澳大利亞留學生dissertation之中式英語的原因和可能的解決方案

中國式英語通常被認為是不合規范的畸形英語，產生于英語交際中，源自中國英語學習者和使用者受到母語的干擾和影響并套用漢語規則和習慣。許多對此領域感興趣并關注的專家學者都曾經從不同角度展開過研究和討論，且在剖析這一語言現象過程中“仁者見仁，智者見智”。本dissertation從中國式英語產生的原因入手，以馬克思主義哲學精神——任何事物的產生，發展都是其自身內外因共同作用的結果為指導，不僅探求中國式英語產生的內部原因：學習者的年齡，心理結構，學習者英語功底不足，對西方交際手段的不熟悉；而且試圖歸納它產生的外部原因：漢語對英語的文化和語言負遷移，課堂教學的影響，缺乏英語語言的環境。從而提出減少和避免中國式英語的可行對策，以期對英語學習者有所幫助。英語畢竟作為第二語言，要想徹底地杜絕“中國式英語”的存在是不可能的，但通過文中所提方法的嘗試,應該能減少中國式英語的產生,達到高效、得體的交際目的。

 

Abstract

 

Chinglish，a linguistic term, is defined as deformed English produced by Chinese people due to violating the general English rules, being ignorant of culture. It demonstrates the interference of the mother tongue that fails to fulfill the informative function as a language. Many scholars interested in this field have discussed this linguistic issue from different angles and therefore contributed a lot.

 

The thesis goes into analyzing the causes of Chinglish on several dimensions, which is guided by Marxist philosophy. That is everything is the result of its own internal and external reasons. Generally speaking, the paper perceives this issue from two aspects: one is the internal reasons, the other is external reasons. The former reasons of Chinglish are age constraints, lack of basic skill of language and being unfamiliar with western communication strategies. The external reasons can be traced to the negative transfer on cultural linguistic dimension, effects from classroom teaching and the absence of language environment. After analyzing these reasons of Chinglish, the paper presents some solutions to Chinglish, hoping to be helpful for English learners. 

 

After all, English is the second language for Chinese, therefore it’s impossible to avoid of Chinglish thoroughly. However, after trying the solutions mentioned in this paper, we could reduce the generation of Chinglish and attend the goal of efficient and decent communication.

 

 

CONTENTS

 

Acknowledgements i

 

Abstract #p#分頁標題#e#ii

 

摘要 iii

 

1. Introduction 1

 

2. Introduction of Chinglish 2

 

2.1 Definition of Chinglish 3

 

2.2 The attitudes towards Chinglish 4

 

2.3 Manifestations of Chinglish 4

 

2.3.1 Pronunciation 4

 

2.3.2 Words and phrases 5

 

2.3.3 Sentence order 6

 

2.3.4 Paragraph organization 6

 

3. Reasons for Chinglish 6

 

3.1 The internal causes of Chinglish 7

 

3.1.1 Lack of basic skill of language 7

 

3.1.2 Unfamiliarity with western communication strategies 7

 

3.1.3 Age constraints 8

 

3.2 The external causes of Chinglish 8

 

3.2.1 Effects from classroom teaching 8

 

3.2.2 The absence of language environment 9

 

3.2.3 The negative transfer on cultural dimension 9

 

3.2.4 The negative transfer on linguistic dimension 10

 

4. Possible solutions to Chinglish 11

 

4.1 Strengthening language basic skills 11

 

4.2 Fostering the way of thinking in English 11

 #p#分頁標題#e#

4.3 Improving English teachers’ professional qualities 12

 

4.4 Cultivating bicultural competence 13

 

4.5 Adapting good ways in using learning tools 13

 

5. Conclusion 13

 

Bibliography 15

 

 

An Analysis on Reasons for Chinglish and Possible Solutions

 

1. Introduction 

 

With the economic globalization and the continuous development of economy, China is gradually continuously getting into the world’s developing track. Therefore, English, one of the mostly used languages in the world, permeates every aspect of Chinese life. Especially since Olympic Games and World Expo are held in China, a stream of learning English springs up across our country. However, due to the differences of cultural background and living habits, there appears a special culture phenomenon. That is Chingish, basically referring to the phenomenon of still using Chinese grammar while speaking English.

