A Tentative Study of the Causes of Chinglish and its Solutions.doc

a tentative study of the causes of chinglish and its solutions摘要当代中国，越来越多的人投入到学英语的热潮中来。然而由于受到中国文化和汉语思维方式的双重影响，中国人在英语学习过程中创造出了大量的汉式英语。虽然已有大量关于汉式英语的研究，但是仍然存在着对汉式英语定义不清和成因分析不明等问题。本文提供了大量汉式英语实例来呈现汉式英语的特点，并在理论和社会实际两方面阐明汉式英语产生的原因。在文章的结尾，作者提供了几点关于纠正汉式英语的建议来帮助英语学习者摆脱汉式英语的困扰。 关键词：汉式英语；汉语思维方式；英语初学者；成因；解决方案abstractmore and more people are learning english in china; however, under the influence of chinese culture and thinking patterns, chinese people produce a large amount of chinglish. though much research has been done in this field, the definition and causes of it are still not clear. this paper offers examples of chinglish to give a clear description of the features of chinglish and analyzes the causes of chinglish from both academic and practical aspect. finally, effective methods are proposed to help the english beginners get rid of the obstacles of chinglish.key words: chinglish, chinese way of thinking, english beginners, causes, solutionscontents0. introduction11. naissance and features of chinglish11.1 naissance of chinglish11.2 features of chinglish1 1.2.1 chinglish in pronunciation1 1.2.2 chinglish in words and phrases3 1.2.3 chinglish in sentence orders6 1.2.4 chinglish in paragraph organization72. causes of chinglish72.1 the subjective aspects7 2.1.1 the influence from chinese way of thinking8 2.1.2 the limitations of english learning levels8 2.1.3 the confusion between chinglish and china english8 2.1.4 the creation of chinglish for amusement102.2 the objective aspects11 2.2.1 the big difference between chinese and western society11 2.2.2 the language environment of china13 2.2.3 the education system13 2.2.4 the improper use of on-line translators133. suggested solutions133.1 watch more english movies and tv drama programs143.2 adapt good ways in using dictionaries143.3 do more reading, speaking and writing practice143.4 learn more about western culture154. conclusion15works cited17170. introductionlearning a foreign language, by no means would be affected by native culture and way of thinking. it would be worse for the chinese students, because chinese society and western society are extremely different from each other. chinglish is perhaps the biggest problem for the chinese students in learning english. the study of the causes of chinglish and its solutions will contribute to the study of second language acquisition and help the english beginners get rid of chinglish. with a better understanding of chinglish features and its causes, english beginners will adjust their learning methods and adapt themselves to better ways of learning it. what is chinglish? what are the features of chinglish? what makes chinglish come into being? what can we do about chinglish? these are the questions we will discuss in this paper.1. naissance and features of chinglish1.1 naissance of chinglishunlike american english, one of the english varieties, chinese has been used by chinese people for about five thousand years. it has formed its own structural and grammatical system and influenced its users by chinese way of thinking deeply. following the worldwide intercommunion, millions of chinese start to learn english since in middle school. now, primary school students have english classes too. however, our deep rooted way of thinking is a stubborn block on the way of learning a foreign language, which is extremely true in learning english, whose cultural background greatly differs from chinese. as a result, a kind of english with chinese thinking patterns and english forms comes into being.1.2 features of chinglishif we listen to chinese students speaking english or observe their attempt to write english, we would soon notice that errors of pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary are likely to occur.a relatively large percentage of errors are directly related to the learners mother tongue.1.2.1 chinglish in pronunciationwe 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.local accents play an important part not only when chinese people speak putonghua, but also when they speak english. according to the characteristics and the survey results of chinese dialects, modern chinese can be divided into seven major dialects: northern dialect, wu dialect, hakka dialects, min dialect, cantonese, hunan dialect and gan dialect. learning to speak putonghua will contribute to better communication between different parts of the country, but local accents often get involved. 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. word stress is the magic key to understanding spoken english. native speakers of english use word stress naturally. word stress is so natural for them that they dont even know they use it. 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 accent on one syllable within a word. sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence.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 (he shanfen 65-66).due to the physical defects or long-term habits, people in particular areas have some problems in pronunciation. take shandong province for example, people in qingzhou, always mistakenly pronounce /r/ with /l/, which causes a lot of misunderstandings. “room” is pronounced to / lu:m / and “road” / ld/. / and /s/ were two consonants difficult for the people in jining. the pronunciations of chinese “4” and “10” are always the big block for communication. due to the lack of / and / in pinyin, they are like to be replaced by /s/ and /z/. so chinese students always pronounce “thank” with /sk/ and “then” /zen/.1.2.2 chinglish in words and phrasesin this part, several examples are used to give the reader a clear view of the features of chinglish. most of them presented here are taken from published materials, such as the model essays of tem4, cet4 and cet6.as joan pinkham pointed out in her work, the translators guide to chinglish, “all authorities on the style of english prose agree that good writing is concise. careful writers say what they mean in as few words as possible” (1). a classic statement of this percept goes like this: “vigorous writing is concise: a sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts” (strunk and white 23). 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.among all the unnecessary words, unnecessary nouns are the commonest. here are a few examples (“a”), suggested revisions (“b”) and comments in parenthesis: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.(“their” is unnecessary, because theres no need to state whose cars they drive and it is impossible to drive others 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”.)a: i believe, with quick, safe and easy access to their destinations, many people may turn to public transport and give up the idea of using their own cars.b: i believe, with quick, safe and easy access to their destinations, many people will give up driving private cars.