英语学习的陷阱—中式英语

作者：AF英语国际课程总监 Carl McMahan

翻译：AF留学顾问 张子霞

         我从2002年开始给外国人教英语，也了解了许多外国人学习外语的方式。我学习到更多的正是我在这篇文章的重点，外语的不同教学方式将影响学生学习和使用这种语言的情况。

         通过多年的教育经验，我发现了许多语言学家称之为“母语干扰”的教和学的差异，也许叫做“中式英语”（Chinglish）能让你更容易明白——这就是一些中国人无法学好英语的根源。

         对于中式英语的研究，我们必须理解以下三个问题：

1.为什么它会出现？

2.这怎么影响我的表现？

3.这怎么或者小化？

我会逐一破 解这几个问题：

1.为什么中式英语会出现？

                     中式英语一开始是中国人学习英语时必经的阶段，语言学家会称之为“洋泾浜英语”，即一个英语学习者说英语时使用零散的英语单词和短语，却仍用他们的母语来思考。洋泾浜英语的发展有两种：种是自成一套洋泾浜英语，继而形成一套新兴的语言规则，即“克里奥尔语”。第二种是随着使用英语频率越来越高，越来越多人学习英语的时候会从英语的角度思考，代替了洋泾浜英语的使用。以上两种情况都不适用于解释中式英语的演变。每一年，数以百万计的的中国学生开始学习英语，可惜的是，大部分学生都没有把初学时出现的洋泾浜英语提升到更高水平的英语。他们把本来该是暂时性的洋泾浜英语变成了半永久的状态。直到2016年，学习英语的中国人已经进入到第三代了，然而他们的整体英语水平依然停滞不前的原因是，中国一直沿用旧有的“中式英语”教学和学习模式。

2.它如何影响学生的表现？

       中式英语，更准确地描述的话，中式英语的孕育于中国式的学习与教授方式，而这种弊病会导致学生不能超越英语初阶的水平。当参加一些英语能力的标准化考试，如托福或雅思时，中式英语水平的学生便屡屡碰壁，像在雅思考试当中，他们的成绩往往只有5分左右。其后，当他们尝试参加大学的入学考试如ACT或SAT时，他们便很容易对自己的这些考试成绩感到失望。更有甚者，当他们尝试在英语世界生活时，他们会发现自己早已忘却在中国内地背诵多年的英语知识，无法流利地用英语在当地学习或者生活。

1.       如何减轻或中式英语？

       显然，中式英语以及它带来的问题，好的方法就是遏制它的源头。学习者需要改变他们教育者的教学方法，以及他们自身学习英语的方式。目标应该是，学习者在使用英语时由用汉语思考到用英语思考的转变。最终，中式英语应该被学习者用英语自身的表达和概念来打破。

The Chinglish Learning Trap

I have taught foreign English learners since 2002 and have learned a number of things about the way people learn a foreign language. I have also learned, more to the point of this blog, about differences in the way people teach foreign language and how it affects learning and using the language.

Again and again, many of the differences in teaching and learning styles have led me to what professional linguists call “first language interference” and what you would probably know better as “Chinglish”, the infamous bane of learners of English across this country. 

Any examination of Chinglish should deal with 3 key questions:

1.       Why does it exist?

2.       How does it affect student performance?

3.       How can it be eliminated or minimized?

I will deal with each of these questions in turn.

2.       Why does Chinglish exist?

Chinglish originally began as a function of the normal process of learning a foreign language, what professional linguists call a pidgin, where a language learner uses scattered words and phrases in a foreign language while still thinking in their mother tongue.  In most cases, pidgins either become more developed with their own grammar and usage into nascent languages in their own right, called creoles, or they are replaced in the learners by an increasing command of the foreign language, as each learner thinks more and more in the foreign language when using it.  In the case of Chinglish, neither of these is really happening.  Every year, millions upon millions more Chinglish speakers arise but many of them never develop their command of English beyond that level, making what should be a temporary stage of language development into a semi-permanent feature that, as of 2016, has been carried through at least 3 generations of learners in Mainland China.  The only reason that this can be is if the system of teaching and learning English in Mainland China is maintaining and perpetuating the practices of Chinglish in ostensibly teaching English to each succeeding crop of new learners.

3.       How does it affect student performance?

Chinglish, or more appropriately, the learning and teaching styles that feed it, create a situation where a learner is incapable of getting beyond an elementary level of proficiency in the English language.  When confronted with a standardized test for English proficiency, like TOEFL or IELTS, a Chinglish student hits a wall in terms of their scores, which, in the case of IELTS, is documented at around Band 5.  Later, students who then try to take University Entrance exams like ACT or SAT are quite badly disappointed when they try to take those exams.  Moreover, when they attempt to live in the Anglophone world, they find invariably that they are unable to function in English with unlearning a great deal of what they spent years trying to memorize in Mainland China.

4.       How can Chinglish be mitigated or eliminated?

Obviously, the best way to deal with Chinglish and the problems it gives to the learner of English is right at the source.  The learner needs to change both the way they learn and the way they are taught English.  The aim would be, ideally, to transition the student from thinking in Chinese while trying to use English into thinking in English while doing so.  In other words, ultimately, Chinglish is defeated by learning to deal with the English language on its own terms, using its own concepts.