Why Don’t You Accept Your Own English? An Investigation into Chinese College Students’ Perception of China English

Abstract

The global spread of English has witnessed the emergence of varieties of English in different places of the world. Hundreds of millions of English speakers in China have made English cross-linguistically influenced by Chinese, which makes China English different from native speaker English. However, it seems that China English is not well-accepted in China. As language attitude can affect the learning and teaching of English, this article attempts to investigate the Chinese college students’ attitude toward China English with the data from previous studies in the literature. The study indicates that most Chinese university students still feel that China English is not equal to native speaker English and they regard English as the OTHER’S language. An analysis of the reasons behind the college students’ perception of China English and the possible pedagogical implications can lend support to the adjustment of College English teaching in China to encourage the students to bravely accept their ownership of the English language so that they can communicate in English without self-stigmatizing their own English or struggling to aspire to the unattainable native speaker competency.