从创新思维到批判思维*
——在思维训练中提高学生的英语写作能力
北京外国语大学 张在新
*本研究课题(“英语写作与思维训练”)得到了北京外国语大学校级教学改革项目(2007-2009年)的资助,并得到了英语学院领导的大力支持。本文部分或主要内容先后在吉林大学召开的“第七届中国英语写作教学与研究国际研讨会”(2010.9.24-26)的教学工作坊、北外英语学院教师发展与研究委员会组织的专题讲座(2010.10.20)、辅仁大学召开的“第七届海峡两岸外语教学研讨会”英语组会议(2010.10.29-30)和浙江外国语学院英文系(2010.11.18)进行过交流。原载于《外研之声》2011年第1期,第20-27页。部分内容载于《创新思维,让英语写作更有效—访北京外国语大学英语学院张在新教授》(记者:刘静)(光明日报)《考试》(高考.英语版),2011年第7期,第4-6页。
笔者多年来参与了北京外国语大学英语学院的思维训练教学改革“三模式”:(1)将思维训练与语言技能相结合(“写作与批判思维”,2003-2004年;“写作与创新思维和批判思维”,2006年至今),(2)专设思维训练选修课程(“创新思维与批判思维”,2004-2005年;2006-2007年),(3)进行课程设置改革,将思维训练“注入”到专业研究讨论型课程中去(如“短篇小说与西方文化”,2010年),本文介绍的思维训练教学法主要得益于“北外模式”前两种形式的尝试。
本文只集中探讨两个问题:什么是创新思维?什么是批判思维?以及这两种思维训练在英语写作教学中的实例。这一教学实践依据的蓝本是积累、试用过多年的《英语写作教程——从创新思维到批判思维》(张在新主编,共四册),其中第一册《创新思维与写前技巧》(张在新编著)的重点是创新思维/写前构思技巧的运用及作文练习;第二册《细节描写与读者意识》(邱枫、赵冬编著)和第三册《中心思想与扩展形式》(穆杨、李莉文编著)虽然不直接讨论批判思维,但其理念融贯在写作技巧的学习和作文之中,起到一个批判思维训练过渡的作用;第四册《批判思维与议论文》(张在新编著)结合议论文的写作直接进行批判思维的训练。通过本教材一至四册的英语写作学习和思维训练(使用年限为三至四个学期,周学时两学分),学生的英语写作能力和思辨能力将会有大幅度的提高。
一、什么是创新思维?[1]
这个问题可以从创新思维的特点和创新思维方法这两个方面进行分析:
1. 创新思维的特点
创新思维的主要特点具有三个基本要素:(1)流畅性(fluency),即思维的广阔性;(2)灵活性(flexibility),即思维种类的多样性;(3)独特性(originality),即思维的新颖性。这三个要素可简单归纳为思维的广阔、多样和新颖(Adams, 1979;Halpern,1984)。[2] 创新能力(creativity)是创新思维(creative thinking)的能力体现,培养创新思维即是培养创新能力。
由于创新思维讲求从多通道、多视角横向看问题,因此它也叫横向思维(lateral thinking)(De Bono,1970)。用横向思维的方法去解决问题体现在绕过常规方法、突破一成不变的思维定式去寻找答案的能力。以下面的故事为例:古时候一位商人债务缠身,为了免去债务,不得不同意年迈的债主提出的苛刻要求,即娶商人的年轻女儿为妻。债主假借天意,让商人的女儿从装有一黑一白两个石子的钱袋里掏出一颗石子,如果拿到白石子,她可以不嫁给债主;相反,就必须成婚。但是债主趁商人不注意的时候,从地上抓起两颗黑石子扔进空的钱袋里,这一切都被商人的女儿看到了。如果按常规,她可以直接揭穿债主的骗局,但是她运用了横向思维,将计就计从钱袋里拿出石子后,假装不小心把它掉在铺满黑白石子的地上,这时因为分辨不出拿出来的石子颜色,只好通过看钱袋里剩下石子的颜色(黑色),来推断刚才拿出的石子是白色。这样,商人的女儿聪明地绕过了难题,用完全不同的思路找到了解决问题的方案(Halpern,1984)。小女子运用了创新思维去解决具体问题,这体现了她的创新能力。
2. 创新思维方法
