The Current Situation and Countermeasures of British and American Literature T eaching Under the Background of New Liberal Arts
Kaikai Liang
Zhongyuan Institute of Science and Technology, School of Foreign Languages
Abstract: At prent, British and American literature teaching is facing many problems, especially in China, such as the single-mode teaching, the obscure and dry textbook and its ulessness in students’ eyes. Under the background of New Liberal Arts, British and American literature cour, as a core component of the humanities, needs to deepen the teaching reform, integrate information teaching methods and promote the intervention of interdisciplinary knowledge. In view of the above situation, this paper tries to find the countermeasures to solve the problems and change the current situation so as to get out of the predicament and return to its standard, achieving the revaluation of the power of literary classics and the real revival of British and American literature cour.
Keywords: British and American literature teaching; Current situation; Countermeasures; Multimodal
DOI: 10.47297/wspiedWSP2516-250009.20210509
1. Introduction
In 2019, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other 13 departments jointly launched the “Six Outstanding and one Top-notch” Plan 2.0, comprehensively promoting the Construction of New Engineering, New Medicine, New Agriculture and New Liberal Arts. According to the Construction of New Liberal Arts, literature cours for English majors, as a core component of the
About the author: Kaikai Liang (1984-02), Gender: Female, Han nationality, Native Place: Xinxiang Henan, Zhongyuan Institute of Science and Technology, Professional Ti-tle: lecturer, master’s degree, Rearch Direction: British and American literature, English teaching.
Funded Project: The general project of humanities and social sciences rearch of Henan Education Department in 2020 “A Study on Multimodal Teaching Mode of British and American Literature Cour in Universities” (Project No.: 2020-ZZJH-222).
Journal of International Education and Development Vol.5 No.9 2021
humanities, need to deepen the teaching reform, effectively integrate information teaching methods,
promote the intervention of interdisciplinary knowledge, and then cultivate high-level foreign language talents with critical thinking and lifelong learning ability.
As is known to all, literature is hominology and the esnce of literature is humanity. It touches deep human concerns and needs and reflects human and social problems which are universal (Guo Yingjian 2017). Therefore, British and American literature cour is an esntial part of humanistic education.
库里高清图片>局是什么结构的字2. Current Situation and Problems of British and American Literature T eaching
(1) Current Teaching Situation
In the past 30 years, the English departments of American universities have undergone tremendous changes, with classic British and American literature repeatedly questioned and even the nature of English departments redefined.
At the same time, English and American literature teaching has also changed a lot in China. With the development of information technology and the advent of globalization, communicative competence of foreign languages has become increasingly important. In order to meet the requirements of this er
1991年属羊a, Chine universities have successively added practical cours, paying special attention to English listening and speaking skills to strengthen students’ ability of application. In contrast, British and American literature teaching has been marginalized (Guo Yingjian 2017).
ppt计时However, on January 30, 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the national standards for foreign languages and literature teaching and states that English majors should master the knowledge of foreign literature and have the ability to appreciate literature. Gao Xiaoling believes that the new national standard emphasizes the humanistic attribute of English subject once again and propos that the esnce of literature has inexhaustible meaning. The importance of British and American literature teaching is highlighted again.
(2) Problems of British and American Literature Teaching
At prent, British and American literature teaching in China is in an awkward position. First, English major students are not interested in this cour. Teachers still focus on single-mode teaching and the outdated teaching method (reading paragraphs on slides), which cannot vividly show the charm of literary works to students. Second, from the perspective of teaching content, the teaching materials are almost all classic works, so the language and cultural background knowledge睑结膜
may be slightly beyond the learning level of undergraduate English majors. In many cas, students are terrified and thus lo interest in learning British and American literature. In addition, when students study the classic works, they have abandoned the literary tradition, and just think there is no need to read large literature books.
In view of the above situation, experts and scholars in the field of British and American literature put forward various teaching methods, trying to make literature teaching get out of the predicament and return to its standard. Li Gongzhao (2002) put forward the “social constructivist theoretical model” and believed that the constructivist theory should be applied to carry out the teaching model of “teacher-led and student-dominated”. Liang Xiaodong (2006) propod the organic combination of literary criticism and British and American literature teaching and carried out the reform of the literary textbooks. Shen Yanxia (2010) propod British and American literature should be taught under the guidance of schema theory and the u of multimedia to stimulate students’ existing knowledge and recognize British and American literary works. Sun Yuan (2014) applies Doll’s “4R” principle to teach British and American literature, pointing out that teachers should t multiple teaching objectives to meet the different needs of each student. However, so far, the teaching modes cannot change the situation of British and American teaching and solve the problems existed.
Therefore, this paper tries to find the countermeasures to solve the problems and change the current situation so as to alter the old single-mode teaching mode, achieving the revaluation of the power of literary classics and the real revival of British and American literature cour.