 

In recent decades, scholars both at home and abroad launched a fierce debate on Chinglish. Li Wenzhong (1993:18) thought that “Chinglish is an abnormal language phenomenon, which would gradually reduce or die with the popularity of English in China and selfexamination of Chinese English users.” Xie Zhijun(1993:7) put forward his own opinions on the basis of analysis of Li’s article Chinese English and Chinglish. He held that Chinglish is a kind of interference English variation, and such interference shows in all levels of language, namely language level, thinking level and cultural level. Joan Pinkham(2000:1)，an American professor, pointed out that “Chinglish is a misshapen, hybrid language that is neither English nor Chinese, but that might be described as English with Chinese characteristic” in her book The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish. For Zhuang Jiangchuan(2000), he thought there were two main causes of Chinglish. Firstly, English learners fail to thoroughly understand the original text; secondly, English learners are not familiar with the characteristics of English and continue to use Chinese collocation and structure. What’s more, for the sake of avoiding Chinglish he suggested to notice three characteristics of English: substitution, subject and subordination. Chen Youliang(2003) deemed that cultural vacancy was the objective reason of Chinglish, but we could achieve the purpose of smooth communication in cross-cultural by using compensatory measures such as transliteration, literal translation with annotation, interpretation, addition, analogy and so on. Zhangrui and Wangli (2007) thoroughly and systematically researched the phenomenon of Chinglish from the Theory of Native Language, and they thought that the main cause of Chinglish is the negative transfer of mother tongue. There are some other scholars discussing this phenomenon from contrastive analysis, error analysis, discrepancies in Chinese and western thinking modes. They express their different interpretations while analyzing this language phenomenon. However few of them can completely list all the causes of Chinglish and solutions to Chinglish relatively.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

The paper analyzes the causes of Chinglish, which can help Chinese English learners find some reasonable explanations of Chinglish. Besides, this paper shows a number of possible solutions to Chinglish in order to help English learners avoid making mistakes and master Standard English.

 

2. Introduction of Chinglish

 

Since we talk about Chinglish, we’d better know about the history of Chinglish. Chinglish originated from Chinese Pidgin English (CPE). CPE was one of the English—based pidgin emerging as a result of trade activities between Britain and China, which could be traced back to the 17th century. The history of CPE is highly related to the history of Hong Kong. CEP was used in Canton until about 1834 and spread along the Chinese coast, particularly Hong Kong, during the 19th century. Pidgin usage began to decline in the late 19th century when Chinese and missionary schools began teaching Standard English. In 1982, the People's Republic of China made English the main foreign language in education. Current estimates for the number English learners in China range from 300 to 500 million. 

 

While, many English learners often misunderstand two concepts: Chinglish and China English. As one English variety, the term China English first appeared in an article by Ge Chuangui in Translator’s Notes in 1980. According to him, China English is a kind of expression which features Chinese society and culture. And it mainly indicates words, phrases, sentences structure and discourse with Chinese colors. 

 

However, in the most people’s view, China English is used refer to special things of China and it exists objectively and contains three implications: China English is used only by Chinese people in China; China English takes normative English as its nucleus English; it has its own characteristics. China English is most frequently used in introducing Chinese history, culture custom to western people, such as feng shui, qi gong, kung fu, Confucianism and so on. But Chinglish is awkward English, whose ideas are against Standard English and English cultural customs, created by Chinese English learners and users who apply Chinese rules and habits mechanically in communication as a result of the influence of the mother tongue.

 

The biggest difference between Chinglish and China English is that Chinglish is deformed English while China English is normal English.

