英语专业为改革开放做出了巨大贡献,功不可没,但英语专业也累积了诸多亟待解决的深层次问题。本文分析了英语专业当下所面临的困境,指出困境产生的根本原因是学科观念模糊、专业意识淡漠、偏离专业本位,混淆了英语与英语专业、英语学习与英语专业学习的根本区别,致使英语专业受到严重误解;工具化和功利化观念严重;全国英语专业超大规模化扩展,更加重了英语专业正本清源、固本开新的困难,严重阻碍了英语专业的未来发展。针对英语专业存在的危机,只有明确英语专业的人文学科性质,坚持英语专业的人文性,强化专业意识,才能破除英语专业“工具论”、“无用论”等观念,抓住外语学科五大学科方向设立的契机,实行英语专业人文化综合改革,增强大文科意识和跨学科意识,扩大和深化英语专业的内涵建设;才能在人才培养、课程设置、专业教学、教师发展等方面体现专业内涵和人文品质,增强英语专业的综合竞争力,充分彰显英语专业人才培养的社会价值和英语专业的学术价值。

The establishment of English as a major at tertiary level has contributed significantly to China's reform and opening-up; however, its development is not without problems over the years, some of which have cast a shadow over the future of the entire discipline. This paper identifies the current difficulties of specialized English education in China, highlighting that the root of the problems is a lack of understanding of it as a specialized field, which has resulted in a systemic confusion of English majors with general English learners and a chronic misunderstanding of English as nothing but a tool. These problems have become even harder to fix because of the extensiveness of English majoring programs all over China. The author argues that, to solve these problems, we should endorse the humanistic nature of the English subject and understand it as a specialized field. We should seize the opportunities provided by the division of foreign language disciplines, promote humanistic and interdisciplinary reform of the programs and enrich and refine the frameworks of teaching, curriculum design, specialized training and teacher development. Only through this course can we strengthen the competitiveness of English majors and realize the social and academic values of specialized English education.