Promotion Of "China English" Awareness In College English Teaching

The interplay between globalization and nativization of English enables it to be a lingua franca, which further makes the appearance of China English possible. The development of World Englishes theories lays the theoretical foundation for China English as an English variety and important part of World Englishes, which arouses great interest among scholars at home and abroad. In 1980, Ge Chuangui first put forward the concept"China English"to acknowledge its objective existence. Later, two articles written respectively by Sun Li and Wang Rongpei established theoretical principles for studies on China English. Afterward, more scholars carried out relative studies from different aspects, which greatly fostered the development of China English. However, more efforts should be made to improve the studies on China English, such as working towards a more standard definition and exploring its application to ELT.Combining China English with college English teaching, this thesis first analyzed and explored the importance and inevitability of the promotion of China English awareness theoretically. Consequently, an empirical study was made to investigate non-English majors'China English awareness and their Chinese culture acquisition, which actually are closely related. Selected subjects were one hundred third-year undergraduate students majoring World History, Geographical Information System and Human Resources Management at Shandong Normal University. Fifty English majors of the same grade and university were also involved in order to give some reference to this study.On the one hand, the results show that all factors, including English proficiency, tolerant attitude towards English varieties and Standard English, frequency of communicating with foreigners, and the input of Chinese culture in English in class contribute to English majors'relatively stronger China English awareness than that of non-English ones. On the other hand, the results suggest that non-English majors know little about the concept of"China English", their awareness of cultural identity and equality is relatively weak, and the input of China English and Chinese culture is still inadequate in their English language acquisition. Hence, it is imperative to promote their China English awareness.The study implicates that in college English teaching, based on proper attitudes towards China English, the input of China English and Chinese culture should be enhanced, and China English awareness promoted in terms of teachers and students themselves. Accordingly, readjustments of the test syllabus for various English tests and English teaching materials and courses, as well as self-improvement of teachers and students are discussed in this thesis as ways to foster and promote China English awareness and Chinese culture acquisition in college English teaching.