叶圣陶先生在语文教育上首,先是实干家,进而是理论家。在作文教学方面,他深知写作的甘苦,精于指导学生,并且总结出行之有效的经验,上升到理论。早在一九一九年,他就这样论述过:“若以悠久之岁月而练习不可限程收效之作文,实非今日所应有之事。宜以最经济之时间练成最能切实应用之作文能力。”“作文教授之目的在令学生能以文字直抒感情,了无隔阂;朴实说理,不生谬误。至于修辞之工,谋篇之巧,初非必要之需求。能之固佳,不能亦不为病。”中肯、诚挚地阐述了作文教学的目的和要求。叶老还指出:“心有所思,情有所感,而后有所撰作。惟初学作文,意在练习,不得已而采取命题作文之办法。”在这里他强调了命题作文的办法实属不得已而为之,是颇有缺憾的。所以他后来在另一篇文章中进一步指出:“我们还要说的是作文这件事情既须练习,单靠教师出了题目才动笔,就未免回数太少,不能收充分的效果。”“要练习的回数多,不用说,还须课外作文。……就是说除了教 Mr. Ye Shengtao was the first in language education, first as a doer and then as a theorist. In composition teaching, he is well aware of the hardships of writing, is well versed in guiding students, and sums up effective experience and rises to theory. As early as in 1919, he discussed: “If you use long-term years to practice irreducible composition, it is not what you should have today. It should be the most economical time to practice it best. The compositional ability.” “The purpose of the composition is to enable the students to express their feelings directly in the text without any gaps. It is easy to reason, and there are no errors. As far as the rhetoric work is concerned, it is not necessary to meet the needs of the beginning. It can not and does not become a disease.” The purposes and requirements of composition teaching were elaborated in a fair and honest manner. Ye Lao also pointed out: ”He has a thoughtful heart and a feeling of affection. Then he has written something. But if he is a beginner, he intends to practise. He must resort to proposition writing.“ Here he emphasized that the method of composition of the proposition is an indispensable way. And for that, it is quite regrettable. Therefore, he later pointed out in another article: ”What we have to say is that this matter of composition must be practiced. Teachers can only start writing when they have a problem. It is too few to return too much and cannot achieve sufficient results." To practice many times, it goes without saying that extra writing is needed....