6中式英语对英语写作影响及对策

An Analysis on Chinese Students’ Chinglish in English

Writing and Its Solutions

Yuanming DENG

Department of Foreign Languages, Hechi University Yizhou City, China

Abstract: English writing can objectively reflect students’ ability of thinking, organizing and expressing. Chinese students always think in Chinese way and use English words to express their ideas in Chinese prac-tice. Students may adopt word– for – word translation strategy while writing. We all know two typical jokes about Chinglish: “Good good study, day day up” and “You ask me, me ask who?” Such sentences are very ri-diculous and they can’t be understood by foreigners, which reflect a serious problem exiting among Chinese students. This phenomenon is called Chinglish – Chinese English, an obstacle of improvement of students’ writing ability. Chinglish is mainly caused by the strong interference of the mother tongue – Chinese.

Typical errors are employed in the article to illustrate the causes and remedies of Chinglish in students’ writ-ing, including the following aspects– vocabulary, sentence structure and textual structure. Based on the analy-sis, the paper will offer some practical solutions for conducting English writing courses, then the most essen-tial way to reduce Chinglish are to build students’ awareness of the distinction between English and Chinese, to increase the exposure to the authentic English and practice writing more often in order to adjust students’ Chinese thinking mode to that of English, with the aim of helping students avoid Chinglish so as to improve their writing ability.

Keywords: Typical errors; Chinglish; English writing; causes; solutions

1 Introduction English writing, as an important skill in English learn-ing, can objectively reflect students’ ability of thinking,

organizing and expressing. English writing involves various elements such as vocabulary, grammar, organiza-tion, thought and so on, so it is a complicated process and

a difficult task for Chinese students. They can’t write pure sentences even if they have learned a large vocabu-lary and have studied a lot about grammar. Students think in Chinese way and put what is in their minds into English and use English words to express their ideas in Chinese practice. We all know two typical jokes about Chinglish: “Good good study, day day up.” and “You ask me, me ask who?” Such mistakes are very ridiculous and they can’t be understood by foreigners, which reflect a serious problem exiting among Chinese students. This phenomenon is called Chinglish – an obstacle of im-provement of students’ writing ability. Chinglish is mainly caused by the strong interference of the mother tongue – Chinese. In the traditional teaching of English writing in China, teachers usually focus only on grammar and vocabulary while ignore teaching English as a whole. However, language is a mirror. It reflects its culture. It is also influenced and shaped by its culture. Meanwhile, people’s modes of thinking affect their modes of expres-sion. Therefore, teachers should pay more attention to input the knowledge of culture and thought in class. This paper tries to find out the main causes by analyz-ing the typical errors collected from students’ writing in the following aspects: vocabulary, sentence structure and

writing style, and put forward some practical solutions to

avoid Chinglish and improve students’ writing ability. 2 Chinglish and English Writing

2.1 Definition of Chinglish “I very like music.” “Know is know, no know is no know.”

“My heart flower angry open.” “Last night the square is people mountain people sea.” Maybe only Chinese people can understand them be-cause these sentences are “Chinglish” – Chinese English. It was created by Chinese people who misunderstand the use of English because of the interference of their mother tongue – Chinese. Actually, there is no such a word as “Chinglish” in a lot of published dictionaries. To more authoritative, some authorities’ definitions are as follows.

According to Mrs. Joan Pinkham, an experienced Ameri-can translator and expert in the field, defines Chinglish in this way: Chinglish, of course, is that misshapen, hybrid language that is neither English nor Chinglish but that might be described as English with Chinese characteris-tics.” While Professor Hu Zhuanglin describes “Chinglish” as “Speech or writing in English that shows the interference of Chinese. Some sentences may be little

or more than word - for -word translation of Chinese expression. Chinglish might be grammatically correct, but the choice of words or phrases and expressions does

not conform to the standard English. Although under-

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standing might not be the problem, Chinglish is unac-ceptable.” So we can see clearly that Chinglish is poor or broken English spoken by native Chinese speakers, which is usually found in written form.

