瑞恰慈在中国的基本英语运动略探

A Research of I. A. Richards' Basic English Movement in China

艾·阿·瑞恰慈是英国著名的文学批评家和英语教育家,他于20世纪30年代在中国推广基本英语运动,最终以失败告终。基本英语运动失败的表面原因是中国抗日战争的爆发,而深层原因是中国的民族意识与帝国文化的对抗。在世界主义与民族主义之争、思考语言的意识形态功能的思想背景下,中国教育界虽然接受基本英语,但其潜在态度依然很警惕。基本英语运动旨在促进民族间的文化交流,但在具体的推行过程中,逐渐蒙上英帝国争夺在华利益的色彩。基本英语运动的失败让我们思考文化运动与政治现实之间的矛盾,揭示存在于中西文化交流中的困境,启迪我们思考这一研究对当今中西文化交流实践的指导意义。

I. A. Richards, the famous English critic and educationist, came to China to spread the Basic English which finally failed in the 1930＇. The war in China was the superficial reason to the fail, while the antagonism between the rising national consciousness and the cultural aggression from western countries was the deeper one. In the backgrounds of the argument between the cosmopolitanism and the nationalism and the thought of the ideological function of language, Chinese government accepted the Basic English but still kept alert. The Basic English intended to improve the communication among different nations in theory, however, in practice it became the British political tool. The study of the fail of the Basic English makes us to think the relationship of cultural movement and the political reality and to think how to improve it.