I have often said that when a teacher stops learning, they should stop teaching. I want to thank my SYSU Fall 2009 post grad students for introducing me to a new term, “MUTE ENGLISH.” I had never heard this before and it has piqued my interest. A Google search revealed many student comments about MUTE ENGLISH but a Google Scholar search turned up not a single scholarly paper published on the subject.
ABSTRACT “Mute English” is a unique Chinese phenomena ignored by linguistic scholars but derided by Chinese students. It is a communicative language taught as if it were a dead language, like Latin. We explore the origins, as well as the cause and effect of this phenomenon.
Read the article on the download page. Mute English: The Latin of China
Last evening my roommate Mike took his girlfriend to our dormitory and I had an opportunity to hear a funny talk between them, from which I knew the reason why mute English is so popular in China. Mike asked his girlfriend a word in Chinese and let her tell him how to translate it into English. In fact, Mike know the answer, but he just want to check whether his girlfriend has learnt that word. His girlfriend started to spell the word letter by letter. So Mike asked: do you learn all the words in this way? She said yes. Then Mike laughed at her and said: you should learn it by the accent and then you will memory its spelling automatically. She said: however, our English teacher told us this method. Mike asked: why? Did he think to speak is not important than to read? She said: because our postgraduate entrance examination don’t have the oral part!
The mute English in China is a very common phenomenon. Many students are learning English for the exam. In the school it also places more emphasis on written English and more exercise on written English skills, which led to some students do not dare speak in English. Therefore, there is not very thick atmosphere in speaking English. And the actual operation has not given proper attention, also received no effect. More measures should be taken to solve this problem.
The phenomenon mute English is very serious in China. To a university student, he can get a high mark on the English exam, but if you have a simple talk with him in English, you will find out that he can speak only a little. How funny it is to a man learning English for about ten years. It is time to think deeply about it. Or what is the aim for us to study English? I think our institution have to take some measures, we learn English not just for exam.
I “googled” and found out the definition of “Mute English” , sometimes referred to “Dumb English” in Wikipedia: “Mute English is a phenomenon, especially common in the People’s Republic of China, where people can read and understand English as a second language but cannot speak it well”. This kind of phenomenon does not only exist in China, but also appear in our neighboring country like Japan. It’s due to the lack of practice of oral English for the reason that Chinese schools and national English certificate exams often emphasize the importance of grammar and the ability of reading and writing. As a student learning English, we should make effort to practice speaking as much as possible. For example, we can watch English TV shows and mimic the accents of the people or we can find native English-speaking foreigners for practicing and teach them Chinese in return.
MUTE ENGLISH is so great a word that it describes vividly what the situation of English learners in China is. As we know, the problem of such a situation was the FACE problem that we were too shy to speak a foreign language and there was no a better English environment. These days, I find that situation has turned to be MIXED ENGLISH which also stops us speaking English smoothly. When I had a chance to summarize the group opinions in a discussion on an English class, I found it was strange that I couldn’t express smoothly what I had prepared in mind. For example, it was simple to speak out ‘she’ for mentioning a girl while ‘he’ for a boy, but I mistook ‘he’ for mentioning a girl twice. And some other classmates made the same mistakes, too. I think the obstacle for us now may be the habit of thinking. We have been used to translate the words in Chinese in mind and then speak it out in English. Then the expression would be cut up in this way with many wrong words and Chinese words which are not translated in English in time.
I am also a Mute English people; yes it is very common phenomenon in China. Everybody don’t want to learn English like this, but there is many reasons on it, and I think the solution to it is make huge effort together, include the student and the teacher, and make the English speaking environment in school or in China. Of course, the decision right is on our student’s hand. It is just a choice whether to speak English or not.
The phenomenon of mute English is very serious in China. It is common to find one can do well in writing English and reading English, while very poor in speaking English . What a pity! Last year, I accepted a part-time job that required me to talk to an adult in English for 3 months. To my surprised, he could translate lots of English articles into Chinese correctly. However, his oral English was so poor. He couldn’t even make a self-introduction fluently. At the end of the tutor, he told me the fact that he got his Doctor degree two years ago. This experience impressed me very much. Let’s say no to mute English.When study English,do open your mouth!
