On December 1, 2020, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Education Publishing House. In the past 70 years, renjiao society has researched, compiled and published 11 sets of national primary and secondary school textbooks, which have accompanied the growth of generations of children and teenagers. In recent years, it has also successfully completed the editing, publication and distribution of the three textbooks of ethics and rule of law (ideology and politics), language and history. The construction of textbooks over the centuries has been full of the painstaking efforts of the editors for many years.
Among all the subjects in primary and secondary schools, language is the most special subject, and society is also paying special attention to the changes in language teaching materials, and the resulting discussion is also the most intense. How exactly are language teaching materials developed? How do editors view the hot discussion of society? The Yangtze River Daily's "Reading +" invited Cheng Xiang, one of the editors of the Human-Taught Edition of Chinese Textbooks, to answer hot issues.
Profile: Cheng Xiang, Beijing 101 Middle School Chinese Special Teacher, Senior Teacher, National "Ten Thousand People Plan" Teaching Teacher, Director of the Academic Committee of the National Chinese Language Association. He has been engaged in middle school Chinese teaching for 38 years, and participated in the preparation of middle and high school textbooks for 20 years. He was appointed as the first batch of experts in the expert database of the "National Training Program" of the Ministry of Education, a member of the textbook compilation committee of the People's Education Publishing House, and a part-time researcher of the Institute of Language Education of Peking University.
From instructor to editor
Never left the three-foot podium
After 38 years of working, Cheng Xiang's work place has moved from Shandong to Beijing, from Tai'an No. 6 Middle School to Peking University Affiliated Middle School to Beijing 101 Middle School; from front-line teaching to vice principal, from teacher to textbook writing committee member, the experience is rich, but he has never left the beloved three-foot podium.
Even today, Cheng Xiang still leads the Chinese classes of the second class of high school, and also travels to the various campuses of the 101 Middle School Education Group, listening to lectures and discussions, helping front-line teachers improve their professional level, and responsible for the editing of the school magazine "Far Away". Writing articles and doing research is busy enough, but like ordinary teachers, he does not fall behind in class, lesson preparation, grading homework, and tutoring students.
Cheng Xiang is a well-known figure in the field of language teaching. People who know him well comment that he loves the classroom, is obsessed with teaching, and regards the classroom as life. Cheng Xiang, who lectures for students, is a complete "passion faction", his class has a kind of indescribable charm, insisting on not using PPT, a chalk, a textbook, a question and an answer, so that students are like a spring breeze. It is no wonder that in 1994, at the age of 31, Cheng Xiang was named a special teacher of Chinese, a record that is rare in the country.
He is a "teacher" and an "editor" – the one who writes chinese language textbooks for secondary schools. 20 years ago, Cheng Xiang participated in national and even local language teaching activities, initiated the establishment of the National Youth Language Association, actively participated in the activities of the National Chinese Language Association, met many old predecessors, and was hired as a member of the writing committee of high and junior high school language textbooks of the Human Education Society, participated in the compilation of compulsory and elective textbooks, and also edited the high school elective module "Article Writing and Revision" and the teacher's book together with Mr. Zhang Xiong. In recent years, Cheng Xiang has also participated in the compilation of textbooks for junior high schools.
The dual identity of being both a "teacher" and a "editor" made Cheng Xiang begin to understand the intention of the editor, so as to reflect on whether his teaching had reached the ideal state. Now, from teaching for nearly 40 years and participating in the preparation of teaching materials for 20 years, Cheng Xiang understands the relationship between "teaching materials" and "teaching with teaching materials", and understands the essence of the word "textbook".
In the final analysis, the textbooks written are still an "ideal", and teachers must implement the "ideal", which must break the barrier. In the chain of "curriculum standards - teaching materials - teaching", teachers should take responsibility for the final link. In this regard, Cheng Xiang is familiar with it.
It is an allusion to the retrospective textbook
I flipped through the collections of major libraries in China
It's another year of ginkgo yellow, and the autumn wind blows all over the ground.
