A Matter of Privilege


by

San-pao Li
Professor of Chinese

It is a privilege to teach and educate the young minds whose inquisitiveness seems boundless, whose innocent eyes appear angelic, and whose accomplishments may one day far exceed their teachers. A Chinese proverb informs us that "The blue is extracted from the indigo, yet it is bluer than it; the ice is made of water, yet it is colder than it." A great sense of delight embraces me when I witness the successes of my students. After having "breathed the chalk powder," as a Chinese would say, for thirty years, I am pleased to muse and share with my respected colleagues some of my perspectives on teaching.

As A Freshest Freshman

For someone who had never visited a garden or, for that matter, even a decent public park, the charming serenity and the prevailing atmosphere of culture at Tunghai University, my alma mater, located in the central part of Taiwan, became an instant source of enticement and invitation. I can still recall the exhilarating moment the first day I arrived at Tunghai one autumn afternoon thirty-four years ago as a freshman. The extensive spread of the lush lawns, the Luce Chapel (an early masterpiece of I.M. Pei), the faculty residences hidden amongst the trees, and the warm and cordial greetings offered to one of the freshest freshmen like myself by silver-haired professors all captivated me. It was then and there that I made up my mind to become a professor one day.

Teaching (jiao) and studying (xue) have become my professional passion and obsession since that enlightening moment. These activities have supplied me with incessant challenges, constant satisfaction, and renewed energy. It is hardly conceivable for me that there could be a more gratifying and fulfilling profession.

An Unending Attempt: Bridging the East and the West

According to a recent survey conducted by the Chinese Language Teachers Association, the total number of students enrolled in all levels of Chinese language classes in Fall 1995 in universities and colleges across the United States was 16,816. This is dismally infinitesimal when compared with the number of students enrolled in English classes in China today. This imbalance is further aggravated by the lack of understanding of other cultures among even the most educated of our society. As I recall, some students thought they would finally be able to climb the Great Wall if they were accepted by our International Programs to study in Taiwan.

I take it as my mandate to rectify this situation in however small a way I know how. I approach my classes with a sense of mission and a hope that through youthful energy and intercultural understanding of young men and women of the future generations a more tolerant society may be created.

Mutually Complementing Fields

Intercultural understanding can perhaps be best cultivated and facilitated through the acquisition of language and the study of cultural history. In effect, the literary (wen) and the historical (shi) are inseparable and complementary disciplines in the Chinese tradition. It was perhaps due to this necessary linkage and my own volition that I am, at once, an historian and a language educator. Studying and teaching Chinese language and history have preoccupied my entire professional life. Needless to say, the challenge presented to me is twice as great as I strive to excel in both fields. I am as fascinated as perhaps my students when I lecture on the quintessence of Chinese culture, sharing with them the salient characteristics of the longest living heritage. Occasionally I dwell upon the etymological evolution of a Chinese character in my effort to elucidate a drastically different notion or practice. As Chinese characters are richly endowed with cultural insights, this technique becomes a convenient pedagogical instrument. By the same token, language does not exist in a vacuum. Historical acumen serves as a powerful instrument through which acquisition of a foreign language can be both fun and intellectually challenging.

An Aesthetic Approach

It requires a different set of strategies when teaching a language and culture still regarded by many as foreign, exotic, and seemingly remotely relevant to the life experiences of the learners. Application of certain heuristic techniques may prove to be effective.

A Chinese poem or a brief poetic verse of the sixth or the tenth century might powerfully strike a spiritual chord of a student. A calligraphic representation of such poetic inspirations enhances this effect. The aesthetics expressed through the works of ancient literary giants and the philosophical profundity contained therein can produce lasting impressions on the minds of our students. The presentation and interpretation of a 15-foot long hand scroll written by Emperor Huizong of the twelfth-century or a 20-foot long calligraphic scroll from the rubbing of a monumental stele of the eighteen-century often produces eye-opening effects. The imageries thus created and the inspirations aroused continue to reverberate in the depth of the students' souls. They compel them to evaluate things with which they are more familiar from fresh perspectives.

Ingredients of a Sound Curriculum

Sound curricular design is an extremely essential aspect of teaching. Curriculum, in my opinion, is an educational framework and an implementation scheme of a teaching strategy. It is a process through which students can acquire knowledge, wisdom, and skill and develop their respective innate intellectual capabilities. It is my conviction that a good teacher exercises care and pays attention to the development of an appropriate curriculum for his or her students. An "ideal" curriculum should be learner-centered, hence encouraging proactive learning. It is flexible, allowing always sufficient room for creativity, so that students can develop their intellectual potential to the fullest. It inspires, motivates, and excites, and creates opportunities for students to apply what they learn. Moreover, it heightens the cultural awareness of our students and contains in its design an effective monitoring and feedback scheme.

