Empowering Foreign Language Education within the New Liberal Arts Framework: A Tripartite Model for Sustainable Transformation

Abstract

Foreign language education (FLE) is undergoing profound transformation under the dual pressures of technological disruption and educational reform. Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has demonstrated capabilities in language processing that challenge the traditional focus on mechanical skills, meanwhile China’s New Liberal Arts (NLA) initiative calls for interdisciplinary, value-oriented education that transcends conventional disciplinary boundaries. Confronting what Kramsch (2014) termed the “instrumentalist trap”—the reduction of language learning to decontextualized grammatical and communicative competence—this paper proposes a tripartite model of Curriculum Reconstruction, Teacher Agency, and Technology Mediation as an integrated framework for sustainable change. We argue that FLE must shift from “learning the code” to “reading the world,” leveraging technology to foster critical cultural understanding, ethical reasoning, and interdisciplinary literacy. Ultimately, this approach seeks to align foreign language education with the goals of the NLA while affirming its enduring relevance in an AI-permeated era.