BackgroundIt is hard not to be moved buy the fervor Chinese learners of English display in their studies.The EnglishCorner and Tou Pai are just two illustrations of how popular the English language has become.Theformer refers to an informal outdoor gathering where learners practice their phrases and ambushunsuspecting foreigners with stock questions like‘Where do you come from’,‘Do you like China’",‘Do you like Chinese food’Tou Pai(tou as in TOEFL)is a slang term for youngsters whose conversationalways seems 1o come back to emigration law and enrollment procedures at American universities.The desire to learn English,tinged with desperation,has,however,not yet brought about a richerlanguage environment.That is why students often still model their speech on the stilted English found inobsolete textbooks,and imitate teachers whose‘Chinglish’is sometimes incomprehensible to anybody buttheir students.
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