圣约翰大学赋予林语堂的，是一种在民族文化认同的前提下调和中西文化之优长的态度，和对中国固有的语言、文学、文化加以重新审视和再造的意识。林语堂在圣约翰时期的语言观和文学观，看似"一捆矛盾"，实则是他始终在西方经验/民族文化、世界主义/民族主义之间寻找着一个理想的平衡支点。它既是圣约翰校方及其校长卜舫济所持的"调和中西"的治校理念的一种产物，也是当时圣约翰校园文化气氛的一个重要部分，更成为林语堂在"五四"及其之后的语言和文学实践的一种内在源头。

With the consciousness of Chinese cultural identity, LIN Yu-tang integrated the advantages of Chinese and Western cultures, reexamined Chinese language, literature and culture and attempted to recreate them when he studied in St. John's University. Although LIN's views on Chinese language and literature were seemingly "contradictory" at that time, he was making great efforts to find an ideal balance between Western experiences and national culture, and between cosmopolitanism and nationalism. This practice was not only the result of the policy of "integrating Chinese and Western cultures" in St. John University under the leadership of President Rev. Francis Lister Hawks Pott, but also an important part of campus culture. More importantly, it was an internal source of LIN's language and literature practices in and after the May 4^th period.