How to Understand the "Language Construction and Use" Issues Raised by Core Competency

The current education reform based on students' core literacy has attracted global attention and will undoubtedly become the mainstream trend of the new round of curriculum and teaching reform in China. Therefore, as an important part of the basic education curriculum system, the language subject should also follow the trend of education development at home and abroad, in-depth research and study of language core literacy.

Logically speaking, "language core literacy" is both a subordinate concept of language literacy and a subordinate concept of core literacy. Relative to the former is to highlight the word "core", that is to say, the core of language literacy; relative to the latter is to emphasize the "language" of the discipline, that is to say, the embodiment of core literacy in the language of the discipline. So, what are the elements of core language literacy? What is the relationship between them?

The new version of the Language Curriculum Standards for Higher Secondary Schools proposes that "language (construction and use)" "thinking (development and enhancement)" "aesthetic (appreciation and creation)" and "culture (inheritance and understanding)" are the key elements of the core qualities. "Culture (inheritance and understanding)" is identified as the core elements of students' language literacy, i.e., the specific content of the core language literacy. These four elements are independent and interdependent; they are focused and integrated.

The Language Curriculum Standards for General High Schools clearly state that the main purpose of the language curriculum is "to enable all students to further improve their language literacy on the basis of compulsory education, to be able to use the motherland's spoken and written language correctly, skillfully and effectively in life, study and work, to form a good ideological and moral cultivation as well as scientific and humanistic cultivation, and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning and personalized development". They can lay the foundation for lifelong learning and individualized development, and play their due roles in the inheritance and development of Chinese culture and the enhancement of national cohesion and creativity." The "language literacy" mentioned therein mainly refers to "students' individual speech experience and speech quality, which are constructed in active language practice activities and expressed in real-life language-use situations; it is the knowledge and ability of language, the method and quality of thinking, the emotion, attitude and values acquired by students in language learning". It is the comprehensive expression of students' language knowledge and language ability, thinking method and thinking quality, and emotion, attitude and values acquired in language learning". The core language literacy refers to those core elements that can best demonstrate students' language literacy.

As we all know, the language course is a comprehensive and practical course for learning the use of language and writing in the motherland. This nature of general knowledge determines the language curriculum and teaching can not be separated from the attention of the motherland language and writing, it can be said that the students of the motherland language and writing to accurately understand and flexibly use the core value of the existence of the language program and the essence of the demand. However, if students want to achieve this goal, they must take the initiative to enrich and expand their own language experience in a wide range of language practice, and try to construct their own language system by accumulating, sorting out and internalizing their language knowledge, and then they can use the motherland's (Chinese) language and characters correctly, skillfully and effectively in real and concrete language situations (future work, real life, etc.) for communication and exchanges. It is easy to see that language construction and use is an important part of the core language literacy, and it is also the basis and kernel of the overall structure or system framework of language literacy. The formation of students' language ability, the development of thinking quality and aesthetic quality, and the understanding and inheritance of traditional culture are all based on the construction and use of language and can be realized in the process of constructing students' individual language experience. Without language learning, there is no way to talk about the development and cultivation of students' core language skills.

So, we believe that language is the foundation and the core of the four elements of core language literacy. The development and cultivation of the other three elements cannot be separated from the rooting and influence of Chinese language. Thinking is the development of students' language literacy operation guarantee mechanism, all dynamic creation are inseparable from the thinking of the beating, in the process of the development of the whole literacy system, thinking itself is also in the development and enhancement, so as to better support the development of other core literacy. The relationship between aesthetics and the other three elements is like the relationship between means and ends, the development of language, thinking and culture is always accompanied by aesthetic appreciation and creation, the latter is like an invisible cable always measuring and leading the development and trend of the first three. At present, only things and objects close to and in line with the core socialist values can be retained, inherited and developed. Culture and language are two sides of the Chinese language curriculum, and have an indispensable position in the core language literacy system. Leaving culture to talk about Chinese language and Chinese characters is like water without a source and wood without a foundation. Five thousand years of traditional Chinese culture has long been y embedded in the motherland's language and writing, and it is precisely for this reason that the understanding and inheritance of Chinese culture is not only a supplement to the development of students' core language literacy and improvement, but also the existence of the language program itself is the sole responsibility.

Based on the above discussion, if there is a core of core language literacy, the construction and use of Chinese language is undoubtedly the core of the core, the most important of the first. Below we will further explain from the perspective of students' language learning (what to learn, how to learn, why to learn) why Chinese language construction and use should be the most central element of the core language literacy.

