English Language and Chinese Interaction - Assignment Example

Final Report- English Language and Chinese interaction Report 11/25/2010 XYZ Foreword This final report investigates the trends popularizations of English language in China. It further investigates the Chinese cultural impacts on the English language and how and why the distortions are being created. Finally this report sets out the benefits of English language for the Chinese people and shapes out the gross impacts of Chinese culture under the economic globalization trends. Policy recommendations are given in order to practically suggest how to maximize the mutual benefits for the English language and Chinese people without distortions for the Chinese culture and English language. Methodology In order to complete the report various scholarly and academic sources have been relied upon. Secondary data of the periodicals, books and articles is the main source of this report. Implications: Why English language remains dominant Under the influence of globalization, for the last one decade, English has proven to be the spoken language of 1 billion people in the world. If the same trend goes on, English language will become the language of two billion people of the world in the next decade. British Council in 2009 reported that English is the operating tool of the world businesses in the entire world. David Graddol 1997(pp134-136)reported that no profession, vocation and skill can be deemed to be complete without simmering it into the litmus test of English language Although globalization has had various impacts the world's languages. Anthony, T. 2000(pp56-58) further elaborated that English language being one of the largest and widely spoken and advanced language, has been deeply and widely impacted under the influence of globalization. English has remained the global language even before the current trends of economic globalization .But being the largest spoken language in the world; the current trends of globalization have impacted it more deeply than any other language of the world. Aitcheson, J. 2000(pp7-9.) said that, this is interesting to note that the present trends of globalization have made almost half a dozen languages of the world extinct The debate whether English as a language has been constructive or destructive for the other languages, still needs to be decided. Its interaction with the economically developing economies like Hong Kong SAR, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Philippines has brought many qualitative and linguistic changes in its usage. In this report, various the pros and cons of various possible scenarios are discussed, and finally recommendations are made regarding an appropriate language policy for China being the largest Asian region. As a matter of fact, the economic needs of the different regions of the world have necessitated the adoption and qualitative changes in the English language under the influence of globalization. Albright, D. 1988(pp43-48) reported that English as a language has not only become an engine of economic transformation but also the vehicle of cross cultural changes across the world regions. For instance the Chinese region, with unprecedented economic growth and expansion of trade into Europe, American and Australian region have given English language different shape and texture in the last two decades. Chinese not only learn English language for acquiring, preserving and promoting their trade in the English speaking countries but also mix it with their own cultural values, traits, terms, and traditions. This acculturation process has made English language a new phenomenon in their country. On the basis of this popularity of English under the guise of globalization, cultures of native English speaking countries like England, America, Canada and Australia have been likewise popularized and the cultures of non English speaking countries have been also likewise impacted. It is now commonly understood around the world that competency to understand, speak and write English language has become the foremost requisite of a proficiency in any field of life. Abbey, M. 2003 (pp65-78) said that no professional is understood to be internationally successful person without having best interpersonal skills in the English language. Therefore, modern era, globalization and English language have become synonymous to each other. The Economist 2001(p6-7) noted that millions of jobs spread around the world have the basic requirement of proficiency in the English language. This necessity has made the English language as the number one wanted medium of the world as ESL or English as a second language. There is a visible competition in learning English language as a tool of winning jobs in the international markets. The globalized power relations have made this fact more obvious that English will not only grow in popularity but will sustain its popularity at least for the next two decades in the whole world. This phenomenon will create deeper and wider impacts that will infringe on the culture and literature of English language from other big languages of the world like Chinese language. Australian Initiative on globalization of language In the wake of globalization the Australian Government took the lead in 1984 in introducing the national foreign languages policy. This was an attempt to make the people learn at least one foreign language in order to cope with the requirements of the globalization. Therefore 14 important foreign or regional languages were selected for that purpose as a priority area. These languages include, amongst others, the Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Indonesian, French, German and Spanish. The purpose of being multilingual for the Australian nationals was made part of the educational policy. Adamson, B. 2002(pp8-12) reported that this move provided an ample opportunity to the people in Australia to learn the language and culture of their choice country in addition to their own in order to run successful business with those countries. In this way, it can be said that Australia set the foot on the right path of globalization. According to UNESCO the development priorities lie in the education of different languages by the citizens of a country. Therefore, the policy formation, implementation of the policy, analysis of the policy and its assessment in Australia had afforded the opportunity to the business people in the country to tread on the right path. Why So Closer interaction of Chinese with English language In this section it is explained explain how the English language and Chinese language have mutually benefitted from each other and have undergone