2.2 Relationship between Chinglish and English writing

Many people hold the opinion that Chinglish is not de-cent language. And it is unacceptable. But others believe that Chinglish is somehow bearable to our students con-sidering the reality in our English learning environment. They treat Chinglish as a joke. This viewpoint is wrong. Learning English aims to communicate with foreigners efficiently. English writing is just an important means. However, Chinese students are so familiar with their study habit in Chinese practice that they often put it into practice in English which may cause misunderstanding. So their mother tongue builds an obstacle for Chinese students to improve their writing ability although Chinglish reflects our nation culture to a certain degree. Students easily tend to make some errors in writing, so it is essential for teachers to analyze their errors and find out the main causes.

3 Classification and Analysis on Errors in Chinglish in Students’ Writing

Among Chinese students, Chinglish appears frequent not only in word but also in grammar. According to the data from questionnaire, 82 percent of the students admit Chinglish is the direct victim of Chinese interference. So this paper analyzes some typical samples from students’ writing in the following aspects: vocabulary, sentence structure and writing style.

3.1 Vocabulary

3.1.1 Unnecessary Words

Professor W. struck made a classic statement of this precept. He said, “Vigorous writing is concise. A sen-tence 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.” I t follows that any words which perform no useful function in the sentence, that is ,which add nothing to the meaning should be edited out because these superfluous words waste the readers’ time, obscure the writer’s meaning and make the passage seem heavy. Take the example of “a desk”, students would say redun-dantly “a book desk” or “a writing desk”. Here are the typical samples collected from students’ writing.

Sample 1

False: Thank you for your help and assistant. True: Thank you for your help .

One of the distinguishing characteristic of Chinglish is the constant use of two words so close in meaning that one word would do. Other examples are ideas and opin-ions , personally speaking and I think , therefore and so , etc. This sort of duplication is obviously acceptable in Chinese. It may even be necessary to avoid ambiguity, to reinforce meaning or to satisfy the ear, but the presence of two words in Chinese is never a sufficient justification in English.

Sample 2

False: It is an unfortunate tragedy . True: It is a tragedy .

A tragedy must be unfortunate. Can there be fortunate tragedy? The sense of “unfortunate” is already implied in the word it modifies. The error is due to the Chinese ex-pression-“不幸的悲剧”, including the modifier unfortu-nate in English version adds nothing but useless duplica-tion.

Sample 3

False: My partner gave a lot of reasons for being late to Mrs. Lin, our head teacher, but the reasons he gave didn’t convince her.

True: My partner gave a lot of reasons for being late to Mrs. Lin, our head teacher, but none of them was con-vincing.

Unnecessary repetition also causes Chinglish. The repetition sentences are obviously reflecting the negative influence of the native language. Chinese students should learn that English is strictly compact in its structure: Eng-lish verbs and nouns elderly repeat themselves in the same sentence. That’s why conjunctions, pronouns and other substitution or introductory words are more fre-quently used in English than in Chinese. Some examples: False: Please hurry to walk or we’ll be late. True: Please hurry up or we’ll be late.

False: Alice went to the shop to buy things for me yes-terday.

True: Alice went shopping for me yesterday. 3.1.2 Wrong Collocations

As we know, collocation refers to the way in which words are used together regularly. Students may adopt the literal- translation strategy to deal with their language deficiency in collocations. The following samples will prove this.

Sample4

False: Peter is going to sing songs at the party. True: Peter is going to sing at the party.

In fact, the verb “sing” is concise and clear enough for that meaning. In Chinese verb-object constructions such as “吃饭”，“付钱”，the objects are often mentioned, but in English omitted. However, Chinese students don’t realize this; they often produce awkward-sound sen-tences, such as the follows:

False: Let’s go and eat rice after class. True: Let’ go and eat after class.

Sample 5

False: His age is very young. True: He is very young.

