引言

中國英語教育界對英語課程性質(zhì)的認識，經(jīng)歷了從知識性為主，到知識與技能并重的工具性課程，再到深刻認識其人文素養(yǎng)培養(yǎng)意義的發(fā)展過程。

20世紀80年代以前，英語課程以語言知識學習，即記單詞、練語法、背課文為全部內(nèi)容；80年代到90年代，英語教學開始重視語言技能，即聽、說、讀、寫、譯能力訓練。

21世紀，中國英語教育界認真思考，在人文性層面，英語課程義務教育承擔著怎樣的責任。

就人文性而言，英語課程承擔著提高學生綜合人文素養(yǎng)的任務，即學生通過英語課程能夠開闊視眼，豐富生活經(jīng)歷，形成跨文化意識，增強愛國主義精神，發(fā)展創(chuàng)新能力，形成良好的品格和正確的人生觀與價值觀。工具性和人文性統(tǒng)一的英語課程標準有利于為學生的終身發(fā)展奠定基礎。

——《義務教育英語課程標準：2011年版》，2011

本文基于對《義務教育英語課程標準：2011年版》指導精神的認識，以美國小學英語原版教材中課文《魔法小屋》The Magic Cottage為例，與讀者討論，在一種跨文化意識語境中，學習并豐富語言知識的方式。

讀者可以從《美國小學英語》（編著：【美】埃爾松 【美】格萊；翻譯：徐鵬；中國婦女出版社2015年7月出版）3B階段課本中參考原文。鑒于語言技能的培養(yǎng)目的，首先鼓勵學生閱讀后，用自己的語言復述課文，并將故事講給同學們聽。此文中試縮寫原文，以便展開論述。

課文縮寫

Part I： the fairy house

Iren was taken by her fairy godmother into a pleasant magic cottage. She would stay there for a period， taking care of the house by her own as a mistress. Irens fairy godmother left after telling her what must be done each day， including opening the window， making the bed， dusting the room and so on.

At first Iren was excited. The pleasant little cottage was lovely. Most surprisingly she found all furnishing in it， such as fire and wood-box， could speak！

But soon after tried to fulfill her duty， she got fed up. The fire asked for some wood at once. The wood-box requested its cover back as she let it open after taking some sticks from it. The broom called out when Iren did not hang it up after cleaning the floor. It seemed like all the stuff would only make sound to keep her busy in boring and endless jobs！

Iren was tied and impatient. She was not used to doing each piece of work as it came. Crossly she shouted all things in the cottage to be quiet so that she could do things when having time.

Leaving all the tasks unfinished， Iren took a nap after entertaining herself with a delicious dinner. Not a sound was to be heard then， except the tick of the clock， as it said：

“The minutes fly， one by one，

Tick， tick！

Lazy， lazy， nothing done，

Tick， tick！”

Part II： the fairy returns.

When evening came， the floor was not swept， and dishes not washed. Everything in the house seemed out of place.

The fairy godmother was angry when she returned and decided to let Iren had her lesson. Iren was demanded an immediate action to get through all the tasks at once， as she had wished：” I left things so that I could do them all at once.”

The fairy godmother warned Iren in a stern voice before leaving： “You can do only ONE THING AT A TIME， WHENEVER YOU BEGIN.”

Suddenly， Iren was nearly drowned by shouts from all sides the house.

“Put me away！”” Hang me up！” “Wash me！”” Dust me！”

The poor girl did not even know which job to start with first. The broom beat her， the cups flew at her head， and the table and chairs pushed against her.

At last， Iren caught a broom after it blew her hardly and hung it up. Now she managed getting down to work. Everything was in a muddle. Moreover， so many things had to be finished at once. Iren really got exhausted， thinking she would never want another evening like this all her life.

It was not easy for Iren to get used to early rise in the morning. But the clock warned her by the sound “Tick-tock， tick-tock”， as if saying “get up！”” dont be lazy！” Iren remembered her terrible evening yesterday. She jumped out of bed to start work immediately.

