Zhu Ziqing's Viewpoint Of Aims Of Chinese Language Education And Its Practical Significance

Mr. Zhu Ziqing raised the Viewpoint of Dual Aims of Chinese Language Education in 1925. He discussed the aims of Chinese language education pertinently and dialectically. His theory stated clearly that the aims of Chinese language education in middle school should be explained like this--(1) cultivating the habits or abilities of reading, thinking and expressing; (2) developing the thoughts and cultivating the feelings. The second aim is the same as other subjects and the first one is special for the Chinese language. But the first aim is more important than the second one according to the principle of the Subjects Division. In other words, these two aims need to be considered similarly and equally and should not be divided when they were put into effect by us, however, we should think the first aim is the more important one according to the principles. His viewpoint of Chinese language brings to light the nature of Chinese as a school subject and points out that cultivating the Chinese learning habits and abilities of students were the main function of the Chinese language learning and teaching, i.e. training perfect personality of students while cultivating their Chinese learning abilities. His discussion has doubtless guiding significance to the Chinese curriculum reform and the practice of teaching. It also can help us to recognize the nature of Chinese language precisely. The educationists of Chinese language have noticed the specific characteristics of this subject since 1920s. They began to find its individual character and pointed out that the language could not be separated from the thoughts and feelings. The Chinese language education is a kind of teaching subject which is a medium of the language and contains abundant knowledge. We may lose its substance if we only do the semantic inference from the two extremes (i.e. instrumental and humanistic extremes) without thinking of historical language background. The Chinese language education should carry forward the humanistic spirit and undertake the responsibility of training students but the Chinese language teaching will be cornered because of impractical humanistic spirit and also due to ignoring its special and practical function, ignoring and abandoning cultivating abilities of students. At present the crux of the Chinese language teaching is what to learn and how to train. It is urgent that the knowledge of this subject should get rid of the old to make way for the new and we should pay attention to the reform of the contents. It is also urgent that we should form a scientific knowledge idea and lay stress on the method of passing on knowledge. The training should be based on cultivating the learning abilities and raising their Chinese language quality. We ought to use Mr. Zhu Ziqing's view for reference to our today's Chinese language teaching and make the middle school students acquire the habits and abilities of reading, thinking and expressing rapidly. It is indeed correct and necessary.