《大学英语教学指南》规定大学英语是通识教育,这一规定虽然对大学英语提出了专门用途英语教学要求,但只是把其看成课程之一。本文认为大学英语是专业教育,应该定位于专门用途英语,这不仅体现了大学英语的工具性,即它帮助学生更好地用英语从事专业学习,而且体现了大学英语的人文性,即它能促使学生在专业学习中掌握学科文化和跨文化交际能力。鉴于大学英语学分压缩的现状,大学英语应取消通用英语和跨文化课程的必修课程地位。

College English Teaching Guidelines defines college English as general education and assigns English for specific purposes (ESP) a minor role. We believe that college English is discipline-specific education and should be orientated towards ESP. Its instrumental and humanistic harmony could be found in its pedagogy. It could not only help students engage in their disciplinary studies in English, but also improve their cross-cultural competence in the domain of their disciplines. With the credit decrease of college English, we suggest that general English and culture courses should be removed from the required courses of college English.