Constructing a Philosophical Foundation of Language for Communicative English Teaching in China—A Philosophical Study on CECL Coursebook and Its Design

Abstract

CECL coursebook, as an earliest and a representative coursebook for applying CLT in China, of which the first publication in 1987 has greatly advanced the studies and the research on specific aspects and procedures concerning communicative English teaching method. This study aims to construct a philosophical foundation of language for communicative English teaching by detailed examining the philosophical ideas underlying the design and the compilation of CECL coursebook. The essential philosophical unity between language and thought has been reflected in CECL through its substantial descriptive and explanatory dialogical tasks combined with cultural differences and individual variations. The innate quality of language as being open, dynamic and cyclic has been realized in CECL as its facilitation of the intersubjective dialogical connection and interaction between cultures and learners. And language vitality in its authentic use has been practiced through the meticulously designed time, place and relationship for each situation of communication in CECL teaching.