A conference on the Pedagogy of Teaching a Second Foreign Language was concluded on December 15. From TKU, there came many scholars from German, French, Russian, Spanish and Japanese departments; also, from other universities, we see scholars who have already engaged themselves in second foreign languages teaching.

We learn from them the experience as well as curriculum design; we also learn whether one should learn literature through the original text or through English translation or cultural studies.

A total of 24 papers were released, including Prof. Yu Liang’s “A Savoring of the French Canadian Literature: An Introduction to the Collection of One Thousand Years’ Fairy Tales in Quebec, Canada” and Prof. Liu Hsin-hua’s “Teaching Russian Literature by Way of Multi-media Technology”, etc. The two above-mentioned papers have attracted much attention and caused heated discussions among scholars.

Given the fact that Dr. Lin Yao-fu, Dean, College of Foreign Languages and Literature, was away attending another conference in Shanghai, the opening ceremony was presided over by proxy. Pres. Chang Horng-jinh and Prof. Liu Chang-huei were serving as deputies.

Prof. Liu said that this conference is aimed at resolving the differences between past methodology and the innovative way of teaching literatures today. In the past, Prof. Liu said, teachers often stressed the importance of literature per se as well as the esthetics of sensibility. Nowadays, the trend seems to be reversed; teachers are more interested in the semantic or semiotic studies of the language as opposed to literature. So, often is the case that the traditional adherents would have the feeling of being “bumped out” of their own field. How to polarize such a difference is what prompts us to sit here today, Prof. Liu thus concluded his opening remarks.

Prof. Lai Li-hsiu’s paper on “From Many Aspects of Romanticism to the Design of a Second Foreign Language Course” has aroused a great deal of interest among the attending conferees. Her paper indicates that there are a variety of approaches in de-constructing Romanticism; they could be artistic, literary or historical. The similar approach in dissecting Romanticism could be applied to many other works of literature with desirable effects.

Her views were shared enthusiastically with Prof. Lin Sheng-bin of the Spanish Department, who thought that the entire conference was a success; especially noteworthy is Prof. Lai’s paper which he touted as “simply wonderful”. (Editor’s Note; due apology to Prof. Lai if there is any misinterpretation on her views, due to the ambiguity of the original Chinese story.)

Another professor from the Russian Department, her name is Prof. Su Shu-yen, suggested to teach literature in the original language so as to help students appreciate the true beauty of literature. She also advocated teaching cultural courses first to students in junior level before leading them to the grand feast in senior years.

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