Page 24 - ELG2205 May Issue 480

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PHOTO BY PIXABAY

Teaching Chinese to chat builds university integration, says Melanie Butler

he number of mainland Chinese they complained the university was not doing have had far less everyday exposure to the
students looking to enrol in UK enough to develop their English-language skills spoken language than those who grew up
universities is going up again, with Glasgow University told the BBC that it in, say, Hong Kong, Singapore or Malaysia.
Tnearly 30,000 applying for a place offered Chinese students not only English Judging by comments on the websites, students
this September, according to the national language assistance, but a range of services from these other Han Chinese communities,
university admissions body, UCAS. But with from academic advice to welfare support. including ‘BBCs’ (British born Chinese) will
fees from the People’s Republic of China The problem may lie in the fact that often reach out to act as a cultural bridge only
now topping £1.7 billion a year, concerns are university language centres concentrate on to be rebuffed because their Mandarin isn’t
arising about both the over-dependance of the academic language skills that students good enough.
some universities on the Chinese market and need to get through their degree: listening, University language centres would do well
whether Chinese students are getting their reading and note-taking, making formal oral to pay attention to the comments from both
money’s worth. presentations and, above all, essay writing. But mainland Chinese and their UK counterparts
“I would say that the Chinese students don’t what mainland Chinese also need, as British as to poor spoken English: it’s a skill that’s
get enough attention or enough services for author Hugh Dellar pointed out decades ago, often overlooked in the rush to get them
their money,” a Glasgow University student is the language you need to just have a chat. through their degree. Intelligibility, the
named Hua, who comes from a small village difficulty listeners have in decoding speech
in Shandong, told the BBC in a recent radio Connecting sounds, may prove a particular problem, as
documentary. “I really want to make friends with local people, native speakers of English tend to judge a
but I don’t know how to communicate with foreigner’s fluency more on the intelligibility
They complained them. That makes me a little bit sad,” a girl of suprasegmentals and nuclear stress than the
accuracy of their syntax.
using her English name Fiona told the BBC
the university was reporter. Ironically perhaps, British students’ The problem is made worse by the fact
not doing enough to main complaints about their mainland Chinese that mainland Chinese tend to cluster in
peers are, judging by comments made on student
particular universities, generally at the Russel
develop their English- websites, that they “hang around in bubbles”, Group ones in large cities, which have long-
talk Mandarin too much when they are with
established Chinese communities (most of
language skills non-Chinese students and have poor spoken which, for historic reasons, speak Cantonese
English which is “difficult to understand”. rather than Mandarin). Of the the 10 British
Students also told the BBC they wanted to Mainland Chinese have more problems cities with large British Chinese communities,
integrate more, but were often housed in large, with what we might call social English than only two – Newcastle and Nottingham – do
exclusively Chinese student residences and other ethnic Chinese groups because they not appear on the list of top 10 universities
24 May 2022