Cultivation of Core Competences of English Major Students under the Inter-discinplinary Guidance A Case Study of “The Survey of British and American Culture” Course

Abstract

The newly issued National Standards by the Ministry of National Education for the Quality of Foreign Language and Literature Teaching (hereinafter referred to as the “National Standards”) clearly points out that the curriculum system of foreign language majors should emphasize the cultivation of competences and the construction of professional knowledge, especially the cultivation of cross-cultural, critical, and innovative abilities. Therefore, in order to enhance college students’ autonomous study ability and cross-cultural skills, this study, based on the concepts of content and language integration, aims to explore the way to combine Willis’ outline of procedure for task-based learning with the five principles of intercultural teaching, and utilize task-based teaching method, and rely on the course—“British and American Culture: A Course to Develop Critical Thinking from a cross-cultural perspective” to respectively consider the design of autonomous study worksheets for English majors before, during, and after class, so as to improve their autonomous learning ability, cultural critical thinking and intercultural communication skills. It will be helpful for the implementation of similar courses.