大学英语的人文性与工具性之辩

An Overview of the Debate between Humanists and Instrumentalists on College English Teaching

目前学界存在大学英语教学到底应加强人文性还是工具性的辩论。我们对2000年以后CSSCI期刊上直接参与这场辩论的33篇文章进行了梳理和分析,结果发现:(1)双方的分歧在某种程度上来源于对对方观点的误解与以偏概全;(2)与其说两者针对对方,不如说他们针对的都是大学英语教学脱离思想和内容、仅重视语言技能训练的现状。我们提出,通过增设以英语讲授的内容性课程,可以有效改善这一现状,实现"人文性"与"工具性"的协同发展。

This paper offers an overview of the debate between ＂humanists＂ and ＂instrumentalists＂ on college English teach- ing. The humanists hold that College English teaching should lend itself more to the humanism education, whereas the instru- mentalists suggest that we ought to set a more instrumentalism - oriented goal for college English. Close analysis of the 33 papers published in CSSCI journals which were directly involved in the debate shows, however, that the discrepancies between the two parties partly come from misunderstandings. Instead of opposing to the viewpoints of each other, they actually both fire their criti- cisms at the current dominant practice of skill drill alone in college English teaching, which is neither humanism nor truly instru- mentalism.