Deyuan He Education and Use in the Professional World
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Asia in Transition 12 Deyuan He China English in World Englishes Education and Use in the Professional World Asia in Transition Volume 12 Series Editor Bruno Jetin, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam Editorial Board Jonathan Rigg, Asia Research Institute, Singapore, Singapore Victor T. King, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam Lian Kwen Fee, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam Zawawi Ibrahim, The Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam Noor Hasharina Haji Hassan, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam This book series, indexed in Scopus, is an initiative in conjunction with Springer under the auspices of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam – Institute of Asian Studies (http://ias.ubd.edu.bn/). It addresses the interplay of local, national, regional and global influences in Southeast, South and East Asia and the processes of translation and exchange across boundaries and borders. The series explores a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Submission and Peer Review: Proposal submissions are to be sent to the Series Editor, Dr Bruno Jetin: [email protected] and Springer Publishing Editor Alex Westcott Campbell: [email protected] using the Book Proposal Form available in the sidebar. All proposals will undergo peer review by the editorial board members. If accepted, the final manuscript will be peer reviewed internally by the editorial board as well as externally (single blind) by Springer ahead of acceptance and publication. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13611 Deyuan He China English in World Englishes Education and Use in the Professional World 123 Deyuan He Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Universiti Brunei Darussalam Gadong, Brunei Darussalam ISSN 2364-8252 ISSN 2364-8260 (electronic) Asia in Transition ISBN 978-981-15-8186-1 ISBN 978-981-15-8187-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8187-8 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 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. 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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore To Kevin He, my son Foreword China is a country with the largest number of English language learners (more than 400 million) and these learners invest a great amount of time, money, and effort in learning the language, but their learning effectiveness is hardly satisfactory. Against this background, more research is needed to study the use and development of English in mainland China (hereafter China), and this book is such an effort. By focusing on the ideal pedagogic model of university English, this book explores university teachers’ and students’ perceptions toward China English in the context of world Englishes, as well as their views toward introducing China English as part of the teaching model and the possibility of including China English and world Englishes into the existing curriculum. This book also extends its focus from the educational arena to the professional use of English in China’s workplace. These two areas are closely related to each other as the use of English in the professional world will partly be influenced by and exerts considerable influence on English language teaching. Specifically, the following issues concerning the use of English by working professionals in China are explored: (1) the language choice at the workplace, (2) the frequency of the use of English, (3) the importance of Chinese/English and the changes in the importance, (4) the use of English by types of organization, ownership of company and industries, and (5) the relationships between participants’ frequency of English use and self-rated English ability and the importance of English. The author employed three methods including questionnaire surveys, match-guise technique, and interviews (group and individual) to investigate the perceptions and views as conceived by non-English majors and their Chinese teachers of English, and the professionals who use English at their workplace as well. Taken together, the data obtained from the three research methods yield (to a greater or lesser extent) informative findings suggesting that standardized Englishes are still perceived by university students in China as the most desirable models of English. This is believed to have significant implications for the teaching of uni- versity English in China. The book suggests that China English should be well codified and promoted before being adopted as the pedagogic model so that China’s English learners may develop a stronger sense of ownership of the language and vii viii Foreword have more integrative learning motivation. In addition, it proposes that the cur- riculum design of university English should include an introduction to the well-defined characteristics of China English and world Englishes. Last but by no means least, the book demonstrates that English has been used more widely and frequently in the professional world than before and has become increasingly important in China, and so university English should be taught more productively as a tool of communication and further personal development rather than merely a subject for examinations. David C. S. Li Head, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, China Acknowledgements A monograph would only become a reality with the support and help from many people, especially the professional and efficient guidance from Ms. Rebecca Zhu and her Springer editorial team, and hence my publication of this book has become an enjoyable experience. First and foremost, I acknowledge my deepest gratitude to Prof. David C. S. Li, for his continuing encouragement, valuable suggestions and feedback, careful reading, and critical comments while reviewing many sections of the book. I’m enormously indebted to Prof. Kingsley Bolton, Prof. David Deterding, Prof. Tony Hung, Dr. Bruno Jetin, Prof. Andy Kirkpatrick, Prof. Angel Lin, Dr. Graham Lock, Dr. Wai King Tsang, Prof. Lian-Hee Wee, Dr. Zhichang Xu, among many others, and my dear colleagues at Universiti Brunei Darussalam for their kind support and willingness to share ideas and feelings, and their generous help and valuable suggestions in my book writing. My heartfelt thanks go to all the participants in China. Their views and com- ments gave me boundless inspirations. Without their cooperation and contributions, this book would never have been possible. Special thanks go to Yongchang Fu, Zijuan Gao, Shoubin Liu, Ying Liu, Manding Luo, Jie Song, Tianqin Yan, Shenghua Yao, Yi Zeng, Wei Zhang, Dr. Linghui Zhu, and my former students in Shanghai who helped me get into contact with my participants. Last, but by no means least, I wish to express my profound gratitude to my extended family. They have been so supportive and encouraging that I can always feel their deep care and love for me although we are thousands of miles apart. I’m particularly thankful to my wife Candice and my son Kevin, whose deep and warm love is the most important source of courage and motivation for me to pursue my dream. Being so thoughtful and being always there for me, they have helped me in the most special and tender way! ix Introduction To the readers who are not specializing in sociolinguistics, I may need to introduce China English as a key concept of this book from the very beginning (please refer to Chap. 2 for more discussion on this term). In this book, China English is defined as a performance variety of English which has standardized Englishes as its core but colored with characteristic features of Chinese phonology, lexis, syntax, and discourse-pragmatics, and which is particularly suited for expressing content ideas specific to Chinese culture through such means as transliteration and loan transla- tion. However, it should be pointed out that China English is still a developing variety of English, which is not a well-developed variety like Indian English, Singaporean English, and Brunei English, let alone a standardized variety like British English and American English. This book is concerned with the educational arena and professional world of China English in the context of World Englishes. More specifically, it focuses on university students’ and teachers’ perceptions of China English in the context of World Englishes, their views about introducing China English as part of the ped- agogic model together with Standardized Englishes, the possibility of including select features of China English and World Englishes into the existing curriculum, and students’ preference of teachers for university English in mainland China. This book also extends its focus from the educational arena to the professional use of English in China’s workplace.