"Lu Shuxiang's Question" and the Six Pairs of Relationships in Chinese Language Teaching

Wen Lisan【China】

One

Lü Shuxiang (1904-1998), a native of Danyang, Jiangsu Province, was a linguist, translator and language educator. At the age of four, he entered a private school and recited The Three-Character Classic, The Hundred Family Surnames, The Thousand Character Text, the Four Books and the Five Classics, as well as a large number of other ancient Chinese classics. At the age of nine, he entered a new-style primary school. In 1918, he entered Changzhou Middle School and in 1922, he entered the National Southeast University to major in Western literature. In his fourth year of university, he studied at Peking University as an exchange student. At that time, a group of leading figures of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, such as Lu Xun, Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, Zhou Zuoren, Liu Banong and Shen Yinmo, were still teaching at Peking University. This exchange study experience was of great significance in Lü Shuxiang's educational career. During this period, the debate between classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese in the Beijing cultural circle was still very intense, and the counter-current opposing vernacular Chinese still emerged from time to time, which influenced Lü Shuxiang's later life choices. In 1926, Lü Shuxiang graduated from university and worked as an English teacher and taught Chinese grammar at Danyang Middle School, Suzhou Middle School and other schools. In 1936, he went to the Department of Anthropology at Oxford University and the Department of Library Science at the University of London for further study. His study experience in the UK gave him a comparative perspective on Chinese and Western languages and cultures, creating an excellent platform for his later linguistic research and language education research. After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, Lü Shuxiang interrupted his studies and returned to China. He successively served as an associate professor in the Department of Literature and History at National Yunnan University, a researcher at the Institute of Chinese Culture at West China Union University, and a researcher at the Institute of Chinese Culture at Jinling University, and concurrently served as a professor in the Department of Chinese at National Central University.

The learning and working experiences in the 1920s and 1930s fully prepared Lü Shuxiang for his later linguistic and language education research. His acquaintance with Zhu Ziqing and Ye Shengtao around the turn of the 1930s and 1940s marked his official entry into the field of language education and his rise to the forefront of the discipline. In the 1940s, he wrote articles for periodicals such as "Monthly Journal of Chinese Language", "Journal of Chinese Language", and "Middle School Student". At the invitation of Ye Shengtao, he wrote the teaching reference book "Essentials of Chinese Grammar" for middle school Chinese teachers. In 1943, he published "Selected Readings of Notes", a book that supplemented and corrected the classical Chinese textbooks. In 1948, he co-edited the high school Chinese and classical Chinese separate textbooks "New Advanced Chinese Reader" and "Selected Readings of Classical Chinese" with Zhu Ziqing and Ye Shengtao. In 1948, he participated in the editing work of periodicals such as "Middle School Student" and "Monthly Journal of Chinese Language"... All these indicated that Lü Shuxiang was about to become one of the pioneers and leaders in the construction of Chinese language education in the new China.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lü Shuxiang successively served as a professor in the Department of Chinese at Tsinghua University, a researcher, deputy director and director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and concurrently served as the chief editor of "Chinese Language". In 1954, he concurrently served as a member of the Chinese Language Reform Committee. In 1955, he was elected as a member of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Department of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During this period, he concurrently served as the deputy editor-in-chief of People's Education Press, presided over the formulation of the widely influential "Provisional System of Chinese Teaching Grammar", and guided and revised the junior high school Chinese textbooks in the Chinese and literature separate textbooks. In the 1960s, he used the "Lecture on Chinese Learning" of the Commercial Press to apply the results of linguistic theory research to the revision of articles, providing specific and practical guidance for people to correctly use the mother tongue to express their feelings and ideas. During the "Cultural Revolution", Lü Shuxiang was sent to a "Five Seven" farm. After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", he became one of the earliest advocates, organizers, theorists and practitioners of the language education reform in the new era. Witnessing the great damage caused by the "Cultural Revolution" to Chinese language education in primary and secondary schools, he published an article in "People's Daily", directly pointing out the current situation of Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools, that students' Chinese proficiency was too low and Chinese language teaching was "slow, inefficient, poor and costly", and called for language education reform to effectively improve the efficiency of Chinese language teaching. This article was called "a thunderbolt", sounding the clarion call for the language education reform in the new era. In an article, Lu Shuxiang asked, "After ten years and over 2,700 class hours spent on learning the mother tongue, why do most students still fail to master it? Isn't this a strange phenomenon?" [Lu Shuxiang, "Two Urgent Issues in Current Chinese Language Teaching," People's Daily, March 16, 1978.] This "Lu Shuxiang's question" resonated strongly with many Chinese language educators and still echoes in many people's hearts today.

