1902-1949年中国英语教育的特色与启示

Chapter 1 IntroductionIn

Chapter 1, an introduction is given to the background, purpose and significanceof the research, followed by the organization of this thesis.

1.1 Background of the Research
English education in China started in the 1860s, when the Qing Dynasty was wellon its declining process. With a history of over one and a half centuries, Englisheducation in China has been given great opportunities with continuous educationalreforms. For instance, on March 1st2013, the Ministry of Education issued a documentabout how to deepen the comprehensive reform in educational field. It has been clearlystipulated that students will take English examinations several times a year in CollegeEntrance Examination. Actually, before the document is established, this policy hasalready been applied in several provinces. With the new round of curriculum reform,unprecedented attention has been paid to English education in China. A heateddiscussion about China‘s English education has also arisen.
What is the more reasonable way in which English education will achieve greatersuccess? What are the developing trends of English education? How is the current statusof English education? To find the answers to the above questions, the first thing thatshould be known is the nature of China‘s English education, which is an ontologicalresearch of English education. From an ontological perspective, the purpose, the object,the content, the function and the methods of English education can be studied in aclearer and deeper way.
English education has attained a crucial and independent status in reality. However,challenges accompany the developing process all the time. Only with the finding of thecauses for challenges do people find the most appropriate methods to teach and learn English in China.
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1.2 Purpose of the Research
The present study is on China‘s English education from 1902 to 1949 and itsenlightenments from an ontological perspective with the following purposes.
To begin with, the research attempts to identify the features of English educationfrom 1902 to 1949. The experience from the past English education is valuable for thestudy of today‘s English education. This thesis focuses on the English education duringthe period from 1902 to 1949, because at that time English education had a historicalturn and made great progress. Only people grasp English education‘s key to itshistorical development, should they understand English education objectively andcomprehensively.
More importantly, this thesis intends to indicate the ontological enlightenments ofEnglish education from 1902 to 1949 on today‘s English education. There are numerousstudies of the trends and the enlightenments of English education. However, theontological enlightenments of English education haven‘t been deeply and profoundlystudied for a long time. In China, a few researches are on whether the ontology from thewestern world is suitable for today‘s English education or not. Therefore, to find out theontological enlightenments of English education from 1902 to 1949 is necessary andimportant for current English education.
Generally speaking, this study is employed for the purpose of identifying featuresand enlightenments of English education from 1902 to 1949.

1.3 Significance of the Research
The study on the features and ontological enlightenments of English education isdeemed as essential for the following reasons.
First, the research contributes to better understanding of educational ontology.There is a tendency that ontology seems to be less important than methodology inwestern academic circles. It leads to a misconception that ontology is traditionally notpopular with western scholars, which is in fact not the case. The ontological studyalways occupies a dominant position in the field of philosophy. The development ofmodern science causes the big collapse of metaphysics. But it must be clear: ontology isthe basis for the whole system of western epistemology; even researches ofmethodology are based on ontology that has a history of more than two thousand years.Therefore, there is a need to understand the meaning of ontology deeply. Ontology isnot only a branch of metaphysics, but also a useful theory with which the study ofEnglish education can be further studied.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review

In Chapter 2, the literature review is given about some key terms which are closelyrelated to the current research such as ontology, educational ontology and ontology ofEnglish education in the study.

