China’s Foreign Language Education As Education For Critical Citizens

In the21st century, globalization is an irresistible trend, due to the constanttransnational communication in politics, economy and culture. In the context ofglobalization, the boundaries between societies and cultures become less obvious,which challenges the national education. The objective of education is supposedto cultivate global citizens, as an extension and enrichment of cultivating nationalcitizens. In fact, language acquisition is the process of identity acquisition, soforeign language learning can perform as a process of global citizenshipacquisition. Additionally, criticality is one of the most important abilities forglobal citizens, which enables the global citizens to exert their positive role in thecomplicated society.This thesis is developed based on the previous studies on global citizen andcriticality, and adopts the qualitative research method and case study method.Firstly, the thesis clarifies the concepts of global citizen, criticality and criticalcitizen, proves that criticality is highly-valued in Western education and pointsout that criticality is not emphasized in China’s education. China’s foreignlanguage education is supposed to take the responsibility of cultivating criticalcitizens. Secondly, the thesis provides a theoretical framework for foreignlanguage education to fulfill the task, which includes humanity education, culturalstudies, intercultural communicative competence and criticality. At last, the thesisdiscusses the positive effect of experiential learning on developing students’criticality, based on case study.In China’s education, cultivating critical citizens is a new area. This thesisoffers constructive suggestions, which provides implications for the futuredevelopment of China’s foreign language education.