 

2.1 Definition of Chinglish

 

Due to the unsystematic and unsteady nature of Chinglish，people do not always resonate a clear and unanimous voice on what Chinglish is and hereby present diverse  and vague definitions in light with their own understanding. For Joan Pinkham(2000:1), the author of The Translator’s Guide To Chinglish, “Chinglish, is misshapen, hybrid language that is neither English nor Chinese but might be described as ‘English with Chinese characteristics.’” From Wikipedia, “Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language. The term ‘Chinglish’ is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations.” Li Wenzhong (1993:18) considered Chinglish as abnormal, deformed English that is used by Chinese English learners when they are influenced by Chinese language rules. Deng Yanchang (1989) proposed the definition as “Chinglish is speech or writing English that shows the interference of influence of Chinglish of influence of Chinese. Some sentences may be little or more than word for word translation of Chinglish expression. Chinglish may be grammatically correct, but the choice of words or phrases and the manner of expression do not conform to Standard English usage. Although understanding may not be a problem, Chinglish is unacceptable.” Nevertheless, none of the above quotations are definitely indispensable of Chinese way of thinking in Chinglish. In what follows is a definition presented by the writer of this thesis with respect to the main cause of Chinglish:#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Chinglish is a failure of translation, shaped by the way of thinking, unacceptable either because of ungrammatical errors in lexicon and syntax or because of unidiomatic or cultural disagreement.

 

2.2 The attitudes towards Chinglish

 

Chinglish isn’t acceptable in primary and secondary schools. The English teachers always emphasize Standard English that is used by the people in English-speaking countries, especially British and American English. The attitude towards Chinglish of Chinese students is largely influenced by their teachers, i.e. they generally hold a negative attitude, and think that “Standard English” ought to be used by English language users all over the world, which should be their final pursuit in English study.

 

While, in colleges and universities, because CET4, CET6 and CET-SET still regard “Standard English” as their core content. Therefore, on the whole Chinglish is excluded in primary schools and secondary schools. However, higher education is student employment-oriented education, so it emphasizes more communicative function of English while teaching. Thus in the process of teaching, the teachers and students’ attitude towards Chinglish is more tolerant than in primary and middle schools.

 

Nonetheless, it’s an inevitable phenomenon to make Chinglish while seeing English as a tool of communication. If Chinglish can help speakers complete their communicative purpose, it is accepted by the speakers. Such condition can’t happen in test-oriented English study. In the actual communication process, it’s acceptable no matter Chinglish or Standard English as long as we can speak something clearly and understand it. On the contrary, too much emphasis on English grammar will make speaker too nervous to know how to speak English in communication. So generally speaking, people are relatively tolerant to Chinglish during communication. (王優，2007)

 

2.3 Manifestations of Chinglish

 

2.3.1 Pronunciation

 

We always feel uncomfortable when we listen to the pronunciation of students, even English majors. To sum up, the reasons can be classified into three aspects: speaking English with local accent, stress in wrong places and difficulty in pronouncing particular sounds. 

 

Like speaking Putonghua, people from different parts of China speak English with accents more or less.

 

Unlike Chinese, English has stress both in words and in sentences. Non-native speakers, who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems: they find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast; and the native speakers may find it difficult to understand them. Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or “beat”. Word stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, while Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

In English, people do not pronounce each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word, they accentuate one syllable. They pronounce one syllable very loudly and all the other syllables very quietly. While in Chinese, every character has one tone, so it is not easy to weaken it. In multi-syllable characters, stress is always over used and it is also true when Chinese students speak English.

 

Due to the physical defects or long-term habits, people in particular areas have some problems in pronunciation. Take Anhui Province for example, People in Xiuning country, always mistakenly pronounce /r/ with /l/, which causes a lot of misunderstandings. 

 

2.3.2 Words and phrases

 

A good piece of writing should be concise, without unnecessary words, paragraphs or sentences. However, Chinese students tend to write as many words as possible in compositions to reach the required length, so their works are commonly full of unnecessary words.

 

Here are two examples with mistakes, marked with “A”; suggested revisions, marked with “B”, and comments:

 

A: Many people prefer to drive their cars to work, because they think cars are quicker and more convenient.

