From simple language learning to "ability tools", how college English classes meet today's needs

In college, English is a compulsory course that cannot be bypassed. There is a popular saying among college freshmen: the peak of English level will always stay in senior three.

"It's like laughing at yourself, but it's close to the truth when you think about it." Zhou Heng, a sophomore at a university in Beijing, still remembers his first English class last year. As soon as the teacher finished writing the attributive clause on the blackboard, he muttered in his heart: I learned this grammar in my third year of high school. Zhou Heng found that his deskmate directly used translation software to take photos of blackboard writing, while the students in the front row brushed up the six-level real questions......

In the three years of high school, the students' reading and writing ability has been pushed to a high point by a large number of repeated training, but as soon as the college entrance examination is over, the level begins to drop quietly, and there is little chance to make up for the deficiency of English listening and speaking ability. On the one hand, the starting point is getting higher and higher, and on the other hand, it is falling back faster and faster. College English classes are stuck in the middle: when you talk about the basics, the masters "don't have enough to eat"; if you don't talk about the basics, you are afraid that the students can't keep up.

How to teach and teach today's college English class?

College English class adds new variables

Zhang Fan, a freshman at the School of Electronic Engineering in a university in Hunan, was a little dumbfounded when he first read professional foreign language literature. He scored more than 130 points in the college entrance examination English. He thought it was a good idea to chew an English document, but the full screen of professional terms still puzzled him. He read a paragraph over and over several times before he could barely guess the main idea.

"What we really need is the reading of scientific and technological English materials and the translation of literature abstracts, so that English can really serve professional learning." Zhang Fan said, but the school's public English class still revolves around general texts and CET-4 and CET-6 brush questions-what is learned in textbooks and what is really needed in scientific research are "two skins".

Huang Zijun, a junior majoring in communication at a university in Wuhan, Hubei, also had a poor experience of college English classes: "The course is taught in English, and the difficulty of the course is between CET-4 and CET-6, and occasionally it can't keep up with the rhythm. Perhaps English class is just a public compulsory course for many students, and the goal is to get high marks. But what I look forward to more is to be able to speak: language cannot be separated from communication, and the existing classroom interaction is not sufficient. I really hope that English classes can increase debating competitions, simulated interviews and other content."

Wang Xiaohan, a sophomore majoring in Chinese language and literature at a university in Xi'an, Shaanxi, said that the school's English class still retains the link of dictation on the blackboard. In her opinion, this is a learning mode repeatedly experienced in senior three and should not be put in the university classroom.

In different schools and majors, English classes in the three classrooms are all stuck in the hurdle of "how to do well.

According to Wang Qun, associate professor of the School of Foreign Languages of North China Electric Power University, the English level of freshmen in the current university has shown a structural improvement. Some students have systematically completed the study of basic grammar and four-level high-frequency vocabulary at the Senior high school stage. "The default of" zero starting point "in traditional college English classes is indeed not in line with the real learning situation at present".

Tang Lei, deputy director of the Public Foreign Language Teaching Department of Nankai University's School of Foreign Languages, analyzed this promotion in more detail: the overall reading and vocabulary foundation is better, and oral expression is obviously differentiated. "The proportion of students who express themselves more naturally and dare to communicate in English has increased significantly. However, their writing skills have not improved in tandem, and many students can read and communicate on a basic level, but they find it difficult to express their views and organize their arguments independently in English."

"This promotion is not balanced." Su Yonggang, deputy dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Shandong University, reminded that according to the "General Senior high school English Curriculum Standards" revised in 2025, the vocabulary required for graduation in Senior high school is 3100, which is still far from the 4200 required for CET-4. "Most of the freshmen are not up to CET-4 and CET-6, especially in listening and speaking."

In addition to the level difference, AI tools add new variables to the classroom. Wang Qun observed that relying on AI translation, intelligent word search and other tools, the vast majority of freshmen can quickly obtain the original English documents and international information without spending a lot of time gnawing at the text word by word as before.

Su Yonggang said that generative AI can efficiently complete basic tasks such as literal translation and grammar correction, "but this does not mean that basic language training can be completely canceled, but rather that the curriculum is forced to find a correct orientation: instead of instilling vocabulary and grammar and brushing questions and taking exams as its core goals, it should turn to cultivating high-level cross-cultural comprehensive foreign language literacy that AI cannot replace".

