Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies >
The “Decline” of the English Major at American Universities and Its Implications for English Programs in China
Following over half a century of expansion, the English major in American universities has exhibited increasing signs of “decline” since the 1970s, precipitated primarily by plummeting student enrollment. This contraction catalyzed a transformative phase of disciplinary diversification, marked by the proliferation of specialized academic tracks and fundamental reconceptualization of the field’s epistemological boundaries. By examining the trajectory of the English major, this study interrogates the endogenous and exogenous factors driving its perceived decline. Built on this analysis, the paper makes recommendations for revitalizing China’s English programs: fostering curricular pluralism through interdisciplinary hybridization, architecting epistemically sovereign pedagogical paradigms, and nurturing discipline-specific institutional ethos.
JIANG Yajun , SHI Linfei . The “Decline” of the English Major at American Universities and Its Implications for English Programs in China[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2025 , 25(6) : 10 -19 . DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2025.06.002
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