In January 2024, commissioned by the Degree Committee of the State Council, the Association of Chinese Graduate Education released the Introduction to Graduate Education Disciplines and Specializations and Their Basic Degree Requirements, which includes content related to the discipline of foreign languages and literatures, as well as disciplines related to them. There are significant changes from the past. In this paper, we will focus on analyzing the main content, specific connotations, practical significance, and the profound impact of these significant changes on the future construction of foreign language disciplines.

The argument regarding iconicity and arbitrariness in language has a long history. The increasing popularity of Cognitive Linguistics and Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics has led scholars to widely accept the former. Following the introduction of Saussure’s concept of arbitrariness in his Structuralist Linguistics to our country, some scholars intended to find an ancestral sage for support, with Xunzi’s saying “there is no unique way of naming...” in the article “On the Correct Use of Names” being selected as evidence. This led to Xunzi being assumed to be a main Chinese representative of arbitrariness theory. However, after having studied and analyzed Xunzi’s article for years, we have found that this assumption is seriously misguided, as his article was a precursor of his early view of embodied cognition and iconicity that is currently proposed by Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics. In this paper, we attempt to criticize this misconception from five aspects in order to ensure a correct understanding of Xunzi. Thus, we propose the research principle “I think therefore I speak”.

Foreign language education has been officially established as a subject in the national postgraduate syllabus since 2024. In this paper, the writers present their positive response to its significance by differentiating between foreign language education and applied linguistics. Based on their understanding of the theories and practice of foreign language education, this paper proposes some related thoughts about the development of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in China concerning the research methods, the approaches to teaching reform, the demands for teacher development, and the improvements to the quality of foreign language learners.

Cultivating translation talents that meet the demands of the era has always been a central topic in the field of translation education. An important way to improve the quality of talent cultivation is improving textbook design. The translation textbooks in the “Understanding Contemporary China” series are clearly positioned, novel in concept, and scientific in design, providing a reliable basis and a strong support for teaching translation. How to use this series of textbooks scientifically and to maximize the textbooks’ role in fostering talent is undoubtedly an issue that should be investigated in the current cultivation of qualified translators. Taking A Course in Chinese-French Translation as an example, this paper attempts to reflect on the use of translation textbooks in the “Understanding Contemporary China” series from two aspects: the first is focusing on value guidance, grasping correct translation principles, and improving translation ability, while the second is implementing three-phase analysis-inquiry-interaction teaching model, with the aim of providing some constructive references for the cultivation of translation talent in the new era.

Bessie Head (1937—1986) was a female Botswanan writer. In the short story collection The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (1974), Head portrays different types of images of African female images, which I propose to research from the feminist perspective using postcolonialism theory, among other research approaches. It can be seen that there are three profiles of the diachronic extension of Botswanan women’s lives in Head’s short stories. The first involves rural female villagers who were affected by Botswana’s rural traditions and colonially oppressed communities in the conservative state of Botswana; the second refers to female prisoners who used violence as a weapon to fight against male domination in prisons and to escape colonial oppression in Botswana, and the third depicts the “new women” who participated in writing and the construction of identity in the beneficial aftermath of ideological edification in Botswana. In general, Head draws on images of women such as villagers, prisoners, and new women to depict these women’s unrelenting efforts and struggles of women in Botswana who were attempting to find themselves and to gain power in society. Head aims to build a stairway to the stars and to speak for silent African women through her autobiographical writing; in doing so she also constructed independent and creative female identities.

With the development of modern information technology, the application and popularization of network platforms have increasingly deepened their impact on individual subjective operations and regulations, and have also created metamorphoses in the new era. In this paper, we provide an in-depth textual analysis and inductive summarization to reread Franz Kafka’s classic novel The Metamorphosis in order to explore Kafka’s description of the survival strategies of ciphers in the interaction between real life and the virtual world. We will also explain the important ideological implications of his transformational aesthetics concerning the individual self-construction of one’s virtual personality in contemporary cyberspace. Kafka constructed the idea of human resistance to alienation in the real world via the infinite spiritual demands of a limited life, since the self-construction of individuals in the virtual world has alleviated the survival dilemma and spiritual crises of modern people to some extent. Since people are currently experiencing more complex and diverse lifestyles, as well as being affected by many social and personal factors in self-construction, metamorphosis has become a common state of survival and resistance. Searching for a harmonious state in the world, amidst reality and virtualization, freedom and shackles, is the ultimate purpose of humanity.