At this time of year, students will hold a bunch of "golden fans" in their hands, surround Cheng Xiang, and ask him to write his favorite words on the ginkgo biloba leaves: "He", "Love", "De", "Diligence", "Filial Piety", "Ren"... Cheng Xiang's Xiaokai is very elegant. After writing, he will solemnly stamp it and give it to the students.
"I especially like to inspire students to 'poetic inhabitation' and immerse the life around them in the culture." In autumn, looking at the golden yellow in the campus from the classroom window, the beauty is intoxicating, for this reason, Cheng Xiang also wrote a special essay of "Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Is Yellow" to communicate with students.
As a Chinese teacher, Cheng Xiang seems to have done a lot of "unnecessary" things. Because of one of the "Yugong Valley" in the textbook, Cheng Xiang did research on "Shuoyuan", so he flipped through the version of "Shuoyuan" collected by major libraries in China, and also ran to Russia to find the best version of the Song Dynasty. He also studied the Analects and continued to expand the scope of language teaching research. After careful calculation, Cheng Xiang has published 13 monographs such as "Commentary on the Translation of The Saying Garden", "Commentary on the Saying Garden", "Interpretation of the Analects", "Exploration of Language Teaching Reform", "Research and Practice of Classroom Teaching", "Theory of Classroom Reading Teaching", "The Mental Journey of a Language Teacher", "My Classroom Works" and so on. In addition, Cheng Xiang also likes to write some prose and novels on weekdays, staying in the study for a few hours, and the first issue of "People's Literature" in 2020 published his short story "The Locust Tree". During the epidemic, in addition to teaching, Cheng Xiang also created a novel of more than 300,000 words.
He also demanded and trained young teachers in this way. There is a young teacher in the school who graduated from the ancient literature major, and in recent years this teacher has participated in the collation of the "QuanyuanZi". Cheng Xiang praised this, he believes that teachers should teach with one hand, academic with one hand, grasp with both hands, and both hands must be hard.
It is also these seemingly "unnecessary" that have achieved Cheng Xiang's career ideals. He said firmly: "When I first joined the work, I set myself a goal, to be an educator, to be a scholar-type teacher, not to be a teacher. Before graduating from college, he wrote a poem, two of which were: "The peaks of the mountains are not enough, step out of the Qingshan Road." ”
"A Chinese language teacher who teaches his mother tongue should have a more in-depth study of traditional Chinese culture. Chinese teachers cannot be satisfied with teaching good lessons and making students like it, this is only the most basic requirement, and they have to put forward higher requirements for themselves. "Teach from the commanding heights of culture." Cheng Xiang is also a master tutor at Beijing Normal University and Capital Normal University, which coincides with his ideal of a "scholar-type teacher".
【Interview】>>>
British textbooks will definitely choose Shakespeare, and of course we must choose Tang poems and Song poems
Read +: Why does the public pay close attention to the "one-word additions and deletions" of textbooks? This is particularly true in language teaching materials.
Cheng Xiang: Because it is a mother tongue, each of us lives in a mother tongue environment. The mother tongue is a person's spiritual home, and if you abandon your mother tongue, you will not find your way home. It is a good thing that society pays attention to the changes in teaching materials, associations and even criticisms, which shows that everyone is very concerned about the education of the mother tongue and the traditional culture education of the motherland. If everyone does not pay attention, it is not normal.
There will always be some changes in the textbook. For example, lu xun's individual works were withdrawn from textbooks, causing widespread controversy, which is normal. A person who has graduated for many years may have changed his life because of an article when he was studying. Suddenly, one day, the article that had melted into his blood was withdrawn, and he could not accept it emotionally, and he would ask: What is the basis for the change? Is it reasonable? This is so normal. When I was a middle school student, because the Central Radio station changed the prelude to the "News and Newspaper Summary" program, I wrote to the Central Radio station and got their patient answer.
Changes in teaching materials are the norm and there is no need to make a fuss. Teaching materials have the characteristics of the times, and the development of the times has changed, and it should also develop and change accordingly. Chinese language teaching is constantly evolving, and teaching materials are constantly being adjusted.