Establishing College English Curriculum System to Match Different Starting Points

To find the correct positioning, the placement of each school is not the same.

Wang Qun introduced that the phased teaching mode of "foundation of general English in the first half of freshman year and convergence of academic English in the second half of freshman year" in the School of Foreign Languages of North China Electric Power University has been in operation for ten years: "It not only reserves room for students with weak foundation to adapt, but also enables students with good foundation to quickly connect with practical ability training such as academic English literature reading and academic abstract writing, it avoids the basic fault problem that may occur in the direct transformation of academic English."

"Shandong University fully considers factors such as students' different English foundations, different majors, and different future development directions, and adopts a diversified program of graded teaching and classified training." According to Su Yonggang, the school is divided into three levels of 1. 2. according to the English scores of freshmen in the college entrance examination, and offers a series of courses such as basic English, "four new" comprehensive English, and general academic English; the second grade provides more than 30 cultural and skill courses such as scientific and technological literature reading, cross-cultural communication, English speech and debate. This kind of "multi-type, multi-level, basic protection, and promotion" plan is to teach students in accordance with their aptitude.

Nankai University, on the other hand, proposes to build a college English proficiency standard with its own characteristics. Tang Lei said: "In order to establish an advanced system from basic language application ability to higher-level academic English expression ability, so that students can gradually move from being able to use English to more complex and professional expressions in English, the school has launched the" Excellent Oral English Ability Standard "" Excellent English Writing Ability Standard "developed."

"It needs to be emphasized that academic English is an important part of college English, but it is not the only direction: students' learning and development needs are diverse, some require international academic exchanges, and some require cross-cultural communication." Tang Lei said that, therefore, Nankai University has provided different types of college English compulsory and general elective courses, including general English, academic English, cross-cultural communication and international communication of Chinese culture. "In 2024, we also set up a micro major of" International Academic Competence "specifically for students' international academic exchange needs. This curriculum system allows students to choose according to their development needs."

Although the three experts give different paths, the direction is the same: no longer regard college English as a "basic" course, but turn it into a curriculum system that can match different starting points.

From "Learning English" to "Learning in English"

The curriculum system straightened out how to "learn English", but how well you learn depends on whether you can go to the step of "learning in English.

In Tang Lei's view, "learning English" and "learning English" are two levels of problems. "Learning English solves the problems of language foundation and language ability, while learning English is to learn and carry out professional activities in English after having a certain English ability."

"Truly 'learning in English' eventually goes into specific subject areas: medicine, economics, computers, law, etc., and there are great differences in terminology, knowledge systems and academic expressions. This actually involves a convergence between General English, General Academic English and professional academic English, as well as a synergy between university English teachers and teachers of various specialties." Tang Lei said that this road should be divided into two steps: college English should first help students lay a good language foundation and cultivate their basic ability to learn and research in English. On this basis, each major combines its own knowledge system to develop students' ability to learn professional knowledge and participate in academic activities in English. "Of course, this requires top-level design at the school level, and it is impossible to complete it by a single course of college English."

Wang Qun suggested starting from four aspects: reconstructing the curriculum system and setting up differentiated modules such as academic English and cross-cultural communication according to students' professional directions; Scenario-based classroom innovation, using project discussion and situational display to strengthen language application in real situations; Man-machine collaborative teaching focuses on training students' ability to judge AI translation deviations and optimize AI output content, turning AI from a tool for direct work to an assistant to improve learning efficiency; diverse evaluation reform, the classroom interaction performance, project practice results, oral presentation results in proportion to the overall evaluation.

"Providing differentiated English teaching programs for students of different majors is the future direction of English teaching in colleges and universities." Su Yonggang said that Shandong University is implementing content-based teaching: taking real contents such as interdisciplinary, cutting-edge topics and cross-cultural communication as carriers, allowing students to read English documents of relevant disciplines and complete thematic discussions, so as to explore the content of language training services and change the current situation of separation between languages and majors.

"Classroom task design, on the other hand, strengthens output and speculative training, guides students to carry out post-editing and identify AI text defects. Process evaluation is increased in the assessment and evaluation, focusing on the students' practical ability to obtain information, analyze argumentation, and output orally and in writing in English." Su Yonggang said.

"What we want to see is that English has gradually become a kind of ability and tool that students can use from a course that needs to be learned." Tang Lei concludes. (Reporter Jin Haotian Correspondent Wang Xin)