In 1979, the Chinese Society of Education's Middle School Chinese Language Teaching Research Association was established, and Lu Shuxiang was elected as its first president. From then on, he personally directed investigations and research on the current state of Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools and proposed specific reform plans for Chinese language textbooks and teaching based on these studies. In the following few years, he published a series of guiding papers or speeches on the reform of Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools. Most of these papers and speeches were later included in two important works on Chinese language education: "Lu Shuxiang on Chinese Language Teaching" and "Lu Shuxiang on Chinese Language Education."

Lu Shuxiang modestly said, "I have never taught a single Chinese language class in my life." [Lu Shuxiang, "On Various Issues in Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," Chinese Language Learning, January 1979.] In fact, when he taught English at Suzhou High School, it was also a Chinese language class (just a foreign language class). He had profound knowledge of both Chinese and English, and he used comparative methods to study language issues and Chinese language education. Therefore, it is not surprising that his discussions on Chinese language education often hit the nail on the head. In other words, he could stand at an academic high point to examine Chinese language education problems, diagnose them accurately, and his views on the content of Chinese language teaching, which emphasizes both language and writing, and his process view of teaching students to learn, have had a lasting influence in the contemporary Chinese language education field, especially in primary and secondary schools.

Two

During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese language education in primary and secondary schools suffered severe damage, and the quality of education hit rock bottom. At the beginning of the new era, efforts were made to rectify the chaos and restore order. Many senior figures in the field of Chinese language education, who had been silent for a long time, emerged from the shadows and took the stage, advocating and offering suggestions for the upcoming reform of Chinese language education in the new era. From December 25 to 31, 1979, the founding conference of the National Middle School Chinese Language Research Association was held in Shanghai, with representatives from 28 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions attending. The participants discussed the issues in Chinese language teaching over the past 30 years. It was at this conference that Lu Shuxiang delivered a speech titled "On Various Issues in Middle School Chinese Language Teaching", which was divided into two parts. The first part raised the issue of "some problems within Chinese language teaching itself", discussing the six pairs of relationships in Chinese language teaching: literature and morality, reading and writing, the present and the past, teaching and learning, explanation and practice, and in-class and out-of-class activities.

The first issue was that of "literature" and "morality". Lu Shuxiang said, "This is an old issue and one that has been hotly debated. In my view, it's not just a binary opposition of literature and morality. I think it's a trinary opposition. The meaning of the term 'Chinese language' itself is not clear. It can be interpreted as language and writing, or as language and literature. Then, language, literature, and politics, isn't this a trinary opposition? As for how to view this issue, I won't elaborate. There will be many insightful opinions during this discussion." [Lu Shuxiang, "On Various Issues in Middle School Chinese Language Teaching", "Chinese Language Learning", January 1979.] The statement was brief but highly informative. In the 1950s and 1960s, many Chinese language education experts such as Ye Shengtao, Dong Chuncai, Zhang Zhigong, and Chen Wangdao, as well as some Chinese language teachers, had expressed their views on the relationship between "literature" and "morality". Especially during the great discussion on Chinese language education in the early 1960s, people held different opinions but reached a general consensus that "literature" and "morality" in Chinese language teaching are inseparable, with "morality" being embedded in "literature". Lu Shuxiang, naturally, did not want to simply repeat others' views but went further, stating that the relationship between "literature" and "morality" is not just a binary opposition but a trinary one, because the connotation of "Chinese language" itself is still not very clear, which can be interpreted as "language and writing" or "language and literature". Ye Shengtao believed that "Chinese language is language", and learning Chinese language is "learning oral and written language" [Ye Shengtao, "Study Chinese Language Seriously and Diligently", "Wenhui Daily", October 5, 1963.], while Lu Shuxiang believed that "Chinese language" has two interpretations, first, it can be understood as "language and writing, that is, oral language and written language" [Lu Shuxiang, "Problems in Chinese Language Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools", "Journal of Jiangsu Normal College", No. 2, 1978.], and "Chinese language teaching should give equal attention to language and writing, with language as the foundation and writing as the leading factor" [Lu Shuxiang, "On Issues in Chinese Language Teaching", "People's Daily", February 17, 1964.]. 。 Lu Shuxiang also believed that Chinese could be understood as "language and literature". He quoted Confucius' saying, "When you have spare energy, then study literature." He said that the "literature" here includes both "classical Chinese" and "literature" [Lu Shuxiang, "I Support the Lightening of the Burden in Chinese Teaching", Chinese Learning, No. 7, 1986]. "Because the current Chinese textbooks in middle schools are both language textbooks and literature textbooks, there are many literary works in them" [Lu Shuxiang, "Some Thoughts on Chinese Work", Journal of Zhenjiang Teachers College, No. 3, 1986]. In view of this, Chinese teaching cannot ignore the existence of literature. Lu Shuxiang mentioned here that language, literature and politics are in a "three-in-one" relationship, but he only briefly mentioned it without elaborating. This might be because he thought it was hard to explain in a few words, or it might be inappropriate to say it directly, leaving it for the representatives at the meeting to think about. However, in an article a few years later, he responded: "How to handle the relationship between Chinese and literature, and between Chinese and thought? My personal opinion is that Chinese classes should still focus on Chinese, without excluding the discussion of some thoughts or literature in Chinese classes. But the proportion should not be reversed, with a lot of talk about thought and literature, while Chinese itself is only briefly touched upon. The primary goal of Chinese classes is to cultivate students' Chinese expression ability, which is the main thing." [Lu Shuxiang, "Some Thoughts on Chinese Work", Journal of Zhenjiang Teachers College, No. 3, 1986]. However, Lu Shuxiang believed that learning a little literature in Chinese classes is not for ideological education or learning to write literary works, but for appreciating the artistic language.