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The first sentence is an exact translation of the Chinese “他很年轻.”, but in English, people simply say he is very young. Adding the word “age” makes the sentence queer. So we can see that people’s modes of thinking influence their modes of expression. Chinese people are better at thinking in images, while foreigners are good at abstractly thinking, so the ways in which they made sen-tences are different. Chinese students prefer using some specific and subjective words to express their ideas and while the natives use some abstract words.

Sample 6

False: By reading paper, we learn much knowledge . True: By reading paper, we acquire much knowledge . The first sentence do not conform to the English rules because in English, the word “knowledge “is regularly collocated with “get, obtain .acquire, develop, enlarge, gain”, instead of “receive, study, learn and know”.

In English, certain words are conventionally collocated with other words and the collocation can not be changed freely. Chinese students who are not familiar with the collocations may make mistakes if they translate some Chinese phrases directly into English in their composi-tions. So the students need to memorize some colloca-tions, which is a good way to avoid Chinglish in writing. e.g.

False: We played very happily yesterday. True: We had a good time yesterday.

Sample 7

In English-speaking countries, the hare is the image of timidness, while the mouse condemned by the Chinese people is the image of quickness. So we should translate it into as quickly as a mouse. In Chinese we say 胆小如鼠，but we can’t literally translate it into English as timid as a mouse, since the mouse is considered as a smart and nimble animal according to which the cartoon Mickey Mouse is made .We can translate it into as timid as a hare .

Idioms, quintessence of the culture, are fixed phrase and expressions which are used by people through work-ing and social practices. Some English and Chinese idi-oms look very alike, but they are quite different in fact, owing to the differences in history, geography, living customs and religious belief. Many people want to create vividness by using idioms in their writings. However, many of them cannot make an appropriate use of them. Those idioms are from Bible , literature woks and so on. Each of them has its history cultural background. If the student doesn’t know this, he or she will be easy to make mistakes.

Moreover, these errors may sound funny to native speakers of English due to the misuse of words. Keeping a good dictionary in hand while writing seems to be a good remedy for the above mentioned Chinglish, because dictionaries can provide Chinese students a very useful means of becoming effective and idiomatic in their writ-ing.

3.2 Syntactic Incompetence

Syntax is the study of how sentences are structured, which tries to state which words can be combined with others to form sentences and in what order. Chinese dif-fers with English in sentence structure. However, stu-dents often make false sentences according to the Chi-nese rules. Compare the following pairs of sentences.

Sample 8

G. Leech and J. Sartvik claim, “Formal written lan-guage often going with an impersonal language are pas-sive, sentences with introductory it, and abstract nouns.” Subjects are often impersonal in English while personal in Chinese. The errors here are caused by Chinese inter-ference. The students tend to transfer the mother tongue directly to English according to their habits while writing.

3.3 Textual Structure

Texts like landscapes are open to interpretation. Ob-servers see them through different eyes, from different cultures. When it comes to students’ writing, the differ-ences of modes of thinking influence characteristics of languages.

3.3.1 Chinglish on Organization

Texts have their structures. they are orderly organized by words, sentences and clauses, following some princi-ples such as unity, coherence, conciseness and variety. Then logical connections like “and, also, but, so, first, second …” play an important role in organization, which shows the reader how two ideas are related, smoothing the transition from one to the next. In other words, they indicate the direction the writer’s thought is about to take, making it easy for the reader to follow. However, Chi-nese students do not always use these logical connections. The following paragraph was written by a Chinese stu-dent.

There are three reasons why I like playing Ping-pong very much. The game is very simple. One can start play-ing with only a ball and two bats. It is easy to learn and gives me a lot of fun. It makes me stronger and quicker. I have to be as nimble as a squirrel during the game. I often play Ping-pong in my spare time.

From the above paragraph, we are told that the writer likes playing Ping-pong for “some reasons”, but the question “What are the reasons?” remains unanswered. Besides, this paragraph develops unnaturally and one sentence leads illogically to another. Such series of sen-tences appear to the native speakers of English as no more than “a plate of loose sand”.