 

B: Many people prefer to drive cars to work, because they think it is quicker and more convenient.

 

In sentence A, “Their” is unnecessary, because there’s no need to state whose cars they drive and it is impossible to drive other’s cars to work every day. “Cars” cannot be quicker than “bikes”, only when they are used by human, so “cars” should be replaced by “it”, which is standing for “driving cars”.

 

Then we look at another example:

 

A: It’s very common to meet a stranger when we are online.

 

B: It’s very common to meet a stranger online.

 

In such instance, the adverb meaning of “online” can do the same job of “when we are online”, so “online” is preferred.

 

2.3.3 Sentence order

 

Many Chinese students, especially the English beginners usually write or speak English with Chinese order. Sometimes the meaning would be just the other way around.

 

A: It is the teacher who should help pupils be aware of the fact that the use of swear words is usually considered as more inappropriate when used by foreigners.

 

B: It is the teacher who should remind pupils that it is extremely inappropriate for the foreigner to use swear words.

 

In sentence A, the order is too complex and difficult to follow. To avoid it, prepositions are usually used.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Now let’s move to next instance.

 

A: I believe it’s better to just tell them what they mean.

 

B: I believe it’s better to tell them just what they mean.

 

Sentence A follows the Chinese constituent order, but it means differently from what the writer intended to say.

 

2.3.4 Paragraph organization

 

English passages begin with a topic paragraph, which is the main idea of the whole passage; then in the following paragraphs, detailed information is used to support it. And every paragraph begins with a topic sentence, which is the main idea of the whole paragraph; then the following sentences are written to support it. Like this, readers can understand the passage by paying attention to the first paragraph and the first sentence of each paragraph. However, Chinese students’ writings usually lack these features, thus making them friable, illogical, incoherent and difficult to understand.

 

Different from Chinese, English is a highly hypotactic language, where connectives are essential in building a well organized paragraph. Adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions are commonly used to connect different elements in English. Although Chinese students try to use connections to build long sentences, they still cannot handle it flexibly. The simple sentences connected by “and” are frequently used by Chinese students.

 

3. Reasons for Chinglish

 

From above information, we have known something about Chinglish, and then someone will feel confused why so many English learners make mistakes of Chinglish. Could we avoid such problems? In the following paragraphs, we talk about the causes of it and try to find several possible solutions.

 

3.1 The internal causes of Chinglish

 

3.1.1 Lack of basic skill of language

 

In daily life, it’s easier to make Chinglish for students who are lack of basic language. Due to laziness, they don’t remember vocabulary, grammar, English expressions and idioms. What’s worse, they won’t open their mouths to read aloud and unwell to read English articles. So it’s hard for them to have an instinctive feeling for English and the mode of English thinking. Some students only remember pronunciation and spelling when they remember vocabulary. They don't know the Chinese meaning, and they don’t know what words should be selected and fell quite helpless when they write. So they only can write carelessly or foolishly. Take a typical example. Facing the Chinese phrase “人山人海”，some students don’t know how to translate it and some simply directly expressed as “people mountain people sea”.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

3.1.2 Unfamiliarity with western communication strategies

 

When we communicate with westerners, we need to note some western communicative principles, especially Politeness Principles, which explains to us why people do not always talk directly but imply their meanings, and teaches us how to talk politely. 

 

Facing daily topics, some English learners may feel embarrassed just because of lacking western communication strategies. Let’s take some examples. We Chinese often greet each other with “Where are you going?” and “Have you eaten?” etc. However, in the English-speaking countries, being asked such questions, one would be quite surprised. He would think you do have special purposes by asking so.

 

There are many ways of greeting, such as “How old are you?” “What religion are you?” “Have you married?” “How many children do you have?” “What does your husband do?” and “How much do you earn per month?” etc. are common in China, which are considered privacy by the English-speaking countries. They would often greet each other by “Hi” “How are you?” or talking about the weather, especially the English people.