Second, the relationship between reading and writing. There has always been a view in the Chinese education field that traditional Chinese education in China is "writing-centered", that is, teaching Chinese mainly involves teaching writing, reading is for writing, read what you write, and read what kind of text to learn to write that kind of text. Lu Shuxiang held a reserved opinion on this. He believed that reading itself is also a skill that needs to be cultivated. "Reading can serve writing, but it is not completely for writing" [Lu Shuxiang, "Several Issues on Middle School Chinese Textbooks", Middle School Chinese Teaching, No. 1, 1981]. "Apart from helping students write and providing examples for writing, reading classes also aim to help students appreciate literary works" [Lu Shuxiang, Lu Shuxiang on Chinese Education, Henan Education Press, 1995, pp. 48-50]. In addition, conducting ideological and moral education and expanding students' knowledge base are also important goals of reading classes. Lu Shuxiang quoted his teacher Lu Zhiwei's words, "You have to read the main news and even important advertisements of the day within 20 minutes," to illustrate that reading ability needs specialized training. Some books can be read word by word carefully, but to read a large number of books within a limited time, this ability requires specialized training. What Lu Shuxiang talked about here is the relationship between reading and writing, but in fact, he was emphasizing that reading and writing are different, especially that reading needs specialized training. His view on the relationship between reading and writing is correct. The ancient practice of promoting writing through reading and combining reading and writing in Chinese education makes sense, but reading and writing have their own rules and should be trained separately according to their respective methods. This is a scientific understanding of the Chinese subject.

Third, the relationship between the present and the past. Lu Shuxiang mainly discussed the issue of the amount of classical Chinese in middle school textbooks and whether to study classical Chinese. Related to this, if middle schools need to study classical Chinese, should there be a difference between liberal arts and science. Here, Lu Shuxiang, in a tone of posing questions for everyone to discuss, is modest. However, from the lines between the words, it can be seen that he believes that middle school students should learn some classical Chinese, and even more of it, whether they are in the liberal arts or science. There are at least two purposes for learning classical Chinese: to apply the ancient to the present and to appreciate ancient literary works and inherit cultural heritage. In terms of applying the ancient to the present, modern Chinese retains some classical Chinese words and even classical Chinese sentences and paragraphs from time to time. To understand them, one must learn some classical Chinese. Regarding the second point, without a certain foundation in classical Chinese, one cannot appreciate a large number of ancient works. As for the issue of inheriting ancient cultural heritage, there is no need to elaborate. In the 21st century, when the Chinese government advocates vigorously promoting traditional culture, whether middle school students should read classical Chinese is no longer a problem, and there is not much controversy over whether they should read more or less. The issue is to increase the number of ancient poetry and prose texts and raise the proportion of ancient poetry and prose. From this perspective, Lu Shuxiang's exposition on the relationship between the present and the past back then demonstrated his foresight.

