An Assessment of the Necessity of Offering College English Courses for Art Majors

Abstract

The internationalization trend of contemporary art activities makes English proficiency a key tool for art majors to participate in international exhibitions and cross-cultural cooperation. The current general English courses focus on daily communication and are structurally mismatched with the authentic language contexts of art majors. This paper assesses the necessity of offering College English courses from three aspects: language competence structure, curriculum support dimensions, and irreplaceable value. The language needs of art majors are characterized by high-contextualization and strong specialization. College English courses can expand access to creative materials, build discourse competence, and cultivate cultural negotiation skills. From the perspectives of cognition and semiotics, the differential influence of foreign language thinking and the synergistic mechanism between linguistic and non-linguistic signs jointly constitute the irreplaceable value foundation of this course.