Soochow University - Annual Yearbook (Taipei, Taiwan)

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The Department of Foreign Languages and Literature The English language, by virtue of the imponderables of history, has served as one of the main tools in the modernizing' processes of the larger part of the Orient. The study of English, beginning with the simple dimension of a utilitarian objective, gradually acquired cultural uses in literature and the fine arts: at one and the same time it would be both the key that opened the secrets of science and technology, and also the interpreter of religion, social philosophy, and political ideology. Those revelations and those disciplines would alternately repel and attract the Far East, and in turn react competitively with other lan.guage groups, so that in the end English superseded all other European tongues, and stands today the near-universal speech of mankind. Against a background of such impressive magnitude, the classroom concerns with courses and techniques, the routines of grades and standards and examinations, seem puny and irrelevant to the point of absurdity. But it is exactly by the sum total of such minutiae, which are the basis of all formal language study, that we can apprehend the extent to which all educational systems today are committed to the mastery of the English language. The study of English in China, has long been a basic requirement in all middle schools, a prerequisite feature for undertaking higher education. Now, on the other side, it has been extended to the primary school system. In the new environment of Taiwan, While the principles are still valid, their application calls for new approaches, owing to the changed objectives and formulas for language instruction in the middle schools, and in the changed concept of the joint examinations and the total grade, as the valid basis for college and university entrance. ' The foreign language curriculum in the college, though centered on English, provides for an acquaintance with the elements of at least one other language-- in Soochow, this is French. This represents an attempt to compress in.to the space

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of four years the materials and the disciplines which will serve the student dependably in his further pursuits: First, for the undergraduate study in law, accounting, economics, and political scienceg and later for professional or graduate research. Concurrently there might be concerns with passports, placements tests, and vocational aptitudesg and finally with a life work in teaching, translating, writing, self-cultivation through literature, and character enrichment. In short, when the student stands at last on his Commencement Day, he should find that. first of all, he has laid a good foundation in language C a basis for clear, forceful communication of ideas D for a vocation, which has been made possible through a flexible pedagogy supplemented by modern developments in the science of linguisticsg and secondly, even more importantly, through inspiration and instruction by the masters in literature, philosophy, and religion, he is prepared for life-long growth as a spiritual creature. .T. W. D. nl- L.