(“turn to public transport” and “give up the idea of using their own cars” are two aspects of one thing, so “may turn to public transport” can be removed. “give up driving private cars” is the reflection of “the idea”, which can be eliminated. “driving private cars” is apparently better than “using their own cars”.)a: its very common to meet a stranger when we are online.b: its very common to meet a stranger online.(the adverb meaning of “online” can do the same job of “when we are online”, so “online” is preferred.)a: true friendship should be able to stand all kinds of tests.b: true friendship should stand all kinds of tests. (“be able to” is usually favored by chinese students to replace “can”, in order to lengthen the paragraph. such phrases are “first of all”, “a large number of”, “there is no denying that” and “the last but not the least”.)a: i strongly believe that this is not the sort of knowledge students need to learn in the classroom.b: i strongly believe that this is not what students need to learn at school. (the objective clause led by “what” is more concise than the attributive clause, with a long antecedent. “in the classroom” does not the meaning of “in class”.)a: students need to know and understand these phrases and expressions but never use them.b: students need to know these phrases and expressions but never use them.(“know” means to have understanding of something, so “understand” is redundant here.)a: instead of isolating us from one another, it serves to shorten or eliminate the distance between us and brings friends closer.b: instead of isolating us, it eliminates the distance between us and brings friends closer.(although “isolate from one another” is a fixed collection, without “from one another”, the meaning is still completed. “serves to shorten or” is redundant, “eliminate” can do the job alone.) five more examples and suggested revisions:a: it is widely believed that competition and cooperation are in opposition to each other.b: it is widely believed that competition is oppose to cooperation.a: in many cases, people need to cooperate with each other to overcome difficulties.b: in many cases, people need cooperation to overcome difficulties.a: the pressure of competition can force people to try their best and give people a sense of the pursuit of excellence.b: the pressure of competition can force people to try their best and to pursue excellence.a: having a respect for other cultures is an effective way to promote international communication.b: respecting other cultures promote international communication effectively.chinese students are inclined to repeat words in english writing, while some repetitions maybe redundant to some extent. the repetition can be classified into three levels: repeating same word, repeating different words of same meaning and repeating same meaning. here are three examples for these three conditions: a: if students feel curious about it, the teacher should provide some information and help students understand it. b: if students feel curious about it, the teacher should provide some information to help them. (pronouns should be used to replace the noun occurred for the second time. the teacher helps the students understand what they feel curious about, so theres no need to say “understand it”)a: the private motor vehicle has given people a freedom to travel freely, swiftly and comfortably in the world.b: the private motor vehicle has enabled people to travel freely, swiftly and comfortably.(the meaning “free” is stated twice, so one must be removed. “in the world” is understood.) a: a non-native teacher usually knows better how to deal with their students learning problems and thus can provide useful suggestions in learning. b: non-native teachers usually know better in dealing with their students learning problems. (“dealing with students learning problems” contains “providing useful suggestions in learning”, so the latter can be left out.) many english beginners have a limited vocabulary; they usually express different meanings with the word they have learnt in all circumstances. when a chinese primary student learns the word “look” and connects its meaning to the chinese character “看”, he will put “look” into all kinds of visual actions, such as “look doctor”(see a doctor), “look movie”(watch a movie), “look book”(read a book) and “look door”(guard the entrance). this is just an extreme case, but it is also true in other circumstances. here are two more complex examples:a: they pollute the air and cause road congestion.b: they pollute the air and cause traffic congestion.(“road” is used to refer to an open, generally public way for the passage of vehicles, people, and animals while “traffic” means the passage of people or vehicles along routes of transportation. “traffic congestion”, “traffic jam” and “traffic problems” are mostly used.) a: in short, a harmonious dormitory life depends on the cooperation of all room members. b: in short, a happy dormitory life depends on the cooperation of all roommates. (“harmonious” is a little big for dormitory life, “happy” is much better. “roommate” means a person with whom one shares a room or rooms, while “member” refers to one that belongs to a group or an organization.)1.2.3 chinglish in sentence orders many chinese students, especially the english beginners usually write or speak english with chinese orders. 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.)a: i believe its better to just tell them what they mean.b: i believe its 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.)1.2.4 chinglish in paragraph organizationenglish 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 tried 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.2. causes of chinglishchinglish is a mixture of two different languages, based on two dissimilar societies, where people think diversely and have widely different history to trace to. the openness of chinese society, the educational system and the language environment in china also contribute to the emergency of chinglish. it is easy to see that chinglish comes into being with various reasons. they can be classified into two categories: the subjective aspect and the objective aspect.2.1 the subjective aspectsbefore chinese start learning english at school, they have been holding chinese way of thinking for about a decade. so, chinese students easily pattern chinese in their english learning process. apart from the influence of chinese way of thinking, there are some other factors that affect the english acquisition, for example the limitations of english learning levels. more detailed analysis is laid out in the following paragraphs.2.1.1 the influence from chinese way of thinkingunder the influence of its location, ideology and culture, a nations thinking pattern is built gradually. tracing the difference between chinese thinking pattern and western thinking pattern, natural environments and locations are of great importance. english antecedents lived on an island, where they suffered from the cruel and fierce environment and formed an ability to transform the world with an objective an