Call me Fei: Chinese-speaking students’ decision whether or not to use English names in classroom interaction

Abstract

Unlike other groups of international students, Chinese speakers' use of English names while studying in English is an established norm. Relatively little discussion of the practice has taken place within recent literature, and less attention still has been paid to the minority of Chinese-speaking students who do not adopt English names. The choice of name used during classroom interaction is, though, both significant and meaningful, symbolising the social and cultural membership a person would like to evoke and impacting on student-teacher relationships. This article reports on a survey into the use of English names by Chinese speakers, which was completed by 330 Chinesespeaking students at UK universities-255 of whom had adopted English names, 75 of whom had not. Survey responses reveal why and how decisions to/not to adopt English names are made. Interview data is then presented from discussions with eight Chinese-speaking students based in the UK who do not use English names. They explain why and describe their experiences of being a minority among Chinese-speakers studying in English.

Adoption of non-Chinese Names as Identity Markers of Chinese International Students in Japan

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This study explores naming practices among Chinese international students and their relation to personal identity during their sojourn in Japan. Although previous studies have reported that some Chinese international students in English-speaking countries adopt names of Western origin (Cotterill 2020;Diao 2014;Edwards 2006), participants in this study were found to exhibit different naming practices: either adopting names of Japanese or Western origin; or retaining both Western and Japanese names. Drawing on fifteen semi-structured interviews with Mainland Han Chinese students, this investigation examines their motivations for adopting non-Chinese names and determines how personal identities are presented through them.

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“…Social, official, and occupational titles such as Shizhang 'mayor' and Laoshi 'teacher' were seldom used by the participants in this study who were full-time students. Further, although kinship terms can be extended to people who are not family members to indicate solidarity and intimacy (Cotterill 2020), this form of addressing was hardly reported as being used by the participants in their social relationships: neither at university nor in the workplace. In terms of proper names, Li (1997) suggests that full Chinese names are for formal occasions and Chinese given names communicate intimacy.…”

“…The spread of English as a major working language in many academic institutes in Japan may help bring about changes to terms of address since both cultures use Chinese characters. Although previous studies have already shown that Chinese students prefer to adopt so-called English names when learning English in Chinese-speaking societies (Li 1997;Lee 2001;Tan 2001;Cheang 2008;McPherron 2009;Chien 2012;Henry 2012;Gilks 2014;Sercombe et al 2014;Chen 2015;Huang and Ke 2016) and when studying abroad in English-speaking countries (Edwards 2006;Diao 2014;Schmitt 2019;Cotterill 2020;Xu 2020), little is known about their practice of adopting foreign names in non-English-speaking countries like Japan.…”

Learner Identity and Interactional Competence in English as a Foreign Language Classroom

“…Taking an English name means the Chinese students are taking a new form of identity in order to facilitate classroom interactions. Cotterill (2019) found that 255 out of 330 survey respondents (77.27%) used an English name and that they were highly encouraged by their teachers to do so (Nguyen, 2016). This study suggests that identity construction is an important element of successful classroom interactions, in the sense that members of the class need to share common ground in order for them to work as a group.…”

Anthropology across the decades amongst the Chinese Singaporeans

“…3). Personal names are more than a simple word used to refer to someone, it is also a marker of social identity, where you can acquire information on their culture, race, gender, religion, and even social trends (Cotterill, 2019;Gerhards & Hans, 2009;Gerhards & Tuppat, 2020;Li, 1997;Lieberson & Bell, 1992). Names also carry with them the parents' wishes and aspirations for the child, and this practice occurs across many different cultures (Burt, 2009;Lombard, 2011;Ngubane, 2013).…”