Read +: Have you ever seen a mother tongue textbook from another country, compared with ours, and what did you find?
Cheng Xiang: I have paid attention to the syllabuses and curriculum standards of various countries in the world, and I have also read the Language teaching materials in the United States and Germany. In fact, the mother tongue textbooks of all countries express a theme - patriotism. All countries cherish their excellent traditional culture and choose the works of the best and most famous writers to include in the textbooks. For example, American textbooks will definitely choose Mark Twain, and British textbooks will definitely choose Shakespeare. When I visited a secondary school in england, I happened to run into students studying Shakespeare's Hamlet, and the students read the original text, you read a paragraph, I read a paragraph, as if I were performing.
Language teaching in Western countries attaches great importance to drama, and our languages must of course teach Tang poetry and Song Ci. We have our traditions, such as one of our traditions is poetry prose particularly much. Lexicon is unique to China, such as the style of "fu", which cannot be found in foreign languages. From the "Book of Poetry" and "Chu Ci", to Tang poems, Song Ci, to Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing novels, from Confucius and Mencius to Huang Zongxi and Gong Zizhen, everyone has been deeply branded with the Chinese nation. In the language teaching materials of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, there are also many chapters that reflect the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Chinese language must follow The Chinese path, and The education of the mother tongue of any other country in the world cannot be copied by China. This is a manifestation of the particularity of the chinese and Chinese disciplines. I am against the tendency to use Western theories to demand how to teach Chinese Chinese. Among the more than a dozen disciplines currently in middle schools, most of the content is Western scientific and technological knowledge, but the content of language disciplines is authentic "domestic products".
Language teachers are the messengers of traditional Chinese culture, and they must find out the past and present lives of "language"
Reading +: We take language classes from an early age, but how to understand the word "language", and is "language class" equivalent to language and writing class?
Cheng Xiang: The language class teaches the national lingua franca, which is on the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, and the state has a special language and writing policy. The original words in the Constitution are: "The state promotes the common Mandarin language throughout the country." In just one sentence, the language discipline is given an important task. There is also a Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Common Language and Writing. It is illegal not to learn a language. Walking into the campus of a primary and secondary school, you will find two slogans: "Speak Mandarin" and "Write Canonical Characters". Mandarin is the link of great unity of the Chinese nation.
The Chinese teacher should clarify the past and present lives of the "language". Chinese characters carry the memories of Chinese. From the Oracle to today, thousands of years of long history. The writings of other ancient civilizations in the world have been interrupted, and only the Chinese characters are in the same vein. No matter how complex and diverse the pronunciation of our dialect is, the Chinese characters written are always the same, and everyone knows them. It's remarkable. Historically, it was a book with the same text, and today it is a homophony. The Language Course has an unshirkable responsibility.
Therefore, a Chinese teacher must understand the ins and outs of Chinese characters and have a deep understanding of Chinese characters. I always believe that a language teacher must be a messenger and disseminator of traditional Chinese culture, and must have a sense of cultural mission, not just focus on the score. It is necessary to educate students to love their mother tongue, to be in awe of their mother tongue, and to be in awe of Chinese characters. Write every Chinese character carefully. To love your mother tongue is to love the motherland, and to have a strong mother tongue is to strengthen the country.
Read +: There are so many good articles, what are the criteria for selecting textbooks?
Cheng Xiang: The selection of textbooks is based on evidence. Before we followed the Soviet Union called it "syllabus", now called "curriculum standards". In fact, we have called it "curriculum standards" for a long time. Now it is back to the "curriculum standards", commonly known as the "new curriculum standards".
The preparation of teaching materials begins with the fascicle. The current language teaching materials are composed of units, and the main body of the units is a text. Some texts are taught to read, some are self-read; self-reading can also be divided into in-class self-reading and extracurricular self-reading. The identity and weight of each text are different, and the functions assumed are not exactly the same.
