Real Language Situation Enhancing Morality Cultivation in the College English Course
—A Brief Review on New Future College English: An Integrated Course ()
1. Introduction
Curriculum textbooks are an important basis for teachers to design and implement teaching activities, and an important intermediary for students to participate in classroom practice and gain classroom experience. At the same time, it is also an important indicator and reference standard for assessing the teaching level and effectiveness of courses. The quality of textbooks largely determines the quality of teaching and the quality of the cultivation of students’ abilities (Hu, 2011). College English textbooks are an important medium and carrier for college English teachers to carry out college English teaching, as well as for morality cultivation in college English courses. In China, different types of college English textbooks were published at different times to meet the needs of college English teaching. The continuous improvement of college English teaching level in China and the continuous improvement of English proficiency among Chinese college students were promoted by these different types of college English textbooks. Chinese scholars made reviews on college English textbooks such as College English (new edition) series (Zhu, 2002), a brief review on 21-Century College English Course (Cong & Zhang, 2002), a course book evaluation on New Horizon College English (Tao, 2007), review of the audio-visual speaking course of New College English (Shi, 2008), review of New Ideas College English (Audio-visual Speaking Course) (Liu, 2011). However, for New Future College English textbook series (Sun, 2021), few scholars have made comments on them. At the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on October 29, 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed a “innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing as the new development philosophy.” (Xi, 2022) The paper will make a brief review of the Integrated Course in New Future college English textbook series (the Integrated Course for short form) based on the new development philosophy provided by Xi Jinping (Xi, 2022) as the theoretical guidance.
2. Brief Content of New Future College English Textbook
In August 2021, the “New Future College English” textbook series were published. New Future College English is, jointly developed by English education experts at home and abroad, published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and Oxford University Press, an international, multi-modal textbook series for college English courses with ideological, scientific, ethnic, and contemporary characteristics. The chief editors of the textbook series are Youzhong Sun (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China) and Jack C. Richards (New Zealand). New Future College English consists of four levels: Level 1 (personal field), Level 2 (public field), Level 3A (professional field) and Level 3B (academic field). Each level includes an integrated course and an Audio-Visual Course. Each level of the Integrated Course consists of six units. The structure of each unit is: Objectives (Goal presentation, targeted approach) → Warming up (warm-up activities to stimulate students’ interest) → Section 1 (Episode 1, Episode 2 and Project to complete situational tasks and achieve experiential learning) → Section 2 (Text A and Text B set for deep reading to promote students’ higher-order thinking) → Self reflection (self reflection to achieve self improvement) → Wisdom of China (Chinese wisdom, show of firm confidence for Chinese culture). The following are the main contents of each unit in the four volumes of the Integrated Course. The unit contents of Integrated Course 1 are: Unit 1 (A new life, a new you), Unit 2 (Learning is living), Unit 3 (A matter of taste), Unit 4 (A journey into the unknown), Unit 5 (Love is in the air), Unit 6 (Passing the torch). The unit contents of Integrated Course 2 are: Unit 1 ((Dis)connecting in the digital age), Unit 2 (Work hard, work smart), Unit 3 (Secrets of advertising), Unit 4 (Impressions matter), Unit 5 (Harmony in diversity), Unit 6 (Bringing light to others). The unit contents of Integrated Course 3A are: Unit 1 (Choosing your own path), Unit 2 (Landing your dream job), Unit 3 (All in the same boat), Unit 4 (Giving back to society), Unit 5 (Changing with the times), Unit 6 (A great place to work). The unit contents of Integrated Course 3B are: Unit 1 (Smart everything everywhere), Unit 2 (Hearts and minds), Unit 3 (Staying in the black), Unit 4 (Only one Earth), Unit 5 (The health of nations), Unit 6 (Is the past past?).
3. Brief Evaluation on the Integrated Course
In Section 1 of the Integrated Course, the situational tasks of Episode 1, Episode 2 and Project are set to create a real communication situation to integrate learning and application. In the process of completing the situational tasks, students conduct experiential learning. The development view of multiple abilities in foreign language teaching is reflected in Section 1 and Section 2; Wisdom of China is integrated into foreign language education and holistic education to achieve the goal of morality cultivation in foreign language education. The highlights of “Integrated Course” are not only the adoption of experiential foreign language learning paradigm, the creation of a real communication situation integrating learning with application, the expression of the multi-ability development view in foreign language teaching, the integration of foreign language education and holistic education to achieve the goal of morality cultivation in foreign language education, and the mixed teaching model to realize foreign language ubiquitous learning and promotion between teaching and research, but also the implementation of the new development philosophy in the textbook series.
