Chinese language education in our country has a long history.

Since the emergence of writing, the beginning of Chinese education has begun.

In the slave society, formal schools began to appear in our country.

With schools, there are corresponding courses and teaching.

However, in the following two thousand years, although there was Chinese teaching in our country, there were no specialized Chinese courses. Chinese was integrated with history, ethics, etc.

In other words, as Mr. Cai Yuanpei said, "Besides Chinese, there is no other homework." Ancient Chinese is an all-powerful "world-wide" subject.

It was not until 1904, when the Qing Dynasty promulgated the "Zuoding School Charter", that the Chinese language curriculum in the context of modern education was truly established.

Although it has been divided and merged since then, and its name has been changed several times, the Chinese course has finally become an independent subject course.

1. Modern primary school Chinese curriculum (1904-1949) (1) Before the "May 4th" Movement

After the Opium War, China became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.

The bourgeois reformists at that time advocated learning from the West, put forward the slogan of "abolition of the imperial examinations and the establishment of schools", and advocated "Chinese learning as the body and Western learning as the application."

In 1901, the Qing Dynasty issued an order to establish schools in various places. The following year, the "Imperial School Charter" was promulgated, and primary school Chinese courses in the form of divided subjects began to take shape.

However, although this charter was announced, it was not implemented.

On January 13, 1904, the Qing Dynasty promulgated the "Zou Ding School Charter" and formally established my country's modern primary school education system. The history of education is called the "Guimao School System".

This academic system was used until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and subsequent academic systems also evolved on the basis of this academic system.

In terms of schooling system, the charter divides primary school education into two stages: lower primary school and higher primary school, which last for 5 years and 4 years respectively, and the schooling system lasts for 9 years.

In terms of Chinese language courses, junior primary schools have a Chinese literature subject, and the teaching content is literacy, reading, and composition; higher primary schools have a Chinese literature subject, and the teaching content is reading, composition, writing, and learning Mandarin.

This charter combines literacy, writing, reading, composition, speaking and other subjects into one subject, which is a big step forward in the establishment of modern Chinese courses.

The promulgation of the "Zou Ding School Regulations" marked the beginning of modern Chinese education that focused on practicality and the development of language skills, and the gradual end of ancient Chinese education that focused on reading scriptures and preparing for imperial examinations.

"Zou Ding School Regulations" is a historical product of "exploring foreign countries, considering adaptations, and choosing the appropriate ones to use." Although it is also mixed with the characteristics of traditional education such as feudal ethics and old imperial examination habits, But it is mainly based on the modern education in Europe and America as the real source, and the school system and curriculum introduced from Japan in form. This naturally initially reflects the germination of Western scientific spirit and democratic thought.

This also created a precedent for learning foreign education, and it has been out of control since then.

Our country’s Chinese language education has been deeply influenced by foreign educational trends for many years, and to some extent is even close to dependence.

The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the feudal system of more than two thousand years and established the Republic of China.

In September 1912, during the Nanjing Provisional Revolution, the Ministry of Education issued the "Primary School Order" and abolished Bible reading in primary schools across the country.

The following year, the "Elementary School Teaching Guidelines and Curriculum" was promulgated, stipulating that both junior and senior primary schools should have Chinese liberal arts subjects, including reading, calligraphy, practice and language practice.

The main purpose is to "enable children to learn ordinary language and characters, develop the ability to express their thoughts, and at the same time inspire their wisdom and morality."

(2) After the "May 4th" Movement

Although Bible reading was canceled in the early years of the Republic of China, the feudal restoration ideology was far from being eliminated. Classical Chinese still had an absolute advantage as a teaching content of Chinese language. The fundamental contradictions hindering the development of Chinese education have not yet been resolved.

As a profound revolution at the spiritual and cultural level, the "May 4th" movement advocated vernacular and new literature, reacted against classical Chinese and old literature, and promoted Mandarin as the language of the entire nation, promoting the Mandarin movement.

In 1920, the Ministry of Education of Beiyang *** issued an order on national schools, changing the "Chinese" subject to "Guoyu" subject, and ordered all national schools across the country to change the "Chinese" subjects in the first and second grades of primary schools into Chinese and sports subjects. (i.e. vernacular).

Soon after, an order was issued nationwide that starting from 1992, all primary school textbooks would be changed to language and style texts.

"Guoyu" replaces "Guowen", indicating that primary school textbooks will eliminate classical Chinese and replace it with vernacular; primary school Chinese will learn vernacular and train standard Chinese.

In 1922, the Beiyang Communist Party promulgated the "School System Reform Bill", which is the new academic system. The history of education is called the "Renxu Academic System".

This school system stipulates that primary school lasts 6 years, divided into two sections, 4 years in junior primary school and 2 years in senior primary school.

Junior high school and high school last for 3 years each.

This academic system has been used in our country for decades.

Driven by the spirit of the May 4th Movement, the American democratic education trend, represented by Dewey as the main representative, poured into our country and became the dominant theory that influenced Chinese education at that time and for a long time to come.