3.3.2 Chinglish on Development

According to Michael McCarthy, there are three thought patterns of English texts: Problem-solution Pat-tern, General-particular Pattern and Matching Pattern. But the thought pattern of Chinese text usually focuses on “Problem-solution Pattern”. Chinese students are lack

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of the thought pattern – “General-particular Pattern”. They prefer to make a beautiful beginning before they concentrate on the theme and focus on the unity and harmony of the whole piece. They express their ideas in “circular ways”. As a result, the native English speakers will find lots of “rubbish” or “nonsense” in a passage or text written by Chinese students. The Following example reflects this difference. Miss Long:

I appreciate your lessons very much. You know how to teach English in an interesting way. Winter is coming. It becomes colder and colder. But unfortunately, I’m not feeling well today. I’ve had a headache and a cough. I didn’t sleep well last night. I went to see the doctor this morning. The doctor told me I had caught a bad cold, and I should stay in bed for two days, or it would be se-rious. So I can’t go to school today and tomorrow. I hope I'll be all right soon and go back to school the day after tomorrow.

Please agree!

Your student, Wang Gang

4 Solutions

4.1 Imparting the Knowledge of Culture and Thought

From the above analysis we may see clearly that errors in English are closely related to the elements of culture and thought. So the input of culture backgrounds and modes of thinking are very important, which can be taught separately as a subject or involved in the process of English class. Teachers can find some articles and books which enclose a great variety of culture theme and topics (e. g family, tourism, sports, history, entertainment, social problems, etc.), analyze the different culture and thought, and make a comparison between Chinglish and Standard English. Creating atmosphere of practicing English, such as listening to English radio programs, watching TV programs, serving on the web, or taking part in English corner or other activities in English is a good way to know about the culture of western countries and encourage the students to think in English.

4.2 Extensive Reading goes along with Intensive Reading

The author of New Concept English has such words: Nothing should be written before it has been read.” Reading a number of original English books, magazines, and newspaper is helpful for improving students’ writing skills. Apart from acquiring new words, when coming across a good sentence, students can ask themselves whether they can use this beautiful sentence. If not, take it down, translate it into Chinese and retranslate it into English and compare it with the original to see if there is Chinglish in it. The way of reading –translating-comparing is the process of avoiding Chinglish.

4.3 Immediate Retelling

One may have the experience that when he has read a Chinese article carefully and retells it immediately, he can recall most of the details. The same is also true to English study, if one retells what he has learnt immedi-ately in English, and then English influence will be a dominant one compared with Chinese affection in his mind. In this way, the students become more sensitive to the English patterns and can identify Chinglish easily. But keep it in mind that the retelling should be conducted immediately after what the students have read.

4.4 Making Comments and Corrections

The error analysis plays an important role in most writing class. On the hand, Teachers should give justice and proper comments on students’ assignments —anything from “Well done!” to “This is a good story, but you must look again at your use of passive voice— see Page1 in our textbook”. Good comments encourage stu-dents and make them more self-confident to write well in English. On the other hand, correcting is also very impor-tant, but it can be time-consuming and frustrating, espe-cial when it is difficult to know what the mistake is be-cause it is unclear what the student is trying to say. Common sense and talking to students about it are the only solution here. Besides, teachers should decide which errors to discuss immediately with the class or individu-ally and which ones “to put on the back corner”. Teach-ers can ask students to correct the errors, which is called self-correction. In this process, the students can be aware of their errors and reinforce the right expression in their mind.

5 Conclusion

To sum up, this paper has made a tentative analysis of the definition of Chinglish and typical errors in students’ writing. Some possible solutions are provided in the end. Now we may safely arrive at the conclusion that teachers should impart the cultural backgrounds and modes of thinking and the students should think in English way and write in Standard English. As we know, Chinglish is a complex problem, in the paper; just a few things have been mentioned. There are still mane things that we should continue studying. It’s the writer’s sincere hope that more and more students could be aware of Chinglish, avoid Chinglish in English writing and learn English well.

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An Analysis on Chinese Students’ Chinglish in English Writing

and Its Solutions

作者：Yuanming DENG

作者单位：Department of Foreign Languages, Hechi University Yizhou City, China

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