Mother Tongue Education In American Universities Under The Idea Of General Education

Mother tongue education in university refers to the education including nativeliterature and native language writing for every undergraduate under the idea of GeneralEducation. It is mostly reflected in the native literature courses and writing courses in theGeneral Education curriculum system. There are two aspects of core pursuits of GeneralEducation in this modern society. First is to strengthen the training of students’ thinkingability by leading them to focus on those eternal philosophical questions, inheriting thecore values of human civilization, and paying attention to different ways to explore in thethree fundamental knowledge domains. Second is to cultivate human of completeness inthis modern society, further, to cultivate rational citizens of responsibility and ability.Using this theory of core pursuits of General Education in modern society as the analyticalframework, and based on documentary method, this research collects, organizes andanalyzes the data of curriculum goals, settings and teaching plans from Top10Private andTop10Public universities in America. Then, this thesis summarizes the characteristics andideas of mother tongue education in American universities through careful analysis. Afterall, taking this conclusion as a reference, the thesis reflects on the current situation ofmother tongue education in Chinese universities.Native literatures courses in American universities have four main characteristics.Firstly, they are attached great importance to with a long history. Secondly, the courseresources are very rich with high-quality. Thirdly, those native literature courses highlypraise masterworks and emphasis on close reading. Fourthly, these courses aim to trainingstudents’ thinking ability to cultivate citizens. As for writing courses, there are also fourcharacteristics. Firstly, they are viewed as the fundamental part of undergraduate education.Secondly, these rich courses differ in their difficulties and topics which satisfy differentstudents. Thirdly, some writing courses combine themselves with different subjects andstudents’ majors. Fourthly, writing courses also emphasize on intensive training. Apartfrom all of these, mother tongue education in American universities also shares three features, that is, close combination between reading and writing, support and service fromspecific tutor and institution.It comes to the conclusion that mother tongue education in American universities, as asignificant part of General Education, totally obeys its core pursuits in this modern society.First, mother tongue education aims to cultivate qualified citizens through training theirthinking ability by reading classics, improving their ability to write and comment, andinheriting national cultures to build common values. Second, at a high level, it cultivateselites for the future society through shaping students’ rigorous language expression,eminently training their critical thinking, and inheriting the humanism spirit.As for China, only by correctly understanding the core pursuits of General Education,clearly clarifying the ideas and goals of mother tongue education and build a nativeliterature and writing curriculum system of high quality, can mother tongue education inuniversity expect its great achievement.