Negative Capability in Learning a Second Language谈谈二外学习“消极感受力”

这是“我们只谈K12"第三十九篇原创文章，欢迎转发分享，未经公众号授权请勿转载。

龚老师说：今天给大家请到的是对我英语学习路途上至关重要的一位老师Ron Kurtenbach。很多人曾问过我到底如何才能学好英语，我的回答通常是苦练，没有捷径。然而，一位好的老师却也能帮你省去很多弯路，时至今日，我仍然会常常想念很多个大学周末Ron和他的妻子Maria邀请我去他们家一起欣赏电影的那些美好时刻。我一边用不太流利的英文和他们聊着电影里那些触动我的镜头，一边吃着Maria做的各种点心，那样的奢侈已真是一去不复返。还有无数个大树底下，我们一起畅聊文学，人生，哲学等等。我那时的英语并没有多流利，可是渐渐的，就变成了在其他人眼里的流利，而这种变化是我自己未曾察觉的。想来，除了自己的苦练，Ron和Maria对我每个出错的发音抱持的高度容忍及耐心，是给予我的最大自信及鼓励，正是借由此，我才得以不断进步。Ron的这篇短文谈到的“消极感受力”其实说的也是这种不断试错的能力，文中提到的那位女孩的例子其实转念一想，如果她愿意将"smile"中的/ai/想象成中文里“爱”的同音词，该有多好？提起“爱”，想到“爱”，哪还管它的皱纹呢？不怕丢面子，才终有一天赢得面子！

Message from Helen: Today I've invited one of the most important people who influenced me and helped me during my journey of learning English- Mr. Ron Kurtenbach. Many people have asked me what is the best way of learning English and my answer usually is practice and practice, no shortcut. However, I also have to admit that having a good teacher can also help you avoid many unneccesary detours. Even now, I still miss those wonderful moments when Ron and Maria invited me to watch movies with them on many weekends. I discussed those touching moments appeared in the movie with them via my unfluent English while also enjoying the delicious snacks made by Maria. That luxury is gone forever. Besides, there were countless hours when we talked about literature, about life and philosophy, etc under the big trees. My English wasn't that fluent at that time, gradully, influency became fluency in many other people's eyes, of which myself wasn't really aware. In retrospect, apart from  the continuous practice, the high tolerance and great patience Ron and Maria had with me also gave me the greatest confidence and courage, and it was very because of that, I was able to refine myself. The "negative capability" mentioned in the short article below,written by Ron,also talked about the ability and willingness to try erros. I was thinking if the girl in the article was willing to change her thought a little bit, and just think of the /ai/ sound  in "smile" sounds like chinese word "爱"(love), that would be great. Speaking of "love", thinking of "love", who would care about your wrinkles? Not afraid of losing face, then eventually you will win your face !

文章  Ron Kurtenbach / 翻译 龚琴(Helen)

Learning a second language seems to be a most involved process, many varied research papers on the subject have, of course, been written, so much speculation abounds.

学习一门外语似乎是一种投入最多的过程，大量研究对此有很多想当然的假设。

I would like to give you a description of some of my  experiences as a middle school teacher and high school teacher, a mentor of highly gifted primary and secondary school students, a university teacher in America as well as a discussion of what I learned in my 15 years of teaching at a certain university in China. I taught British and American literature and English as a second language. Thousands of students.

在此，我想结合我在美国曾分别作为中学老师，大学老师，也曾给天赋异禀的中小学生当过导师，以及我在中国某大学任教15年的经历来谈谈我对此事的看法。我主要教授英美文学及英语作为第二语言课程，在这段教学生涯当中，我教授过成千上万的孩子。

The fundamental issue, I think, is the level of intellectual curiosity of the teacher and the student, particularly what British romantic poet, John Keats called "negative capability". 

然而，最根本的方面，始终应归功于师生双方对此的求知欲，尤其是英国浪漫诗人约翰.济慈所谓的“消极感受力”。(读者可上网自行脑补此概念)

In the first place, a teacher of a second language must encourage the serious and playful consideration of ideas by her or his students, that is, an openness to students experimenting, a high tolerance of mistakes, great patience, a deep willingness to listen to students with rapt attention. To appreciate the nothingness of Lao Tse, those long pauses as students formulate words haltingly, that nothing, that quiet, that is something great!

首先， 作为一名二外老师，我们必须鼓励学生既认真又俏皮的思想，允许学生不断试验，高度容忍错误的出现，并极其耐心及愿意全神贯注的倾听学生。我们应该学会欣赏中国哲学家老子的虚无主义，允许学生在犹豫不决时慢慢构句，那样的一个安静时刻，是非常重要的！

Of course, the issue of how large the class must be considered. That is why the teacher having dialogues with even a few students in front of the class is crucial, these examples, these modelling experiences, can have far reaching creative consequences. 

当然，这里面涉及到班级规模。规模很大的班级，即使是老师当着全班面与几个学生做一些示范性的对话也是极其关键的。这些示范的经历往往会产生模范作用，进而产生深远的富有创造性的结果。

Students must be able, in China, of course, be able to "save face" while engaging in the pursuit of learning a second language. 

当然，在中国，很多学生必须能够在追求学习一门二外的同时学会“挽救面子”。

in the second place, the issue of "negative capability" arises in the sense, that students must be able to make mistakes without fear of embarrassment. One university student in China, actually said that she was unwilling to say "smile" with that long "i" sound, that she was only willing to say "smell" because saying "smile" would make her have wrinkles on her face in saying smile correctly. She took refuge in the security of that short "e" sound, protecting her dignity, her appearance, she thought.

其次，所谓的“消极感受力”来自于感觉本身。学生必须能够坦然面对犯错带来的尴尬感。我在中国教过的一位大学学生曾经告诉我，她在发“smile(微笑)”这个单词时，并不愿意发那个长长的“i”音，而倾向于将其发成“smell”，原因仅是因为如果将其发成“smile/ai/”的正确音，会让其脸上的皱纹显得明显。她想她在那个短”e”的音中避难，可借此来保护其自尊，相貌。

Thus she literally was "saving face" by adopting a mistaken pronunciation. All humour aside, this is a serious matter, students must be able to safely make mistakes, even enjoy them, see the humour in those miscues, they must have this "negative capability", a tolerance for making mistakes, for freely exploring possibilities in pronunciation, in vocabulary, in grammatical constructions, in idioms, in metaphors, in similes ... as one makes one's way in seeking fluency in a second language. As one yearns for the poetry of speaking a second language well.

所以，她差不多为了所谓的爱面子，故意选择了错误的发音。暂把幽默的方面放一边，这其实是一件非常严肃的事情。学生应为犯错感到安全，甚至是喜欢它们，喜欢这些小失误里蕴藏的小智慧。为了能做到这点，他们就必须要有这种“消极感受力”，容忍犯错，自由探索发音、词汇、语法结构、习语、暗喻、明喻等各种存在的可能性，这是达到流利说成第二门语言，渴望探寻二外诗意之美的必经之路。

"To error is human!" not a mistake, actually a virtue in a language learning classroom!

人非圣贤，孰能无过？犯错并不是一种错误，实际上是语言课堂学习中的一种美德啊！

       图片来源：网络