An Investigation into the Language Attitudes of Multinational Foreign Students in China toward National Varieties of English under ELF Settings

doi:10.12002/j.bisu.126

Journal of Beijing International Studies University ›› 2018, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (3): 69-81.DOI: 10.12002/j.bisu.126

• Linguistic Studies • Previous Articles Next Articles

An Investigation into the Language Attitudes of Multinational Foreign Students in China toward National Varieties of English under ELF Settings

Yong FAN,Guanglei ZHANG,Yangyi ZHANG

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

Received:2016-12-05 Online:2018-08-31 Published:2018-06-15

ELF环境下在华各国留学生对英语国别变体的语言态度研究

范勇,张广磊,张洋溢

作者简介:范勇，南京信息工程大学语言文化学院教授，210044，研究方向：英语本土化与全球化、跨文化交际。电子邮箱：000451@nuist.edu.cn|张广磊，南京信息工程大学国际教育学院，210044，研究方向：国际汉语教育管理。|张洋溢，南京信息工程大学国际教育学院，210044，研究方向：国际汉语教育管理。
基金资助:
本文为国家社科基金一般项目“基于语料库的美国主流媒体上的‘中国英语’研究”的阶段性成果。(14BYY047)

Abstract

Abstract:

In the present study, a questionnaire investigation was carried out into the language attitudes toward different national varieties of English (including “China English”) on the part of international students from a number of countries who are now studying and living in China under ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) settings. The result of the study indicates that their language attitudes remain conservative as a whole, for example, most of them are not familiar with the concepts of “World Englishes”, “ELF(English as a Lingua Franca)”or “China English”; British English and American English are still held by an overwhelming majority of them as perfect Standard English; and most of them hold a rather low opinion of non-native varieties of English. However, there also seems to be an open and pluralistic aspect of their language attitudes, for example, more than half of the subjects believe that the ownership of the English Language belongs to both native and non-native speakers of the language all over the world, and over half of them have a consensus on the existence of China English as a new national variety of English. At last, the study reveals that the different accents of the speakers of the English language from various countries constitute the biggest obstacle to their mutual communication under ELF settings, whereas, the differences in their native cultures are not so much of a significant barrier. This reflects a certain degree of the consciousness of multiculturalism on the part of the communicators.

Keywords: national varieties of English; language attitudes; questionnaire study; international students in China; English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

摘要：

本研究调查了长期在ELF环境下学习和生活的在华各国留学生对各种英语国别变体（包括China English）的语言态度。结果表明,受访者的语言态度总体上较为保守:大多数人对World Englishes、ELF和China English等概念较为陌生,英国英语和美国英语依然被绝大多数受访者奉为完美的标准英语,多数人对非本族语英语变体评价较低。但他们的语言态度也有开放和多元的一面,如：超过一半的受访者认为英语的所有权既属于本族语者,也属于全球的非本族语者。另外,超过一半的受访者认同China English作为新英语国别变体的存在。最后,本次研究还发现,在ELF环境下交流的最大障碍是各国交流者的不同口音,而文化差异并未构成很大障碍,这也体现出交流者有一定的多元文化意识。

关键词: 英语国别变体, 语言态度, 问卷调查, 在华留学生, ELF

CLC Number:

H310.1

Yong FAN,Guanglei ZHANG,Yangyi ZHANG. An Investigation into the Language Attitudes of Multinational Foreign Students in China toward National Varieties of English under ELF Settings[J]. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 2018, 40(3): 69-81.

范勇,张广磊,张洋溢. ELF环境下在华各国留学生对英语国别变体的语言态度研究[J]. 北京第二外国语学院学报, 2018, 40(3): 69-81.

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An Investigation into the Language Attitudes of Multinational Foreign Students in China toward National Varieties of English under ELF Settings

ELF环境下在华各国留学生对英语国别变体的语言态度研究

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