This time when the fairy godmother came back， she was satisfied not only because Iren had successfully kept the cottage as clean as could be， but also how she made it as saying that ONE THING AT A TIME.

詞語與句子

這篇課文里，建議學生根據(jù)喜好，摘錄自己感興趣的語言表達方式。各類國外原版教材，僅作為輔助教學材料，因此筆者認為沒有必要過于精讀，并且也不贊成教師替學生包辦，替學生作詞匯等語言知識歸納匯總工作。應允許學生體會根據(jù)自身需要，主動選擇學習內(nèi)容的樂趣，從而激發(fā)并保持學習積極性。

例如筆者注意到一首關(guān)于做家務事的童謠，朗朗上口，很容易達成娛樂中學習相關(guān)表達方式的目的：

Be up with the sun， and get your work done；

Keep the stove bright and the fire alight.

Here are the brushes， here are the brooms；

Here are the dusters for dusting the room.

此篇課文重在提倡一種生活習慣，因此將有關(guān)的詞句積累如下：

One thing at a time，whenever you begin

I can do things when I have time.

One thing at a time

Do each piece of work as it comes.

跨文化比較

筆者認為這篇課文中值得特別重視語句是：ONE THING AT A TIME， WHENEVER YOU BEGIN（每當開始工作，你都只能一次做一件事），文章旨在教導學生養(yǎng)成高效完成工作任務的習慣，并就如何提高效率，給予指導，即必須學會管理時間，具體做法是一事一結(jié)。

素有“管理學之父“美譽的彼得·德魯克提出：“卓有成效的管理者，總是把重要的事情放在前面先做（first things first），而且一次只做好一件事（do one thing at a time）。”他認為，我們多數(shù)人即使在同一時間內(nèi)專心致志地只做一件事，也不見得真能做好；如果想在同一時間內(nèi)做兩件事，那就更不必談了。

法國心理學家愛德華·德·波諾，歐洲創(chuàng)新協(xié)會將他列為歷史上對人類貢獻最大的250人之一。在《管理思想圖譜》一書中，他寫到：“為了避免混淆，我們需要建立某種思維方式，使我們注意力集中，一事一結(jié)。這樣，就保證將足夠?qū)⒆⒁饬Ψ峙浣o最重要的事，避免讓次要問題干擾我們”?！豆芾硭枷雸D譜》（作者：愛德華·德·博諾，企鵝出版社，1988年版）

中國道家典籍《莊子》書中《大宗師》篇中有曰：“善始善終。” 《史記·樂毅列傳》推崇 “善始善終，善作善成”，其中“善始”指做事目的純正，就不會輕易改變；“善終”意味著堅持到底；“善作”字面理解為會干、能干；“善成”意思是辦成事兒，成果顯著。這里，成果可分為小目標和大理想，像戰(zhàn)國儒家思想家荀子說的那樣：“不積跬步無以至千里，不積小流無以成江海?！?做事中要能將大目標分解為小目標，一步一步，腳踏實地逐步完成。

由此可見，在中國傳統(tǒng)文化背景下，人們認為“善始而后善作，善作故能善成，善成方得善終?！敝挥胁煌跣摹允匦拍?，并持之以恒，廣儲厚積，最終能夠成就偉大事業(yè)。

比較發(fā)現(xiàn)，從行為方式方面，中西方文化在如何成事方面，有著類似的經(jīng)驗。

從行為背后的心理層面，中西方似乎略有差別，中國文化中，歷來將“四善”作為一種美德看待，是評價一位“君子”，即道德高尚的人的標準，而在西方文化中，似乎更強調(diào)行為背后，反應出的是人類思維方式的問題，是屬于客觀規(guī)律范疇問題，因為人們常常因為缺乏科學知識，對自己的思維方式?jīng)]有認識，因此并不涉及道德品行層面的高低問題。

由此可以感受到，中國文化基于感性的成分較多，而西方文化，則偏重理性。

【作者簡介】王喆（1975.04- ），女，回族，新疆人，中國科學院大學心理研究所研究生，青少年心理健康專業(yè)。