Use of "Besides" by Chinese Speaking EFL Learners

I’ve been curious about something that I see some of my students doing here regarding the use of “besides” and was wondering if any of the linguistics and TESOL experts here could help me understand if the usage is correct or not.

It seems that the Taiwanese EFL learners are using besides to mean also, as in this example on the Wikipedia article for Demographics of Taiwan, which, from the way it has been written, seems like it was probably written by a Taiwanese writer:

My question is, is this usage wrong? Instead, should the speakers be using something like: In addition, there are people from each area of mainland China…” or Moreover, there are people from each area of mainland China…”.

My experience with the use of besides, as a native American speaker of English has been only when only providing additional reasons for justifying why nott to do something or providing additional negative reasons for not doing something. For example:

[quote]Speaker A: Why don’t we go for beers at Carnegies tonight?

Speaker B: Not tonight, I’ve got to get up early tomorrow. Besides, I’m short on cash and won’t get paid until next week.[/quote]

Have I got this all wrong and, unbeknownst to me, are Tawanese English speakers really using besides correctly here to mean also, as shown in the Wikipedia article above?

It’s not wrong; it’s just immensely irritating. I was reading a document the other day that was full of unnecessary “besides”, "moreover"s and "in addition"s. It’s just another millisecond of reading comprehension time wasted on a word that conveys no information.

It’s a matter of style. Chinese/Taiwanese writers don’t understand that modern English is a fundamentally terse language, whereas Chinese is (still) a verbose one, where the aim is to impress the reader with the writer’s cleverer-than-thou witterings, rather than to enlighten him. They all need a good spanking with a blue pencil.

1 Like

It’s the result of the standard high-school & cram school teaching materials here in which synonymous phrases are taught as equal with no regard to usage in context. A typical excerpt would be something like:

also = in addition
= additionally
= besides
= furthermore
= moreover

…followed by a formula for plugging that into a sentence. “In addition, S + V …”

[quote=“Shimokitazawa”]It seems that the Taiwanese EFL learners are using besides to mean also, as in this example on the Wikipedia article for Demographics of Taiwan, which, from the way it has been written, seems like it was probably written by a Taiwanese writer:

My question is, is this usage wrong? Instead, should the speakers be using something like: In addition, there are people from each area of mainland China…” or Moreover, there are people from each area of mainland China…”.[/quote]
I agree with you: it’s wrong. “Besides” usually is something like “because part 2”: you’re providing additional reasons for something. However, they don’t normally learn that in high school here. “In a word” is another one that grates on me: “In a word, the topic needs further research and investigation in order to reach definite conclusions.”

(Note that slightly different sentence patterns do have more of an “also” meaning: “Besides the aboriginals and Taiwanese, there are people from each area…”)

Thanks for the comments.

So, based on the replies above, some still feel it’s not strictly wrong but also unnecessary in terms of usage and Lost in Asia believes it to be wrong. I have to agree with Lost in Asia in that I believe the usage is wrong. I grade a lot of students’ writing and have noticed an over usage of the word besides to mean also.

As Tiger Mountaineer points out, this is most likely how it is taught in cram schools, etc., as a synonym for “also”.

Lost in Asia, good point about “besides” also meaning “because part 2” and also as in "Besides the aboriginals and Taiwanese, there are people from each area…". I’ll have to remember that example for when I’m working with my students and providing them with feedback.

Thanks again for all the comments.

Hi fellas,

Thanks for an interesting read. I was always more in line with Shimokitazawa’s thinking of how besides should be used, though there have been circumstances where I would use (or have heard others use) besides when giving an additional point to support/justify the speaker’s intentions/actions/argument/whathaveyou in a non-negative capacity. For example:

Gal: Are you sure I don’t need to have a little more cash on me this evening?

