The Implications Of Confucius' Educational Thought For College English Teaching

English education, as an important part of college education, is a required course for most non-English majors in their undergraduate years. In 2007, the Ministry of Education of China issued “The College English Curriculum Requirement”. In 2015, the Steering Committee of National College Foreign Language of the Ministry of Education has completed The Guideline of College English Teaching(to be published). Both documents have emphasized the double properties of college English, that is, it is not only a tool for learning knowledge, but also a channel to cultivate humanity and enhance the comprehensive quality. The Requirements and The Guideline offer a very clear explanation of the property of humanity: “The core of humanity is man-centered, and it complements the value of man, emphasizes the comprehensive quality and overall development.” This means college English teaching and education should not only improve the language competence and its uses, but also offer holist ic or “whole-person “education to cultivate talents.As the reform of college English education advances, the educators of English have paid more attention to enhancing learners' interest and motivation, improving their language competence and cross-cultural communicating ability. However, the property of humanity of college English is far from being exhausted. First of all, teachers have not found a good explanation for such a question: Why don't learners have strong interest in English learning? Why do they lack high motivation? Secondly, teachers have not paid enough attention to culture teaching, and they seem to find few approaches to doing it. Thirdly, many teachers have not paid adequate attention to the goal of cultivating all-round talents and they seem to have few approaches to working towards the goal.Considering the current situation of college education and the needs of the economic, social and cultural development, it might be a good way to seek inspiration from ancient Chinese classics. This thesis studies the educational thought of Confucius and The Analects, analyzes the challenges and problems in the current college English teaching, and shows how the educational thought brings up new perspectives for the college English teaching.This thesis focuses on the core of Confucius' educational thought, that is, the whole-person education. Many sayings in The Analects still shine. For example: “The man of noble character should not be like a utensil”, “Do not guide the disciples unless they are eager to learn. Do not enlighten the disciples until they want to speak but cannot express themselves clearly.” “Learning without reflection will end up in confusion; reflection without learning will end up in peril.” Confucius put these ideas into practice, and cultivated a lot of all-round talents with sound character and versatile skills. In the light of Confucius' education thought, the researcher has conducted observations in the classrooms of 13 teachers of Q ingdao Binhai College and 5 professors of Q ingdao University. The researcher has also conducted interviews with the professors, and done a case study on a course which deals with Confucius' educational thought in English. With detailed text analysis of The Analects, and classroom observations and interviews, the researcher has tried to find the dilemma of the current college English teaching, and finally offered the new perspectives for college English teaching reform.Finally, this thesis draws a conclusion based on the above analysis and study. Fir stly, it is theoretically feasible to apply Confucius' thought to college English teaching. These ideas are not contradictory. Secondly, it is operable to combine Confucius ' educational thought with the practice of college English teaching. The teachers ca n refresh their thoughts of English teaching by absorbing the essence of Confucianism. At the same time, the students can benefit from Confucius' thoughts on education, and then develop the capability of spreading C hinese culture in English and build up the bridge for the communication of C hinese and western cultures.The researcher of this thesis is an on-job postgraduate. Due to the tight work schedule, this thesis is finished in haste. Besides, it is difficult to find enough related materials and research facilities are not well-equipped. Therefore, mistakes and shortcomings in this thesis are inevitable. Anyhow, the combination of traditional C hinese thoughts on education with the spirit of modern college English education will enlighten future college English education, based on which later researchers could make further studies on this topic.