为了培养学生养成从多角度和不同侧面横向思考问题的习惯,教材第一册介绍了十几种创新思维/写前构思技巧和方法,帮助学生提高创新能力、开阔思路和挖掘题材的水平,下面简单介绍其中三种。[3]
(1) 大脑风暴(brainstorming)
创新思维的流畅性、灵活性和独特性等特点是建立在大量素材的基础上的,以最快的方式搜索信息对于成功拓展创新思维尤为重要,直接影响到解决问题和挖掘题材内容的质量。大脑风暴法就是针对这一目的由Alex Osborn在1963年首次设计的,主要用于小组创意活动,个人使用也有较好的效果。具体做法是先把要解决的问题或主题写下来,然后小组成员轮流把随意想到的思路不加任何思索地写下来。每人在前一个想法的基础上任意发挥,对任何想法的好坏不作任何思考、判断和议论。最重要的是在最短的时间内尽可能穷尽所有思路的可能性,最后才回过头来(运用批判思维)判断哪些想法更具合理性。
(2) 反转法(the reversal method)
反转法包含逆向思维,即从事情或人物的反面进行思考,寻求横向思维完全不同于常规的答案。例如,有一位贵夫人因为身体超重而雇佣了许多医生为她减肥,但体重丝毫不减,因为她不愿采纳医生给她制定的近乎于忍饥挨饿的严格饮食标准。最后,有一位医生采用反转法打破了思维定式,他的逆向思维是不让病人采取饥饿性节食——不是少吃,而是多吃,即在每次吃饭前喝一杯加糖牛奶并吃水果,这自然影响了她吃正餐的食欲而达到节食的目的。结果节食成功了。再如在一次考试中学生做了这样一道创新思维题:在一家儿童医院里,由于年幼的小病人极其喜爱供他们在病房里玩耍的玩具熊,以至于在出院时把玩具熊带回了家。医院怎样运用创新思维解决这一问题呢?多数答案只停留在纵向思维的层面上,如收取玩具费以弥补丢失的玩具的损失;在玩具里嵌入报警装置(一旦玩具离开病房就报警);敦促家长教育孩子等等。这些方法不仅不尽切合实际,而且还把小病人当作“小偷”来定性,让人难以接受。只有反转法的对策把小病人看成富有同情心的“好人”最有创意:建议医院用纱布将玩具熊包扎起来,并对小病人说小熊也在住院,未治愈之前不能出院,从此病房里的玩具熊就不再不翼而飞了。
(3) 切入点的选择(choice of entry point)
切入点是指对问题的第一关注点。对切入点的非常规性选择也是创新思维的方法之一(与反转法有一定的重叠,但切入点的选择不一定都是逆向思维),重点是在思考问题时要经常改变切入点。假如在一个网球邀请赛里,有111人参加单打循环淘汰赛,我们怎样计算出整个比赛的总场次呢?如果按常规将切入点选择在胜出的球员身上,由于是循环淘汰赛,就必须一直算到该球员赢完决赛之后才是比赛的总场次。要是把切入点改变一下,选择在被淘汰的球员身上,解决问题就容易多了。111人的单循环淘汰赛只能有一位赢家,有110个人输球,而每人只要输一次就被淘汰,因此整个邀请赛总共要有110场次的比赛。
英语写作教学离不开英语作文和练习。虽然创新思维跟写前构思技巧一样,以开阔思路、拓展写作内容为教学目的,但两者本身又与英语写作相结合,成为作文和练习的组成部分。Taylor(1982:71)认为最佳的语言习得/学习状态不是从语言直接学习而来,而是在使用它去获取知识才是最有效的。换言之,通过使用英语书面表达来进行创新思维的训练可以到达既训练思维又同时学习英语写作的目的。下面是创新思维/写前构思的作文和练习的两个实例。
创新思维作文练习实例
实例1. 开放作文
下面的例子选自教材第一册有关反转法和发散思维的练习,是将创新思维训练与写作融合在一起的开放作文,[4] 要求学生完成以下三项任务:(1)用英文描述三幅图所贯穿的故事(简单描述),(2)续写三至四个可能的结尾(发散思维、逆向思维),(3)简单分析所使用的创新思维技巧(归纳)。
Open-Ended Story
Doorbell
Describe the open-ended picture story below in your own words, think of three or four endings for the story, and comment on what you have learned from the exercise.