Guy: It’s Vegas! We have ladies’ night here. Besides, with how you’re looking tonight you probably won’t spend a dime.

hmm… besides and also seems different to me. I do use besides like the original post sometimes. For me I use also when the new information is on the same line as the original. I use besides when it’s unrelated.

eg.
Nah, I can’t sleep because I drank too much coffee, also I put too much sugar in my coffee.
, also my cat was clawing my face.
, also I took a hit of a big sandwich.

vs.
Nah, I can’t sleep because I drank too much coffee, besides I need to get up early anyway.
, besides sleep is for losers.
, besides I have to finish writing my code.

maybe this still seems wrong? But that’s how i took it when I learned English, besides I hear it in Sitcoms sometimes. <-- there, I just did it again!

1 Like

The underlined part is incorrect. Most “conjunctive adverbs” convey strictly logical relations between propositions, and they convey other information about the presumed state of the listener. Many of them are just emphatic (e.g. moreover, furthermore).

The word besides is particularly interesting, because it states that all previously mentioned premises of an argument are irrelevant, but some other tangential or irrelevant propositions argue to the same conclusion. That’s a lot of information for just one word.

If you like brevity, you’ll hate most sentences of English (or any other natural language), because we have lots of redundant conveyance in sentences.

“I actually went there!” (…as opposed to counterfactually going there?)
“It’s true that P.” (Why not just say P, since declarative sentences assume that you’re claiming the truth of something?)

I highly doubt you’d be willing to excise these and other common phrasings from your regular use of language.

But Tiger Mountaineer is right about how Taiwanese high schoolers learned these terms, and that explains why they cling to them.

[quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”]It’s the result of the standard high-school & cram school teaching materials here in which synonymous phrases are taught as equal with no regard to usage in context. A typical excerpt would be something like:

also = in addition
= additionally
= besides
= furthermore
= moreover

…followed by a formula for plugging that into a sentence. “In addition, S + V …”[/quote]

That’s the problem across the board. Something is equal to something else. Will equals be going to, for example.

The problem when teaching adults is they will then respond “So if x isn’t equal to y as I’ve been taught, what is it equal to?”. It’s a tough nut to crack without introducing them to loads of different examples, but that’s usually not what they want to hear. As a result even western teachers usually take the short cut and split the conjunctive adverbs and other linking expressions into but, and, so or some similar nonsense. This is the core problem with rules.

The underlined part is incorrect. Most “conjunctive adverbs” convey strictly logical relations between propositions, and they convey other information about the presumed state of the listener. Many of them are just emphatic (e.g. moreover, furthermore).

The word besides is particularly interesting, because it states that all previously mentioned premises of an argument are irrelevant, but some other tangential or irrelevant propositions argue to the same conclusion. That’s a lot of information for just one word.

If you like brevity, you’ll hate most sentences of English (or any other natural language), because we have lots of redundant conveyance in sentences.

“I actually went there!” (…as opposed to counterfactually going there?)
“It’s true that P.” (Why not just say P, since declarative sentences assume that you’re claiming the truth of something?)

I highly doubt you’d be willing to excise these and other common phrasings from your regular use of language.

But Tiger Mountaineer is right about how Taiwanese high schoolers learned these terms, and that explains why they cling to them.[/quote]

[quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”]It’s the result of the standard high-school & cram school teaching materials here in which synonymous phrases are taught as equal with no regard to usage in context. A typical excerpt would be something like:

also = in addition
= additionally
= besides
= furthermore
= moreover

…followed by a formula for plugging that into a sentence. “In addition, S + V …”[/quote]

That’s the problem across the board. Something is equal to something else. Will equals be going to, for example.

The problem when teaching adults is they will then respond “So if x isn’t equal to y as I’ve been taught, what is it equal to?”. It’s a tough nut to crack without introducing them to loads of different examples, but that’s usually not what they want to hear. As a result even western teachers usually take the short cut and split the conjunctive adverbs and other linking expressions into but, and, so or some similar nonsense. This is the core problem with rules.[/quote]

Thanks. Some helpful language analysis and examples of usage here. I’ll try to explain this to my students.

I can attest that I have ever heard this usage.

[quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“Tiger Mountaineer”]It’s the result of the standard high-school & cram school teaching materials here in which synonymous phrases are taught as equal with no regard to usage in context. A typical excerpt would be something like:

also = in addition
= additionally
= besides
= furthermore
= moreover

…followed by a formula for plugging that into a sentence. “In addition, S + V …”[/quote]

That’s the problem across the board. Something is equal to something else. Will equals be going to, for example.

The problem when teaching adults is they will then respond “So if x isn’t equal to y as I’ve been taught, what is it equal to?”. It’s a tough nut to crack without introducing them to loads of different examples, but that’s usually not what they want to hear. As a result even western teachers usually take the short cut and split the conjunctive adverbs and other linking expressions into but, and, so or some similar nonsense. This is the core problem with rules.[/quote]

It’s the same kind of crap that you see when native speakers try to make their nonsense conjectures seem algorithmic by introducing arithmetic jargon into it. (e.g. “Innovation + Perspiration = Success”). Its main function, as far as I can tell, is to hide BS reasoning and to give the illusion of authority. I cuss at a screen when I see that crap.

But try introducing elementary set theory to anyone. You might as well write gibberish! (People understand Venn Diagrams, though, so I use those to some decent effect).

Most of these arguments only deal with the semantic and syntactical elements. Semantically, there’s not much of a problem with the OP’s example.

The problem I have with it is that it shows a lack of sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. In a conversation about going out in Vegas, as in Rockefeller’s example, the usage is correct. However, an encyclopedia entry is not delivered in the same way as a conversation between friends who are debating something. If I was in the mood to edit the wiki entry, I would replace it with ‘There are also…’

There are some EFL learners and EFL teachers of English who have mastered the phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, but still lack the ability to make their English feel natural in the context in which they are using it.

For example, a competent EFL English speaker may say something to you like: ‘You will find Taipei to be well serviced by public transport, moreover, the MRT is very clean and convenient for foreigners.’
There’s nothing wrong with the semantics or syntax, but it just ain’t natural. :2cents:

[quote=“Charlie Phillips”]Most of these arguments only deal with the semantic and syntactical elements. Semantically, there’s not much of a problem with the OP’s example.

The problem I have with it is that it shows a lack of sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. In a conversation about going out in Vegas, as in Rockefeller’s example, the usage is correct. However, an encyclopedia entry is not delivered in the same way as a conversation between friends who are debating something. If I was in the mood to edit the wiki entry, I would replace it with ‘There are also…’

There are some EFL learners and EFL teachers of English who have mastered the phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, but still lack the ability to make their English feel natural in the context in which they are using it.

For example, a competent EFL English speaker may say something to you like: ‘You will find Taipei to be well serviced by public transport, moreover, the MRT is very clean and convenient for foreigners.’
There’s nothing wrong with the semantics or syntax, but it just ain’t natural. :2cents:[/quote]

I only worry about that when the message of a given sentence is highly ambiguous or garbled. I’d be reluctant to criticize a fluent English L2 speaker for not sounding “natural” if he were perfectly comprehensible.

The “naturalness” is worrisome to me, philosophically speaking.

Indulge in a thought experiment:
Imagine that you discover a tribe of people who have had no social contact with the outside world, and yet, astonishingly, speak a very comprehensible dialect of what sounds like English (which they call “Twinglish”). Suppose that Twinglish proves so comprehensible to you as a native English speaker that there is no occasion in which you ever misinterpret Twinglish speakers’ messages upon offering the same charitable interpretations that you offer to other native English speakers. However, you recognize that this dialect is radically different from yours, and even some words are pronounced entirely differently.

If the purpose of language is effective communication, and a Twinglish speaker could, in principle, communicate with any English speaker, why would there be any motivation to “correct” Twinglish into English? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for both groups to integrate their languages as much as they could?

There are instances where we want to sound as much like the in-group as possible (e.g. Cops working with drug lords don’t talk like patrolmen do.) and could benefit from some training for that role, but per the example above, that should be a choice for the Twinglish speaker, which then makes him subject to native English prescriptions. Prescribing English to Twinglish speakers when they are content with their competence as it stands sounds like linguistic imperialism.

