Attitudes and Values am going to define “attitude” and “value” and how they can be investigated. Fishbone and Zen, cited in Page-Pubic (2003) say that ‘attitude is an important concept that is often used to understand and predict people’s reaction to an object or change and how behavior can be influenced. ‘ According to DRP Gadwall, attitudes are what influence the formation of opinions on ourselves and on the world around us. Attitude is a hypothetical construction which represents the tastes and aversions of individuals in respect of a particular object. Attitudes are generally positive or negative. Attitudes can also be ambivalent’ (Gadwall, 1012). Attitudes have three components: the cognitive, the affective and the behavioral. The cognitive component is made up of the beliefs about the attitude object. The affective are the emotions aroused by the attitude object and the behavioral are the tendencies to react in a certain way to the attitude object. (Gadwall, 1 012) Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘Values” as the beliefs people have about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, which control their behavior.
Those set of morals that are central to or valued and respected by money. ‘ Attitudes and values ‘can be difficult to measure because measurement is arbitrary, meaning people have to give attitudes a scale to measure it against, and attitudes are ultimately a hypothetical construct that cannot be observed directly’ (Wisped, 201 2) but there are ways of investigating them by surveys, personal opinions, data in journals and articles. To investigate them I used five main sources of information: Audiovisual material from the O with personal interviews.
The e-journal by Kinsley Bolton and David Gradual called ‘English in China today. Seed this article because it gives a good overview of the current situation regarding to English in China. This helped me to identify different applications Of English in that country. Personal experience: A trip to China in April 2012 in which I asked our five different guides about English. The didactic material from the course. Internet journals, articles and Wisped. Rhetoric in the ASSAI.
According to the ancient Greeks, teaching rhetoric enabled individuals to express their ideas convincingly and persuade and influence others in the fields of politics and law (Cook, 2012, p. 229). Little has changed these days. Due to the power that it holds, the Americans have promoted the study and use of rhetoric in high schools for various reasons that suit the American values based, among others on ‘achievement and materialism’ (Handbook for Foreign Students and Scholars, 1994-95).
The power of rhetoric is being used for advertising, for public relations (PR) and for personal persuasion and for other uses, in the USA (Cook, 201 2, up. 225-252). Rhetoric uses a number of devices to achieve convincing results. It appeals to reason or logos, to inner feelings or pathos or appeals to the good reputation of the speaker or pathos Cook, 201 2, p. 233). Apart from these strategies, rhetoric also uses linguistic features such as “rhetorical questions” which ‘simulates dialogue by taking interrogative form but does not expect response’ (Cook, 2012, p. 234).
An example of this is a piece of the speech of Churchill in 1940 ‘You ask, what is our aim? ‘ Another linguistic feature especially used in propaganda and advertising is wholesale repetition ‘where an entire message is repeated many times’ (Cook, 2012, p. 239). According to Nylon, cited in Cook (2012), this use of professional persuasion is favored by almost all organizations from business (where it originated) to churches, political parties, trade unions, clubs and societies, universities and schools, charities and No’s, as well as individuals such as royalty and celebrities’ (p. 41 This generalized professional approval of rhetoric and its implications does not coincide with the views of the normal citizen. According to Cook, at a popular level there is an evident distrust of any use of language that goes beyond plain speaking. When the level of language exceeds a certain level of complexity a fear emerges that the listener has been manipulated or tricked in some ways. This suspicion goes beyond daily issues and focuses on moral values of great importance such as the infallibility of justice where the truth of the case can be lost in the rhetoric.
Integrity and political decency are seen contrasted with charm and verbosity (Cook, 2012, p. 236). Furlough cited in (Cook, 2012) defines the technique used by PR in more personal levels to acknowledge public “en mass?’ as “synthetic personalization” (p. 242). This technique, broadly used by all retailers in the LISA, banks, supermarkets, is the ‘primary focus in the retail business’ (Cameron, 2000, p. 261) and it is used by impasses to sell the excellence of the values of their personnel (Cameron, 2000, p. 262).
