Research on The Cultivation of Talents of English Majors in Applied Private Colleges and Universities under the Background of the “Belt and Road” Initiative

Zheng Xiujuan

(The College of Post and Telecommunication of WIT,Wuhan 430070)

Abstract:New requirements for the cultivation of talents in colleges and universities have been put forward under the steady promotion of the “Belt and Road” initiative.As an important component of higher education institutions,private colleges and universities should follow the new social development form and take the Silk Road Economic Belt as an opportunity to optimize the cultivation mode of English majors.The current status and problems of cultivating foreign language majors in private colleges and universities in China are explored,and effective teaching measures with the teaching of “English and American Literature” as an example are put forward,aiming to deliver more high-quality English majors with applied talents to the society.

Key words:The “Belt and Road” initiative;Private colleges and universities;Talent cultivation;English and American literature teaching

Under the“Belt and Road”initiative,the trade cooperation between China and the rest of the world is becoming increasingly frequent.English,as one of the official languages in the world,plays a highly important role in promoting world communication and exchanges.Colleges and universities should also keep up with the development of“The Times”and cultivate comprehensive talents with language skills and professional quality to communicate proficiently in English and to cope with various communication needs that may be encountered in the business environment.Advanced English talents need not only to master proficient English skills,but also to understand the cultural differences in the global context.The English materials included in English and American literature courses can help students feel authentic English expression,enhance the accumulation of language skills,and enable them to accurately grasp the linguistic connotation of English expressions.Therefore,English educators in China are actively discussing English teaching in the context of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and further emphasizing the importance of developing students’ critical and communicative skills.Such as Binbin Huang (2016),Wen HaiHua (2017),Liu Jinfang (2017),the themes that have been respectively discussed are the course orientation of college English,the teaching of spoken English in colleges and universities,and the perfect path for the teaching of business English majors in colleges and universities under the background of the “Belt and Road”initiative.However,theses on the link of the macro background of the “Belt and Road” with the teaching of “English and American Literature”courses are relatively scant,only scholars like Dong Hui (2018),Leng Huahui (2018) and Cheng Min (2020)have explored the path of humanistic quality in this aspect.

1 Talent Requirements under the the “Belt and Road” initiative Policy

The students trained by colleges and universities under the “Belt and Road” policy mainly serve the economic needs of different regions.The high-quality talents trained should be equipped with excellent language communication skills,comprehensive professional quality and ethics,overall vision and sense of responsibility,and be competent for posts such as business assistant,secretary and translator and other practical English posts.

1.1 A solid foundation of English

The students trained by colleges and universities under the “Belt and Road” policy mainly serve the economic needs of different regions.The high-quality talents trained should have excellent language communication skills,comprehensive professional quality and professional ethics,and they also have a sense of overall situation and responsibility,and be competent for English practical posts such as business assistant,secretary and translator.

1.2 Comprehensive quality

The implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative will facilitate exchanges between China and the rest of the world.Students need to master comprehensive knowledge of different races and cultures to express their ideas politely and appropriately when conducting business communication.The literature courses offered by the School of Foreign Languages can help students enhance their understanding and identification of cultural traditions,political systems,economic policies and other background knowledge in Western culture,thereby enhancing the accumulation of English culture and humanistic quality,and improving the overall quality of English[1].

2 The Deficiency of Current Situation

2.1 The lack of practical skills training

In the teaching of English,some teachers focus unilaterally on “l(fā)istening”“speaking”“reading”“writing” “translation”and other language skills,while cutting off the organic connection between English language and literature,history,philosophy and other disciplines.Especially in the course of “English and American Literature”,the teaching modes of some teachers are outdated and rigid,limiting literature to a simple introduction of authors,works and genres.As Derek Bok once noted,“Education should be an experience of trying to absorb,reshape and disseminate ideas.It should never be reduced to formal book learning.”[2].The daily formal and rigid training that only focuses on skills and not on ideas affects the comprehensive development of students’ thinking,making them blank in their heads and have no idea what to say when they encounter problems that need to be analyzed,demonstrated and reasoned out,that is,they are in a state of “speculative absence”.Students educated by this mode,no matter how well they master the English language,will find it difficult to conduct effective cross-cultural communication and adapt to the new environment in the context of the “Belt and Road”.

