Abstract: 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.

Key words: English major, specialization, humanities, humanistic reform