Insights on Learning English as a Chinese Speaker

As a Chinese speaker, I have learned English for many years. However, like many Chinese learners, I find it very difficult to learn how to use English as native speakers do.

It's been a valuable experience to study and think about learning technology since joining the ISLT program. This summer, after more practice learning English, I have identified some specific reasons for the difficulties Chinese learners face.

In my opinion, the main reason Chinese speakers use "Chinglish" (a non-standard form of English) is primarily due to two fundamental differences between Chinese and English. First, English morphology is entirely different from Chinese. In the Chinese language, the same word can function as a verb, noun, or adjective. The rules for using different forms of a word to convey different meanings are completely unlike Chinese and are easily overlooked by Chinese learners. Second, English syntax, particularly the use of various tenses to describe activities across different times and procedures, is fundamentally different from Chinese. In Chinese, describing procedure and time involves directly using specific words, which does not alter the sentence structure. These two differences are deeply embedded in my speaking habits, thus easily leading to errors in English expressions.

I am very pleased to have discovered these issues this summer. I believe that when a problem can be described clearly and meaningfully, it is quite close to being completely solved.