Exploration To Foreign Language Education, Humanistic Perspective

In the era of globalization and post-modernity, leaning on the abundant opportunities of academic exchanges and international scholarly cooperation, foreign language education has become an essential asset for the society and resources in national soft power. Foreign language education, with the cutting edge of the international communication and cooperation among the nations, would make endeavors to optimize its positive influence in the exportation of cultural assets and values to win the chance of making a voice in many domains in the world. The ultimate purpose of education consists in the collection, processing and dissemination of knowledge, the pursuit of truth, the adherence to the justice and so on. However, the alienation of education and the crisis of foreign language education have presented their implications in the utilitarianism and instrumental rationality in theory, resulting in the production of "slaves to knowledge" and "test machine", with a fatal flaw due to the lack of creativity and the lack of critical thinking. How to regain the educational dignity, how to rekindle the educators’confidence? The college English education is supposed to attach much importance to the theoretical construction and pursue the principles and patterns guiding the educational practices. The identification of the educational theory is the start point as well as the destination of educational practice. The research aims at the diversity, ambiguity, sophistication and the inappropriateness which are possible occurrence in the educational practice.The introductory part of this dissertation expounds the reasons for the choice of the topic and the reasons for writing this dissertation and the research methods which are employed in the dissertation. The dissertation will probe into the interrelationship among the education, language education and educational philosophy. The dissertation contemplates that the foreign language education is more than the education on the language, but in essence the whole-person education. Therefore the efficient foreign language education needs to focus on the education of human beings, based on the theories and practice of the humanistic education.The first part lays the solid theoretical foundation of the dissertation. It has enumerated the associated conceptions such as "language, language education, foreign language education, educational philosophy, humanism, humanistic spirits and so on". Then it concentrates on the exploration of the interrelationship among those core theories and core conceptions. In this part, it has been revealed to us why the dissertation contends to take the academic challenge in the domain of foreign language education from the perspective of educational philosophy. It has also derived much inspiration from the reflection on the ontology, teleology and the epistemology in the related philosophical theories. Part two has investigated the contemporary theories and practices in the foreign language education in China. It has displayed the language education under the scrutiny of academic magnifying glass. The author makes further investigation on systematic documentation of the history and the summary of the foreign language education schools in order that we might have a well-organized summary of the properties of language education like humanistic spirits, social attributes, and instructive values and so on.Part three, the body of the dissertation, has mainly discussed the development of human beings in the foreign language education. Firstly, it opens the floor for discussion on the image of individuals in the educational process. Then it comes to a forceful conclusion that education of language is in essence the process of an individual’s self-growth in human subjectivity. It continues to put forward his viewpoints on the controversial issues such as whether it is the acquired process or the innate talent for a person to gain the language proficiency. Which one is more important, the educational methods or the educational principles? Whether the excellent mastery of a foreign language is an individual achievement over language icons or an inner victory against self?Part four further presents the reflection of the author on the significant issues of the foreign language education from the prospective of the educational philosophy. This part strives to examine the existing questions concerning whether it is the knowledge education or the competence education for foreign language education. It also records the author’s speculation on the application of the modern communication techniques in the language education practices and the relationship between the teachers and students in the teaching process and learning process. Based on20years of teaching experience in the foreign language education, he presents his interpretations on many of the interesting issues listed above.Part five serves as responses to the disputed issues raised in part four. It puts forward the conclusion that if we need to solve the problem mentioned above, we need to construct a system of novel principles and doctrines guiding the language educational practices based on the humanistic spirits. The essence of the theory consists in the education of the whole-person. We lay great emphasis on the value of human beings and value of humanistic spirits.Conclusion:in this part, the author makes a blueprint of the foreign language education in prospect with whole-person as the center of the educational process and doctrines. After all, the education of language, in essence is the education of human beings, the education of individuals and the education of a self.