By controlling the language of the employees, companies want to increase their profits thus the employees are forced to follow a series Of linguistic patterns in their dally interaction with customers. According to Cameron, some of these patterns are: the total regulation of the spontaneous pathetic function of the speech act according to the company policies, the obligation to use customer’s names, the way they greet customers ‘using personalized formulas’, the degree of friendliness or how to inquire using pen questions. The systematic use of this policy is compulsory or employees will be penalized or prized accordingly (Cameron, 2000, p. 62). Retailers’ attitude towards this policy is quite favorable as ‘this linguistic and paralinguistic preferences are design to express particular disposition, notably friendliness… For the customers wellbeing, and thus to construct a particular kind of interpersonal relationship between the customer and the employee’ (Cameron, 2000). Nevertheless not everybody attitude is the same. The diary Washington Post gives an example of the above in October 998 where Safety retailing policy is disclosed and the views of some of employees: Unions received complaints from women employees whose attitude toward the policy was one of anxiety.
They complained when they felt their moral values threatened by being sexually harassed by men who misinterpreted the friendliness involved as a ‘sign of romantic interest’ (Cameron, 2000, p. 262). The attitude of other employees was critical. The requirements to speak and act in accordance with the policy contradicted their personal values and made them feel ridiculous and artificial describing the training as “clown school” (Cameron, 2000, p. 62). The attitude of customers varies.
While some of them say that ‘this makes them feel good’, others are of the opinion that their privacy is being invaded by the use of performances that technology brings. Some complained about their privacy being publicly broadcasted and there is also a generalized attitude to regard the service as false and insincere where the context and the cultural differences have not been taken into consideration (Cameron, 2000, p. 265). We can see that the major component of the attitude in the perception of the rhetoric in English in the USA is affective (Gadwall, 1012).
As an English peaking country the objectives, purpose and services of the English language will be different from those found in China. The ’emotive function’ (Wisped 2009) is the core function of the English language in this particular context in the USA. Speakers identify themselves with language which is used to express moods and moral concerns as they see English used as a powerful manipulative tool within their society. Let us now consider the place of English in China.
English language policy and English language education in China. After the death of Mao Sedona in 1974 China started a new political period hairdresser by a more lenient approach to the communist doctrines and a need to bring China forward developing and improving four different fields: ‘agriculture, industry, defense and science’ (Bolton, 2006). From 1 974 up until today this process has been unstoppable and has converted China into a massive global nonlinear economy.
English in China has been regarded as an essential tool for economic advancement and the Chinese Government has applied what sociologist Birdied, cited in Sergeant (201 2), defines as ‘linguistic capital’ (p. 20). According to Sergeant, the returns that one individual or nation will gain in the form of better jobs which would contribute to the increase of level of the standards of living, education and progress are directly proportionate to the investment of the individuals or states ‘in the learning of English’ (Sergeant, 2012, p. 0): In 201 0, China boasted of having around 1/3 of its population learning English (Bolton & Gradual, 201 2 up. 3-9). In 1 975 English, banned during Mayo’s era, was reintroduced and taught and students were sent by their schools to practice the language with English natives within China. Jung Change also gives an account of this: ‘in 1975… Was sent to a port in South China with my, sort of fellow students to practice English with foreign sailors’ (LOLLS, DVD).
Even though the policy with respect to English was much more permissive, the government did not make any efforts to modernism the language curriculum and carried on teaching what is known as Chinese English. Lie King gives an account of this: ‘After Nixon visited China in 1 972 there was a wave for people to learn English… It wasn’t really English it was what we’d call Chinese English… Most of the texts were about Chinese lives, the lives of the Chinese and the lives of the Chinese… N old China’ (13214 DVD). English text books were ‘written by teachers who had never seen foreigners before.