 

3.1.3 Age constraints

 

Generally speaking, the children acquire second languages more easily than adults because they are less threatened by the sounds of the new language and because they are willing to depend on others for support in learning. But when the adult attempts to communicate in the new language his normal linguistic securities are undermined, and he finds himself in a dependent state which he may resist.

 

From the observed correlations between affective variable and second language acquisition for adult acquirers, as well as the impressions cited above, we could conclude that language learning difficulties after puberty may be related to social and psychological changes and individual undergoes at that age. 

 

Furthermore, there is a great anxiety among students. They are afraid of failure in second language acquisition; they are afraid of being laughed at and losing face; they are afraid of speaking loudly in classroom. All these will construct affective filter in second language acquisition of them.

 

3.2 The external causes of Chinglish

 

3.2.1 Effects from classroom teaching

 

As we talk about the negative effects of making Chinglish from classroom, textbooks and exercises come first. Most of our English textbooks and the exercises following the texts are written by Chinese, which over-emphasize sentence patterns and grammar, and ignore the language application in specific environment. And the exercises following the texts are made up according to China’s situations. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Besides, teachers’ quality couldn’t be ignored. Teacher, the leading role of education, should have intensive and professional capabilities; however it is not the truth. Under the influence of Chinese thinking pattern, thousands of expectant teachers graduate from universities and colleges in China, only memorizing new words for four years in college, whose teaching quality is worrisome. And they often adopt the mode of “grammar-sentence-explaining the text-practice after class”, which is around one center, that’s how to use the right words to form appropriate sentences. Such teaching method makes grammar and vocabulary be relatively apart. Then there often appear some mismatched phrases in students’ composition, for instance, serve for the society(為社會服務), survive from the earthquake(從地震中幸存), listen the radio(聽收音機). 

 

Furthermore, learning tools bring some bad influence. When facing new words or strange idioms, some students will turn to some learning tools, especially dictionaries. However, many dictionaries are lack of comparison between English and Chinese synonymous, leading many English learners understanding cultural background of vocabulary less, and then Chinglish appears. Besides, some people prefer electronic dictionary. But it’s easy to produce Chinglish when using it as translating tools. Moreover, some people use of on-line dictionaries such as Kingsoft, Youdao, Google and Lingoes, which do a not bad job in translating words and phrases, but act poorly in paragraphs and passages.

 

3.2.2 The absence of language environment

 

Although the college graduates learn English at middle school age and pay much attention to it, they still cannot grasp the grammar or speak frequently ten years later. The reason is they don’t use it in their lives. Seldom do they speak English after class, or have chance communicating with foreigners. And they even rarely read English books and magazines or watch movies and TV shows with English subtitles. Although sometimes they have such chances, they don’t catch them, because they are afraid of making mistakes, fearing being laughed at and losing face, which lead to one result. That is they dare not speak loudly or talk with foreigners.

 

So the only way for a Chinese to learn English well is to go abroad for a couple of years. The overwhelming Chinese language environment cannot produce good English learners.

 

3.2.3 The negative transfer on cultural dimension

 

Transfer is a common strategy used by foreigners who learn the target language with language structures and idioms of mother tongue. Transfer could be divided into some classes: positive transfer and negative transfer, language and cultural transfer and so on. （時真妹，2005：26）The so-called cultural transfer refers to the negative transfer due to cultural differences and cultural interferences. It is shown that in cross-cultural communication or foreign language learning, people value their own or others’ words, thoughts subconsciously with native language differing from purpose language.（張全，2002:151）#p#分頁標題#e#

 

To understand cultural negative transfer better, we’d comprehend the differences between Chinese and western culture firstly, which is mainly embodied in three aspects: social customs, cultural connotative meaning of words, value system. As for social customs, such as greetings, acknowledgments, wishes, apology, taboo and faith and so on are diverse in different countries and nations. “Dragon”, for instance, shows different meanings in China and westerner countries. Cultural connotation of words refers to the changes of connotation, emotional meaning, style meaning, metaphorical meaning and so on. Let’s take an example. “紅眼病” should be translated into “green eyed” rather than “red eyed”. Lastly comes to value system. Chinese culture sees collectivism as base of the nation, paying attention to the collective orientation, while the western culture takes individualism as the pillar, pursuing personal orientation. So in Chinese people’s eyes, “individualism” is a derogatory word, but a commendatory word in the west.（黃祥艷，2009:177）

 

Just because of such cultural differences between Chinese and English nations, lots of English learners are often affected by native culture while studying English.