2.1 Connotations of Ontology
In analytical philosophy, ontology refers to the decision if some simply categoriesare fundamental. Besides, it concerns in what sense the items in the particular categoriescan be said to ―be. The Platonic school argues that all nouns refer to existent entities.Philosophers who belong to other schools believe that nouns do not always nameentities; some nouns are only a kind of reference for a collection of either objects orevents. For example, mind refers to a collection of mental events of a person; societyrefers to a collection of persons with some common characteristics. The above two ideasare named as realism and nominalism. Between the two ideas stands another idea—anyontology must explain of which nouns refer to entities and which do not. Whenresearchers apply this idea to nouns such as electrons, energy, contract and God,ontology becomes fundamental to many branches of philosophy.
Ontology in dictionaries has different definitions as follows.
1. the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such；
2. philosophical inquiry into the nature of being itself；
3. the set of entities presupposed by a theory；
4. (loosely) metaphysics.
Although the above definitions are slightly different, the commonality is obvious:ontology is the research and understanding of the nature of existence or being. Thefollowing descriptions of ontology should be noted.
Firstly, ontology is the theory about existence, taking existence as the researchobject. Hegel thinks the seeking of existence is the ontology of philosophy; and inphilosophy the existence is ontology (Sun Zhengyu, 1998a). The development ofphilosophy shows that ontological existence gradually focuses on the authenticity of people.
Secondly, the ontological existence is not a real existence, but a direction ofhuman minds. Ontology in philosophy is a kind of desire for the ultimate existence. Itis a pursuit of intentionality which is an ultimate concern to infinite (Sun Zhengyu,1998b).
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2.2 Educational Ontology
Iran Thomas believes that the concept of educational ontology can be understoodas a philosophical perfectionism, a re-essentialization of the current educationalexcellence by which Heidegger believes we can reconnect teaching to research and,ultimately, reunify and revitalize the university itself.
2.2.1 Basic Understanding of Educational Ontology
Because ontology is a branch of philosophy, educational ontology is a branch of educational philosophy. It mainly involves: the nature, the purpose and the function ofeducation. At the same time it also involves the macro-methodology.
Two points are needed to illustrate here:
Firstly, the premise of the research and the understanding of modern ontology isthat people admit that ontology is constantly changing while fully considering theconstraints of time and space, the period of historical development, geographicalenvironment, social economy and cultural development level, etc.
Secondly, "Education" and "Social Education" actually have the same position inmodern civilization to some degree"because" "Family Education" is a part of "SocialEducation".
According to the above ideas of educational ontology, the primary aspects of thenature of modern education from an ontological perspective should include thefollowing five parts.
Firstly, the primary aim of education in modern society is to make the educatedprepare well for their social life. This kind of "social life" refers to the universal and "advanced" social life.
Secondly, the main object of education in modern society is the ordinary membersof the whole society. The level of "universal education" has become a significantmeasure of the civilization and development of a nation.
Thirdly, the scope of education in modern society includes all aspects of social life."Life is school". At the same time, education in modern society belongs to the "lifelongeducation".
Fourthly, the teaching process and teaching objective have the same importance inmodern society. In other words, the teaching objective is achieved during the process ofteaching. Education values the knowledge and ability that the educated get in the teaching process.
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Chapter 3 Features of English Education in the Period from 1902 to 1949 ...................... 11
3.1 General Education—the Guiding Ideology of English Education . 11
3.2 Multi-linear English Education System .......................................... 13
3.3 Compilation of Practical English Textbooks .................................. 16
3.4 Learned and Professional Teaching Staff ....................................... 17
3.5 Systemic Training of "the English Majors"....................................20
Chapter 4 Ontological Problems of Current China’s English Education......................24
4.1 Irrational Purposes of China‘s English Education..........................24
4.2 Non-systematic and Incomprehensive Teaching Materials ..................... 25
4.3 Rigid and Ineffective English Teaching Methodology............................ 26
4.4 Short of Qualified and Professional English Teaching staff ......................... 28
4.5 Hidebound Form and Content of English Examinations.................................. 30

Chapter 5 Ontological Enlightenments on Current China’sEnglish Education

Chapter 5 is the core of this paper. Great attempts are made to find out the rationaland feasible developing trends of English education in China.