In recent years, mixed research methods have gradually attracted the attention of scholars in the field of applied linguistics, among which the Q method, as a mixed research method to explore human subjectivity, combines the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methods, and examines subjectivity via objective measures at both holistic and individual levels. However, understanding the application of the Q method in this field is still in its infancy, and there are few relevant research results; empirical Chinese studies are particularly lacking. Therefore, in this study, we employ a systematic review by searching key literature databases in China and overseas and investigating Q methodological studies in applied linguistics. The researchers reviewed the current status of Q methodological research in terms of theoretical perspectives, research topics, as well as data collection and analysis characteristics. We have found that few Q methodological studies have integrated theories, and have a predominant focus on motivational themes, as the research topics encompass motivations, emotions, beliefs, curriculum evaluations, and the like. The data collection and analysis have revealed developmental trends ranging from synchronic to diachronic, intra-group to inter-group, or a combination of intra-group and inter-group. Finally, we propose future directions for Q methodological research based on existing research gaps with the aim of providing new insights for future studies.

Language use and communication in the context of new media is a fertile ground for the study of pragmatics, which has also prompted researchers to re-examine the existing pragmatic theories, research paradigms, and underlying mechanisms. Based on the themes in the 18^th China Pragmatics Conference, we have reviewed the topics in pragmatics research pertaining to the new media, summarize the features of pragmatic research, and discuss the opportunities and challenges encountered in pragmatic research in the context of new media, with the aim of shedding light on pragmatic studies in China in terms of topics and perspectives.

Green Grammar is consistent with modern scientific theories, such as Gaia Theory. It serves as the construct of human being’s harmonious co-existence with nature. Based on the complementary approaches of transitive and ergative systems, as well as lexis and grammar, an ecological discourse analysis framework is presented via the lens of Green Grammar. This framework aims to assist in analyzing the roles of humans and nature within environmental narrative discourse with the aim of exploring how eco-relations are discursively constructed. The findings suggest that environmental narrative discourse not only assigns human beings a subject status in environmental protection, but also acknowledges the animacy and agency of nature by representing nature as a living entity with intelligence, perception, and self-awareness. By delving into the discursive construction of harmonious human-nature co-existence through an ecological discourse analysis of environmental narrative discourse, this study aims to advance both the theory and the practice of ecological discourse analysis, and to promote the narrative of harmonious eco-relations between humans and nature.

The profound ecological view contained in Marxism is important for guiding and solving the current ecological crisis across the world. In the report of the 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “What we are doing today to build an ecological civilization will benefit generations to come. We should have a strong commitment to socialist ecological civilization and work to develop a new model of modernization with humans developing in harmony with nature”. This study is based on the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics, combined with Marxist ecological thought, and uses General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speeches about “ecological civilization” as a corpus to explore Marxist ecological thought in the discourse on ecological civilization. It has been found that the discourse about ecological civilization constructs human beings as playing the major role in the process of ecological civilization construction through the operation of various variables in the context, as well as the harmonious relationships among the various participants, which imbues the discourse with strong authority and advances its popularity. This study is expected to provide a theoretical framework as a reference for the analysis of ecological civilization discourse.

Chinese folk language embodies the spiritual temperament and cultural aspects of the Chinese nation, and occupies a significant position in the translation of Chinese literature. However, academic research in this area is lacking in depth and breadth. A TBC Approach to the English Translation of Chinese Folk Language by Zhou Lingshun and others, published in 2022, is the first comprehensive monograph in China to extensively investigate the translation of Chinese folk language into English. This book, which combines theoretical constructs and practical explorations, has important academic value. Specifically, it presents original theory of translator behavior criticism to elucidate the inherent principles underlying Howard Goldblatt’s translations of Chinese folk language into English. This not only provides a reference for translation practices, but also enriches the practical implications of translation theories that have Chinese characteristics. The book presents principles for the translation of folk language and the evaluation of folk language translation, thus enhancing the feasibility of translating folk literature and the scientific nature of the evaluation thereof. By identifying several key concepts, the book contributes to improving the objectivity and accuracy of translation criticism. In this paper, we outline the main content of the book and elaborate on its academic distinctiveness and contributions.