3. Countermeasure Exploration
(1) Editing Multimodal British and American Literature Textbooks
“Mode” is an abstract language sign system, and the five nsory systems (vision, hearing, smell, n of taste and touch) are the “five modes”. (Gu Yueguo 2007). “Multimodality” includes language, pictures, sounds, and other symbols that can be ud to construct meaning. Multimodality can be literally divided into “Multi” and “Modality”, which is the complex of multiple modes. The idea of multimodality dated back to classical rhetoric in the fourth century BC and was born out of the practical need to make sounds, gestures, and expressions more uful for speech. With the development of information technology, the multimodal theory took shape and developed in 1990s. The core of this theory is the theory of multimodal discour analysis, which was bad on Halliday’s systematic functional linguistics. Roland Barthes (1977) first made a preliminary interpretation of the theory in his article Rhetoric of Images and the theory was first propod by Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen (1996). Now this theory is widely ud in various fields.
The Current Situation and Countermeasures of British and American Literature Teaching Under the Background of New Liberal Arts
Journal of International Education and Development Vol.5 No.9 2021
Now almost all British and American literature textbooks are bad on pure words with a small number of pictures and illustrations. Even if there are illustrations, which are portraits of writers. As a result, textbooks published in this form make it harder to understand for students, let alone when they read the classical text. Multimodal English and American literature textbook should prent students with a textbook that students can listen, watch, read and speak, which means students listen to the audio of classics, watch the pictures and videos of classics. This kind of textbook can give students a multi-directional, multi-angle and multi-form prentation, more suitable for the generation born in the 00s who are jokingly called “the natives of the internet”.
(2) Building Multimodal Teaching Mode爵士音乐
The multimodal teaching method propod by Stein at the beginning of the 21st century. He emphasized that the curriculum, teaching and evaluation should be centered on the modal characteristics of the learning environment, and all communication activities in the classroom should
be multimodal.
Royce(2002) made u of images and words to complement each other in multimodal text to achieve cross-symbol coherence, and ud visual modal stimulus and the prentation relationship between different modes to strengthen English reading, writing, listening, speaking and vocabulary training. The main factors restricting the transfer of modal system are teaching content, characteristics of teachers and students and teaching conditions. In multimodal teaching, teachers are no longer merely imparting knowledge, but modal choors, coordinators and demonstrators. With the aid of network learning platform, teachers u multimodal system to design classroom teaching and construct multimodal curriculum resources, which fully mobilize students’ potential of different ns. Simultaneously, this teaching mode provides multimodal interactive learning environment for learners and promotes learners’ multimodal understanding of learning content and multimodal meaning construction.
As You Jia (2011) mentioned the language in British and American literature text was an art. As a complex of many symbols, it not only conveys information, but more importantly embodies the historical and cultural significance that the natural environment and humane environment contains in specific context. Hence, the multimodal teaching mode, a combination of symbols resources, is helpf
ul for students to have a comprehensive and three-dimensional understanding of British and American literary works, improve their personality and improve their cultural accomplishment.
(3) Diversification and Visualization of Homework Design
In China, the homework of English and American literature cour is still bad on some simple questions and answers and only a few teachers involve other
aspects. The author believes homework design of the cour should be diversified and visualized to stimulate students’ interest in learning and improve their motivation to read classical literature. Here list some forms of homework design to fellow scholars for reference. First, deduce classics. Let students role-play the classic dramas or shoot classic novels and plays to experience the language charm of masters. Second, design pictorials, just like English picture books. Ask students to create a t of illustrations for a literary work to gain a deeper insight into the whole work in the process of creation. Third, recite poetry. Students can read poems individually or in groups to enjoy the beauty and truth in poetry. Fourth, make microlecture. According to their own understanding of western literature works, comparing Chine literature works, students u their imagination to make microlectures and express their personal views on the works. The forms may improve students’ ab
ility of critical thinking, problem finding and cross-cultural communication, so as to cultivate more international foreign language talents in line with the needs.
4. Conclusion
公主的画法To sum up, under the background of New Liberal Arts, fellow scholars and literature teachers work together to construct a new model of English and American literature teaching and improve the efficiency of students’ learning interest. Using modern information technology, teachers of literature arch and edit multimodal British and American literature textbooks combined with multimodal teaching theory to change the old single-mode teaching form. In this ca, students are able to adopt the cross-cultural perspective to reflect local culture and national culture when absorbing western culture, also can stand in the local and national culture’s position to think and judge the foreign culture, in order to achieve the purpo of exchanges. Thus, British and American literature cour can enhance students’ humanistic quality and cultivate them to be a humanist suitable for the new era (Guo Yingjian, 2017).
白腹海雕References
[1] Barthes R. Image-Music-Text [M]. London: Oxford University Press, 1977.[2] Guo Yingjian. “What
kind of position should we hold in teaching “foreign literature Classics”? -- Take American literature teaching as an example” [J]. Foreign Studies, 2017(1).[3] Gu Yueguo. “Learning by multimedia and multimodality .” [J]. Technology En-hanced Foreign Language Education , 2007(4).[4] Kress G R, Leeuwen T. van. Reading Images [M].London: Routledge, 1996.[5] Li Gongzhao. “Current situation and worries” [J]. Journal of Zhengzhou University,
The Current Situation and Countermeasures of British and American Literature Teaching Under the Background of New Liberal Arts