corresponding changes in the grammar, phonetics and other essential aspects of linguistics over a period of time. In order to describe the above dynamic change of the above said two languages, the Chinese language and its changes under the influence of globalization are explained as below. Chinese language attracted most of the people’s attention in the country just because of the reason that China has been impressively economically growing at the fastest rate in Asia and is the home of 1.7 billion people in the world. Its exports have been already over whelming the world markets. Therefore, Chinese language became the first and foremost priority for the English speaking Australians in the world. However, this is very interesting to learn that the learners of Chinese language in the English speaking countries like Australia and Chinese people learning English language stand at a crossroads, rather crisscrossed at each other. There is a fine line of learners in close interaction with each other that who not only interact but also culturally impact each other to a great extent. In the nutshell English language being the larger and greater in extent imbibes and assimilates the changes and influences into its folds. Comparatively the Chinese language can seldom imbibe and digest such cultural shocks. Present decade’s Chinese reforms have opened up the cultural and language learning policy for its people but still the process seems hitting snags and is not that smooth as is observed in the case of English language. Chinese Difficulties In the present era of languages and cultures assimilation the nations have at the same time being well conscious of their mother tongues. Examples are Koreans, Japanese and French. But the Chinese is an exception. However UNESCO, in 1999 at its 30th General Assembly meeting declared the mother tongues of the nations as their national assets and emphasized upon its security and preservation. After 1999 UNESCO conference Chinese also arose to the occasion and contemplated upon the situation. However, it was sooner realized that the defense, politics, economy, diplomacy and education needed the policy of openness and sooner the policy of openness was not only realized but implemented. It was very well realized that international space was possible for them without opening the language and cultural barriers to the other languages especially to the English language and cultures. In China it was felt that the knowledge of English language and its correct usage in the fields of trading, state owned enterprises, military and education sectors was necessary to become successful at international level. Therefore, the proficient use of English language in the sectors of science technology, education, trade foreign affairs, and research work was considered as a yardstick of success in China. This step forward paved the way for English speaking native teachers, grammar experts and university professors to join the Chinese universities, schools and colleges. This is how both the English language and Chinese language and culture interfaced each other in the mid 1990s. From then onward the English language was considered as a tool of Chinese integration with English and vice versa. Pleasant facts about English language and its popularity in the world Nonetheless, it is quite astonishing to note that three billion people in the world have already been studying English and three billion people will be speaking this language in the next decade. It can therefore be said that English language would create quite a new world for itself. Surprisingly at this moment the number of non-native English speakers is much larger than the native English speakers, this ratio is roughly 3:1. Therefore, in case of English the second language speakers outnumber the first language speakers. Only in Asia there are three hundred and fifty million people who speak English or at least officially use it. Number of Asian English users equals the total number of English speaking Americans, British and Canadian people. To an utter surprise it can be said that the Chinese children who are studying English are much greater in number than the British children. This new phenomena is not only resulting in the popularization of this language throughout the world but is also responsible for reshaping it as a language. For example, the terms like Japlish and Hinglish have come forth as a result of mixture of Japanese and English and Hindi and English respectively. Similarly, South Africans have coined their own version of English language by including their indigenous terms and words. All this restructuring and reshaping of English language is being done under the influence of globalization. However, this trend has resulted in the creation of non-standard English. There are many errors and mistakes that are being noted in the daily usage of common words. For instance, in international pilots are noted to pronounce the word three as tree in their passenger announcements in order to make a more widely comprehensible. Educational Policy Recommendations China being a linguistically and ethnically diverse country of 2 billion people, 55 minorities, 80 dialects (Agar, M. 1980) and on the road of fast economic progress needs to standardize and improve the English language as a teaching, learning and international business tool. However, this is not possible without realistically considering the challenges faced by the English language in China. The unplanned and sporadic teaching of English language and its fast but erratic learning by the business community of china has its own implications for the English language and the Chinese culture too. English language as a mainstream subject of teaching and learning in Chinese schools, colleges and universities has to be very seriously considered by the public educational policy of Chinese government. Adamson, B. and Morris, P. 1997 (pp59-68) reported that English as language has to develop and progress in the Chinese culture without threatening to the Chinese language and its own dialects. The functional, business, spoken and communication English has to be more focused in the Chinese culture so that ravages from the local may be preempted. There is a serious need of developing the curriculum based on the new Chinese English dictionary, grammar and phonetics. There are serious departures of Chinese and English languages that need to be abridges with a serious and concerted academic effort. English language cannot be left at the mercy of naive learners in China. China is a vigor partner in globalization. Its population is biggest in the world, culture is diverse and it is the richest country in resources. The developed world and China cannot afford to ignore each other. In the last two decades China has been growing economically on an unprecedented rate. This economic growth has successfully been flowing out of its borders in the world in form of exports. In order to keep the pace of export growth China has also become the biggest importer in the world. The growth of trade has necessitated for Chinese people to learn English language. Therefore, English language and China have become each other’s necessity. Keeping in view this fact, English language cannot be left at the mercy of distortions by the untrained teachers and naïve learners in China. 