Secondary school Chinese should pay attention to cultivating dictionary reading ability

Mr. Zhu Dexi, a famous linguist, once pointed out that in order to learn a good language, it is far from enough to rely on classroom teaching, but also to have two good habits, one is to read every day, and the other is to diligently check the dictionary.

Mr. Zhu actually talked about the problem of dictionary reading. The "check" in "looking up the dictionary" is interpreted as "looking through the dictionary" according to the Interpretation of the Commercial Press's "Modern Chinese Dictionary", and some dictionaries interpret it as "flipping to see or find". Regardless of the dictionary, the interpretation mentions the meaning of "flipping and retrieving". If students encounter a certain text or word that does not, they will "check" to remove the reading barrier.

However, in actual learning, the "lookup" function of dictionaries has not been fully valued. As a language teacher, I often encounter a situation where students often ask me how to read and what it means by a word he does not recognize. In the eyes of students, language teachers should naturally know more words, and they should become living dictionaries for students to "consult" at any time.

Naturally, language teachers should strive to become living dictionaries, but they should not just be a library for students. When students ask me how a word should be read and what its meaning is, I often tell him, "You go and look up the dictionary." It's not that I don't want to answer students' questions, I hope that my students don't develop the habit of knowing that they can solve problems independently but only want to ask others. The student asks me to answer the conclusion directly to the student, and without the student's independent search, they will soon forget the answer when they know it. Only the harvest obtained by independently searching the query dictionary is a real and effective harvest.

For example, if a student doesn't know the word "侘傺," they need to follow a certain search procedure to look it up. Among them, the character "侘" should be checked next to "亻", and the part is a point, and the note is on page 138 of the 7th edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary (hereinafter referred to as "Present Han"). The character "侘" is pronounced chà and is used only in the word "侘傺", which means "frustrated look", which is pronounced chàchì. The above process of retrieval and query is the process of students independently constructing knowledge content, and students read comprehension and screen and extract information while querying, which is far more meaningful to students than the teacher's student note.

It makes a lot of sense to look up a dictionary, but I think a dictionary must not only be able to look up, but also read. Cha is a form of reading, and reading is richer in meaning than cha. As mentioned earlier, "looking up the dictionary" focuses on "flipping and retrieving", which belongs to the ability of information retrieval. The essence of "reading dictionary" is to deconstruct, construct, integrate, and refine language and text information, and is at the level of deep understanding. The mechanism of this learning behavior is more complex and the learning content is richer. Secondary school Chinese teaching should pay attention to cultivating students' ability to read dictionaries. Reading dictionaries is the behavior of reading reference books, and students form the ability to read reference books through the study of dictionaries and query paths.

But for language learning, dictionary reading is much more than that. It is the process of students learning words and learning language independently and consciously, and it is the process of exploring the principles and laws behind language phenomena.

Front-line language teachers have this experience, the number of Chinese characters, words is large, the meaning is more, and the use is even more ever-changing. If you only rely on mechanical recognition, learning efficiency can not be improved, only to understand the principle of Chinese generation, construction and application, especially to make word learning structured, Chinese word learning can be more effective with half the effort, students can remember, understand, accumulate words can not be so difficult. Reading dictionaries can play a role in structuring word learning. The interpretation of Chinese characters and words contains rich semantics, and the principle of rational interpretation is the process of learning semantics.

For a word, a word, a concept, dictionaries can often reveal their connotations in precise, vivid language and give appropriate examples. Teachers guide students to pay attention to the interpretive text of the dictionary, which is of great significance for guiding students to accurately grasp concepts, cultivate generalization ability and precise expression ability.

For example, the word "thick", the "Present Han" explains its original meaning: "the distance between the upper and lower sides of the flat object is large (as opposed to 'thin')" - not a spherical object, not the diameter of the object, not the weight of the object; and for the sake of image illustration, it is compared with "thin". This interpretation is very accurate and graphic. Further, from the meaning of "the distance between the upper and lower sides of the flat object is large", the meaning of the thick noun, that is, "thickness", and then from the original meaning leads to the figurative meaning of different fields.

The word "thick" was originally used to indicate that the mountain stone and the earth's crust were very thick. Through the perception of the thickness of the mountain stone and the earth's crust, the ancestors expanded the scope of meaning, forming the meaning of "the distance between the upper and lower sides of the flat object is large". When we see that an object is thick and heavy, we tend to have a solid, reliable feeling. When this feeling is extended to other cognitive areas, it can produce different figurative meanings. For example, it can be used for adjectives, including the meaning of thick, deep feelings, large profits, strong taste, rich family property, etc., and can also be extended and metaphorically introduced to the use of verbs, including preferential treatment, promotion, attention and other meanings.

Students understand the intergenerational relationships between the different meanings of the word "thick" and form these relationships into a whole. At this time, students learn to harvest and do migration, and they can understand that the "thick" in "thick in the present and thin in the past" means "preferential treatment, respect, and attention". Students independently construct an understanding of the term "thick past and thin present" with much better effect than mechanical memory.

Another example is the distinction between the words "to implement" and "to implement". "Implementation" is interpreted in the Present Han as "realizing by action (programs, policies, plans, etc.)." The interpretation of "enforcement" in the "Present Han" is "(1) After the promulgation of decrees, regulations, etc., it shall take effect from a certain time; enforcement." (2) To do it in a certain way or method". Such a precise and clear explanation gives the reader a clear understanding of the context and scope of the use of these two words, and students will not have word errors.

We often refer to dictionaries as "teachers who don't speak." This teacher's thinking is rigorous and profound, and looking up the dictionary dictionary is to ask the teacher for advice, and reading the dictionary dictionary is to communicate with the teacher in depth.

In recent years, the language use ability of college and middle school students is declining, and the phenomenon of language poverty, inaccurate word use, and unsatisfactory words abounds. Therefore, secondary school Chinese should attach great importance to word learning, and reading dictionaries is an important way to improve students' pragmatic ability. I believe that students can have more independent creation and deep learning in the process of continuously reading dictionaries.

(The author is affiliated with the Second Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University)

Author: He Jie

China Education News, October 13, 2021, 9th edition title: Reading Weekly