Research Revisiting Ningbo Chinese Pidgin English: Linguistic Structure, Operational Mechanisms, and Modern Implications

This essay looks at the history of pidgin and creole studies in the context of linguistic theory with particular reference to the study of 'Chinese pidgin English'. It argues that, although linguistics makes the claim to be an objective and systematic science, an examination of the past reveals that its own discourses have been shaped by a range of powerful forces from outside the disciplinary study of language. In the case of pidgin and creole linguistics (or 'creolistics'), one obvious influence is from European 'race theory' of the late nineteenth century, seen most clearly in the adoption of a vocabulary which includes terms such as monogenesis, polygenesis and hybridization. In the case of Chinese pidgin English, early accounts of the use of 'broken English' are found in the memoirs of sailors and merchants on the South China coast, and these were later supplemented by missionary and colonial accounts from Canton, Hong Kong and the treaty ports of China. The most influential account was that of Leland (1876), whose 'comic' account of Pidgin-English Sing-song contributed to the formation of a cultural imaginary of Chinese people at a time of growing anti-Chinese racism in the United States and Britain. Although many pidgin and creole scholars have denied a direct link between racial mixing and language mixing, it appears evident that the fear (and attraction) of racial miscegenation was at the heart of many western responses to pidgin English in China.

In designing a successful English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, an ESP lecturer must research the professional setting and in turn analyze, abstract and synthesize its linguistic characteristics. Expert vocabulary, typical syntactic structures, relevant morphological word formation processes, exemplary text organization and both written and spoken stylistics are no longer taught with little functional relevance, instead they are approached from a subject-specific perspective. While designing and/ or compiling teaching and learning material, an ESP lecturer must decide upon the appropriate teaching methodology and pedagogy in order to ensure that the course in its entirety simulates a particular professional situation. Only if the course is successful in this aim, will ESP learners be able to quickly engage in uninhibited communication and improve job performance in their field of work, whether that be in tourism or aviation. Although many professional settings share certain characteristics, they are nevertheless unique and often require different approaches. For this reason, there is little or no ready-made teaching material or methodological approaches when it comes to ESP teaching. A dedicated ESP lecturer caters for those idiosyncrasies doing a minute, multifaceted investigation into the linguistic characteristics of the relevant professional domain. Bringing together a collection of essays, this edited volume reveals the variety, depth, and quality of the ESP research and its convergence across different professional disciplines.

More than 38,000 Chinese came to Australia to prospect for gold in the second half of the 19th century. Most of them originated from the Canton region of China (now Guangdong), where Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) was an important trading language. This article describes a recently discovered source that throws light on the nature of CPE used in Australia during that period — a 70 page notebook written in a form of English by a Chinese gold miner, Jong Ah Siug. The article presents some background information about Chinese immigrants in the region where Jong worked (Victoria), and evidence that some CPE was spoken there. It goes on to describe Jong’s notebook and the circumstances that led to him writing it. The main part of the article examines the linguistic features of CPE and other pidgins that are present in the notebook, and discusses other lexical and morphosyntactic features of the text. Some features are typical only of CPE, such as the use of my as the first person pronoun. On the other hand, some features are more characteristic of Australian or Pacific pidgins — for example, the use of belong in possessive constructions. Still other features have not been recorded for any pidgin, such as the use of been as a locative copula. The analysis shows that Jong’s text contains a mixture of features from CPE and other pidgins, as well as features of interlanguage, including some resulting from functional transfer from Jong’s first language, Cantonese.

English for specific purposes (ESP) courses are often discussed in terms of a two-way distinction between 'wide-angled' and 'narrow-angled' designs. The term 'wide angled' is used to refer to courses for learners targeting a broad work place, professional or academic field. The term 'narrow angled' is used to refer to courses for learners targeting one particular work place, professional or academic environment. Often wide-angled course designs are based on the premise that there is a set of 'generic' skills and linguistic features that are transferable across different disciplines and professional groups. Proponents of narrow-angled designs argue against this premise (Hyland 2002). This paper illustrates a number of narrow- and wide-angled course designs in ESP and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the options.

