been ignored in English teaching in China.

In this essay,I present my view concerning this topic. I first give my teaching context;then,I describe the great influence that social changes in China impose on language teaching;furthermore,I give my considerations about the influence of English teaching on the identity of Chinese students;finally,as an English teacher in China,Iwant to make my own choice of what I should teach to my students in an English class.

2 .M y teaching context

Most ofmy students are Chinese college studentswho major in mathematics,physics and engineering.English is a twoyear compulsory course for them. In the past,most of the students study English to get their degree.However,with the economic growth of China and the globalization,English,as a global language,is“an international language of communication”.Hall emphasizes that language itself doesn’t have meaning;it is a media through which people represent their ideas,thoughts and feelings,that is,to communicate.More and more students now realize that language is the means,and communication,the ends.However,when students study English,there are more things implied beyond communicative function of the language.

The culture language represents can change the learners’way of behavior,beliefs and values,in other words,students’identity can be changed through language learning.This is one important point that language teachers should be aware of but often ignored.I explain this point in the next part.

3 .Foreign language teach ing in China

3 .1 Political influences on foreign language teaching in China

Pennycock points out that language is always political,and if you look back on the history of foreign language teaching in China,you will find that politics played especially important role in it.

Before 1960s,peoplewere learning Russian instead of English because of the political intimacy with the former USSR.To Chinese at that time,Russian was the global language because of the common belief in people that communism would be the final ideology of all societies.

In late 1960s and 1970s,due to the political rupture with USSR,English became the major foreign language.Most of the university students in China were taught English with the same textbooks called“Xu Guozhang English”.The textbook has a very significant position in English teaching and learning in China.I will introduce it in details later.

In 1980s,with the opening-to-outside-world policy,new English teaching textbooks were developed and replaced the old one with more content added about English literature and knowledge of different cultural information. Communicative teaching methods are employed in English teaching.

3 .2 “Xu Guozhang English”

Stuart Hall explained that language represents culture and culture is shaped by the language and they can’t be separated.Students are exposed to cultural information represented through English,which gives them chances to explore new thoughts,beliefs and values through learning English.However,this old English textbook appears to me as a paradox.

On one hand,it introduces“Standard English”to learners,putting emphasis on grammatical rules.However,on the other hand,the cultural information in the book is all about China.For example,the vocabulary are words about“Chairman Mao”,“revolution”,“class conflicts”,“capitalism”,“American imperialist”and so on.And the texts introduce and describe Chinese festivals,social issues happening in China,nothing about cultures of English speaking countries.The teachers tended to teach“pure”English to for m“pure”students’Chinese identity.

But as we know,culture is inherent in the language and can’t be avoided or even reduced.This deliberate reduction due to political purpose seems to work in preventing people from getting close to western culture and western capitalism over certain historical period in China,but if we put it into the whole process of the development of foreign language teaching,this book could be considered as an usher to introduce to people what English is and it did enable people to communicate with people from other cultures,and with“Chinglish”unavoidably.

3 .3 Influence of English teaching on the identity of Chinese students

3 .3 .1 What do students learn in English classes?

Are students studying English for English?My answer would be“no”. It doesn’t make any sense that students are learning English for English’s sake.Language is a codification of culture and in itself a key aspect of culture,a distinctive way of thinking,and a structure of identity.As Hall says that language is a system of representation,and it is the identity and knowledge a language presents that are potentially useful to students.Though other courses carry cultural information,for example even most“neutral”mathematics is not cultural free,English class is the most“cultural”one.

Though the reading,writing,and discussion in the class,students began to look at their beliefs and their values.Sometimes their values changed;other times students were simply given an opportunity to express what was important to them.

D.E.Freeman and Y.S.Freeman also point out that there is a link between language and thinking,and learning a new language involves new ways of looking at the world.Therefore,acquiring a new language means that the learner is able to enter a new culture and adopting a new way of thinking about the world.

As to my students,it is unavoidable for them to enter the culture English bring to them.However,in my opinion,when they learn English,the language of the“West”,it doesn’t mean that they are learning to change the whole ways of behavior,beliefs or values,nor does it mean that they have to maintain the stereotype of“Chinese identity”.They learn to produce themselves,and in a space which gives them more“leverage”.

When talking about the politics of identity,Hall says identities are as important about where you are going as where you are from.On one hand,they are Chinese learning English,and as I mentioned before,Chinese foreign language teaching has been very much influenced by politics.All the way through their education,from primary school to university,they are taught to hold their Chinese identity to confront the colonization of the West;however,on the other hand,because of the social changes,the cultural differences they are aware of through learning the language enable them to produce a kind of“uniqueness”which will undergo constant transformation,away from the collective“one experience”and“one identity”they were taught to hold before.

I am not denying that there is a standard of what they are.Actually everyone in the world needs a sense of belonging to somewhere.I just want to say that students,in learning English,should be encouraged to for m their own voice. That is,they should be provided with a chance to explore their own thoughts from the cultural aspects that come with the new language. I would like to refer to the product of this process as“Chinglish”,including both the language“problem”and the special set of practices students use in communication which represents their culture.

