Reflections of the English education in early missionary schools

【Abstract】： Westerners are famous for their advanced teaching methods and philosophy; and there is a well-known Chinese proverb called “history is a mirror for our guidance”. Hence， in this article， I would like to analyze the early English education in two missionary schools in China， to see what English teaching major students can learn from， and what we need to avoid.

【Key words】： early missionary schools; present-day English education; reflection

1.Introduction

Aimed at cultivating politicians’ wives and fine ladies， McTyeire School was favored by rich Chinese families who wanted to prepare their children to study overseas as well as build networks with industrialized nations. St. John’s University was a famous missionary university in modern China， which was well-known for its outstanding English education.

2.Reflections of the English education in those early missionary schools

2.1 The use of authentic English teaching materials

In McTyeire School， what students used in class was original classic English novels like Jane Eyre， Pride and Prejudice， A Tale of Two Cities … and even Shakespeare’s original dramas！ During classes， the teacher would interpret some important chapters， and left other parts as the students’ after-class reading materials. "McTyeire School also had excellent library with abundant original English books.

With a massive reading of original materials， students were cultivated to have a good command of western culture， history， and humanistic customs， and usually， their English was impressively idiomatical.

Personally， the proper adoption of original English works can play an important role in improving the quality of English education. Indeed， original English books are expensive， therefore until now it’s impossible to adopt original English books as textbooks around the whole country， especially in primary school and secondary school. But there are two things we can do.

Firstly， English teachers need to read as many original English books as they can. There is no doubt that if a teacher can command impressively idiomatical English， then his students would have more opportunities to immerse themselves into an authentic language environment. The other more palatable measure is that we can adopt original English works into our English class to cultivate students’ English thinking， like authentic magazine articles， letters， stories， advertisements， reports， poems， play extracts and so on.

Only in those ways can we gradually reduce the prevailing so-called “Chinglish” phenomenon.

2.2 To cultivate school culture for English learning

Notice that I used “school culture” instead of “culture”， because in China， English is a foreign language， not a second language. Therefore， it’s impossible to create a nationwide environment for English learning. However， if a school wants to improve students’ English level， creating certain school culture of English learning might be a perfect choice.

The most famous instance of cultivating such culture was St. John’s University. The headmaster Bo Fangji encouraged his students to found many English journals such as The St. John’s Echo， The St. John’s Weekly， and so on， the former was the first English journal produced by students in Chinese university. Besides， Bo Fangji also encouraged the organizing of a variety of student associations conducive to English learning， such as English Literature Debt， choir， drama club， etc.

That strong atmosphere in St. John’s University not only guaranteed the quality of students’ language input， but also provided lots of opportunities for their language output， which is a crucial step for learning a language.

Language is the production of society， therefore， while learning a language， it can help a lot if we have a certain culture environment. But in China， the reality is that we don’t have such environment allowing all the English learners to practice their English constantly. However， it is feasible and practical to create school culture for students during a whole school. English club， English Movie Festival， English Speech Contest … There are so many ways we can adopt.

2.3 Things that we need to avoid in our English education

There is a wise Chinese idiom called “discard the dross and select the essence”. Indeed， in this paper， the last aspect I want to talk about is that， despite all these “essences” that worth learning from， we also need to avoid the “dross” in the English education in those missionary schools， and the most important one is the culture values.

It’s not a secret that in many missionary schools， the founders and teachers had an ultimate goal to convert Chinese students into their religions. With their aim to “save Chinese people’s souls”， their English education undeniably branded the mark of colonialism and has some inherent flaws.

The early educators in McTyeire School laid too much stress on English， religion and focused little on Chinese， and the contents of Chinese history books they used were full of the backward customs and ideas of China， like wearing pigtails， foot binding， and keeling down. St. John’s University was no exception. The headmaster Bo Fangji refused to register the university on government department; he forced students to study religion; and he forbad students’ patriotic movements.

In nowadays’ globalized world， there exists a phenomenon named “cultural imperialism”. A powerful country permeates his culture into other countries in peaceful ways， eventually reaching the chilling aim of though control.

Studies show that having a good knowledge of Chinese does can help our English learning. Great scholars like Lin Yutang， Feng Youlan are all quite proficient at both Chinese and English. Not just that， the most important thing is every culture is equal. While learning English， the primary thing we need to do is to correct our culture value. Be proud of our own great culture， which has a brilliant and continuous history lasted for more than 5000 years.

3.Conclusion

“Education is the foundation of a nation.” The quality of education determines the quality of a generation. The English education in those two famous early missionary schools did have something that worth learning. Impressive as it is， it still has something that we need to avoid.

Anyway， to some extent， English education is a product of time. We absorb the essences and discard the dross from the past， make continuous adjustment， and achieve the better development of our English education.

Works Cite6d：

[1]Hu Weiqing， Brief Analysis of McTyeire School in Shanghai. Journal of Hanshan Normal College， 2002

[2]Han Jing. Bo Fangji and St. John’s University. East China Normal University， master’s thesis， 2004