What to learn, that is, from the perspective of learning content. The language curriculum has five learning areas: literacy and writing, reading, writing, oral communication and integrated learning. But the real situation is that the vast majority of class time in primary and secondary language teaching is basically spent on reading instruction, that is, the teaching of a text. Texts are the most important resources by virtue of which teachers and students learn languages nowadays. It can be said that any form of language classroom teaching cannot do without the support of language materials. So teachers' teaching and students' learning have to rely on the understanding of language knowledge. "Language is a phenomenon that exists objectively in human society and is a socially agreed symbol system." And "speech is the process of communicative activities carried out by people using language materials and language rules." It is not difficult to see that language cannot be separated from speech, and the understanding and mastery of language knowledge cannot be separated from speech teaching activities. Only with the help of certain language materials and corresponding language rules can any individual express his thoughts and feelings accurately and fluently, and accept the influence of other people's speech activities. In other words, language teaching is often referred to as listening, reading and writing activities, in essence, is the students to master and use "language" to express their thoughts and feelings of the process and results. While "language" is conventional and regular, "speech" is dynamic and social. Due to the subjective difference and creative generativity of the "speech" emitter or "language" user, it is also determined that the same speaker in different contexts or different speakers in the same context, often because of their own or the surrounding uncertainty will utter a very different style of words. The same speaker in different contexts or different speakers in the same context will often speak in very different styles due to their own uncertainties or those of their surroundings, thus achieving different impacts and effects. Therefore, in order to realize the goal of enabling every student to use the language and characters correctly and appropriately for social communication, work, life and further study of reading appreciation and expression, we have to teach and learn Chinese language and characters and their use.

How to learn, that is, from the perspective of learning forms and methods. "The language course is a practical course, should focus on cultivating students' language practice ability, and the main way to cultivate this ability should also be language practice." Practice means activity, and learning activities in the threshold of language teaching are different from social activities, life activities and so on. In a broad sense, "language activities" refers to human activities such as "listening, reading, writing and thinking", but some scholars have pointed out that "students' activities of listening, reading and writing in the language curriculum and teaching do not mean that they can naturally learn to listening, reading and writing." In other words, everyone is engaged in a variety of "language activities" every day, but these "language activities" do not necessarily lead to changes in "listening, reading, writing and thinking". The language activities do not necessarily lead to changes in their listening, reading, writing, thinking and so on. Therefore, only "listening, reading, writing and thinking" as "learning objectives and content" are "language learning activities". For example, the language curriculum standards include "planning simple campus and social activities" and "adopting a variety of forms to carry out cultural exchanges and community cultural construction activities", but here "campus activities", "social activities" and "community cultural construction activities" are not the same as "language learning activities". However, "campus activities", "social activities", "cultural exchanges" and "cultural construction activities" are not "language learning activities", but only "language learning activities". "They can only be described as "language activities". Even "organizing literary activities on one's own, and experiencing the joy of cooperation and success in the process of organizing publications, performances and discussions" is not a "language learning activity", but can only be said to be related to language learning. Rather, they can only be described as language activities related to language learning. In addition, "language learning activities" are also different from "language learning methods" and "language teaching methods". Language learning activities" have the objective and content of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and always incorporate the acquisition of language experience and the enhancement of language competence, whereas "language learning methods" and "language teaching methods" are external to language experience, and are only a means of learning or teaching "language". They are only ways or means of learning or teaching "languages" and can only have an indirect impact on language learning. Some scholars regard the "circling and annotating" aspects of language learning methods as "language learning activities" because they do not pay attention to the distinction between them. To summarize, the language learning pathway lies in language learning activities, and the core goal of language learning is language experience and use, or more accurately, the use of Chinese language.

Why learn, that is, from the language program value and function orientation. "The qualities that distinguish the language subject from other subjects are that it takes the cultivation of students' understanding and use of the motherland's language and writing as its core orientation and fundamental purpose, and the goal and task of the language program is to improve students' language and writing literacy and their ability to use language and writing." Mr. Ye Shengtao once said, "Learning language for the sake of use is the so-called learning to use." "The starting point of language and writing learning is 'knowing' and the ultimate point is 'doing', and it is only when we can reach the point of 'doing' that we can be considered to have this living ability." As Mr. Tao Xingzhi said, "Knowledge is the beginning of action, and action is the completion of knowledge", only when what is learned is put into use, is it real learning. And by "observing mother tongue education in countries all over the world, it is easy to find that attaching great importance to the cultivation of the necessary language expression skills and positive linguistic ability of future citizens has become the same value pursuit". It can be said that the core objective and value pursuit of the language curriculum is to guide students to "correctly understand and use the language and writing of the motherland", through 12 years of language teaching and learning, to form a system of objectives with language as the main axis, with the acquisition of linguistic knowledge and the acquisition of the ability to express themselves verbally as the two wings. The key is "comprehension and application", which is a prerequisite, but not the end point. All the courses in basic education have a prerequisite for implementation, i.e., a correct understanding of the language and characters in the teaching materials. And language proficiency and language use are not the same, the former is only internalized in the learner's mind legal statute or rule system, the latter's perfect acquisition and flexible implementation is the essence of language education, and is a deepening of the former and beyond.

Based on the students' core literacy curriculum construction and teaching implementation is imperative, the early attention to the core language literacy and in-depth study will help us better understand the value orientation of the language curriculum, grasp the pulse of the times of language education reform. The core language literacy of the core "language construction and use" of the thinking and discussion, will help us to further understand the core demands of the language discipline, and then correctly judge the unique task of language teaching.