A study of English name adoption, use, and attitudes of tertiary students in China

ABSTRACT

This study employs an open-ended questionnaire survey and online semi-structured interviews to explore English name adoption, use, and attitudes of tertiary students in China. The findings show that more than half of the students report having an English name and nearly half of the students choose their own English names. Students mainly use their English names in classrooms with the presence of foreign teachers. In addition, none of them believe that English names will affect their Chinese identity, reflecting ‘Chinese learning for ti (essence), Western learning for yong (utility)’, a deep-rooted sinocentric view in China's foreign language education.

本研究使用开放式问卷和线上半结构式访谈调查中国大学生采用和使用英文名的情况以及他们对英文名的态度。调查结果显示半数以上的学生有英文名，接近半数的学生自己选择英文名。学生主要在外教课使用英文名。此外，他们不认为英文名会影响他们的中国身份，反映了中国外语教育根深蒂固的‘中学为体，西学为用’的思想

KEYWORDS:

• English names
• tertiary students
• China
• Chinese identity
• foreign language education

关键词:

• 英文名
• 大学生
• 中国
• 中国身份
• 外语教育

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Hans Ladegaard and anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful feedback. Special thanks go to Professor Joseph Sung-Yul Park, Professor Meihua Chen, and Professor Daming Xu for their support of various kinds. Any remaining mistakes are my sole responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 China refers to Mainland China in this study.

2 Various names such as English names (Edwards, 2006; Henry, 2012), non-heritage names (Sercombe et al., 2014), Western names (Li, 1997; Mathews, 1996), and foreign names (Cheang, 2008) have been used in the literature to refer to the naming practices. English names is used in this study and refers to anglicized names.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Start-up Research Fund of Southeast University [grant number RF102862330].

Notes on contributors

Xi Yan

Yan Xi obtained his PhD in linguistics from the University of Macau and is currently Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Languages at the Southeast University. His research interests include linguistic landscape, language attitudes, language ideologies, language planning and language policy in Mainland China and Macao. His publications appear in journals such as Current Issues in Language Planning, Language Problems and Language Planning, Language, Culture and Curriculum, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Language Awareness, etc.