Under the profound influence of this educational trend, the modern primary school Chinese curriculum formed a modern curriculum paradigm with preliminary democratic and scientific characteristics, reflecting the new value of bidding farewell to the era of Bible reading and focusing on students' personal development. orientation.

The country's first curriculum syllabus, the "Standard Outline for the New Primary School Curriculum" promulgated in 1923, was born under the guidance of the National Education Federation, which was responsible for promoting European and American education systems and educational ideas.

Among them, the "Primary School Chinese Curriculum Outline" headed by Wu Yanyin marks the basic goals of the curriculum from two levels: Chinese literacy and emotional elements: "Practice the use of ordinary language and characters, and cultivate emotional virtues." ; Inspire imaginative thinking; arouse interest in reading; establish a good foundation for further study of Chinese language; develop the ability to express one's own ideas. "It stipulates the specific teaching content and requirements for each school year, and proposes that the teaching materials should be centered on children's lives, so that the Chinese language can be made more effective. The course matures.

After that, in 1929, the Nanjing National *** Ministry of Education re-edited and formally promulgated the "Interim Standards for Primary School Curriculum", in 1932, the "Primary School Curriculum Standards" were promulgated, and in 1936, the "Revised Primary School Curriculum" was promulgated "Standards" (the standards for the Chinese language curriculum in primary schools are all independent chapters). In 1942 and 1948, the Nationalist Party revised the "Standards for the Chinese Language Curriculum in Primary Schools" twice.

Each time it is promulgated, there are some modifications in the content, but there is no qualitative change in the framework system.

In other words, the American color of its curriculum paradigm has never changed substantially.

During the same period, the Chinese language education in the Central Soviet Area, Border Area and Liberated Area under the leadership of *** was very effective.

In 1934, the People's Committee for Education of the Central Soviet Area promulgated the "Primary School Curriculum Outline", which pointed out: "The purpose of the Chinese language class itself is not only to enable children to recognize a few new words, but to enable them to Be able to gradually use their own words and even words to express their thoughts, express their feelings, and develop children's communist morality. ”

2. Modern primary school Chinese classes (1949-2001). )

(1) Before the reform and opening up

In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the newly formed textbook editing and review committee determined that the Chinese language subject in primary schools should be revised based on the "Guoyu" textbook in the Liberated Areas of North China. And the revised "Guoyu" was changed to "Yuwen".

In this regard, the "Editor's Notes" of the textbook published in 1950 explained: "Speaking is language, writing is article. Articles are based on language, and 'language' and 'wen' are indistinguishable.

Chinese language teaching should include listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Therefore, this set of textbooks no longer uses the old name of "Guowen" or "Guoyu". Renamed 'Chinese Textbook'." The Ministry of Education promulgated the "Interim Standards for Primary School Chinese Curriculum (Draft)" in August 1950, and in 1952 promulgated the "Interim Standards for Primary School Chinese Curriculum (Revised Draft)".

On the basis of learning from the Soviet Union’s Russian language teaching experience and summarizing my country’s Chinese education practices since liberation, the Chinese Language Teaching Issues Committee submitted a report to the Central Committee, believing that “language and literature subject teaching” is the way out for reforming Chinese teaching.

Against the above background, the Ministry of Education formulated and promulgated the first primary school Chinese teaching syllabus in New China in October 1956 - "Primary School Chinese Teaching Outline (Draft)".

It is clearly stated: "The work of developing children's language is carried out from two aspects: one is to teach children to learn from the rich expressions of language; the other is to teach children to learn from the rules of language." This The Ministry's syllabus is based on the emergence of the Soviet Union and has two characteristics: first, Chinese teaching, which stipulates that Chinese classes should be added to the third grade and above, and two classes per week are arranged to teach Chinese content; second, reading teaching, "reading teaching adopts "Teaching Reading Methods" played an important role in strengthening reading teaching at that time, but it also had a negative side, that is, it played a certain role in the subsequent transformation of Chinese classes into literature classes, cross-talk in reading teaching, and tedious analysis of text content. guiding role.

After 1958, the politicization of Chinese language became more serious. Chinese teaching was one-sided and political, and Chinese classes were taught as political and moral classes, causing ideological education and Chinese knowledge teaching to suffer losses.

After summarizing experience and lessons, the Ministry of Education formulated and promulgated the "Full-time Primary School Chinese Language Teaching Syllabus (Draft)" in 1963.

The syllabus clearly states: "Chinese is a basic tool for learning various knowledge and engaging in various jobs." This illustrates the importance of learning Chinese. For the first time, Chinese courses are clarified in the syllabus. The tool nature of it theoretically solves the long-unsolved problems of the nature of Chinese language disciplines.

In addition, it emphasizes strengthening the "double foundation", focusing on cultivating reading and writing skills, and proposes strict requirements and strict training for students.

From 1966 to 1976, our country experienced the "Cultural Revolution".

Primary and secondary education has suffered the most serious damage since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Primary school Chinese syllabus and textbooks have been completely negated, completely overturning the proper system of Chinese education.

That kind of pure command-type "political indoctrination" completely replaced Chinese education itself. This is the most profound "traumatic memory" in the history of Chinese education.