RETHINKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN CHINA: A HABERMASIAN PERSPECTIVE

This paper employed Jürgen Habermas’s knowledge-constitutive interest theory (KCIT) to philosophically rethink the current foreign language education (FLE) ideas for undergraduates in China. Traditionally and commonly, the nature of FLE for Chinese undergraduates focuses mainly on the instrumental attribute which sets linguistic ability improvement as a goal. Yet with the three distinct knowledge-constitutive interests given by Habermas, namely, instrumental, communicative, and emancipatory, we argued that: (a) a logical extension of instrumental rationality and positivism has long viewed FLE in China as a language skilled craft; (b) the philosophical attribute/nature of FLE is integrating, namely, it is language-based but human-centered; and (c) the FLE related courses are fundamental ones focusing on human potential realizing process and social, cultural, and emancipatory experiencing development.