参考作文答案
Doorbell
Description of the story
A man, walking down the street, passes a house and notices a child trying to reach a doorbell. No matter how much the little boy stretches, he can’t reach it. The man calls out, “Let me get that for you,” and he bounds onto the porch and rings the bell.
Convergent ending:
l The boy’s mom opens the door, and both the boy and his mom thank the man. And the man says “No problem.”
Divergent endings:
l “Thanks, mister,” says the kid. “Now let’s run.”
l Someone opens the door, but the boy says “Sorry, wrong house. Come to think of it, wrong street.” The boy is playing a prank on the man, or he suffers from amnesia.
l No sooner has the boy’s mom opened the door than the man snatches the boy from the doorway, pushes the mom aside, barges into the house, and slams the door behind him. He’s a burglar. He’s been watching this house for a long time.
Comments
Jones (1998) says, “What makes the anecdote funny is that our mind has quickly conjured an image—a pattern—of a nice man helping a sweet little child, when suddenly we discover we are fooled. It’s a prank. We misidentified the pattern.”
Since it’s possible for the boy to be naughty or forgetful (or even mentally disturbed), it’s also possible for the man to be evil—we don’t have to stick to only one identity of a person. Identities can be multiple and reversed in problem solving. In this way, we can learn to be divergent in any situation.
实例2. 任意词刺激
下面的作文是选自第一册的任意词刺激练习,这既是创新思维技巧的训练又是写前构思技巧的练习(写前构思技巧的练习是创新思维训练的延续)。此练习的目的是尽可能多地挖掘与主题相关的题材,要求学生先写下作文的主题(topic),如“写作思路枯竭”(writer’s block),然后随意翻开一本英语词典中的任意一页,选择其中一列名词作为任意词刺激源,接下来将这些名词的词义抄写一遍(在抄写的过程中,这些英文名词解释本身就能启动学生的发散思维和联想力),最后根据这些名词和名词解释(下列句中的阴影部分)所激发出来的思路写成构思素材(创新思维/写前构思练习不要求写完整的句子,主要目的是挖掘题材)。
Random Word Stimulation
Writer’s Block
Dictionary: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Randomly selected page: Page 926
Selected nouns in the left-hand column: maple, maraca, marathon, marble
Definitions (it will be stimulation enough just to copy from the dictionary the English definitions of the words):
maple: a tree with many-pointed leaves which grows in the northern half of the world, one kind of which gives a sugary liquid (maple syrup)
maraca: either of a pair of hollow shells with small objects, such as stones, inside them that are shaken to provide a strong beat in Latin American music
marathon: a running race of about 26 miles; an activity that tests one’s power over a long time
marble: a sort of white or irregularly colored limestone that is hard, cold to touch, smooth when polished, and used for buildings, statues, gravestones, etc.
Stimuli: the shaded words in the definitions (not limited to those words) have provided stimuli for the following ideas about the topic, writer’s block:
“The northern half of the world”: The two hemispheres of the brain – Writer’s block because of overuse of only one part of the brain? The verbal left-brain? How about switching to the non-verbal right-brain to overcome writer’s block? Using images to help me think? Forming mental pictures? Try some other creative strategies?
“A sugary liquid,” “maple syrup”: Ideas dry up in writer’s block – I once watched a TV program on how to make maple syrup from the sugary liquid or sap of maple trees in Canada. When the sap stops dripping into the small bucket, does it mean the tree is too old, the weather conditions are not right (i.e. there isn’t much sunshine), or there’s been a shortage of rainfall? I’m not too old for writing yet (as one may say, “You haven’t lost all the juices of youth yet.”), then age is not a factor. But probably I’m not in the right mood for writing on this topic, so I’m stuck here? Or because I don’t know enough or I haven’t read enough about the topic; that’s why I can’t write another word? How can I get my creative juices flowing again?