The present paper touches upon topical issues connected with thenecessity of using interdisciplinary approach to cross-language and cross-culturalcommunication studies. Modern world is based on communication whichpresupposes the process of sharing meaning through verbal and non-verbalbehaviour. It’s a matter that requires very serious and complex handling especiallyin the time of globalization. Explanation of the terms denoting language, culture,cross-language and cross-cultural communication, their interrelations andpeculiarities of usage in all spheres of human activities is given in the paper.Special attention is paid to the communication types and their peculiarities. Ourcultural understanding of the world and everything in it ultimately affects ourcommunication style, and nowadays we face hybrid, changing and conflictingcultures, where we are expected to become pluricultural individuals. Effectivecommunication with people of different cultures and languages is especiallychallenging. If people recognize and understand differing world views, they will10certainly adopt a positive and open-minded attitude towards cross-culturaldifferences. By accepting people, their differences and acknowledging that we donot know everything will make us open up to people and their differences resultingin using contextual information for better understanding. Seeking feedback andtaking risks to open up channels of communication and being responsible for ourfeelings as well as actions, will go a long way in ensuring that miscommunicationis mitigated. Therefore, to avoid miscommunication, much effort and willingnesson the part of people representing different cultural and educational background isneeded. Understanding of these aspects of cultures will help better coexist andcooperate despite all difficulties, conflict situations as well as negative attitudes. Inthis respect of primary importance is to apply interdisciplinary approach to cross-language and cross-cultural communication studies in order to work out effectivecommunicative strategies to be put into practice.

This study investigated the linguistic features of abstracts across five scientific and technical disciplines: biochemistry, civil engineering, computer and information sciences, electronics engineering, and mechanical engineering. Abstracts play a crucial role in academic papers by summarizing key findings, methodologies, and implications. Through the lens of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and genre analysis, this study aimed to determine whether linguistic features vary across disciplines and classify these disciplines based on the similarity of their linguistic features. The corpus consisted of 5,000 abstracts, with 1,000 from each discipline, sourced from the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Using Biber's [1] multidimensional analysis framework, this study examined 63 of 67 linguistic features, including passive voice, conjunctions, amplifiers, and discourse markers. Statistical analysis, including correlation and cluster analyses, revealed that the disciplines can be broadly divided into two groups: biochemistry and computer & information sciences, and a second group including mechanical engineering, civil engineering, and electronics engineering. These findings suggest that while some linguistic features are shared across disciplines, others vary substantially. For example, biochemistry has a higher frequency of passive constructions and large noun phrases, whereas computer and information sciences frequently use first-person pronouns and amplifiers. These insights are valuable for ESP instruction as they highlight the need for discipline-specific writing guidance in higher education. Educators can use this information to develop effective writing instruction tailored to the linguistic norms of each field. Future research could expand on these findings by exploring additional rhetorical elements and examining the impact of linguistic features on reader comprehension.