1 Like

[quote=“ehophi”][quote=“Charlie Phillips”]Most of these arguments only deal with the semantic and syntactical elements. Semantically, there’s not much of a problem with the OP’s example.

The problem I have with it is that it shows a lack of sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. In a conversation about going out in Vegas, as in Rockefeller’s example, the usage is correct. However, an encyclopedia entry is not delivered in the same way as a conversation between friends who are debating something. If I was in the mood to edit the wiki entry, I would replace it with ‘There are also…’

There are some EFL learners and EFL teachers of English who have mastered the phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax, but still lack the ability to make their English feel natural in the context in which they are using it.

For example, a competent EFL English speaker may say something to you like: ‘You will find Taipei to be well serviced by public transport, moreover, the MRT is very clean and convenient for foreigners.’
There’s nothing wrong with the semantics or syntax, but it just ain’t natural. :2cents:[/quote]

I only worry about that when the message of a given sentence is highly ambiguous or garbled. I’d be reluctant to criticize a fluent English L2 speaker for not sounding “natural” if he were perfectly comprehensible.

The “naturalness” is worrisome to me, philosophically speaking.

Indulge in a thought experiment:
Imagine that you discover a tribe of people who have had no social contact with the outside world, and yet, astonishingly, speak a very comprehensible dialect of what sounds like English (which they call “Twinglish”). Suppose that Twinglish proves so comprehensible to you as a native English speaker that there is no occasion in which you ever misinterpret Twinglish speakers’ messages upon offering the same charitable interpretations that you offer to other native English speakers. However, you recognize that this dialect is radically different from yours, and even some words are pronounced entirely differently.

If the purpose of language is effective communication, and a Twinglish speaker could, in principle, communicate with any English speaker, why would there be any motivation to “correct” Twinglish into English? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial for both groups to integrate their languages as much as they could?

There are instances where we want to sound as much like the in-group as possible (e.g. Cops working with drug lords don’t talk like patrolmen do.) and could benefit from some training for that role, but per the example above, that should be a choice for the Twinglish speaker, which then makes him subject to native English prescriptions. Prescribing English to Twinglish speakers when they are content with their competence as it stands sounds like linguistic imperialism.[/quote]

Except its NOT twinglish, its clunky English.

I indulged in your thought experiment and found it edifying. However, I stand by my point that the usage of ‘besides’ in the context of the example provided by the OP is inappropriate.

If you want to write and edit encyclopedic texts, you should read a hellovalotta encyclopedic texts before you attempt to do so.

Most Taiwanese EFL learners refuse to engage with actual English texts and prefer to go to class to memorize vocabulary and learn the rules of grammar. And it doesn’t work.

Rules are made to be broken, not memorized.

How did I miss this year-old thread?

The reason for all this is quite simple: they’re writing in English the same way that they write in Chinese.

Apparently, when learning to write Chinese, they’re taught to link all sentences together with “linking words”. I get this impression when they ask me why I don’t use so many “linking words” in my translations, and by the sheer overabundance of the following forms in Chinese writing (especially the writings of college students):

除了…之外,… (Besides … , …/In addition to…, … )
除此之外 (Besides this)
另外 (in addition/moreover/furthermore)
不但/不只/不僅 … 也/更 (Not only… but also…)
再加上 … (plus/moreover/on top of this)
包括 X, Y, Z …等(等) (including X, Y, Z … etc.) (I exaggerate with the ellipsis; in standard Chinese it’s six dots, but it looks like a long string to us)

These are just some of the most common forms I see. My guess is that this habit comes from the fact that punctuation is a relatively recent addition to the Chinese language, and punctuation isn’t used nearly as rigorously as it is in English, so they mark the beginnings and ends of units of thought with linking words.

So when they write in English, they then carry over everything they learned about Chinese composition into English. I’m sure it isn’t helped by the instruction of some incompetent English teachers they’ve encountered in their studies of English.

