Make foreign language education the strategic fulcrum of high-level opening-up
(Source: "China Education News" Date: 2026-03-25)
Currently, Chinese-style modernization is facing a complex and ever-changing international landscape. The in-depth application of artificial intelligence is redefining the concept of talents. Foreign language education is standing at the crossroads of reform and experiencing a profound transformation of its role. In the past, we regarded foreign languages as "tools" to communicate with the world, and more emphasis was placed on language skills in foreign language education; today, foreign languages should become "the hub connecting China and the world", and foreign language education should be regarded as an important fulcrum of national strategic capabilities, realizing the transformation from "language tool training" to A fundamental leap in "strategic capability supply", drawing a new capability map centered on international issue-setting ability, cross-cultural leadership, digital literacy and family and country sentiments, thereby cultivating strategic composite talents who can use foreign languages to construct value, tell Chinese stories well, and promote mutual learning among civilizations.
From “Language Tool” to “Strategic Pivot”
For a long time, while my country's foreign language education has made great achievements, it has also relied on a certain "instrumental rationality" path, focusing too much on skill training such as grammar, speaking, and translation, while relatively ignoring the power of ideas and values behind language. This means that although many students have solid language skills, they lack the ability to express China's position and promote consensus building in complex international arenas. Foreign language education in the new era should move from "teaching language" to "educating talents"; foreign language teaching should not stop at "how to say", but should also go deep into the strategic level of "what to say" and "why to say it". Educators should focus on cultivating students' cross-cultural judgment, ability to set international issues, and moral appeal based on common human values, so that foreign language education can better serve my country's high-level opening up to the outside world.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the language service ecosystem. Machines can undertake standardized language tasks, but they cannot replace human thoughts, values and judgments. The rise of artificial intelligence has prompted foreign language education to return to the "education-oriented" and focus on the irreplaceable subjective abilities of human beings - the judgment to make value choices among cultural differences, the leadership to coordinate and communicate among multiple interests, and the creativity for a common future.要支撑这样的能力转型，新时代外语人才须具备良好的数智素养——既体现为对智能翻译、跨文化数据分析等工具的理解和应用，更指向数字时代国家叙事与国际传播能力的深层构建。
From “platter integration” to “chemical fusion”
In recent years, the compound training model of “foreign language + major” has been in the ascendant in colleges and universities. This is an important measure to conform to the construction of new liberal arts and cultivate compound talents. However, in practice, some projects still remain in the "platter-like" superposition stage, and foreign language education and professional education are in a state of "two skins". This makes it difficult for students to convert foreign languages into effective tools for solving international problems in professional fields.
True integration is about allowing students to use language to solve problems in real tasks. Colleges and universities should be guided by complex and real international affairs scenarios, break down subject barriers, and reshape the curriculum system as a whole through the main line of project-based and task-based teaching. In line with this, the evaluation indicators of foreign language education should also shift from "language accuracy" to "task performance orientation", focusing on testing students' comprehensive ability to promote progress, resolve conflicts, and create value in real projects, rather than overly focusing on grammatical flaws in the process.
From "one-way education" to "collaborative ecology"
The paradigm transformation and high-quality development of foreign language education cannot be fully realized by college curriculum reform alone. It also depends on the construction of an open, collaborative, and symbiotic educational ecosystem.
On the one hand, it is necessary to establish a "co-education mechanism" that integrates industry and education. Social forces such as enterprises, international organizations, and high-end think tanks should not only be regarded as "internship recipients" before students graduate, but should become "strategic co-constructors" throughout the entire education process, deeply involved in the formulation of training plans, curriculum system construction, and ability evaluation. Colleges and universities can invite business experts, consultants from international institutions, etc. into the classroom to allow students to understand the deep value of "international language skills" in the process of solving real problems. Through "order-based" projects co-constructed by schools and enterprises, real-life international affairs scenarios, fresh competency needs, and cutting-edge industry insights are organically embedded in the entire teaching process to ensure that foreign language education always maintains a distinct realistic pertinence, sense of the times, and forward-lookingness.
On the other hand, we must promote the “secondary growth” of the teaching staff. Foreign language teachers in the new era are not only language teachers, but also designers of interdisciplinary courses and guides of task-based learning. They should have cross-cultural understanding, project guidance and educational innovation, and guide students to closely integrate language learning with national strategic needs. Education authorities and universities at all levels should build a complete support system for this purpose. Through measures such as establishing interdisciplinary teaching teams, providing corporate job postings and international practice opportunities, optimizing teacher evaluation standards, and other measures, they should support foreign language teachers to grow into new era "college teachers" with a global vision, a Chinese perspective and educational sentiments, and lay a solid foundation for talent and ecological foundation for foreign language education to play a strategic fulcrum role in high-level opening up to the outside world.
(The author Liu Li is an associate professor at the w88 casino of English, w88 casino, and Chen Gong is the deputy dean of the w88 casino of English, w88 casino)
Attachment: Original report link
