? Paper Keywords: English Poetry College English Quality Education Auxiliary Function
? Abstract: English poetry is a treasure of English language and an indispensable media material for learning English language. It helps to cultivate students' interest in English learning, improve students' aesthetic taste, and thus promote college English quality education in practice.
China's College English Curriculum Requirements 1 (hereinafter referred to as the Requirements) clearly points out that one of the teaching objectives of college English is to improve the comprehensive cultural quality to meet the needs of China's economic development and international communication.
Improving comprehensive cultural quality meets the requirements of quality education advocated by college English education reform. How to understand the literary and cultural knowledge of British and American countries while strengthening the basic language training has become an urgent problem. English majors usually offer courses such as English literature, American literature, social culture of English-speaking countries, and hold lectures on cultural comparison between China and foreign countries, so that students can systematically learn British and American cultural knowledge. For non-English majors, the teaching time of college English course is short and the teaching task is heavy, so it is impossible to offer systematic cultural courses.
How to effectively solve this contradiction is related to the effective development and implementation of college English quality education. This paper holds that English poetry can bridge the gap between the two.
However, in China's public college English education, English poetry education has been marginalized. According to author's statistics, 2. At present, most commonly used college English textbooks are narrative, expository, argumentative and other genres, and poetry is rarely used as a learning unit. Even if poetry is selected as a teaching material, it is usually placed in supplementary reading after class. Since then, English teachers have despised poetry education, and students lack the motivation and effective guidance to learn English poetry. Based on my own college English teaching experience and college students' cognitive characteristics, this paper puts forward the significance and feasible implementation methods of English poetry in college English teaching, aiming at enlightening college English quality education.
First, English poetry education is an interest education.
Many college students find English difficult to learn, spend a lot of time, have no sense of language, can't speak, and dare not write. In addition, the English exam has hit their confidence and failed to cultivate their interest in English. Not because they have no talent for learning languages, but because they haven't realized the charm of English. China's poems are a wonderful flower in China, and so are English poems. Because of its flexible control of English language, full use of phonology and perfect description of artistic conception, it is a treasure of English language. Through the study of English poetry, students can lead the unique aesthetic feeling of English language. Wordsworth said: "Poetry is a natural expression of strong feelings!" Poetry not only expresses the author's thoughts and feelings, but also reflects social culture, which is helpful for students to learn British and American cultural knowledge.
Secondly, English poetry education is an aesthetic education.
Aesthetic education is an indispensable part of university education. Aesthetics is a lifelong pursuit. From childhood to adulthood, aesthetic education can only be fully implemented in universities. During college, most majors no longer offer Chinese courses, but all majors must learn English. Therefore, to some extent, the burden of college students' aesthetic education falls on the shoulders of English teaching. As a language, English carries the rich and colorful cultures of English-speaking countries, conveys foreign knowledge, and has the possibility and ability to undertake the mission of aesthetic education.
Poetry, as the essence of English language, is full of beautiful symbols. In the form of poetry, all kinds of poetic styles are rich and colorful, from sonnets to heroes' couplets, from ballads to free verse, or changing in strict structure, or in flexible but neat rhythm, showing the beauty of tension in the balance of change and constancy. Judging from the rhythm, you can jump flexibly, slowly and deeply, or relax a little and pluck the heartstrings like music. From the perspective of rhythm, there are advances and retreats, but step by step, resulting in symmetrical beauty. In terms of content, it is all-inclusive, implicit or straightforward, and it blends with formal beauty to complement each other. This kind of aesthetic feeling is irreplaceable by prose. Once influenced by this strong aesthetic feeling, students will naturally have greater interest in English, have more confidence and motivation to solve English vocabulary and grammar problems, and at the same time have a deeper understanding of the essence of English language.
Third, the implementation mode of English poetry education
Combined with the learning experience of China's poems and referring to the cognitive characteristics of English language and the present situation of students' English poetry learning, the author thinks that the following teaching steps should be followed in the English class of public universities, so as to read, recite, evaluate and write poems.
Some people think that poetry is difficult to understand, and it is unrealistic to carry out poetry education of "reading, reciting, commenting and writing" in college English classes. However, if children in China know Tang poetry by heart, English poetry may not be unattainable for mature college students if the materials are suitable. Children in China have been reciting poems under the guidance of their parents since childhood. Although they don't understand them, they still recite them with relish, thus helping them learn the language. Furthermore, for college students, English poetry is not as difficult as reading Tang poems by children in China, and there is not much difference between reading English poetry and reading prose with the help of a dictionary. Once the meaning of poetry is understood, the beauty and meaning of the form and rhythm of poetry can set off each other. Repeated reading is bound to produce endless reverie such as "the bright line at the foot of my bed".
Reading aloud and reciting poems can arouse students' senses such as vision and hearing. Coupled with the brain's thinking about the content and grasping the phonology, the information in the text repeatedly stimulates the consciousness and forms a deep memory in a short time. Moreover, poems with short space and vivid artistic conception have better effects. Moreover, combined with the rhythm, rhythm, content visualization and artistic conception of poetry itself, students are more likely to associate with poetry and form their own unique feelings and understanding. Reciting poetry can deepen understanding on the basis of basic understanding of the meaning of poetry, help students fully integrate into the artistic conception of poetry, and strengthen their mastery of English in the enjoyment of beauty.
Poetry criticism is an appreciation of poetry, which refers to a detailed explanation of personal feelings and understanding of poetry in terms of thought, significance, content and form. After students are required to read, read and recite the text carefully, they will have a more or less understanding of poetry, whether it is comprehensive or biased. It is very helpful for students to express in oral or written form to improve their English expression ability.
Many people will think that the above three points are easy to do, but it is not realistic to let college students write poems in English. Some college students can't even write Chinese poems, let alone English poems. However, in teaching practice, the author finds that writing English poems is not out of reach as long as it is properly guided. Students can gradually understand poetry creation in a simple and easy way. First of all, students are required to write haiku, a Japanese short poem, which consists of five lines, seven lines and five lines, with a total of 17 syllables. Let the students complete the word game according to the rules. If they can give consideration to both content and meaning, they will be excellent works. Through this kind of training, students can be familiar with English syllables, master the rhythm of the language, and how to express infinite meanings with limited words, so as to have a deep grasp of the English language and at the same time improve their self-confidence and sense of accomplishment invisibly.
English poetry can improve college students' English "comprehensive cultural quality" from two aspects: interest and aesthetics. Under the reasonable choice and guidance, English poetry education will promote college English quality education in an all-round way and cultivate more English talents with comprehensive cultural quality.
Precautions:
1 Refer to the Annex of Document No.3 (2007) of the Ministry of Education, College English Curriculum Teaching Requirements.
The author refers to College English Intensive Reading (Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press); New Horizon College English (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) and other textbooks.