"Intertextuality" Theory In Language Teaching

Currently the teachers’interpretation of the texts in textbooks tends to be simplistic, and the students’participation in language teaching activity is still inadequate, which causes the activity of Chinese language teaching remains lifeless. To break this deadlock, we should start from the interpretation of texts. By deconstructing the texts and building a dynamic association, we can establish a whole new network of texts, which can help us widen the meaning of the texts, and let the participators take part in the construction of the meaning of the Chinese language teaching activity with multi-dimensional texts. The aim of building such a dynamic association is to discover those words which are re-expressed from the text, those new meanings generated from the predecessors’ interpretation and the critical thoughts implied in the texts, so as to eliminate the’centralism’built up unconsciously in the process of language teaching. The so-called’centralism’is shown in two aspects: first, focusing solely on the single and verbal meaning of texts in the language teaching activity, due to the narrowed and closed perspective of the teacher interpreting the texts; second, focusing mainly on the articles that are for intensive reading in the textbooks, while ignoring the articles for extensive reading. And for the editors of textbooks, this kind of ’centralism’, which may result to simplism in the interpretation of texts, is also supposed to be avoided when editing textbooks. The elimination of the’centralism’in textbooks is also good for making the textbooks more popular and the teaching process easier and smoother. Therefore, three groups of people that have close relationship with the Chinese language teaching activity:teachers, students and textbook editors, need to work together in the interpretation of texts and the construction of meanings in language teaching activity, in order to explore the potential and motivation in the re-interpreting of texts. Different responses to the texts of different participators will have influences on the effects of Chinese language teaching activity. This also meets the requirements of the revolution of Chinese language teaching, such as paying attention to the reading experiences of individuals, adding more reflections and critism in the reading activity.The theory of’Intertextuality’, as an emerging literary theory in the20th century, focuses not only on the interpretation of texts and the reconstruction of their meanings, but also on the important roles the participators play in the process of reconstructing the texts. Therefore,’Intertextuality’not only meets the requirements of constructing the meanings in the language teaching activity, but also gives an inspiration in Chinese teaching, which has a great potential in improving the Chinese language teaching activity. This theory also completely differs from the previous comparative reading theory, and will bring a totally new perspective and idea in the interpretation of texts.In this article, the author uses some study methods such as document analysis, deductive analysis and case analysis, to provide theoretical supports, some ideas and methods for the interpretation of texts guided by the theory of’Intertextuality’, with the hope of making some contribution to the improvement of Chinese language teaching activity.