Chapter 56 On the Teaching and Learning of Chinese

There has been a lot of talk about Chinese teaching recently.There are many articles and talks about Chinese teaching by Chinese teachers, educators, language workers and writers, and I have roughly read them in newspapers and periodicals.I agree with the opinions of the majority, that is: enabling students to correctly grasp the systematic basic knowledge of Chinese and cultivating and improving students' reading and writing abilities are the basic tasks of Chinese teaching. I have never taught Chinese in primary and secondary schools, nor have I participated in the compilation of Chinese textbooks in primary and secondary schools, so I don't know the joys and sorrows involved.I only know that some writers and teacher friends, when talking about the Chinese proficiency of young people, think that the reading and writing skills of middle school students are very poor. , I don’t even look at how a word is written, so when writing, not only can’t use words to express my thoughts and feelings vividly, but also there are many typos and syntax barriers.I myself often receive manuscripts from young people. It is not that there is no life in them, but the characters are very dull, and the background is also very blurred.

I also thought about it for middle school students. They now need to read much more books than we used to. There are many subjects, heavy burdens, and many extracurricular activities. Unlike when we were young, we read them inside and outside of class. In the past, there were only dozens of articles and a few works that could be counted, and they could have enough time to ponder, recite, and master them well... But, on the other hand, it is precisely because they now have more books to read and can read than we do. They also have more extracurricular activities than us. As long as they work hard, they will have more and better opportunities to practice, appreciate and write than us. This is the reason for "coming from behind".

Cultivating and improving students' reading and writing skills has a lot to do with the compilation and selection of Chinese teaching materials and the teaching methods of teachers.The ideological nature of the text is the most important, of course it is not a problem.I would like to make a metaphor: a very good thought content is like a beautifully painted gauze lamp, and the words expressing thoughts are like the candlelight in the lamp. If the candlelight inside is very bright, the beautiful pictures on the gauze lamp are like It will be reflected in every detail; if the candlelight is dim, no matter how beautiful the gauze lantern is, it will also lose its color.

Similarly, a very good tune must also be sung with a good voice, "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools", without a good tool for expression, no matter how beautiful his thoughts and feelings are, It is also expressed poorly or incompletely. Therefore, I think that the compilation and selection of Chinese textbooks should be based on the premise of "thinking first", and select the most artistic and perfect articles;Like translations, articles selected for a movement can be reconsidered when editing. I do not despise translation. I often do translation work myself. I know very well that translation must be "faithful", "expressive" and "elegant". If you cannot master the two writing tools well, you will not be able to do a good job in translation. .But before middle school students can master foreign languages, they can't appreciate the benefits of translation.In addition, articles selected for a movement often ignore the artistry of the article because of the emphasis on the political nature of the movement.

I agree that in order for teachers to easily accumulate experience, a considerable part of the teaching materials should be kept stably.At the same time, more texts can be added to the reading text, such as new, excellent articles, articles that are in line with the domestic and foreign situations and various major events, and good translations, all of which can be put in—I thought that some loose-leaf pages should be printed at any time Reading materials, so that students can read the latest and best works at any time, such as the few I have read recently: a few paragraphs in Feng Deying's novel "Yellow Spring Flowers", Ma Feng's short story "My First Superior" , Gao Ying's novella "Da Ji and Her Father", etc., are all new works with strong ideological and artistic quality.Middle school students with lively minds and easy acceptance of new things should be read as early as possible.

I personally also deeply understand that no matter how well the textbooks are selected and how well the teachers teach, as far as students are concerned, if they don't work hard, their reading and writing skills will still not improve.There is nothing free in the world!Relying on reading texts, or even just reading texts, without seeking to read extensively, will not increase your ability to analyze and appreciate.I am afraid of comparing goods and articles. Only after reading a lot and gaining a lot of knowledge can I judge the pros and cons and compare the high and low.Even if after your own comparison, you think that the best articles have already been selected in the textbooks, then your efforts are not in vain, because you have already found the way to appreciate literary works.

In addition to reading more, you also need to read carefully, not only to analyze thoughts, pay attention to structure and vocabulary, but also to pay attention to the writing of ligatures, so that when you write, you can use vocabulary flexibly and don’t forget to write. words, or typos. After reading a lot, you should often take notes, and you should also extract the words and sentences that you think are beautiful and concise. Among the excellent works of our motherland for thousands of years, the vocabulary is extremely rich, and it is our most precious heritage. When we read a piece of classical literature, we should discard the dross of its thoughts and extract the essence of its vocabulary.This is also one of the methods of "serving the past for the present".

When you encounter a work you particularly like, you should read it carefully after reading it carefully. The ancients said: "A good book never tires of reading it a hundred times." "Practice makes perfect". Creation, when you can create good sentences yourself, your writing ability will be greatly improved. Generally speaking, everything in the teaching and learning of Chinese needs to walk on two legs: teaching materials must first pay attention to the ideological nature, but because Chinese is a subject of instrumental nature, more attention should be paid to the artistic quality of the text.The training and inspiration of teachers is important, but the hard work of students is even more important. Teachers can only teach you how to read and write, but they cannot read and write for you. "Green comes from blue, but it is better than blue", "Ice is born of water, but colder than water" are all words of encouragement from teachers in the past to students. This is not only our sincere hope, but also the general law of social development.

August 19, 1959. "We Woke Up Spring". )