5.1 Purposes and Functions of English Education
5.1.1 Hierarchical and Comprehensive Educational Purposes
Psychologists Corder once said that anyone who had a purpose of learning couldlearn a kind of language well. To find suitable purposes of today‘s China‘s Englisheducation, the hierarchical and comprehensive purposes of English education will bediscussed in this part based on general education in the period from 1902 to 1949 inChina.
In last chapter, it has already been clarified that the purposes of current Englisheducation in China are lack of rationality and reasonability. The grand Englisheducational purpose—achieving the four modernizations and China‘s dream is sodifficult to constitute a perfect and reasonable system with educational content andmethods that the actual operability of English education with the grand purpose is little.Although other purposes of English education are easy to implement, they are lack ofintegrality and macroscopic rationality. Take the purposes on the personal level asexamples. To some degree, English education has become "exam-oriented" or "job-oriented". Most English educators engage in improving their proficiency inEnglish for promotion to higher professional levels or securing their decent jobs orincomes. Moreover, most educatees learn English for getting the "Pass Card" of furthereducation abroad or desirable jobs in foreign companies, and the way to get the "PassCard" is almost to take examinations. In a sense, these purposes can‘t be long term. After the "Pass Card" is given, these purposes become out of date.
However, these purposes cannot be abandoned, because educatees for some reasonhave to undertake a variety of examinations. In any case, there is an unavoidable reality.English examinations for primary school students, English examinations for middleschool students, the National Matriculation English Test, CET4 and CET6, GraduateEntrance Test for English and PhD English entrance examination exist in everyeducation stage. The craze for going abroad leads to TOEFL, GRE and IELTS and otherinternational English tests. Examination-oriented phenomenon has become one ofunavoidable problem of China‘s English education. Various inevitable English testshave become a milestone in English learning process for Chinese English learners.
Therefore, English education should have hierarchical and comprehensive purposesrather than the above short-term ones.
English is always regarded as a tool. The general and comprehensive purpose ofChina‘s English education is to use a new tool to communicate with each other,exchange of information and knowledge, broaden educatees‘international vision, enricheducatees‘ humanistic quality, so as to improve the soft power of China. At the sametime, this new tool can make up for the disadvantages of mother tongues. As a matter offact, every tool has many functions. Generally, it is very difficult for users to master andapply all functions of one specific tool. From this point of view, English is just like thespecific tool. English educators should devote themselves to applying all functions of English language.
China is a rising power, and the nation needs senior experts who are proficient inEnglish and admired by British and American people, like Lin Yutang and Liang Shiqiu;the nation also needs a group of senior professionals who can provide simultaneousinterpretation and written translation in different academic fields, like Zhu Shenghao and Ji Chaozhu; the nation also needs a group of high-level English educators, like LiFuning and Wang Bilin. Based on these needs, the purposes of China‘s Englisheducation should include the cultivation of professionals who master the knowledge ofspecialty English and apply it expertly.
Besides, the basic purpose of China‘s English education cannot be ignored, which isto teach educates English skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. These skillsare the foundation of being proficiency in English. Based on the basic purpose, anotherone comes out. English education is for enriching educatees‘ humanistic quality inlearning English cultures and literatures. This can be viewed as a goal forself-improvement and self-enhancement.
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Chapter 6 Conclusion

English education began in the Qing Dynasty in China. With the new round ofcurriculum reform, unprecedented attention has been paid to English education in China,about which a heat discussion has also been arisen. Among these discussions the firstthing to be known is the nature of China‘s English education, which is the ontologicalresearch of English education. From an ontological perspective, the purpose, the object,the content, the function and the methods of English education can be studied in aclearer and deeper way.
English education has attained a crucial and independent status nowadays. However,challenges emerge during the developing process at the same time. Only with theunderstanding of current challenges do people find the most appropriate methods toteach and learn English in China. In this paper, ontological problems of today‘s Englisheducation in China are analyzed and summarized. It is clear that English education isfaced with several major challenges in aspects of teaching purposes and contents. Theexisting purposes of English education are lack of rationality. Education teachingmaterials of every stage are not systematical. The grammar-translation method is stillwidely applied in class. The shortage of qualified English teachers still restricts thedevelopment of China‘s English education.
In this paper, features of English education in the period from 1902 to 1949 are alsodiscussed. In evidence, the education in this period had basically formed its ownfeatures. Firstly, general education is regarded as the guiding ideology of Englisheducation. Other features include: the multi-linear English education system, thepractical compilation of English textbooks, the learned and professional teaching staffand systemic training of "English majors".
Based on the analysis of features of English education in the period from 1902 to 1949, ontological enlightenments on English education in China are clarified in thisthesis in order to solve the above problems. Great attempts are made to find out therational and reasonable developing trends of English education in China. The followingenlightenments on English education which are divided into five parts with theontological point of view could be applied in China.
The first part is about the educational purposes and function. It is necessary to formhierarchical and comprehensive teaching objectives. Besides, the function of Englisheducation should be of great survival significance and cultural significance.
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参考文献（略）