A Study Of China's Foreign Language Education In The Horizons Of Ecological Philosophy

Based on the principles of ecology, eco-philosophy and the theory of educational ecology, this thesis ventures to explore the approaches to the development of China's foreign language education. Ecology refers to the state of existence and development of living things in a particular natural environment, as well as to the study of the relationships between environment and the way plants, animals, and humans live together and affect each other. Concepts in modern ecology like ecological system, ecological balance, niche and so on are of great vitality and significance, which have promoted many frontier academic fields and made ecology itself one of the most active research areas in its communication with other disciplines. Reflecting on human conditions, human values, human responsibilities or obligations in the human environment, Eco-philosophy is a relatively dependent philosophical discipline with the core concepts of being holistic, coherent and relevant and the basic features of being opening and dynamic. Eco-philosophy advocates a dynamic, cross-discipline way in which we approach our objects of study as an three-dimensional ecological whole and educational ecology, based on ecological principles like interrelated and balanced holism, considers elements in the educational system and their relationship with the surrounding environment, inquires into characteristics, functions and laws of evolution or development of the educational system and studies various educational phenomena and their causes.Foreign language education (FLE) is a sub-system of the educational system. The present educational system in China can be divided into pre-schooling education, elementary education, higher education and post-schooling life-long education, each of which contains subject education like Chinese education and English education. This thesis focuses itself on FLE at the elementary stage for the following reasons. Firstly, this choice, following rules of language teaching, is made agreeable with the general conception of education. Secondly, elementary education is a critical stage in the process of one's education, especially in terms of FLE. Thirdly, FLE at this stage, viewed as a bridge between higher, secondary and primary educations, is an essential part of the holistic development of FLE. And finally, many problems have emerged in the present curriculum reform, which have hindered FLE development and unless these problems are solved promptly the reform may end up in failure.Grounded in the relationships between internal constituents of the FLE ecological system and its external conditions, we can see the system as constituted by its macro-ecology, intermediate-ecology and micro-ecology. The FLE macro-ecology is concerned with how socio-cultural environments including government policies influence FLE and the FLE intermediate-ecology, with curriculum design, its values and its orientation while the FLE micro-ecology is all about teaching theories and ideas derived from language philosophy to be put to use in FL classroom. The research shows that FL teachers in China are the main force and perhaps critical variables in the curriculum reform. This being the case, the greatest importance should be attached to the unbalanced ecology for their existence and to the problem of their professional development so as to construct a harmonious, balanced, and healthy FLE ecology.