A Grand Entrance into Cyberspace

It would have been ridiculed as nonsensical only a few years ago if one were to attempt an unlikely marriage between Chinese language instruction and a computer-based multimedia interactive compact laser disc. It has become apparent that creative use of computer technologies available today can effectively help remove some of the obstacles that have historically confronted both the instructor and the student of Chinese language. The mastery of Mandarin pronunciation, the recognition of the four tones, the command of the pinyin system, the ability to learn and retain Chinese characters, the construction of lexically and syntactically sound sentences, and the ability to perform Chinese word processing are among many of the difficulties experienced by students enrolled in first-year Chinese classes. These problems are significantly magnified when students are required to overcome them within a matter of weeks.

What Jeff Winters, my teammate, and I have been trying to accomplish during the past three years is to develop a sophisticated computer software program that can substantially enhance the student's total learning experience. Computers today afford students much more needed control of the subject matter than available from conventional means. The tested results of the program suggest that it elicits greater learner motivation and increases student participation as well as classroom preparedness.

Chinese may become the international language of the 21st century. It is imperative that teachers of this subject realize the urgency of mastering telecommunication skills and understanding the changing nature of instructional delivery. In the foreseeable future, as pedagogical methods evolve toward this new mode of instruction, increasing amounts of quality time can be spent for greater individual intellectual and personal interaction. New computer technologies can help reach learners outside of the classroom, use learning time efficiently, and sustain learn motivation. These technologies can potentially individualize instruction and provide access to vast databases and other information tools. Ushering our students into the enormous immensity of cyberspace is both urgent and relevant.

Encouraging Critical Thinking

Robert H. Ennis suggested that "critical thinking" is "reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe and do." Critical thinking so defined involves both dispositions and abilities. Among the many responsibilities of a teacher is the need to share knowledge with and impart wisdom to our students. We should strive to teach them to reason and to analyze, to consider seriously points of view other than their own, and to withhold judgment when the evidence and reasons are insufficient. It is utterly important as a citizen of the modern world to remain sensitive to the feelings, level of knowledge, and degree of sophistication of others.

One of the primary foci of the Traditional Asia (A/ST 300IC) course, for example, is to develop in our students these dispositions and their ability to draw systemic inferences. This course aspires to highlight the achievements of the Asian peoples and to illuminate the distinctive world views which informed their various manifestations in philosophy, religion , art, literature, language, and the sciences. These, in turn, are broadly related to the ecological, social, and institutional settings of historical Asia in general and China and India in particular. I love to pose questions and challenge the studentsŐ intellect and their ability to think critically.

Expectations: "Boyaxujing"

As Kerri Strug landed heroically on the mat with an injured ankle during the recent Olympic Games in Atlanta, the whole world was astounded by her extraordinary courage and all the laudable virtues this act represented. Citius, altius, fortius, and audacius (faster, higher, stronger, and braver), after all, is the Olympic credo. These virtues are equally valuable when applied to the intellectual pursuits of our students. To couple with and to expand from them, I attempt to instill in the students four essential qualities which I personally believe distinguish a modern, educated, and thinking individual: bo (erudition), ya (gracefulness and an aura of "culturedness"), xu (humility and modesty), and jing (poise and quietude). The embodiments of these virtues are rare. As an educator, a sense of urgency becomes more acute in me with the passage of each day.

"Throwing a Sprat to Catch a Mackerel"

"Casting a piece of tile to elicit a piece of jade" or paozhuanyinyu may be understood as the Chinese equivalent for "throwing a sprat to catch a mackerel." In essence, what is offered above is no more than an individual instructor's random observations, possibly devoid of much value. It is hoped, however, that thoughts offered here will elicit much more perceptive and sagacious insights that will be of greater value to us all.

Dr. San-pao Li received his Baccalaureate degree in political science from Tunghai University, Taiwan. He received his Master's degree in Regional Studies: East Asia from Harvard University and his Doctoral degree in history from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Li is an intellectual historian by training and is a veteran language instructor with more than 30 years experience. He focuses his research on nineteenth-century China. Dr. Li is a five-time recipient of the much-coveted "Meritorious Performance Award." He was recently selected by CSULB as one of two recipients of the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Awards for 1995-96. Dr. Li has involved himself intensively since early 1994 in the development of a highly sophisticated multimedia-based Chinese language software entitled "Demystifying the Impossible Language: An Innovative, Interactive, and Multimedia-based Chinese Course." Dr. Li would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who considered him a colleague over the past twenty years here at CSULB for their unstinting encouragement and support. He would like especially to thank his wife, Shu-chuen who serves in the University Library.
Contents Page
CSULB Homepage