Reviewed by: Chinese Englishes: A sociolinguistic history by Kingsley Bolton Liwei Gao Chinese Englishes: A sociolinguistic history. By Kingsley Bolton. (Studies in English language.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. xviii, 338. ISBN 0521811635. $37.99. This book investigates the history of English in China from the early seventeenth century to the present. Kingsley Bolton gathers together and examines an extensive amount of historical, linguistic, and sociolinguistic research on the description and analysis of English in China, particularly in Hong Kong. He explores a variety of sources in order to unearth the somewhat forgotten history of English in China and to demonstrate how contemporary Hong Kong English derives from Chinese pidgin English. This book also discusses the varying status of English in mainland China over different historical periods and its recent developments since 1997. The book consists of five chapters. In Ch. 1, B critically reviews current approaches to research in Asian Englishes and World Englishes, which include corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, the sociology of language, pidgin and creole studies, and critical linguistics, among others. He then discusses the relevance of these perspectives to the study of English in Hong Kong and China. Ch. 2 provides a sociolinguistic description of English in Hong Kong. B first examines the sociopolitical history of Hong Kong from approximately 1980 to 1997, the year when Hong Kong was handed over to China. He then, from a historical as well as a contemporary perspective, introduces the language background in Hong Kong to highlight the dynamics of the multilingual Hong Kong society. In Ch. 3, B focuses on revealing the ‘forgotten past’ of the English language in southern China, which starts with the arrival of the first English-speaking merchants in the early seventeenth century, continues with the ‘Canton jargon’ of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and reaches into the current ‘Hong Kong English’. To do so, B employed the research methodology of the ‘archaeology’ of English, which is historical and textual in nature. As the author claims, this approach assumes an essential role in research on the history of World Englishes. Ch. 4 deals with the status, functions, and features of English in contemporary Hong Kong. In this chapter, B addresses the recognition of Hong Kong English, the ideologies of English in Hong Kong, and the creativity of Hong Kong English in both literary and less formal contexts. In the last chapter, Ch. 5, B attempts to associate the history of English in Hong Kong and southern China with that of mainland China. In so doing B surveys the teaching of the English language in China from the late Qing to the present. The survey shows that mainland China has its own history of English to tell, from the late Qing dynasty, through Republican China and the post-1949 era, to the present. With its interdisciplinary perspective, this book will prove a very helpful reader not only to linguists, but also to all those working in the fields of Asian studies and English studies, including those concerned with cultural and literary studies. [End Page 455] Liwei Gao Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Copyright © 2007 Linguistic Society of America

The investigation of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) contexts has produced significant results in the last few years. Moreover, these results have initiated a shift from achieving native speaker competency to more context-related and functional language use in the perspective of the overall approach to ESP. Yet, the literature needs more study to reveal how far this shift has embedded ESP coursebooks and audio materials. Therefore, this study aimed to explore to what extent the recent ESP coursebooks and audio materials matched the characteristics of ELF. In the study, four ESP coursebooks and their audio tracks were analyzed in terms of the presence or absence of references to ELF features, specifically; ELF-informed activities, the promotion of using English outside the inner circle countries, and the use of authentic expending circle English communication. The findings revealed the dominance of Standard English in language exposure, a dearth of ELF-informed activities, and a sparse representation of expending circle cultures in the four ESP coursebooks. Similarly, the listening tracks showed a strong preference for native English speakers as the introducers of English users in the tracks. The study presents a number of critical implications for ESP instructors and material designers.

This article aims to analyze the characteristics of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) from a bibliographic review. ESP and TBLT concepts and the main functions of a task in a professional context are addressed. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) uses tasks to perform certain communicative function in certain context. TBLT does not focus on gramatical structures and isolate language. Tasks are activities which demand the learners to utilize the real language. They are diferent from traditional language learning activities whose primary focus tends to be on linguistics features such as grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation rather than a communicative problem to solve.Thus, addressing on such issue, it is intended to reflect on how tasks can be used to survey the needs of learners of the target language, as well as be used as teaching instruments. From the reflections of this work, some contributions may come out, such as instructors of ESP course can use tasks as instruments that promote an improvement in the linguistic skills that will be used by apprentices in professional contexts.