2.2 The insufficient strength of practical teaching

At present,college teaching is highly confined to the teacherled and one-to-many classroom teaching mode,and the teaching of theoretical knowledge based on textbooks lacks pertinence and practicability.Under the policy of the “Belt and Road”initiative,there is a large shortage of trade professionals,mainly in the fields of trade,finance,management,technology,project engineering.When colleges and universities are required to train talents,they should do a good job of coordinating and dispatching between specialties and subdividing the talent training programs.Although some foreign language colleges carry out comprehensive English teaching of different majors,the teaching content cannot keep up with the times.Many teachers are detached from the practical application knowledge of their posts,unable to accurately measure the practical achievements completed by students,thus lacking a professional practice grading system.The skills students learned are outdated,and they are not specialized or refined.As a result,it is difficult for students to develop innovative thinking.

3 The Improvement Path of English and American Literature Teaching

The author has been engaged in teaching English majors in private colleges for many years,and found that there are many outgoing,cheerful and creative students in each class.They like to express themselves and enjoy open activities such as singing,dancing and performing.Therefore,if we can incorporate the characteristics of English and American literature and form the literature instruction through reading,discussion,performance and other activities,we can bring the seemingly boring texts to life,inject vitality into the rigid subject and find a new way for language teaching.

3.1 Students:teaching guided by talent demand

Under the policy of “Belt and Road”,colleges and universities should take talent demand as the teaching orientation,and combine the characteristics of colleges and universities to accurately position students’ training paths,and turn the traditional teaching mode that focuses on basic English quality to the combination of students’ practical application ability and industry professional quality.In addition,the teaching syllabus should be adjusted to expand the proportion of English courses for professional literacy training.

Taking English and American literature courses as an example,English and American literature contains rich and colorful contents and insightful literary works.If used properly and flexibly,it can provide a platform for students to show themselves and communicate with each other.Some works are catchy to read and have beautiful artistic conception,which are very suitable for reading.Students can be organized to carry out reading contests,so that they can savor the beauty that comes from language in the cadence of these excellent works.Some poems can also be changed into songs,so that students can enjoy the videos or audios of these songs,or invite students who are good singers to showcase their voices on the platform.Some works are known for their weighty philosophical ideas,for such works,students can be encouraged to discuss and express their opinions,so that they can appreciate the flexibility of words in the confrontation of ideas,appreciate the extension of “a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers” and the meaningfulness of “words are exhausted”.There are so many literary works that classroom learning alone is not enough.Teachers can recommend some wonderful literary works for students to read after class,and then set aside time for “group reports” in class,so that students can make PPT presentations in advance and introduce themselves on stage after a period of reading and gaining experience.In short,teachers should create a relaxed and pleasant teaching atmosphere,organize teaching scientifically and effectively,make both the works and the students “l(fā)ive”.“Positive and innovative habits of mind can only be fostered in an environment of sufficient freedom,while rigorous training without distinction dulls the mind and prevents the achievement of goals.”[3]Compared with the strict and rigid English skill training in the past,various activities based on literary works can cultivate students’ positive and innovative thinking and boost their learning efficiency.Apart from acquiring knowledge,students can enhance their abilities of expression,thinking,communication so that positive emotions such as the sense of belonging,accomplishment,and honor arise spontaneously,enabling them to nourish their souls and benefit their life.

3.2 Teacher-led:reform the teaching mode

Under the policy of the “Belt and Road” initiative,foreign language colleges and universities should attach great importance to and standardize practical teaching from the perspective of practicability,actively carry out flexible and diverse teaching attempts,and use professional practical cases as teaching materials to infiltrate professional consciousness from subtle influences.In the theoretical teaching,the proportion of practical training teaching should be constantly increased to realize the cultivation of students’ sense of professional responsibility and team consciousness in comprehensive practice,integrate the improvement of English communication skills into business situations,and promote students’ transformation of basic theoretical knowledge into business skills,and link basic theory with practice,and improve practical operation ability in thinking.Colleges and universities should actively construct comprehensive practiceoriented classes so that students can constantly strengthen their skills in the application of perceptual language through practice.

The enthusiasm,initiative and creativity of students are very important to make the “English and American Literature”classroom active.Students are the main body,but the leading role of teachers cannot be neglected.How to guide the teaching of British and American literature in colleges and universities from the macro background of the “Belt and Road”? How to use the limited classroom time to vividly demonstrate the beauty of British and American literature? How to choose the appropriate aesthetic literary works to carry out activities? These are all issues that deserve due attention.

In an era of rapid technological inventions and changing world situations,English teachers should have the vision to keep up with the times.In order to create a good artwork,both teachers and students need to cooperate,respect and promote each other.Specific steps of teacher-student cooperation are divided into three phases:pre-class,while-class and after-class.

3.2.1 Pre-class questions

Before class,teachers should make great efforts in the selection of appropriate teaching materials.One thing to note is that not only western classical writers,works and themes should be focused on,but also some non-western,non-mainstream works,which not only broaden students’ horizons,but also expose them to life experiences that they cannot experience in person,which can eliminate group thinking pattern,stand in the position of the other party,engage in empathetic imagery[4].At the same time,teachers should assign a certain amount of questions before class to guide students to learn and think independently,and to grasp the emotional connotation of writers’ works in the processes of self-learning and exploration[5].