3 .3 .2 English as a tool of communication

Students learn English mainly to use it to communicate.Brown and Yule argue that language has two main functions,transactional and interactional.And,according to Schirato and Yell,communication can be understood as the practice of producing meanings and communication practices refer to the ways in which systems of meanings are negotiated by participants of different cultures.

Communication is never culture free and when communicating with people from another culture,students have to negotiate meaning with others.For one they act out as a Chinese,and for another,to achieve successful communication,they need to change to adjust themselves to cultural differences with others.First of all,they should develop communicative competence in English to cope with the differences.

3 .3 .3 Communicative competence in English

When students learn English,it means that they learn to make judgments about the linguistic and sociolinguistic codes and that they acquire communicative competence as a tool to communicate with people.Canale and Swain point out communication is based on sociocultural and interpersonal interactions and is judged as successful or not on the basis of behavioral outcomes.They classify communicative competence into three aspects:grammatical,sociolinguistic and strategic competence.What I am interested in this is what these competences mean to my students in learning English.

First,grammatical competence includes putting words in the right sequence,pronouncing and comprehending words and deriving meaning from what other say.This competence involves cultural aspects.They have many choices to make when they are using English.Teacher’s demands for their grammatical correctness can be a big influence.Before 1980s,British English dominated English teaching in China,but after 1980s,with the popularity of American culture,students are exposed more to American culture and tend to use American English more.Nowadays,the distinction is becoming vague.Byram points out that communicative competence involves appropriate language use which,in part at least,is culture specific.

Second,sociolinguistic competence can be understood as the ability to use appropriate language in certain situations.To my students,though for most of the time,they are communicating with people from similar cultural background,nowadays,however,they are getting more and more chances to communicate with native speakers.More students are taking TOEFL or IELTS to go abroad;therefore,this competence is more practical for them.When students begin to use the actual language in different situations,the competence they put into use should be in a process of changing.

Third,they acquire strategic competence as well.Canale and Swain also indicate that this competence is most likely to be acquired through experience in real life communication rather than classroom practice.When students try to use English language strategies to communicate effectively and try to make up problems caused by communication failures,they might borrow naturally from their native language strategies to facilitate the communication. Because communication is mutual, native speaker’s tolerance and comprehension towards the use of“Chinglish”enable the students to adapt themselves frequently.I do think this combination of strategies is helpful for Chinese students.

4 .“Chinglish”is the language Chinese students use to communicate with the world

Being an English teacher in China,when I make my choice toward the question of“Chinglish”or“English”,I want to say that“Chinglish”should be the language Chinese students use to communicate with the world.There are several reasons for me to say so.

First of all,Hall points out,“Now to live with hybridity,I believe,is the politics of the 21st century.Everybody…is going increasingly,in an independent world of immigrated peoples,to live with……hybridity,to live with impurity,to live with the fact that there are no pure origins left.”

English,being an international language,is in the process of changing and can’t have a central standard.Pennycock suggests that different varieties of English should be acknowledged as legitimate forms in their won right.Therefore,Chinglish is not the false for m of English. Instead,it is just one legitimate form of English in the world that Chinese people use to represent their culture in English.

Second,language is never neutral.It is always shaped by the culture in which it is used.As English is being taught in China,it is not possibly the same with the way it is taught in other cultures.Take English writing for example.English way of writing emphasizes students to have their own ideas and reasons and requires students to use critical thinking. That actually makes a rather difficult task for English teachers in China.Students are told,since their childhood,what the teacher says is exactly true,and shouldn’t be challenged.Confucian is m has a deep impact on Chinese culture.Therefore,what students can do is on one hand accepting western culture,and on the other hand combining it with Chinese culture.That is what I understand as using“Chinglish”to make oneself understood in global communication.

In addition,Brown and Yule explained that most students identify“how they speak”with their own personal and cultural identities.Many people wish to keep their own identities,for instance,a Chinese speaker,who is speaking good English,not to be taken for a British speaker or American speaker.They also indicated that few people can achieve real native-like English,and if there is someone like this,“such individuals appear to be able to do this quite independently of the educational system”.Therefore,allowing students to use“Chinglish”is a good way to let students feel success instead of failure in learning English.

5 .Conclusion

In this essay,I explain my view on the cultural aspect of English teaching in China and suggest that“Chinglish”should be the language Chinese students use to communicate with the world.I first talk about that Chinese foreign language teaching is very much influenced by the social changes in China,and I use one textbook“Xu Guozhang English”as one example.Then,in the following part,I try to present the relationship between language and identity,that is,how English shapes the identity of Chinese students.Students will form new identity on the basis of Chinese culture and the culture they accept from learning English.They learn English to for m their own ideas,beliefs,and values and to use the language to communicate with people allover the world. I define the product of this process as“Chinglish”,including both the language“problem”and the special set of practices students use in communication.In order to communicate successfully,students need to acquire communicative competence which closely relates to adjustment students have to make in communicating with people from other cultures.Finally,as an English teacher in China,I express my point of view that Chinglish should be the convenient way for Chinese students to communicate with the world under the circumstance of globalization of both the world and English language.

When Pennycock mentions the title change of the leading journal on English as a world language from World Language English to World Language Englishes,perhaps English can be one good example.Just like Singlish(Singapore English),with the opening of Chinese society,it would be understood and accepted as a social practice.

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