This investigation underscored Legal Genres a complex type of discourse. It was realized through legal texts written in legal environment, which are regarded as special-purpose texts different from other kinds of texts in respect to their text-internal and text-external properties. A great variety of legal texts reflects the diversity of law itself. As different legal texts tend to have different functional structural, and linguistic features, they are classified into genres on the basis of different criteria. The analysis of genres of legal texts contributes to the overall understanding and construction of legal discourse in general and legal texts in particular. This paper aims to draw a comparative analysis of two closely related legal genres which are Statement of Claim and Statement of Defence, focusing on specific features of the two genres. This paper unearths the specific roles these two closely related genres play in the legal context and also show the core elements in their features resulting from the move patterns, making their similarities and differences to be clearly exposed. It was also a way to bring up the core elements. These two important documents must be present and acceptable for court proceedings. The study revealed that the two genres discussed are useful only in Civil cases (Two individuals), and not in Criminal cases (State vs. Individuals). It was also identified that the study implies that the two genres complement each other’s role in their communicative functions they perform. The theoretical framework that underpinned this study was the genre theory. According to (Kim, J., Greiner, M., & Zhu, E. 2024) these included the English for Specific Purpose (ESP) and others. For the sake of this research, the focus shall be on the English for Specific Purpose (ESP).

05–566Abu-Rabia, Salim (U of Haifa, Israel), Social aspects and reading, writing, and working memory skills in Arabic, Hebrew, English, and Circassian: the quadrilingual case of Circassians. Language, Culture and Curriculum (Clevedon, UK) 18.1 (2005), 27–58.05–567Bao, Zhiming (National U of Singapore, Singapore; ellbaozm@nus.edu.sg), The aspectual gsystem of Singapore English and the systemic substratist explanation. Journal of Linguistics (Cambridge, UK) 41.2, (2005), 237–267.05–568Barwick, Linda (U of Sydney, Australia; Linda.Barwick@arts.usyd.edu.au), Allan Marett, Michael Walsh, Lysbeth Ford & Nicholas Reid, Communities of interest: issues in establishing a digital resource on Murrinh-patha song at Wadeye (Port Keats), NT. Literary and Linguistic Computing (Oxford, UK) 20.4 (2005), 383–397.05–569Berns, Margie (Purdue U, USA; berns@purdue.edu), Expanding on the Expanding Circle: where do WE go from here?World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.1 (2005), 85–93.05–570Bolton, Kingsley (Stockholm U, Sweden: kingsley.bolton@english.su.se), Where WE stands: approaches, issues, and debate in world Englishes. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.1 (2005), 69–83.05–571Carter, Julie A. (The Wolfson Centre, London, UK; j.carter@ich.ucl.ac.uk), Gladys M. Murira, Joseph Gona, Brian G. R. Neville & Charles R. J. C. Newton, Issues in the development of cross-cultural assessments of speech and language for children. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders (London, UK) 40.4 (2005), 385–401.05–572CoetzeeVan Rooy, Susan (Potchefstroom, S. Africa; basascvr@puk.ac.za) & Bertus Van Rooy, South African English: labels, comprehensibility and status. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.1 (2005), 1–19.05–573de Haan, Mariëtte & Ed Elbers (U of Utrecht, the Netherlands; m.dehaan@fss.uu.nl), Reshaping diversity in a local classroom: communication and identity issues in multicultural schools in the Netherlands. Language & Communication (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 25.3 (2005), 315–333.05–574Dogançay-Aktuna, Seran (Southern Illinois U Edwardsville, USA; saktuna@siue.edu) & Zeynep Kiziltepe, English in Turkey. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.2 (2005), 253–265.05–575Hiraga, Yuko (Keio U, Japan; nene_terada@hotmail.com), British attitudes towards six varieties of English in the USA and Britain. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.3 (2005), 289–308.05–576Joseph, Clara A. B. (U of Calgary, Canada; ejoseph@ucalgary.ca), Language in contact and literatures in conflict: text, context, and pedagogy. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.2 (2005), 131–143.05–577Lai, Mee-Ling (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China; mllai@ied.edu.hk), Language attitudes of the first postcolonial generation in Hong Kong secondary schools. Language in Society (Cambridge, UK), 34.3 (2005), 363–388.05–578Moraa Michieka, Martha (Purdue U, USA; michieka@purdue.edu), English in Kenya: a sociolinguistic profile. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.2 (2005), 173–186.05–579Nickerson, Catherine (Radboud U Nijmegen, the Netherlands; c.nickerson@let.ru.nl), English as alingua francain international business contexts. English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 24.4 (2005), 367–380.05–580Ouhiala-Salminen, Leena, Charles Mirjaliisa & Anne Kankaanranta (Helsinki School of Economics, Finland; leena.louhiala@hkkk.fi), English as alingua francain Nordic corporate mergers: two case companies. English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 24.4. (2005), 410–421.05–581Planken, Brigitte (Radboud U Nijmegen, the Netherlands; b.planken@let.ru.nl), Managing rapport inlingua francasales negotiations: a comparison of professional and aspiring negotiators. English for Specific Purposes (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 24.4 (2005), 381–400.05–582Rajagopalan, Kanavillil (State U at Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil), Language politics in Latin America. AILA Review (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) 18 (2005), 76–93.05–583Seargeant, Philip (U of London, UK; pseargeant@ioe.ac.uk), Globalisation and reconfigured English in Japan. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.3 (2005), 309–319.05–584Smith, Geoff P. (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China), Chinese language sources for Chinese Pidgin English: what we know and what we need to know. Hong Kong Journal of Applied Linguistics (Hong Kong, China) 9.2 (2004), 72–79.05–585Sweeting, Anthony & Edward Vickers (U of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; sweetone@mac.com), On colonizing ‘colonialism’: the discourses of the history of English in Hong Kong. World Englishes (Oxford, UK) 24.2 (2005), 113–130.05–586Tanaka, Hiroko (U of Essex; htanaka@essex.ac.uk), Grammar and the ‘timing’ of social action: word order and preference organization in Japanese. Language in Society (Cambridge, UK), 34.3 (2005), 389–430.