The “mute English” phenomenon is probably caused by lack of use of spoken English. Although English is widely taught across the country and it has almost become the second language of the nation, it has not been acknowledged as the second language by the officials. So it’s rarely used in our daily life, unlike Malaysia and India. We all know that English is getting more and more important in communication in the future. From a long-term point of view, we should do our best to practice spoken English more. Learning is for using, don’t let it be a dead language.
Well, I have read about so many posts about ME. For my part, I think the best way for our Chinese students to get rid of ME is to cultivate your interests about English. Since I have so many friends who can speak English very well, just like native speakers, I’ve kept watching them for so many years in order to get their secrets to learn English; finally, I find they have just one thing in common which is they all love it very much. They learn it, not because they must, but because they love it so much. In this way, certainly can they learn it very well and get so much pleasure from their learning. They are always feeling happy but not upset. So if you want to get rid of ME, you must try to fall in love with it firstly.
As I know,the “mute English” phenomenon existed in China long ago. In China, the number of people learning English is the largest in the world, but the people who really have a good mastery of English are not too much. Because many people who learn English for a long time cannot speak English, so some doubt about the significance of learning English.
In my opinion, learning English is to develop the habit of using English, so you need to practice repeatedly. For example, it is useless to just know how to play table tennis like this. To play table tennis well, you must pick up the racket to practice everyday.
It is the examination-oriented education system that results in the mute English. If you get a high mark in the examination, you can enter famous university, and get a high-paid job and maybe live a comfortable life after graduation. Unfortunately, the examination does not involve oral English. Considered oral English does noting with the score, students spend very little time on speaking and mute English is prevailing.
I think mute English is a natural phenomenon.I have been Guangzhou for about five years,but I only understand a little Cantonese.Actually there is no need for me to learn Cantonese.Firstly, my teachers teach us in Mandarin.Secondly, my classmates talk with me in Mandarin.Finally,when you go shopping or buying something,if you don’t know Cantonese,they will speak Mandarin with you.When I was in high school,I was very good at Chemistry and I like it very much.But my undergraduate major is mathematics in university,then I need not to learn Chemistry any more.And I almost forget all the Chemistry.We learn English because we have to take exams which have not too much relation with oral English,so it is wasting time on it.Besides that,we need not to communicate with others in English.
In terms of learning English as the saying “mute English”, one reason may be accounting for this. That is, without deny that most of the time our Chinese students were only asked to learn and to choose the right answers on the books or papers but not to take English as the tool for living better; to take the English exams or tests just to match the scores that we have to get but not taking it as a thing we need to accompany with everyday. In fact, every college student have study English at least for 7 years (In some area, they started their English learning from junior high school but not elementary school), however, the time they spent totally in speaking English may even not match 7 days, what a buskin! In my opinion, setting the exams——such as CET——for measuring English level of someone is ok, the matter is the standard——spoken English should be involved for all the tester but not only the one whose score is more than 520 or 550.
Mute English is a common phenomenon in China, I think. The firsr reason is English is not our mother tongue, after all. Though we learn English, we just treat it as a neccesary tool. So we don’t have the realization to practice every day. Once we have not spoken for more than two or three days, maybe we will forget the language sense. Secondly, in my opinion, many people are afraid of losing face. They are not so confident about their oral English. So, for most of them, they learn English without speaking. I think somebody can’t learn English well without speaking.
It is true that most of Chinese students are learn listening,reading,and writing English.Oral English is neglected,although English teachers are always ask their students to read text loudly.The students are embrassing when there is a occasion need they speake English.They always use simple words like”yes’,”Do you think…”,”good”etc.Sometimes ,they know how to say in Chinese but they can not react immeditately in Enlish, they try to find words to express what they want to say,and finally others understand them reluctantly.
It’s lamentable that I have learning English for more than ten years, yet I still don’t confident with it, especially with my oral English. It seems a waste of time and sometimes I feel so sad that I near to give it up. Then I look back in my English learning period, and I find that the purpose to learn the language is just for examinations. Perhaps the whole education system turns out to be a big mistake. From kindergarten to high school, we apparently live for the important collage entrance examination. We have to get a good English exam score that we can enter in a good collage. The result is that we spend a lot of time in learning English but we cannot use it. English is a language for communication, but we learn as a mute language. What a ridiculous thing! However, we cannot attribute to the system, and since now we are awake about it, we can change the purpose, and just learn English as a useful language. Do what the professor advisees to us, read more, listen more, write more and speak more English.