3.2.2 While-class activities

In classroom teaching,the works should be interpreted positively so as to guide students’ emotion and moral recognition.

Specifically,the explanation in the first class can be used to guide students to further discuss and think in the second class,and finally be deeply embedded in the lifelong reading in the third class,so as to realize the comprehensive improvement of expression,thinking,communication and other abilities.Take Hawthorne’s short storyThe Birthmark1843 as an example.Birthmarktells the story of Aylmer,a scientist who,in order to realize his dream of conquering nature,uses scientific means to eliminate the birthmark on his wife’s face,which symbolizes nature.As a result,his wife died tragically.For the work,teachers can conduct a dialectical analysis of science in the classroom and guide students to think empathically from the perspectives of Aylmer and his wife,and understand the relationships between human and science from both positive and negative aspects,and then guide students to deal with the relationship between technology and daily life properly,seek advantages and avoid disadvantages by exploiting the positive aspects of technology and eliminating its negative impact.Although students may not immediately recognize the duality of science and technology in the real world,they can have a dialectical understanding.The knowledge learnt will eventually influence students’ behavior outside the classroom and urge them to discuss and explore with their teaching audiences in the teaching practice.Ultimately,students will internalize their understanding of science and technology and dialectical understanding of ideas,and will continue to read,think and deepen their understanding in the process of lifelong reading.

Since teaching is a two-way interactive process,in addition to the teacher’s explanations,students can be said to play a leading role of classroom learning.In the process of peer cooperation,students are expected to actively engage in group discussions in class and listen to the opinions of others,so as to change their own narrow understanding.This is what Suzanne Keen meant by empathy,which means that empathy is not only seen in the reading experience,but also in listening to others[6].When communicating with others,students themselves will become aware of the multiple facets of a problem,and continuously expand the breadth and depth of thinking,so that they can understand the survival dilemma and emotional-ethical entanglements of the characters in a tolerant and compassionate manner,and may eventually act altruistically in reality.This empathic mode of reading and discussion embodies what Wayne C(Booth) calls “coduction”[7],in which readers develop a mode of mutual discussion and correction in reading.This mode plays the role of communication and interaction.It breaks through the single and linear thinking and the dual opposition between subjectivity,and attempts to take an attitude of inter-subjective approach to the relationships between oneself,others and the world.

3.2.3 After-class assignment

After class,the teacher can assign certain reflective homework,such as reading reports,experiences and so on,which are required to be submitted to the teacher in written form.In this way,a circular reading pattern will be formed,in which students will develop empathy through continuous reading experience,constantly adjust their self-cognition,and finally practice their acquired emotional cognition in real life.

3.3 To simulate the real conditions of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and improve the teaching environment

Due to the lack of real emotional experience,it is difficult for students to understand the differences between Chinese and Western cultures along the “Belt and Road”,which is not conducive to the benign development of English and American literature courses.At present,multimedia and network technologies are extensively used in college classrooms.Teachers can include some social,cultural,language style and other materials of countries along the “Belt and Road” to enhance students’ objective perception and better acceptance of Western culture,religion,humanities,philosophy,and art mentioned in British and American literary works,and enhance students’ability to adapt to foreign affairs.Teachers can recommend a selection of masterpieces,videos or foreign language websites for students when explaining the content of the courses related to the“Belt and Road”,and provide students with the background information so as to help students understand the connotation of the course content in a timely manner.Teachers can also select recent hot issues in the context of the “Belt and Road” and introduce them into context -specific case study activities,with in-depth exchanges and discussions on cultural differences and language skills.

4 Conclusion

“Universities in different eras have different educational concepts and practical contexts.”[8]The teaching of “English and American Literature” under the background of the “Belt and Road” initiative has injected vitality into the ancient discipline and added classical connotation to the pulse of The Times.Classic literary works not only have dramatic plots and vivid characters,but also contain profound historical and philosophical thinking.Literary works can not only allow students to learn the usage of words and sentences patterns,but also broaden their horizon,improve their aesthetic ability,allow them to feel the charm of English culture,enrich their own cultural heritage,enhance their cognitive ability,cultivate their divergent thinking,and thereby enhancing their overall ability.Especially in cross-cultural communication,students can understand the folk customs differences of different countries and tolerate the characteristics of different cultures and peoples.Eventually,they will become a fresh force in the development of the the “Belt and Road” initiative by thinking and analyzing problems from different perspectives in an all-round manner.