 

3.2.4 The negative transfer on linguistic dimension

 

There are about 3,000 languages in the world, which could be grouped into roughly 300 languages families on the basis of similarities in their basic word stock and grammar. English belongs to Indo-European family, while Chinese is the main branch of Sino-Tibetan language family. They are completely different families. Therefore, Chinese English learners, especially English beginners, are often influenced by Chinese, from pronunciation, words to sentences. Differences between English and Chinese languages are chiefly shown in several sides. Firstly, complexity vs briefness. Chinese pursues literary talent, using lots of descriptive words while English concise description. Secondly, abstract vs concrete. Nouns, especially abstract nouns, are widely used in Chinese, while simple but dynamic verbs are popular in English. Thirdly, hypotaxis vs parataxis. English lays emphasis on hypotaxis while Chinese lays emphasis on parataxis. For example, there are a large number of relatives in English to show the relationship between sentences and sentences while in Chinese there are few. There are a lot of subordinative compounds such as attributive clauses, participle phrases, prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases and so on to manifest the relation between main clauses and subordinate clauses, while there are numerous parallel structures in Chinese. (駱賢鳳、聶達,2002)

 

4. Possible solutions to Chinglish

 

4.1 Strengthening language basic skills

 #p#分頁標題#e#

No doubt, mastery of the basic language is necessary. We should grasp vocabulary and grammar rules, and learn the skills of reading, speaking, writing, listening, and translating or interpreting in English.

 

Reading can enrich the students’ expressing methods and broaden their ideas. Extensive reading should be taken as a priority in the learning process, because it is through reading that we get the most language input and get ready to write out Standard English. Speaking not only improves the ability of language organization, but also encourages English beginners to pronounce better and get ready for English talks with native speakers. Writing should start with English way of thinking, which means English beginners should write English directly, without a little bit of translation from Chinese. Only in this way, can the author recall English words and phrases from his memory and skips over the word-for-word translations. The sentences may not be beautiful or complex, but they are not affected by the Chinese sentence structures. To form a habit, more time-writing practice is required and it would be better if the content goes with the everyday readings. Listening can not be overlooked, either. English learners could listen to the English tape once and follow it once, and then repeat such practice. Besides, we should try to listen to materials of authentic English rather than “translating one” with “Chinese brand”. Therefore, we can be in the environment of English culture and as well cultivate “English thinking” habit subtly. What’s more, translating or interpreting in English is a quite good method. By doing the exercises of translating English to Chinese or vice versa, gradually, from the differences between our translations and standard answers, we can learn by heart and grasp authentic English and say or write it accurately and naturally, we can improve our ability of using English flexibly, and we can increase our English language sense.

 

4.2 Fostering the way of thinking in English

 

As we know Chinese pay attention to imaginal thinking while European and American lay stress on logical thinking. In order to develop the habit of thinking in English gradually, English study should be placed in specific “situation” in which we learn linguistics, pronunciation, intonation and grammar, rather than garbling a statement. Let’s take an example. Chinese“好”has various meanings in different situations：

 

Put on your coat before going out. (外出前，穿好外衣。)

 

Tom is a yes-person. (湯姆是個好好先生。) 

 

If the matter isn’t dealt with properly, you’ll get in to trouble. (如果這樁事沒有很好處理，你會陷入困境。)

 

Oh, some one is injured. (不好，有人受傷了。)#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Only in this way will we be conscious of the root of the substandard language and the methods to avoid it, and then enhance the consciousness of using standard language.