Last Friday, I came to English corner, not only for the homework assigned by professor, but also because I had not came there for a long time. I thought maybe I could meet some old friends.
It really did. Though I came there a little late, there still were many students talking happily in Xing Ting. To my surprise, some students wear a hat which had some characters on it. I came near and look at it clearly, it was” Speaking English”. Then I knew that they also came from Holistic English class. Then I had a talk with Susan, a student came from Education College. To my surprise, I can speak English much more fluently and clearly than last time I came to English Corner. We talk about our major, career planning and other topics about campus life.
Later, I met Allen. He had been working in PWC, a famous accounting company. Meanwhile, he brought me a good news that he had been accepted to earn a postgraduate degree in an university of HK. I really felt much please to hear his success. And then we talked some business and political issues, and also something about career. After that , I began to know how important English is to our career. He encouraged me to continue to try my best to learn English.
I had made up my mind to improve my English in the coming job hunting year. From now on, I would go to English corner as long as I am free.
Maybe mute English is common for Chinese students. Many students do not realize the importance of speaking English. At the beginning of my English study, my English teacher told me to read English. In fact, the teachers had taught us the importance of speaking English, but because we wanted to get high scores in the English exam, we gradually ignored the speaking. And it was a great pity to miss the times. The other problem was the attitude. We could not speak English well, so we did not have the confidence to speak Chinglish. Luckily, Martin told us that Chinglish was also good. Do not afraid of losing face. As a matter of fact, I do not want to enjoy mute English, so read more and speak more is necessary.
It is very common for Chinese student ,especially in the early 90s last century ,at that time ,there were not much tool to learn English like MP3,PC,etc.so people didn’t have enough resource to speak English out ,they are shameful to speak a foreign language .the teacher just reading the textbook and teach them the grammar ,even some of them can write English article .they can’t speak fluently.but now the situation has changed a lot .high technology device appeared since 2000,students can follow the video and the audio .and many foreigners came china to teach English ,they give the vitality to the tedious class and persuade student to speak out.their English is very good ,so the student can rectify their pronunciation and make progress.even though the mute English phenomenon is also seen in most school.the pressure to pass many kinds exams leave little time to practice their oral skill.so it is the time student to realize this situation and the importance of oral English.
We have learned English for more than 10 years. Many of us can read, listen and write in English. But I don’t think we make good use of this language. The biggest problem is that we can’t speak English accurately and fluently. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. On one side, lots of Chinese students learn English just in order to pass all kinds of English examinations. Unfortunately, few of the English examinations require speaking English. Just as the professor says, English is a communicative language taught as if it were a dead language, like Latin. On the other side, Chinese students speak Chinese everyday. There is no English speaking environment to practice their English. If we went on like this, we will surely learn “Mute English”.
There is an old saying in china, “jiao xue xiang zhang”, which means that the teacher can learn things from students and the students can learn things from teachers in the teaching process. The article about mute English just proves this saying. The article describes the reasons, the effects and the solutions of the mute English in detail, which is ignored by the linguistic scholars. In my opinion, interesting is the best teacher, but our institution of education set the wrong target that learn to pass examination and try our best to get high score which are not related with speaking for us. This goal has damage our interesting in English learning a lot. You can image that if one person was force to memory glossary and grammar which is bald and dull, he would be interesting in it. So if we Chinese want to change this special phenomenon “mute English”, first we must let the children know the charming of English and foster their interesting in it. At the same time, this phenomenon is related with the areas which the students receive the education. If the students are educate in the littoral or economy- developed distracts, then due to the conscious of importance of the spoken English, their teacher will pay much more attention to speak, and their environment allow them to speak more. Then they will never feel shy to speak. But the students from poor area did not have the environment and chance to speak. They pay more attention to the exam and foster the habit of not speaking. Maybe they can get higher score in the written exam, but they feel shy to speak and never want tot open mouth. I hope one day this phenomenon can change.
i am to busy to say too much. i love holistic English since Martin told me that mute enlish is not good .i love my master Martin.