Teaching reading is to give students a demonstration, inspire students to learn from this and that, to reflect the effect of migration, and to touch the bypass and understand when reading by themselves. This reflects Ye Shengtao's teaching material ideas. Elder Ye said that teaching materials are nothing more than examples. But this example should be well selected and compiled, and one cannot be chosen casually. We will search extensively for sample texts, compare them repeatedly, and discuss many articles that have been discussed for a long time and then given up. Those who can choose to use the textbook as a text must be an article of both literary quality and beauty, which is representative and can withstand scrutiny.
Reading +: From the "outline" to today's "new curriculum standards", is it a change in terminology or a change in the fundamental core?
Cheng Xiang: The changes are obvious, the "outline" is thick lines, and the "new curriculum standards" are much more detailed. Take the new high school curriculum standard, which divides the academic level into five levels, which is very specific and reflects the meaning of "standard". There are also requirements for exams, which used to be simple but are now more detailed. Overall, it is becoming more and more scientific and complete. Most importantly, the concept of "core literacy of language disciplines" is clearly put forward, detailed requirements are put forward from the four dimensions of language, thinking, aesthetics and culture, and a more scientific and complete curriculum framework is formed.
A chinese language teacher should be a person with cultural pursuits, and he should stand on the commanding heights of culture to teach chinese
Reading +: When writing textbooks, it is necessary to consider whether there will be a negative impact after the selected articles become textbooks. As an editor, is there a lot of such considerations?
Cheng Xiang: This factor should be considered. But there are too many concerns, and the textbook cannot be compiled. For example, "Thunderstorm", some readers once criticized Cao Yu, saying that the "Thunderstorm" you wrote was something, which messed with the relationship between men and women. This shows that he did not understand "Thunderstorm". Classics are not easy to read. The new unified textbook of the high school was selected into a passage from "Resurrection", which deals with the sensitive topic of Nekhlyudov's seduction of Maslova, is it possible to avoid language teaching? No. These works that profoundly express human nature are of educational significance to students, and there is no need to avoid them. There are also many poems in the language textbook that praise beautiful love, but they do not encourage middle school students to fall in love.
Read +: How do the people who write the textbook judge whether the students are suitable for learning this article, whether it is deep or shallow?
Cheng Xiang: Over the years, before we compile textbooks, we will first turn over the textbooks written by our predecessors. When Lu Xun was alive, his "Diary of a Madman" had already been selected into the textbook. Lu Xun was worried when he found out, saying that "Diary of a Madman" was not written for children. However, if only those works written specifically for children are selected, the secondary school Chinese textbooks will not be able to be compiled. Textbooks are written by textbook experts, university teachers, teaching and research staff, and secondary school teachers. Textbook editors have a basic judgment on the receptivity of students of different ages. Even if the article is difficult to accept, is there still a first-line teacher's guidance and inspiration. It has been proved that the articles selected in the language textbooks over the years have generally been appropriate and welcomed and accepted by students.
Read +: How do good teachers break down the barrier between teaching materials and teaching?
Cheng Xiang: Like Zhu Ziqing, he was a middle school teacher, a scholar, and a writer. There were a large number of such people at that time. This should be a fine tradition in language teaching. In contemporary times, this tradition has been interrupted. It is my ideal to continue this tradition. I think a language teacher should be a cultural person with cultural pursuits. First of all, to be a teacher that students like, secondly, to have academic pursuits, and third, to be a literature lover, it is best to have some literary creation. That's how I asked of myself. A chinese language teacher should be a person with cultural pursuits, and he should stand on the commanding heights of culture to teach chinese.
In addition to daily teaching, I studied the "Saying Garden" and "Analects" and gradually penetrated into the core of ancient Chinese culture. I have been involved in ancient editions, bibliography, classics, schooling, etc. To this day, I have not interrupted academic research and literary creation. A Chinese teacher, to correct the student's composition, if he can not write, do not understand the rules of writing, how can you prescribe the right medicine?
(Reporter Qin Mengting)
【Editor: Zhang Jing】