Fourth, the relationship between teaching and learning. Lu Shuxiang believed that Chinese classes should not be one-sidedly "teachers lecturing and students listening", but rather students should take the initiative to learn and think, and the leading role of teachers and the active learning of students should be combined. In Chinese classes, teachers do not speak too little, but too much. This takes up students' time and prevents them from getting enough practice. He said, "Teaching, teaching, is to 'teach' students to 'learn'." [Lu Shuxiang, On Chinese Education, Henan Education Press, 1995, p. 428.] Lu Shuxiang put forward a viewpoint here, that is, students learn knowledge for application. Learning Chinese requires memorization and recitation, but not rote learning. Instead, it is to actively read and remember well, knowing it is useful and learning to apply it. "Teachers' role in cultivating students is mainly to teach them to think, this is fundamental, this is the most precious gift teachers give to students." Lu Shuxiang repeatedly emphasized "thinking", which is essentially opposing teachers' forced indoctrination in the classroom, making students memorize mechanically and passively accept knowledge. He believed that knowledge acquired through "thinking" can truly be transformed into one's own knowledge and learned to be applied. Lu Shuxiang's exposition on the relationship between teaching and learning here is a correct positioning of the subject (students) and the leading role (teachers) in Chinese classroom teaching. In today's deep-water zone of Chinese teaching reform, Lu Shuxiang's thoughts on teaching and learning should still be earnestly implemented.

Fifth, the relationship between explanation and practice. In other articles, Lu Shuxiang mentioned, "The current problem, at least in terms of vernacular Chinese texts, is not that they are explained too little, but too much." This would make students mistakenly believe that the purpose of Chinese classes is to learn to "explain Chinese" rather than to learn to "use Chinese". Therefore, Chinese teaching should attach importance to practice, and explanation should serve practice. [Lu Shuxiang, Two Basic Understandings on Chinese Teaching, Text Reform, April 1963.] 。 Here, Lu Shuxiang mainly discussed "practice", including comprehensive practice and individual practice. He agreed with the view of "more practice", but believed that the extent to which it is appropriate to practice needs to be studied. Lu Shuxiang mentioned on other occasions that using language is a skill, to some extent, it is no different from skills like swimming and playing table tennis, except that the training of language skills is more complex. To master a skill proficiently, one must practice repeatedly until it becomes a habit. The cultivation of skills cannot be separated from training, and Lu Shuxiang emphasized language training. Lu Shuxiang particularly mentioned the issue of handwriting practice. He found that the handwriting of middle school students and even college students was constantly deteriorating, and many people's handwriting was very poor and unattractive, even worse than that of Japanese people writing Chinese characters, which caused him great concern. Since the 21st century, with the increasing popularity of personal computers, computer input has gradually replaced handwriting on a large scale, and the handwriting ability of young people is undergoing a comprehensive decline. Therefore, the suggestion made by Lu Shuxiang here to strengthen handwriting practice is of great practical significance at present.

The sixth point is the relationship between in-class and out-of-class learning. Lu ShuxiangIt is believed that: "Chinese language classes are a bit different from other classes, and students have to learn Chinese at any time and any place." [Lv Shuxiang, "On Various Issues of Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," "Chinese Language Learning," 1979.] This is a great expansion of the extension of Chinese language, and Chinese learning jumps out of the classroom and out of the campus, showing broad prospects Of course, Lv Shuxiang's "extracurricular" mainly refers to extracurricular reading, and he emphasized the importance of extracurricular reading different times: "Comrades can recall their learning process, how much came from the teacher's classroom lectures, and how much came from their own extracurricular reading. recall that I was probably three to seven points, that is, seventy percent came from extracurricular reading." [Lv Shuxiang, "On the Problem Chinese Language Teaching," "People's Daily," February 17, 1964.] (1964): "Now some students have a level of Chinese language, and can write a fluent article. If you ask him how he learned it, he will mostly say that I mainly did not learn it from the teacher in classroom... I mainly rely on extracurricular reading, reading more books." [Lv Shuxiang, "On the Problem of Chinese Language Teaching in Primary Secondary Schools," "Jiangsu Teachers' College Journal," No. 2, 1978.] (1978): "You should read a, some in-depth reading, some skimming (the boundary between the two need not be too clear), and it is not too much to read 800,00 to 1,000,000 words a semester (this of course includes the Chinese language textbook)." [Lv Shuxiang, " Language Teaching Should Change Passivity into Activity," "Chinese Language Learning," No. 7, 1984.] (1984) Note that 800,000 to 1,000,000 words here mainly refer to extracurricular reading. Lv Shuxiang insists Chinese learning mainly benefits from extracurricular activities, which is consistent with the views of other scholars. Hu Shi said: "Many people who are clear and fluent in writing are the result of listening to the teacher in the classroom and talking about a few fragments of ancient prose of the Tang and Song dynasties; it is actually the result of reading in secret during class time." [Hu Shi, "On the Chinese Language Teaching in Middle Schools," August 27/28, 1922,Morning Paper Supplement".] Ye Shengtao said: "To cultivate reading ability, it is necessary to read more books outside of class." [Ye Shetao, "The Purpose of the Chinese Language Subject," "The Middle School Student," No. 29 (1932).] However, Lvuxiang's advocated extracurricular reading is not laissez-faire, but emphasizes the need for teacher guidance, telling students "which books are worth reading, books are not worth reading, how should books be read, and what should be paid attention to." [Lv Shuxiang, "On Various Issues of Middle School Chinese Teaching," "Chinese Language Learning," January 1979.]