“Hollow shells”: Empty words in my writing – With writer’s block, I just feel like the hollow shells of a pair of maracas, without the stones inside them to make a sound. Just empty words, no vivid specific details. I’ve run dry, out of ideas. I feel empty; I feel shallow. I can’t produce quality work anymore. I’ve lost it. Or maybe that’s the problem with my writing – I’m too concerned with quality work, even before I start. I need to let it go; try some more creative strategies in prewriting to escape from it all, to escape for a while from this obsession with the right thing to say in my writing. Maybe my problem is I haven’t paid enough attention to specific details in writing. Then I need to show more than tell. But where? How? I definitely need the stones in the maracas to produce a strong beat for my music, but how? More prewriting.
“Marathon,” “an activity that tests one’s power over a long time”: Maybe, the whole writing process is like a marathon. You may feel excited in the beginning. Or maybe it’s not like this in some cases when I never have the passion to write anything, depending on the topics. And sometimes you may feel exhausted on the way, just like in a marathon, like when you’re experiencing writer’s block. In times like this, you want to quit, you want to drop out of the race. Yes, writing is like a race in the sense that you’re taking dictation from your brain sometimes and you want to write as fast as you can to keep up with it. But you know you can get there to the finish line if you hang in there. Have some patience, develop your pacing, and slow down a little bit. It’s only a temporary phase thing, your writer’s block. Like a test of one’s endurance in a marathon, writer’s block is only a test of your ability to generate more ideas when you get stuck in your writing. You can eventually ride out this difficulty if you hang in there.
接续作文练习:
“Irregularly colored limestone,” “smooth when polished”:
Exercise: Now, you try to use these words as stimuli for more ideas on the topic.
参考作文答案
Writer’s Block
“Irregularly colored limestone,” “smooth when polished”:
Irregularly colored marble may be used as an analogue to show how prewriting as a process to overcome writer’s block can be done with creative methods. In prewriting, you don’t have to follow regular patterns; instead, you need to ignore logic, correctness of grammar, or any clear organizational patterns, in order to escape from old habits or fixed ways of thinking. Irregularly colored marble is what you’re looking for, not pure white, but irregularly colored. We can settle for irregular streaks of gray, or a combination of brown and white; anything goes in prewriting. This is what prewriting is about, to experiment, to explore. Of course, after prewriting, you need to go over what you’ve come up with and decide on what to use to develop a main point, one color, so to speak, in your writing. And then you smooth out the edges and polish the surfaces to make everything smooth in the revising stage before you hand in your writing.
二.什么是批判思维?
Paul将批判思维定义为“对语言和逻辑之间的关系的理解,从而培养分析和判断不同观点的能力、归纳和演绎推理的能力和根据缜密的推导清晰地表述自己对事物的判断的能力”。[5] 批判思维的对立面是非理性或不合逻辑的思维,在我们的思维过程中批判思维是普遍存在的,虽然它与后者经常混在一起,有时候让我们难于辨别。Elder and Paul的“普遍知识标准”(universal intellectual standards)列举了清晰(clarity)、准确(accuracy)、精准(precision)、相关(relevance)、深度(depth)、广度(breadth)、逻辑(logic)、意义(significance)、公平(fairness)等九个批判思维的标准。[6] 这些标准其实在不同程度上都包含在我们平时写作的教学之中,只是《英语写作教材——从创新思维到批判思维》对这些标准的应用更加具体化而已(虽然我们不直接讨论这九个标准)。下面结合教材第二至四册各一个写作练习作为实例来说明其中批判思维的普遍知识标准。
实例1. 读者需求分析
批判思维标准:相关性
在教材第二册里,我们讲到写作应该注意对读者需求的分析(audience analysis),因为要使写作达到预期的目的,作者需要对作文的读者群体有个预期设想——读者是决定写作内容和风格的最后裁定人,他们决定了写作目的、内容、语气、风格等一系列写作修辞问题。这些往往是中国学生关注不够的地方。
下面关于怎样拍摄一幅人物照的短文就是写作内容与读者需求不匹配的例子。通过小组讨论,学生能从中学会从批判思维的角度分析作文的相关性,即写作的内容是否与读者的需求相关。短文所反映的是学生经常会犯的错误,段落的开头和结尾句与中间部分讲述了难度截然不同的内容:如果读者是初学者,需要知道首尾所交代的内容,那么他们对中间较专业的过程描述很可能就有读“天书”的感觉。反过来,如果懂得怎样用调节快门速度解决背光过强的问题,读者就一定不需要作者在文章开头交待如果相机晃动的话照片就会模糊这一简单的摄影常识。缺乏交际目的和应有的批判思维训练,这是纯粹为了教授语言而设计的写作课的缺陷之一。换言之,写作的内容(及语言风格等其他要素)只有与特定读者的需求切实相关时才能达到真实的书面交际的目的。
How I Made This Photograph
Pair Work: Here is a paragraph describing the process of taking the following photograph. Take some time to discuss whether the passage is appropriate for its audience in terms of its content.