So they were direct translations of Chinese language texts’ (0214, DVD). The new approach to English by the Chinese government, which still was exerting a tough control on the nation, created new attitudes among the citizens. The new students, now free of fear, showed curiosity for the forbidden language and culture ‘I was torn with curiosity’ said Jung Change referring to the first time he went to England (U, DVD). With its new “Open Door policy’ the Government ‘put a new renewed emphasis on English language teaching (Hanna, 2009 p. 115).
The favorable attitude of the Government was implemented with a series of measures to facilitate the learning of English such as the full introduction of the language in the schools’ curricula, the authorization of Chinese radio stations and TV programs in English. Examples of this are the Beijing 774 for the capital of China (Radiotelephones 201 2), and the establishment of the “China Daily’ newspaper in 1981 among others. Very recently, in 2010, Zinnia, the most influential governmental news agency, ‘has added a multi-million-dollar
English language TV station’ a 24 hours non-stop English service called CNN World’ (Voice of America, 2010). The ass and the ass were years when English became enormously popular in China. The school curricula were reviewed and changed according to the increasing demand for the language which was seen as an important tool for the economic development Of the country. ‘When the syllabus was revised in 1 982, the emphasis was changed from politics to economics, sentiments that were reiterated in the 1993 English syllabus’ (Bolton & Gradual, 201 2 up. 3-9).
The importance that the current Chinese government has given to English is such that a positive attitude of primary school children towards the foreign language is promoted. Hanna, cited by Hanna (2009) paraphrases: ‘English is usually used in international settings, and it is also a tool to grasp advanced scientific and technological information. In accordance with our country’s reform and open-door policies, it is essential that we learn English properly (p. 1 15). This is the preface of a text book for primary school students used in Tension (Hanna, 2009, p. 15). New economical values are replacing political ones as China gets more involved in its bid to lead the global economy. This economical boom is bringing new needs to the nation which demand the existence of an educated elite of bilingual professionals: ‘The learning of English at school has led to the growing importance of language for intra-national purposes, not least for the personal advancement and educational success of literally millions of Chinese students’ (Bolton & Gradual, 201 2 up. 3-9).
In order to be sure that their professionals comply with a high standard of English the Chinese government has included it as an obligatory part of the examination to access university tidies or ‘National University Entrance Qualifying Exam or “okay” (Bolton & Gradual, 2012 up. 3-9), taken ‘by over 9 million students’ China Daily, cited in Bolton & Gradual (2012). The Chinese government has taken the matter of English learning even further: ‘the national College English Test (GET) promotes English language learning at the tertiary level.
The certificate of GET band 4/6 has attained such a high social level that a majority of universities adopt the policy of “no GET 4/6 certificate, no graduation diploma” (Hanna, 2009 p. 1 16). Due to this rigorous learning policy, Chinese students feel under erasure to adopt an ambitious attitude towards English because if they fall their English exam they won’t have access to superior studies or become graduates. Despite all these enhancements in language policy and the positive outlook of the government towards English, there are differing attitudes to English among students.
Some of them resent the fact that English has been forced upon them and only learn it ‘because they have to’ while others do so to climb socially and get a better paid job. (Bolton, 2006, p. 44). Sunnis Kamala explains the resentment of his ‘classmates who were very DOD in technical skills’, but ‘they couldn’t make it to the company only because they failed the English test that they had to undertake to get into the company’ (0214 DVD). Chinese students complain that they do not have sufficient opportunities to practice spoken English and therefore they don’t feel comfortable when they have to use English in its spoken form.
As English was obligatory, Jinn Chou started to learn it in secondary school: ‘l learnt English at that time. But most English is a, text book and there’s not a lot of spoken English learnt. So began to speak English… When work for an American company… So this is a, the first time is really, really hard’ (13214 DVD). As a result of this book based education, timid and uncomfortable attitudes towards spoken English, even in respect of Chinese employees of multinational companies, are augmented by old traditional values like respect and modesty.