The new development philosophy is reflected in the following five aspects in the Integrated Course. First, innovative development is a prominent feature of the Integrated Course. Xi Jinping tells us that innovation is the primary driving force behind development; it is strategic foundation for building a modernized economy (Xi, 2020). Innovative development is reflected in the Integrated Course. One, a “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform” is innovative provided in the Integrated Course to assist teachers and students in using smart classrooms and conducting smart teaching. The rich learning resources for course learners is provided by the “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform”, and a unit ledger function is created by the “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform” for learners to collect tokens to complete learning tasks. Also new and convenient teaching tools for teachers is provided by the “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform” (such as the innovative “classroom activity library” and “homework library”) to carry out efficient teaching the morality cultivation in college English courses. Two, a column “Wisdom of China”, organically integrating the ideological and political concepts of the curriculum centered on “cultivating morality and cultivating talents” into college English teaching, has been created in the Integrated Course. Three, in the Comprehensive Course, four protagonists—two Chinese college students (Wang Hao and Yi Fei) and two foreign students (Thomas Miller and Alice Parker) are innovative to be set for college students to empathize in the process of college English learning. Four, the different teaching methods (offline, online, mix of offline and online) are provided for teachers to choose according to their needs. Second, the coordinated development has been fully reflected in the Integrated Course. One, the development of the content of paper textbooks and digital courses are coordinated in the Integrated Course to achieve a deep integration of the two. Two, the content of the four textbooks are coordinated in the Integrated Course to meet the needs (students’ personal development and the country and society), achieving the unity of value guidance, knowledge transmission, and ability cultivation. The Integrated Course 1 and 2 focus on students’ solid foundation, while the Integrated Course 3A and 3B respectively focus students’ future development on their career and academic ability, promoting the coordinated development of students’ English learning needs and the needs of the country and society. Three, elements of morality cultivation and English subject knowledge are coordinated in the Integrated Course to achieve coordinated development between English subject content and morality cultivation content. Different contents of Wisdom of China in each unit are provided to realize the coordinated development of value guidance, knowledge imparting and ability cultivation, and promote the all-round development of students. For example, the content of “Wisdom of China” in the second unit of the Integrated Course 2 is The foolish old man removes the mountains. The story of “The foolish old man removes the mountains” is part of the excellent traditional Chinese culture. The ideological and political elements of “firm faith, overcoming difficulties” in the story of “The foolish old man removes the mountains” are integrated into the second unit of English teaching to guide college students to strengthen their cultural self-confidence and integrate value guidance into English knowledge teaching to realize the coordinated development of English subject content and morality cultivation content. We need to insist on the cultural confidence. The General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed: “Cultural self-confidence is a more basic, broader and deeper self-confidence, and a more basic, deeper and more lasting force.” (Xi, 2022). Four, the different teaching methods (offline, online and mix) can be coordinated development to support teachers’ English teaching and students’ English learning in China. Third, green development is the goal for the Integrated Course to pursue continuously. The green development is an important policy in China. There are more than 1.4 billion people in China, but the natural resources in China are very limited. The green development is not only important in economic development, but also important in other aspects such as education development. The green development is reflected in the Integrated Course. In the Integrated Course, the one-stop mixed teaching solutions for teaching, learning, assessment, testing and research in foreign language teaching in colleges and universities are provided by “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform”, to realize paperless smart learning for students anytime, anywhere and ubiquitous paperless smart teaching for teachers, for the consumption of paper and other resources reduced to protect our earth, to achieve green development. Fourth, opening-up development is an important factor in achieving the success of the Integrated Course. The opening-up development is an important national policy in China, also an important principle is reflected in the Integrated Course. One, the Integrated Course is the result of renowned foreign language education experts from both China and foreign countries, as well as university teachers with rich front line teaching experience, who work in a collaborative and open manner. The Chinese writing team includes scholars and teachers from more than 10 universities, including Beijing International Studies University, Fudan University, and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics; The foreign writing team includes professional textbook authors from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Two, the Integrated Course is not only the result of open cooperation between Chinese and foreign scholars, teachers, and professional textbook authors, but also the result of open cooperation between Chinese and foreign young students. The content of Integrated Course is presented in the form of a situational drama, creating four main characters (two Chinese college students and two foreign students). If there were no open cooperation between Chinese and foreign scholars, teachers, and young students, as well as open cooperation between domestic teachers and scholars, it would be difficult to have such a good series of English textbooks. Three, the multi-level curriculum system is set openly for students to choose independently to meet students’ needs of the personalized learning at different levels. The students’ English level are very different in China, so the multi-level curriculum system is set openly for students with the different English levels to meet students’ needs of the personalized learning. Fifth, shared development is the aspiration of the Integrated Course. Xi Jinping says building a global community of shared future. As the term suggests, global community of shared future means that the future of each and every nation and country is interlocked. We are in the same boat, and we should stick together, share weal and woe, endeavor to build this planet of ours into a single harmonious family, and turn people’s longing for a better life into reality (Xi, 2020). The idea of shared development is not only reflected in Chinese economy (such as shared economy), but also in the Integrated Course. In the Integrated Course, the rich learning resources and convenient teaching tools are provided by “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform” for teachers and students to share, creating a smart classroom to carry out smart teaching. The practical micro-lesson videos are shared in “U Campus Wisdom Teaching Cloud Platform” for in-depth explanation of thinking and cross-cultural to improve students’ advanced skills. The “Classroom activity Library” is provided by the “U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform” to realize class interaction and sharing; The “homework library” is provides as a shared display platform for output tasks and promotion of teaching interaction.
In the new stage of the development of college English teaching, college English teaching is facing a series of pressures such as the reduction of college English credits, digital transformation, and difficulty in selecting materials for morality cultivation applied in college English courses. The “New Future College English” series of textbooks is a set of high-quality college English textbooks that implement the new development philosophy, cultivate moral character, and help college English teachers carry out teaching morality cultivation for college English courses.
Funding
This paper is supported by philosophy and social science research program of Hubei Provincial Department of Education (Program title: Study and Practice on the Morality Cultivation Construction of School-based Characteristic College English Reading Courses based on the Multilingual Parallel Database of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” (Program No. 22Y038)).