Chinese students’ use of English ‘different, not deficient’

Errors by international students in their academic writing might reflect not a poor grasp of English but rather a legitimate use of new versions of the language, according to researchers.

Academics at the University of Manchester analysed essays written by Chinese postgraduates and identified frequent occurrences of “China English” – a standardised form of English commonly used among native Chinese speakers.

Repeated patterns include pluralising words – using “researches” instead of “research”, or “contexts” instead of “context” – and employing phrases such as “dumb English”, which refers to someone who can read and write English well but speaks it poorly.

Researchers said this has implications for the thousands of Chinese students at global universities and how their use of English is perceived.

As recently as August, academics have spoken out about poor language skills among some international students. In a blog post for the Higher Education Policy Institute, two anonymous Russell Group professors said only a “very small number of students” on the master’s courses in their departments had the language skills necessary to engage “in meaningful seminar discussions”.

But the researchers suggested that their findings could cast a new light.

“The English they use is not deficient simply because it’s not, in some cases, standard British,” said Alex Baratta, a reader in language and education at Manchester.

Campus resource collection: English as a second language in higher education

“If we have English that has its own unique grammar, vocabulary and style, and that is different from the expected standard British English…then it makes sense to understand it better rather than declare it a write-off or a grammatical error.”

Although some students may have poor English skills, others may be conscious that they do not speak standard English flawlessly, which could affect their confidence when contributing in class.

Wider acknowledgement of China English could help to overcome this, said Rui He, a lecturer in education at Manchester.

“Recognition can help ease anxiety among students who are conscious that they might not be speaking a language perfectly,” she said.

In general, said Dr Baratta, academics do not tend to mark students down for quirks in their speech and writing, but non-standard usage can cause misunderstandings.

“Academics might think they are wrong because they don’t understand,” he said.

These quirks can also be a way of showing that essays have not been produced by artificial intelligence, which is trained in standard English, according to Paul Vincent Smith, a lecturer in education at Manchester.

In the researchers’ new book, Emerging Englishes: China English in Academic Writing, they set out how common variations from standard English should be seen as innovations rather than errors.

“That’s the first step to, in some cases, respecting the culture from which the English derives or, at the very least, just recognising…that grammatical difference does not mean error when millions of people are using that grammatical feature,” said Dr Baratta.

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com