Abstract
Research on Chinese English (CE) synchronizes with studies on World Englishes. Since the late 1970s, Chinese scholars have been studying Chinese English and at the same time introducing World Englishes theories into China. Over the years, Chinese English research has been gaining momentum, particularly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Previous research on World Englishes has discussed the status of individual varieties of English, particularly whether they constitute independent and stable linguistic systems that have their own features and norms of usage independent from those found in Inner Circle varieties (Kachru 1985). Research on Chinese English encompasses a wide range of issues, including whether it exists, how to name it, how to define it, what its linguistic features are, how people perceive it, and what people’s attitudes are towards it. In this chapter, we report on the current status and major issues concerning research on Chinese English, based on a vigorous review of relevant research literature and the chapters within this volume. We also provide a background to this volume and an overview of all the chapters that it contains, and point out trends for researching Chinese English. The overall aim of this chapter, alongside all the chapters of this volume, is to showcase the current state of research on Chinese English.
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Notes
- 1.
ZX = Zhichang Xu; PH = Paul Deyuan He; DD = David Deterding.
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Xu, Z., Deterding, D., He, D. (2017). What We Know about Chinese English: Status, Issues and Trends. In: Xu, Z., He, D., Deterding, D. (eds) Researching Chinese English: the State of the Art. Multilingual Education, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53110-6_1
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