One example of this is the extract from DVD 2 where we are informed that most of the conversation that is going on in Intel China takes place in Chinese’. Employee Sunnis Kamala, explains that the Chinese won’t have a favorable attitude towards talking in English to another Chinese in heir working environment as it will be perceived as an act of arrogance or ‘not giving respect’ . Kamala carries on saying that 99. 99% of the Chinese will use their own language to communicate with each other (LOLLS DVD).
Nowadays many universities are imparting English as part of their programmer ‘and one result of this seems to be that more and more students are learning English and learning English well’ (Bolton & Gradual, 201 2 up. 3-9). The favorable attitude of the Chinese government is also based on economic interest to attract foreign students from other countries hush generating great revenues: the universities of FUD in Shanghai, Nanjing Medical University, Anton, Chuan, Show, and Sun Hat-seen in Guano have reported that ‘more than 5000 international medical students’. . Are ‘studying through English across the country COCA, cited in (Bolton & Gradual, 2012 up. 3-9). The Government also is allowing foreign private language schools to teach English in China as in the case of ‘The Wall Street Institute based in Beijing (13214 DVD). Some of the ‘high achiever’ students want to improve their knowledge and proficiency further and they go overseas for further education in the form of Masters and PhD programmer in US and Europe Universities’ (Bolton & Gradual, 2012 up. 3-9 ).
China is rapidly adopting new middle class values that are spreading from the West but family values are still very strong. Parental opinions and decisions are very important pillars of Chinese society. Contradicting parents is something that the majority Of Chinese will not dare doing. Linen-Linen works for China Links Travels as a tourist guide. Last April I visited China for three weeks and she explained to me about Chinese family values. Young Chinese ill not disobey their parents in any decision they take about family life accepting their judgments as the wisest of all even in matters as personal as marriage.
Chinese parents see English as a tool to bring social position, pride and status to the family within society as English is becoming more and more a symbol of education and wealth. This view coincides with Weeping KHz’s who explains the fascination parents, who in the majority of the case cannot speak the language, feel when they hear their children speak English, ‘they’ll feel so happy and they feel proud of their children’ (1. 1214 DVD). Nevertheless parents’ attitude is not the same. More educated parents push harder for their children to learn the language than farmers, for example, who don’t have that particular need. O the views Of Linen-Linen, Tine, Gina and Ling-Ling, all of them state guides, working for China Links Travel in different parts of the country as Beijing, Asian and Shanghai, about the major reasons most Chinese have to learn English coincide with Wee-Weiss (13214 DVD The traditional value of parental obedience and new values such as to be able to pass the test required for migration purposes as migration is associated with status, prestige and improved employment prospects’ (Aerosol, 2012 p. 3). This positive attitude towards learning English allows the students to gain major advantages in their race to globalization as they can get better jobs, career, social prestige, travel around the world, improve their literacy practices as they can read signs, menus, receipts, books, digital texts, be part of the online community etc. According to Chou Asian ‘learning the subject in English will help me know more knowledge globally’ (13214 DVD).
Despite all these benefits that English is providing China in its joining he globalization process, there is a mixed attitude about English as major concerns are rising about the effects that the foreign language may have on traditional Chinese values: ‘young people that have very recently learnt the language at school and university in comparison with their parents and grandparents they now inhabit a very different linguistic world where they are able to bilingually negotiate entertainment and information’ (Bolton & Gradual, 201 2, up. 3-9).
On one hand, as Yean Www expresses the need for English for the development and modernization of China (1. 1214 DVD) and on he other some regard this hegemony of English as the “linguistic” that could bring the death of the Chinese language and culture. Bob Shih expresses his concerns about the matter saying: ‘Is my… Psyche, my soul completely Chinese? Why am I thinking like a foreigner? ‘ (13214 DVD). AS English is a language foreign to China there are no cultural or emotive associations of the sort which exist in America. In China the main component of attitude towards the perception of English is cognitive rather than affective.
