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China's English

What's in the name?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2023

Zoya G. Proshina Open the ORCID record for Zoya G. Proshina [Opens in a new window]
Zoya G. Proshina*
Affiliation:
Lomonosov Moscow State University
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Extract

Naming varieties of the Expanding Circle is a very controversial and much debatable issue (see Nelson & Proshina, 2020); therefore, it is a high-priority, pressing question, brought up for timely discussion by the English Today journal. Those who are negative or hesitant about the legitimacy of these varieties, prefer speaking about English in a country – for example, English in China. However, this naming proves to be deficient as it is ambiguous and, in a way, exclusive. Its ambiguity lies in the fact that this naming can embrace speakers of any variety, i.e., of all three Circles (see Kachru, 1985), who happen to be in China. On the other hand, it excludes those Chinese speakers of English who have left China, either as emigrants or temporarily, though they use English while abroad. This means that the descriptive phrase English in China lacks its terminological nature.

Type
Shorter Article
Information
English Today , Volume 39 , Issue 3: Special Feature: Chinese English - What's in a name? , September 2023 , pp. 178 - 181
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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