Interpreting Foreign Language Education In Shanghai In The Evolutionary Historical And Cultural Context

The thesis aims at analyzing and discussing the relationship between foreign language education in Shanghai in the evolutionary historical and cultural context and the modernization of education in China, instead of a purely descriptive history of foreign language education in Shanghai. It diachronically describes and discusses the changes, features and social and cultural meanings of foreign language education in Shanghai in different times and cultural contexts so as to reveal the complicated relationship among foreign language education, history, culture and the society.In the thesis, the relationship between foreign language education in Shanghai and the modernization of education in China is discussed in the perspective of the development of foreign language education. The modernization of education in China is a movement of educational reform, mainly concerned with the Western learning, under the government's promotion and citizens' participation. It is, to some extent, the process in which the modern western culture takes the place of the traditional Chinese culture in all kinds of schools in China. Foreign language education, as a part of the modernization, plays an important role.The literary theory of phenomenology and hermeneutics, especially the viewpoint of "horizintverschmelzung" is applied in the thesis to explain some social phenomena in order to combine the real history with the real historical understanding. The society of Shanghai had changed greatly since the middle period of the 19th century. The Western learning and foreign language education became the symbol of the new education, which was different from the traditional Chinese culture. Different social classes readjusted their own mentalities, reconstructed and re-explained the new principles of value during the declining of the traditional modes of thinking. It is just in this perspective that the development of foreign language education in Shanghai during the last more than 100 years is studied and discussed. Schools, educational systems, curricula, social concepts have been analyzed so as to understand more deeply the abundance and diversity of education, culture and the society.The methods of literature analysis, narrative inquiry and other methods have been used in this thesis for studying foreign language education in Shanghai in both macroscopic and microscopic aspects. In a macroscopic aspect, foreign languageeducation was the precondition of the spreading of the Western learning. It promoted the changes of modes of thinking and social development and became stronger in the process, together with other social factors. There would be no new education without foreign language education. Both of them were in close tie. The rising and fall of foreign language education reflected the development and changes of new education in China. In a microscopic aspect, schools, teachers, students, curricula, textbooks and teaching methods and approaches were all concerned with foreign language education in a concrete way. Special cases and topics have been discussed in the thesis on the basis of theoretical analysis and literature study in order to study the history on the spot and reveal the historical changes and features of foreign language education in Shanghai.The thesis is divided into the following parts: introduction, body, conclusion, appendix, literature and postscript. The body is divided into 4 chapters.The first part is introduction. The purpose and significance of the study, problems and solutions, structure of the thesis and the train of thought, the limited scope and the periods of time, research methods and perspectives are introduced.Chapter one traces back to the history of foreign language education in Shanghai in a macroscopic aspect. Foreign language education was firstly introduced to the missionary schools in Shanghai from 1843 to 1860. Although it only brought a little influence to the society, it changed the traditional contents of teaching which had lasted for hundreds of years. It gradually developed along with the governme...