A Study Of Aesthetic Experience In Chinese Reading Instruction

The logical starting point of the current research is based on the question "What is the reading viewpoint the modern reading instruction is founded on?". Based on the question above we are required to answer the following two questions:The first question is "what is reading?" and the second question is "what is reading instruction?". The traditional view of reading considers reading as a cognitive process in which the final goal of reading is to acquire knowledge; as for the second question, the traditional instruction is regarded as an epistemic process in which students aim at look for "what the text told" in reading activities. So in traditional reading theories and instructional practice objectivity of knowledge was regarded the epistemic base. The traditional reading instruction points to the objective target of knowledge which is of active significance from the perspective of knowledge transmission. However, the subjectivity and constructiveness were neglected consciously or unconsciously to some degree in the knowledge-based reading viewpoint.In modern philosophical hermeneutics and reception aesthetics reading is regarded as an understanding process and reading activities were bestowed with ontological status, In reading instruction understanding is not only a thinking theory but also an existing means of being man; according to the axiology in modern educational philosophy, instruction is a process stimulating the physical and mental development of students and reading instruction is a process in which students construct meaning. The expanding and enriching of humanity research fields give methodological implications and significance to the reading instruction research. Individual subjective position is conspicuous in the process of either understanding or construction. The establishment of the subjective position lies in that individual enters into the meaning world of language by means of participating experience. In this way the kernel concepts of understanding, experience and construction are indispensable for the dialogue and communication between teachers, students and texts while aesthetic experience is present in reading construction, which forms the starting point of answering the questions above. Under such considerations the present thesis tries to prove that reading activity is a process in which individuals identify and find selves when facing aesthetic objects and in which individuals enter into the meaning world of texts through experienced participation. So reading instruction is an effective dialogue on the basis of individual aesthetic experience and the classroom instructional practice represents individuals'self-motivation and creativity by means of promoting learners' meaning construction. Based on these considerations, the current thesis is described in five parts:The first part tries to answer the question "what is reading?" from the perspective of ontology with the help of philosophical hermeneutics and reception aesthetics, discovering that aesthetic access is developed depending on experience through readers and texts based on which reading instruction is a process of arousing individuals' spiritual world depending on aesthetic experience. Part two explores that aesthetic experience enters into the field of the versions in the paradigm shift of reading instruction and its theoretical basis is closely related to the research shift of contemporary literary theories. The understanding perspective of philosophical hermeneutics, concern for readers'experience of reception esthetics and the esthetic field of versions in the philosophy of language endow the reading instruction of esthetic experience with the obvious paradigm characteristics of subjectivity, experience and aesthetic. Part three analyses the aesthetic experience feature of the textual world and the evoking feature of meaning reconstruction, explaining that the text interpretation activity in reading instruction is to acquire the production of the aesthetic meaning, which is both the internal appealing and enthusiastic invitation of the text and the mental requirement of individual's surpassing self. Part four analyses the process of reading instruction, indicating that reading instruction is the process of the harmonious field of versions and the effective dialogue on the basis of experience. The teacher and the student, as the aesthetic subjects, have different aesthetic experience and understanding perspectives and how their dialogue and communication can establish effective shared meaning based on their aesthetic experience respectively assures the effectiveness of reading instruction. Aesthetic experience has shared and communicative features of itself and the reading dialogue between the teacher and the student aims at seeking the harmonious field of versions in knowledge construction and meaning production. The last part explores the classroom teaching feature of aesthetic experience from the perspective of the practical aspect. The value and significance of aesthetic experience is definitely defined in the reading practice through presenting the classroom teaching type and the analysis of the classic case of teaching; at the same time concern for the feature of the reading activity of aesthetic experience and the cultivation of students'reading competence cannot go without individual's meaning construction and aesthetic practice.This thesis explores the ontological and axiological significance of the aesthetic experience reading from two dimensions of the theory and practice and proves that reading instruction is an integrated activity of intelligence, emotion and spirit. Reading is regarded as an existing form and mental cultivation of human being and reading instruction is required to help students to promote the intelligent competence, care for the students'emotional experience and focus on the promoting function of reading instruction in the spiritual world of human being.