 

4.3 Improving English teachers’ professional qualities

 

As teachers, they should strive for having a good mastery of language, and master idiomatic English. Besides, they have the responsibility to urge students to study hard and correct students’ Chinglish in the learning process timely. And above all, teachers need improve teaching methods. They should explain cultural background knowledge of the words and expressions, connecting grammar and vocabulary while teaching, guide the students to read western literary works extensively, offer courses on Anglo-American Overview, American-English culture, western philosophy, literature of the Bible, Greek mythology and so on, use the modern media to play classic films on culture, history, politics, economy, religious beliefs and moral concepts, etc.

 

In addition, teachers have the responsibility to create more communicative environment with school. In class, teachers should spend some time on situational dialogues, and encourage students to speak English. Besides, the schools need conduct many kinds of English activities, such as English Corner, contests on English speech, English songs, English stories, textbook plays and poetry reading and so on, and then the students should actively involve them. Of course, most important of all is that English learners should catch any opportunity to practice English, and they’d better seek some chances to talk with English-speaking foreigners, such as our foreign teachers or international students.

 

4.4 Cultivating bicultural competence

 

We’d understand western culture and customs, especially the differences of Chinese and western languages and their different expressions. On one hand, we English learners need to know the distinctions between Chinese and western culture, strengthen comparative study of Chinese and western culture in case of the influence from cultural differences. On the other hand, we should be familiar with our own traditional culture. Only knowing both our opponents and ourselves well could we not break the scholars’ demeanor of time-honored civilization. At the same time, we can show Chinese people’s deep cultural attainments and independent cultural personality, as well as open minds and great intelligence in dealing with the conflict between Chinese and western culture.As one of the most outstanding and important African American women writers, Toni Morrison is the first black woman writer who has won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.

 

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain Ohio on February 1931. In order to escape from the fetter of racism in the south and find better opportunities in the north, her parents moved to Ohio. Her father was a master of black folklore and ghost stories, and her mother was a singer in the choir. Both of them were proud of their own culture and image. Morrison heard many black folklore and songs throughout her childhood, which has a deep influence on her, making her believe that the black should have the same social status and achieve the same treatments as well as the white. After graduating from Howard University in 1953, she went to south and received her Master Degree of Arts from Cronell University in 1955. In 1957, she returned to Haward University to teach English. After giving birth to her second son, she moved to New York and began to her writing career. As a senior editor at Random House, she mainly writes novels about the black, especially black woman’s life.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

4.5 Adapting good ways in using learning tools

 

A good use of dictionary is essential to learn a foreign language well. Many English beginners keep a small English dictionary to look up new words to enlarge vocabulary, but a small dictionary seldom provide model sentences and detailed information. Not knowing how to use a new word, students will adopt Chinese thinking patterns, and then produce nonstandard English easily. When looking up new words in a dictionary, English learners should not only know the corresponding Chinese meaning, but also the usage limits, emotional attachments, lexical and grammatical collocations. Only in this way can one expand his vocabulary and learn English well. In addition, English learners shouldn’t depend on electronic dictionary and on-line translators.

 

5. Conclusion

 

This paper has reviewed the concept and naissance of Chinglish, and then presented the Chinglish features in four aspects. Based on the detailed analysis of these features, it concludes the causes of Chinglish and suggests some possible solutions. The causes of Chinglish can be summarized into two big aspects: the internal aspect and external aspect. Among all the factors that cause Chinglish, many of them can be handled and some must be improved for better acquisition of English. Better teaching methods should be given more attention. The traditional approach in English teaching in China puts most emphasis on the mastery of grammar, which is how to speak and write expressions and sentences in English which are grammatically correct, regardless of different cultural backgrounds. Consequently, a large number of English learners in China, who have possessed a proficient knowledge of language skills, often make Chinglish in cross-cultural communication. So, not only language skills but also the knowledge of culture should be emphasized in foreign language acquisition.

 

This paper, however, is just a tentative study of the causes of Chinglish and its solutions, so there are some limitations and unsolved problems. Further studies in this aspect will be put more and greater efforts later, because it is of great importance and benefit to English beginners.

 

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