Abstract: At the core of foreign language teachers' cognition is the cognition of professional essence, i.e. the cognition of philosophy of language. Yet, China witnesses a somewhat pessimistic situation in the college foreign language teachers' cognition of philosophy of language. The findings of the present study indicate that studying philosophy of language is an effective way of improving teachers' cognition. As a result, foreign language teachers have changed their cognition and their way and mode of thinking, and started to reflect more on the essence of their professional issues.