(Picture)
When I take a picture I try to keep still. If I jiggle the camera at all the picture will be blurred. The immediate problem I had to overcome when I made this photograph was the back lighting of the subject. To compensate for dark areas, I opened the lens aperture two stops to f 3.5. Since the subject was motionless, shutter speed was not a factor. The composition of the shot is traditional. By zooming in, the subject is accentuated by the out-of-focus background. Then I looked through the lens to make sure that everything was the way I wanted. Finally, I pressed the button!
实例2. 方案可行性分析
批判思维标准:深度和意义
Elder and Paul讲的“深度”标准的指标之一是要考虑问题的复杂性,而有关“意义”标准的要素之一是探讨事实的重要性。教材第三册结合因果关系的写作形式设计了问题探究作文(problem/solution essay),而且对作文提出的解决问题方案要求在写前阶段增加可行性分析的步骤。下面关于“宿舍鼠害问题”的解决方案是可行性分析的样题。在做这类的练习时,学生实际上是在运用批判思维的“深度”和“意义”标准去考虑解决问题方案的复杂性,并从初选出来的方案中确定最重要、也是最切实可行的方案作为文章扩展的内容。
Feasibility Study
Example
Dorm Room Problem
Possible problem: A nasty rat hides in the dorm room. Solutions: Step 1: Find the rat Step 2: Get rid of the rat Step 3: Precautions | |
Solutions | Feasibility Study |
Clean the room | √ Step 1 |
No food such as bread and biscuits stored | √ Step 3 |
Raise a cat | × Dorm regulation: No pets. |
Empty all containers | √ Step 1 |
Mend the hole | √ Step 3 (if there is a hole) |
Install a shelter on the lower edge of the door | √ Step 3 (if the interstice before is wide enough for a rat to come in) |
Use a rat trap | √ Step 2 |
Ask “brave” friends to catch the rat | √ Step 2 |
Let the door open and wait until the rat leaves | √/× Step 2 If you have no idea how to catch the rat, this will be an expedient solution. But it may also be highly risky since there may be more rats outside the dorm. |
实例3. 电视广告分析
批判思维标准:逻辑
逻辑可能是批判思维标准中最难的部分,因此学生在教材第四册中结合议论文的写作着重学习这部分内容。下面关于Visual眼镜连锁店的电视商业广告采用的是“求助于恐惧”的非理性方法(appeal to fear)来夸大近视眼的弊病,而不是宣传服务质量、品质等有关商品的“硬性”优势。广告希望消费者犯下逻辑错误,因为被“吓唬”而去Visual眼镜店配眼镜(以免广告中所描述的类似事故在消费者生活中发生——打猎时将自己的爱犬当作狐狸被误杀了)。
Group Work
Study the following TV commercial (video to be supplied by the instructor) for any fallacy used in it. Be prepared to share your analysis with the rest of the class.
Fox-Hunting (Video)[7]
A man went fox hunting one day. A gunshot was heard, and the man was carrying his prey on his shoulders. He came back to his car and put the dead animal in the trunk. As he opened the car door, he started to whistle for his dog—apparently he had come with his hunting dog. He looked worried because there was no sign of the dog anywhere. Now, he was calling the name of the dog, but it was dead, lying in the trunk of the car.
