The Mother Tongue Education Status and Ecological Diversion in Chinese Colleges

摘要

In the globalized cultural competition, the mother tongue increasingly stands out the importance as the carrier to inherit culture and spread civilization, but mother tongue education in institutions of higher learning is caught in the extensive disputes and "awkward" mud puddle, showing the pessimistic status quo. To reconstruct the paradigm of mother tongue education in institutions of higher learning by using ecological theory and promote harmonious and sustainable development of mother tongue education by virtue of comprehensiveness, association and balance is an innovative road that is attemptable. In the irreversible globalized wave, various countries treat domestic mother tongue education in institutions of higher learning as an increasingly important public basic course. No matter in the USA, Hong Kong or Taiwan, mother tongue education occupies an important position in college education and it is brought into the required course system to safeguard it in the system. In China, mother tongue education in institutions of higher learning is undertaken by "College Chinese", especially for students who major in science, industry, agriculture and medicine. College Chinese is one of uncommon the school-required courses with the direct purpose of mother tongue education. According to the investigation on students' mother tongue level in College Chinese in recent years, it can be observed that from theoretical study to classroom practice and from internal support to external environment, College Chinese actually is kept in the "awkward" situation. The mother tongue education effects are also anxious. By reviewing the history of mother tongue education, since the Revolution of 1911, "Freshman Chinese" course was established under the advocate of Cai Yuanpei. This was the Chinese language course that makes the current College Chinese educators and scholars admire its brilliance and sigh with its fade. "Freshman Chinese" established by Tsinghua University was commonly completed by multiple teachers, including Zhu Zhiqing, Wen Yiduo, Shen Congwen, Yu Pingbo, Yang Shuda, Yu Guanying, Wang Yao and Wu Zuxiang, who taught the most brilliant parts in their classroom. Students also could gain knowledge, enjoyment and scholarship approach in the classroom. On the other hand, the setting of freshman Chinese aimed to compensate for vernacular Chinese, pointing to fill a vacancy in scholarship enlightenment and reading. After that, College Chinese has been paused for a long time until Mr. Kuang Yaming and Mr. Su Buqing advocated the reestablishment of College Chinese - the course is specific to students in non-Chinese major. The original intention of establishing such a course was to make up a missed lesson. At that time, most of students who were admitted to the college had the weak Chinese foundation. The direct purpose of establish such a course was to make up a basic course of Chinese. Guided by such an educational idea, it is enough that new teachers or young teachers make up Chinese knowledge and there is no need for famous professors giving a lesson in person. The reopening of College Chinese has already had 40 years. More and more colleges have joined, so that it is present in flourishing. However, College Chinese has been kept in the "awkward" situation for a long time, so that paradigm of mother tongue education falls into disorder. First of all, in terms of one dimension, lagging theoretical study and confusion of College Course can't provide the powerful intelligent support for educational practice. "There are 1745 papers with the title of 'College Chinese' including 720 papers with the theme of humanity...There is the major deviation in the research direction of papers." Nearly half of College Chinese studies focus on the humanism of the course, but there is no consistent opinion. The confusion of theoretical studies is related to the priori one dimension preset of theoretical study in College Chinese.