Moreover, (!) I maintain that the form “Besides, …” shouldn’t be used in formal writing. It’s too much of a spoken form, and it makes whatever follows it sound like an afterthought. When I see it, the very least I might do is change it to “Besides this, …”

[quote=“hansioux”]hmm… besides and also seems different to me. I do use besides like the original post sometimes. For me I use also when the new information is on the same line as the original. I use besides when it’s unrelated.

eg.
Nah, I can’t sleep because I drank too much coffee, also I put too much sugar in my coffee.
, also my cat was clawing my face.
, also I took a hit of a big sandwich.

vs.
Nah, I can’t sleep because I drank too much coffee, besides I need to get up early anyway.
, besides sleep is for losers.
, besides I have to finish writing my code.

maybe this still seems wrong? But that’s how i took it when I learned English, besides I hear it in Sitcoms sometimes. <-- there, I just did it again![/quote]

As everybody can notice I’m not a native English speaker, so sorry for I’m going to participate in this discussion. I found Finley’s and hansioux explanations quite good, and I think that that’s totally the way I use ‘besides’. Now, language is not maths, meaning that there are intentions, moods, meaning overlappings, small details, etc… . And also, as somebody had pointed out (the thread seems to be quite old!), the way we write is not the way we speak. You don’t even need to look at the Encyclopedia as mentioned; written English or Spanish is not the same than spoken English or Spanish. And I remember i read in that “The classic guide to better writing” that the main difference was the way we order ideas and bind them with connectors, like “that”, “which”, “although”… and yeah, “besides” is just one more example. So while economy applies always to language, it becomes more relevant when talking, hence that besides could sound a little bit off in conversations, although it could be perfectly correct.

Here’s a study analyzing the use of linking adverbials like “besides” and “on the other hand” in English academic writing by Chinese students.

The researcher concludes that it’s due to poor instruction; this may be true and certainly helps perpetuate the problem, but having read thousands of essays written in Chinese by Taiwanese students, I maintain it originates from writing habits and conventions used by Chinese/Taiwanese people in their own language, and they’re just transferring these habits into English.

oro.open.ac.uk/38667/

I think Chris has identified the real issue. Chu2le…zhi1wai4 is an extremely common introductory phrase in Chinese that starts the sentence off by adding something to what follows. For example

[quote]除了咖啡以外還有那些飲料或東西有提神作用

Besides coffee, what other drinks have a stimulant effect?[/quote]

It’s hard to say that anything is really wrong with this sentence, but it doesn’t sound quite right to my ear.

A native speaker might have said:

[quote=“Chris”]How did I miss this year-old thread?

The reason for all this is quite simple: they’re writing in English the same way that they write in Chinese.

Apparently, when learning to write Chinese, they’re taught to link all sentences together with “linking words”. I get this impression when they ask me why I don’t use so many “linking words” in my translations, and by the sheer overabundance of the following forms in Chinese writing (especially the writings of college students):

除了…之外,… (Besides … , …/In addition to…, … )
除此之外 (Besides this)
另外 (in addition/moreover/furthermore)
不但/不只/不僅 … 也/更 (Not only… but also…)
再加上 … (plus/moreover/on top of this)
包括 X, Y, Z …等(等) (including X, Y, Z … etc.) (I exaggerate with the ellipsis; in standard Chinese it’s six dots, but it looks like a long string to us)

These are just some of the most common forms I see. My guess is that this habit comes from the fact that punctuation is a relatively recent addition to the Chinese language, and punctuation isn’t used nearly as rigorously as it is in English, so they mark the beginnings and ends of units of thought with linking words.

So when they write in English, they then carry over everything they learned about Chinese composition into English. I’m sure it isn’t helped by the instruction of some incompetent English teachers they’ve encountered in their studies of English.

Moreover, (!) I maintain that the form “Besides, …” shouldn’t be used in formal writing. It’s too much of a spoken form, and it makes whatever follows it sound like an afterthought. When I see it, the very least I might do is change it to “Besides this, …”[/quote]