六十年“语文”史论(1887—1950)

Sixty-Year History of “Yuwen” from 1887 to 1950

“语文”一词在新中国成立之初被确定为我国母语课程新名称前已有六十多年的应用史。“语文”是晚清洋务运动的产物,在当时被赋予了语言救国的使命。这一词语在20世纪上半叶已普遍使用,且已成为当时我国母语教学界话语的关键词,其本义是“语言(口语)文字(书面语)”。新中国成立之初“语文”被命名为我国母语课程名称有着当时政治、文化和课程等多方面的复杂因素,有其历史必然性,然而,这一名称也存在着两大内在缺陷:名实不符以及名称中民族或国别标识缺失,几十年来已给我国母语课程建设带来了负面影响。当前,由于我国母语教育界对于“语文”一词使用史的集体性遗忘,造成了长期以来我们对这种内在缺陷的忽视。

The term of “Yuwen” has been used as the name of the native language curriculum in China for more than sixty years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It was a result of the West-ernization Movement and was given the mission of saving nation with language. The term has been widely used in the first half of the twentieth century, and had become a keyword in the field of native language teaching in China. Its original meaning is “spoken and written language”. “Yuwen” was identified as the name of our native language curriculum in 1949 due to complicated factors in the aspects of politics, culture and curriculum etc. However, this name has two inherent defects: the inconsistency of the name and content and the missing of ethnic or national identity, which has led to negative influence on the construction of native language curriculum. Currently, there is a long term neglect of such inherent defects due to the collective ignorance of the history about the use of the term “Yuwen” in the field of native language education in China.