Ambiguity of meaning exists in every language and at all levels of linguistic structure. A common feature of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) texts is the ambiguity of meaning in the teaching and learning of ESP. Vocabulary retention is another problematic issue for learners at all levels in every language. For ESP students, Contextual Lexis Learning (CLL) is beneficial, since it has a decisive impact on establishing meaning and retaining vocabulary. The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of CLL in helping ESP students understand the meaning of vocabulary and retain it. The study involved 50 undergraduate students enrolled in an engineering program, who were assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. Before the training, a pre-test was conducted to determine their levels of proficiency. Post-tests were performed under different conditions after every two training sessions. The results of the T-test and Independent Samples T-test indicate that CLL has a significant and wide-ranging effect on students' ability to comprehend and produce vocabulary in various situations, as well as to retain it in both the short and long term. The current study demonstrates that CLL methods enhance students' confidence and autonomy, reducing their reliance on dictionaries and external resources. This article has some curriculum design and pedagogical implications, suggesting that if we equip our students with improved vocabulary proficiency and a greater understanding of language, we must make CLL a component of any ESP program.

Nowadays, we have an increase in informal online courses in Brazil with a variety of subjects, according to the student’s needs and interests. These informal courses could complement the knowledge learned in schools and universities, associating formal and informal learning, as defended by the Education 4.0 model. Additional languages, especially the English language, represent a great part of these courses as our society now understands the importance of English in a digital and technological world. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an area of English teaching-learning that takes into consideration the student’s needs in the curriculum design, focusing on a context where learners will use the language in real life. This area is also interdisciplinary because it connects linguistic structures with professional fields. For this reason, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education could be an interesting approach in ESP courses by providing an integrative method. Thus, this paper aims to analyze three informal online English courses designed for Brazilian students/professionals in Technology, considering the ESP and STEAM approaches, and compare them with university learners’ needs. After the analysis, we understand in this paper that informal English courses, particularly ESP ones, should be designed by an interdisciplinary group of professionals, such as language teachers and specialists in the area, in order to show a meaningful learning experience. Besides, it is important to go beyond a list of vocabulary, integrating the four language skills and working with genres connected to the student’s own area of study.