“Visual. 350 opticiens en france et en suisse.” [Visual. 350 opticians in France and Switzerland].
参考答案
Fox-Hunting
This is a fallacy called “an appeal to fear.” The logic of the commercial is something like this: Have your eyes checked and wear glasses if nearsighted, or you may end up killing your dog on your next hunting trip (also a false dilemma or an either-or fallacy).
总而言之, 要根治英语学生“思辨缺席”的顽症,[8] 彻底解决传统英语写作教学中的问题,就需要所有写作课程的教师共同努力,革新理念、转变思路、优化教学方法和内容、更加注重思辨和创新能力的培养。我相信,大家一道携手努力,一定会共同推进英语专业写作教学的健康发展并取得更加丰硕的成果。
[1] 这部分的介绍是在张在新(2005)一文的基础上修改而成的。
[2] 另外创新思维还有联想力(Raudsepp, 1977; Halpern, 1984)、怀疑态度(Adams, 1979)等特点,其中怀疑态度的特点是以多视野、多通道为前提的,因此它不是批判思维而是创新思维的特点。
[3] 参见De Bono (1970)。
[4] 开放作文与全国高考(北京卷)中英语写作的第二题的题型很相似。这一题型是“北京卷”在2003年开发并一直推行的全新的英语写作题型。该题型“为考生留下了根据交际情景自主谋篇和发挥想象力的空间,考生可凭借想象力和语言表达的支持情况,创造性地举例说明主题。整个考生群体中不要求有统一的答案,因此试题是开放的。它摆脱了封闭式英语作文试题对考生想象力和表达能力的束缚,每位考生可以最大限度地展示自己的英语书面表达能力”(张在新,2004)。开放作文在写作课里的练习比考试更能调动学生的创新思维和想象力。
[5] 引自Caputo(1994)。
[6] Gary Rybold教授在北外英语学院的批判思维教学工作坊(2007.12.13-14)对Elder and Paul的思维标准做了介绍。虽然与他对批判思维的理解不尽相同,笔者从他的工作坊中受益匪浅。
[7] 《英语写作教材——从创新思维到批判思维》的全套四册书里有超过40个视频练习材料(电视广告、影视片断等),其中有创新思维的10个,批判思维的超过30个。任课教师成为博友后(需签订将视频和参考答案的使用范围仅限于课堂教学的约定)可从编者的博客下载这些视频练习,而教材里仅提供视频文字资料。
[8] 黄源深(2010:11-4)指出1998年他提出过的“思辨缺席”在11年后“依然困扰着今天的外语师生,情况似乎并没有多大改观”。为了改变英语专业作为“语言中心”的现状,为了培养英语专业创新人才所具备的“扎实的专业基本功、开阔的视野、较强的思辨能力和创造能力”, 他呼吁“英语专业课程必须彻底改革”。
参考文献
Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1979.
Caputo, John S., Harry C. Hazel and Colleen McMahon. Interpersonal Communications: Competency Through Critical Thinking. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1994.
De Bono, Edward. Lateral thinking: A Textbook of Creativity. Middlesex: Penguin, 1970. Reprinted 1980.
Halpern, Diane F. Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1984.
Jones, Beau F. and Lorna Idol. Dimensions of Thinking and Cognitive Instruction. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 1990.
Raudsepp, Eugene. Creative Growth Games. New York: Perigee, 1977.
Taylor, Barry P. “Teaching ESL: Incorporating a Communicative, Student-Centered Component.” TESOL Quarterly 17 (1982): 69-88.
黄源深,《英语专业课程必须彻底改革——再谈“思辨缺席”》,《外语界》2010年第1期,第11-16页。
张在新,《开放作文——创新意识和创新思维》,《写给中学英语教师的书》,穆林华、张玲棣(主编),中国青年出版社,2005年。第78-87页。
张在新,《开放式作文:如何考察创新能力》,《中国教育报》,2004年3月10日第8版。
张在新(主编),《英语写作教程——从创新思维到批判思维》,外语教学与研究出版社,2010年。
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