1. Since, there are seas of difference between the Chinese culture and the culture in which English language has originated and grown, there is a dire need of bridging this gap by the way of native English speaking trained teachers and lecturers who should learn Chinese and its culture and should be entrusted with the sole responsibility of teaching English alphabets, phonetics, grammar and forms of English language in its true nature and spirit. http://www.esperanto.org.nz/chinglish.html already recommended that a select group of Chinese scholars should be given an opportunity to learn and imbibe the English language and culture in the countries of English origin like Canada, Australia, England and America . At this moment there are disjointed and sporadic efforts hinting on the efforts enumerated as above but, there is a need to put all these efforts together in the educational policies of China. It is concluded that English and Chinese people have to go hand in hands together at least in the near future. So, no more time should be afforded for the Chinese people, culture and language to impact negatively on the Standard English language rather this trend needs to be averted into a positive gain for the English language in China. Results discussion On the basis of above analysis it can be said that while English language is being popularized all over the world, its true structure and texture is also endangered. Globalization of English as a language has put it into a dangerous situation. The predominance of this language has also endangered the existence of many small languages and its global existence has important consequences for the other languages. Generally, people in the world see it as a destructive pluralistic language. Particularly in China being a part of its reform and modernization policy English language is very important for this ethnically and linguistically diverse country where already eight languages are being spoken by fifty-five minority nationalities. Mr Ji Shaobinin in may 2002 reported through his newsletter vide http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/May2002/art992002.htm that English being the target language for the native Chinese people there are a set of challenges which are uniquely confronted by English language in China. Being the second language it is full of technicalities by permitting new words, adopting new grammar systems and strange pronunciations. The most important of this difficulty for English language while interacting with Chinese language is that of phonetics. Since, English is not a tonal language as the Chinese which is founded on sounds and distinct symbols, therefore, the phoneme meanings of Chinese entirely change in the English language. It is commonly understood that Chinese use four tones that are itched against each other and there is a fifth tone that remains quite neutral. Therefore, the Chinese phonetics plays a strange and difficult challenge with the English language. As far as grammar is concerned it is known that English as a language is governed by verbs and auxiliaries. The progressive and perfect tenses are taken for granted as ideas by the native speakers. On the other hand Chinese don not carry the concept of verbs and their forms. Therefore, a grave conflict arises between the two languages and the resultant English learnt and used by the Chinese is an admixture of their own linguistic culture. Ahmed, A.S. and Shore, C.N. 1995(pp99-103) concluded that, there is no usage of articles in the Chinese language where as in English language are typically and stylistically significant for understanding the formation and structure of a sentence in English. Therefore, before developing a full competency in English language the Chinese speakers would have done a lot of havoc with the original English language (www.englishfirst.com/). There is a basic difference of alphabetic usage in the Chinese language on the basis of logography. It means that instead of alphabets there is a system of symbols representing the words which actually run into 47,000. On the other hand English language uses only 26 letters. Therefore, the Chinese language struggles very hard with reconciling letters in the English language with the characters and symbols in the native Chinese language (http://www.elic.org). In order to remove the above difficulties a proper educator, who should thoroughly understand the complex challenges between Chinese and English language has to wriggle out the above difficulties. There is a genuine need that a Chinese English Research Foundation should immediately start working for the mutual benefit of Chinese natives and English language. Sources 2. Abbey, M. 2003. Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages. NY USA 3. Adamson, B. 2002. “Barbarian as a Foreign Language: English in China’s Schools”. World English’s. Vol. 21. No. 2. Pp. 231-243. 4. Adamson, B. and Morris, P. 1997. “The English Curriculum in the People’s Republic of China”. Comparative Education Review. Vol. 41. No. 1. Pp. 3-24. 5. Agar, M. 1980. Introduction to Ethnography. New York: Academic Press. 6. Ahmed, A.S. and Shore, C.N. 1995. “Introduction: Is Anthropology Relevant to the Contemporary World?” In Ahmed, A.S. and Shore, C.N. London: Kathleen Press. 7. Aitcheson, J. 2000. Origination of language. . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 8. Albright, D. 1988. Observation in the Language Classroom. London and New York: Longman. 9. Anthony, T. 2000. “English: 1 Tongue for the New Global Village”. Associated Press Website. http://wire.ap.org/Appackages/english/english1.html 10. David Graddol (1997). The Future of English. The British Council. 11. The triumph of English. The Economist (20 December 2001. 12. http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_G_James 13. http://www.englishfirst.com/trt/teaching-english-in-china.html 14. http://www.elic.org/ 15. http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/May2002/art992002.htm 16. http://www.esperanto.org.nz/chinglish.html Read More