This research article investigates the historical and theoretical developments of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) over the past six decades. Early years of ESP research primarily focused on text-based counts before gradually transitioning to a greater emphasis on rhetorical devices. The following decades saw the introduction of central concepts such as NEEDS assessment, linguistic devices and their rhetorical purposes, genre, and rhetorical move, which broadened the scope of ESP research. In the modern age of ESP, corpus studies and genre emerged as central concepts in the field. This led to the emergence of intercultural rhetoric as a key area of research, and the development of genre-based approaches in ESP. The use of corpus studies allowed for a data-driven approach to language analysis, enabling the identification and analysis of linguistic features and patterns of specific genres. Overall, this article provides an in-depth overview of the historical and theoretical perspectives that have influenced ESP research. The analysis highlights the evolution of central concepts such as genre, rhetorical move, and intercultural rhetoric, and emphasizes the significance of corpus studies in ESP research. It provides insights on the historical and theoretical development of ESP.

1 IntroductionIn her introduction to English for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice (2009: 1), Belcher distinguishes between English generically - for no (Long, 2005: 19) - and it for specific purposes, albeit drawing on the notion that languages are always taught with some kind of purpose in mind. This fine distinction brings to the fore the difficulty in clearly defining what is meant by English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and, within ESP, what is meant by two of its branches, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), on the one hand, and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), on the other. This latter branch is closely linked with all kinds of professions that originate multiple subdivisions of which English for Legal Purposes (ELP) and English for Medical Purposes (EMP) are two examples.As a consequence of this growing use of English, traditionally nonAnglophone communities have experienced increasing demand for ESP teachers. However, pre-service teacher education programmes in Europe have so far largely neglected this important area (Huttner et al., 2009: 99), which is often individually tackled by academic staff dealing with such students. This chapter draws on our experience as teachers of tertiary-level courses on English language and linguistics and considers particularly the case of legal and medical English.2 The relevance of linguistics in ESP teacher education2.1 Stating the obvious?Insisting on the relevance of linguistics in ESP teacher training may seem pointless. In fact, the language and in particular the foreign language profession bears on several disciplines, and linguistics is one of them (as are psychology, social theory or education). Apart from developing future instructors' knowledge of the language they are going to teach, linguistics enhances their metalinguistic awareness, which is indispensable tool in their job. That is probably why 'applied linguistics' emerged as an attempt to provide a basis for the activities of language teaching (Richards, 2006) and may still be envisaged this way despite the development of broader definitions which consider it the discipline that provides theoretical and empirical foundations for investigating and solving language-related problems in the 'real world' (Davies, 2006).Furthermore, since Swales published his seminal work on EAP in 1990, genre has proven to be a key concept within ESP research and practice. And, despite a long history in Western scientific tradition, it was within discourse analysis and other (applied) linguistic disciplines that this concept has been mostly developed in the last decades. According to Bawarshi and Reiff (2010: 29), it was in particular the Systemic Functional approach to genre that has contributed [the most] to how it is understood and applied in textual analysis and language over the last twenty-five years. Within this framework, genre may be defined as a class of oral or written texts, sharing a communicative and social purpose, presenting the same overall and somehow ritualized structure, and drawing on a similar pool of lexicogrammatical features. From this conception grew a genre-based within the socalled Sidney-school, which aims to offer understanding of how texts are structured and why they are written the way they are in order to provide learners with the means to achieve certain social purposes. This was described by Bernstein (1990: 73) and later on Hyland (2007: 152) as a visible pedagogy and is felt to be particularly important in the case of culturally, socially and linguistically disadvantaged native-speaking students who have to acquire a thicker slice of the cultural capital of their community. Despite the obvious differences between native (LI) and non-native speaking (L2) learners, ESP shares with the former approach the belief that the structural and linguistic features of a text are connected to its social context and function, and the goals of offering learners explicit understanding of the genres they have to know in order to belong to a particular community of practice. …