On December 24, 2025, Lei Chuanli, an alumnus of the Class of 1978 and recipient of the First-Class National Award for Textbook Construction (Basic Education Category), was invited back to his alma mater to deliver an academic lecture titled “Reality and Future: Reflections on the Development of Basic Foreign Language Education”. The lecture was hosted by Professor Liu Yanshi, Vice Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, and attended by all faculty members as well as the SFL students.

Lei Chuanli further provided a comprehensive overview of the current landscape of China’s basic education, highlighting four key aspects: first, the population size and structure are undergoing more drastic changes; second, the goal of building a strong nation in education has set higher requirements for basic education; third, the public’s expectations for high-quality education are growing stronger; and fourth, the digital era is posing new challenges to the education sector. He pointed out that China’s basic education is currently confronted with four major issues: the prevalence of utilitarianism in education, the lack of holistic and personalized development among students, the need for optimization of the teaching workforce, and the requirement for improvement of school-running conditions. To address these problems, he proposed targeted tasks and measures for the reform and development of basic education. Basic education should consolidate its foundation through quantity expansion and enhance its strength through quality improvement, striving to achieve reasonable quantitative growth, effective qualitative upgrading, greater public satisfaction, and increased international influence. The specific measures include optimizing educational layout, expanding educational resources, promoting educational equity, prioritizing education quality, advancing educational reform, strengthening educational management, ensuring educational safety, and facilitating educational exchanges.

Regarding basic foreign language education, Lei Chuanli emphasized that its core orientation lies in its foundational role. Currently, basic foreign language education has achieved a transformative shift: from being purely instrumental to embracing humanistic values, and from focusing on knowledge transmission to prioritizing the cultivation of competencies and literacy. The ultimate goal is to integrate language learning with daily life, work, and career development. There is a deeper understanding of the cognitive nature of language, with the notions that “language is cognition” and “language is the world” gaining widespread recognition. At the national level, there is an enhanced awareness of the significance of foreign languages. Foreign language proficiency is not only a personal competence but also a national asset—it is essential for building a community with a shared future for mankind, advancing national and global governance, fostering top innovative talents, and promoting the internationalization of Chinese-style education.

However, Lei Chuanli also pointed out that normal foreign language education is currently facing several challenges, such as an outdated training system and content, a disconnection from frontline basic education practice, and the construction of theories that are divorced from China’s actual conditions. To tackle these issues, he stressed that normal foreign language education needs to establish a Chinese foreign language education system rooted in national rejuvenation, the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and the advancement of Chinese-style socialist modernization.

The entire lecture was a perfect blend of theoretical depth and practical guidance. Drawing on his extensive experience in basic education, Lei Chuanli not only identified the current challenges and pain points but also proposed actionable reform paths, thereby building a bridge between the macro perspective of basic education and the professional practice of foreign language education for the faculty and students of the College. At the conclusion of the lecture, Vice Dean Liu Yanshi summarized that the insights shared by alumnus Lei Chuanli provide important guidance for the College’s foreign language education reform and the optimization of its normal student training programs. He added that the College will further strengthen its connection with frontline basic education, helping faculty and students to clarify their positioning and focus their efforts in the field of basic foreign language education.