Three

Lü Shuxiang's discussion on the above six pairs of relationships is sometimes superficial and sometimes in-depth. The relationship teaching and learning, speaking and practicing, in-class and out-of-class are mainly about the teaching methods of Chinese language, and they are also the most urgent issues in language classroom teaching. In particular, the relationship between teaching and learning is an eternal contradiction in Chinese language teaching. How to correctly grasp the dynamic balance between the "teaching" of and the "learning" of students, to play the leading role of teachers and to mobilize the initiative of students' learning, to maximize the efficiency of both teaching and learning has always been a major issue, and people have been exploring it.

The above six pairs of relationships in Chinese language teaching can be said to have caught the "key" Chinese language teaching. If these six pairs of relationships can be properly handled, Chinese language teaching can hope to change from "less, slower, worse, and more expensive" to ", faster, better, and more economical". Lü Shuxiang's six pairs of relationships in Chinese language teaching are a profound insight into the essence of Chinese language teaching pointing out a solution for the scientization of Chinese language education. If we can follow the plan and act accordingly, "Lü Shuxiang's question" is very likely be resolved easily.

References:

[1]Lü Shuxiang, "Two Urgent Issues in Current Chinese Language Teaching," March 16, 178, People's Daily.

[2]Lü Shuxiang, "Various Issues Concerning Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," Chinese Language Learning, January 199.

[3]Lü Shuxiang, "Various Issues Concerning Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," Chinese Language Learning, January 1979.

[4]Ye Shetao, "Seriously and Effortfully Learn Chinese Language," October 5, 1963, Wen Hui Bao.

[5]Lü Shiang, "Issues in Primary and Secondary School Chinese Language Teaching," Journal of Jiangsu Teachers' College, No. 2, 1978.

[6]ü Shuxiang, "On Issues Concerning Chinese Language Teaching," People's Daily, February 17, 1964.

[7]Lü Shux, "I Agree That Chinese Language Teaching Should Advance with a Light Load," Chinese Language Learning, No. 7, 1986.

[8]Lü Shiang, "Some Thoughts on the Work of Chinese Language," Journal of Zhenjiang Teachers' College, No. 3, 1986.

[9]Lü Shiang, "Some Thoughts on the Work of Chinese Language," Journal of Zhenjiang Teachers' College, No. 3, 1986.

[10]Lüuxiang, "Several Issues Concerning Middle School Chinese Language Textbooks," Middle School Chinese Language Teaching, No. 1, 1981.

[11]L Shuxiang, "Lü Shuxiang on Chinese Language Education," Henan Education Publishing House, 1995 edition, pages 48-50

[12]Lü Shuxiang, "Lü Shuxiang on Chinese Language Education," Henan Education Publishing House, 1995 edition, page 42.

[13]Lü Shuxiang, "Two Basic Understandings on Chinese Language Teaching," Word Reform, April 1963.

[14]Lü Shuxiang, "arious Issues Concerning Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," Chinese Language Learning, January 1979.

[15]Lü Shuxiang, "On Issues Concerning Chinese Language," People's Daily, February 17, 1964.

[16]Lü Shuxiang, "Issues in Primary and Secondary School Chinese Language Teaching" Journal of Jiangsu Teachers' College, No. 2, 1978.

[17]Lü Shuxiang, "Chinese Language Teaching Should Change from Pass to Active," Chinese Language Learning, No. 7, 1984.

[18]Hu Shi, "On the Teaching of Chinese in Middle Schools," August 7/28, 1922, Morning Post Supplement.

[19]Ye Shengtao, "The Purpose of the Chinese Language Subject," Middle School Students No. 29 (1932).

[20]Lü Shuxiang, "Various Issues Concerning Middle School Chinese Language Teaching," Chinese Language Learning, 1979.