


































Education, Society and Human Studies 
ISSN 2690-3679 (Print) ISSN 2690-3687 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 1, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eshs 

61 

Original Paper 

Research on the Construction of Deep Learning-oriented 

College English Blended Gold Course in the Context  

of New Liberal Arts 

Huijun Fu
1
 & Xuwei Li

1
 

1 
College of Foreign Language Education and International Business, Baoding University, Baoding, 

China 

 

Received: March 28, 2024        Accepted: April 12, 2024        Online Published: April 26, 2024 

doi:10.22158/eshs.v5n1p61                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/eshs.v5n1p61 

 

Abstract 

Comprehensively promoting the construction of new liberal arts is an inevitable requirement for the 

education and teaching reform of liberal arts majors in colleges and universities in the new era. 

Different from the traditional liberal arts, the new liberal arts can better serve the national 

development and regional social progress. Based on the background of the new liberal arts, this paper 

discusses its new requirements for College English. By investigating the current situation of College 

English blended teaching, the paper finds the deficiencies, and mainly analyzes the necessity of 

applying deep learning to college English teaching based on its concept. On this basis, it proposes new 

initiatives for building the deep learning-oriented College English blended gold course based on the 

new liberal arts from five aspects, namely, teaching environment, teaching resources, teaching process, 

assessment system, and teacher competencies, so as to promote the connotative and innovative 

development of the College English course and achieve the goal of all-round education. 

Keywords 

New Liberal Arts, deep learning, College English, blended gold course 

 

Introduction 

In August 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed the concept 

that “higher education should strive to develop New Engineering, New Medicine, New Agriculture, and 

New Liberal Arts” (referred to as the “Four New”). In April 2019, 13 departments including the 

Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of 

Science and Technology officially launched the “Six Excellence and One Top” Plan 2.0, which has 



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started the “Four New” construction with that of the new liberal arts included, and pointed out the 

direction for college talent training as well as education and teaching reform. 

The concept of deep learning was first mentioned by Ference Marton and Roger Saljo in their article 

On qualitative differences in learning: I-Outcome and process (1976). Based on the way learners 

acquire and process information, the paper categorizes learners into deep-level processors and 

surface-level processors, and develops the two concepts of deep learning and surface learning. Later, 

Biggs and Collis (1982), Ramsden (1988), and Entwistle (1997) and other scholars also studied deep 

learning from different perspectives. In China, the concept of deep learning was first seen in the paper 

Promoting Deep Learning in Students (He & Li, 2005). Deep learning refers to the learning in which 

learners critically learn new ideas and knowledge on the basis of understanding, integrate them into the 

original cognitive structure to interrelate numerous ideas, transfer existing knowledge to new situations, 

make decisions and solve problems. Domestic scholars such as Duan Jinju and Yu Shengquan (2013), 

Guo Hua (2016), Hu Hang and Dong Yuqi (2017) have also conducted research on deep learning. In 

recent years, deep learning has attracted more and more academic attention. 

In June 2018, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Education at Higher Education Institutions 

in the New Era held by the Ministry of Education, Minister Chen Baosheng proposed for the first time 

to reasonably increase difficulty, depth and selectivity of courses, so as to truly transform the “water 

courses” into the “gold courses” with depth, difficulty and challenge. In August of the same year, 

“eliminating „water courses‟ and creating „gold courses‟” was officially published for the first time in 

the Notice on Implementing the Spirit of the National Conference on Undergraduate Education at 

Higher Education Institutions in the New Era issued by the Ministry of Education (Ministry of 

Education, 2018). Referring to the “high-level, innovative and challenging” standards of gold courses, 

this study is based on the construction of the new liberal arts, and explores the construction of blended 

College English course oriented to deep learning, with a view to promoting the reform of college 

English teaching, improving the teaching effect and talent training quality, and serving the national and 

regional economic and social development. 

 

1. New Requirements by the New Liberal Arts for the Teaching of College English 

In November 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the Declaration on the Construction of New 

Liberal Arts, which points out that the new mission in the new era requires that liberal arts education 

must accelerate innovation and development. To enhance comprehensive national strength, build 

greater confidence in our own culture, foster a new generation, build higher education power, and 

achieve the integrated development of liberal arts education all require the construction of new liberal 

arts. The mission of the new liberal arts construction is to build a world-class liberal arts talent training 

system with Chinese characteristics (Ministry of Education, 2020). As an innovative concept, the new 

liberal arts keeps pace with the trend of the times and breaks through the traditional liberal arts 



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education model. It reshapes the nurturing value of liberal arts, emphasizes the cross and integration 

between disciplines, and has interdisciplinary attributes. Along with the gradual development of the 

new liberal arts, liberal arts courses, including College English, are also undergoing an important 

educational transition. The new liberal arts has the following specific requirements for College English 

teaching: 

(1) Reflect the responsibility of liberal arts education in the times and highlight the value guidance of 

College English course. The new liberal arts requires that through the study of College English course, 

students are able to develop the ability of self-analysis, reflection and critical thinking based on respect 

to Western history and culture. They are trained to have an international vision and are able to develop 

firm confidence in the socialist system and culture on the basis of the comparison of Chinese and 

Western cultures. They are also able to take the initiative to inherit and carry forward the traditional 

Chinese culture and the advanced socialist culture, and develop a deeper love for the country and its 

people, so as to better tell China stories in English, convey China‟s wisdom and solutions, and better 

serve the community with a shared future for mankind. 

(2) Promote the integrated development of disciplines and highlight the connection between college 

English and other disciplines. On the basis of mastering basic English language knowledge and English 

language skills such as listening, expression and communication etc., students will be able to break 

through the traditional liberal arts mode of thinking. The cross and integration of the College English 

course and other courses should also be paid attention to. In this way, students can understand certain 

knowledge of other subjects and specialized knowledge, broaden its breadth and depth, and be able to 

communicate in English on certain topics of their major, thus promoting the development of students‟ 

future professional competencies. 

(3) Present the innovative development of liberal arts education and highlight that College English can 

keep pace with science and technology. The course should focus on cultivating students‟ practical 

ability and innovation ability, promote the cultivation of students‟ comprehensive competency, and 

broaden the caliber of talent training. At the same time, the College English course should effectively 

integrate advanced information technology into specific teaching practices, provide students with a 

smart learning environment, and promote the reform and innovation of teaching methods and modes, so 

as to enhance the teaching effect, improve the high-quality talent training system, and cultivate 

top-notch innovative talents who can meet the needs of the times and contribute to national 

rejuvenation. 

 

2. The Current Situation of Blended Teaching of College English 

In order to grasp the current situation of blended English teaching in our university, the research group 

conducted a questionnaire survey on a total of 183 students in 4 ordinary college classes of Grade 2021 

in our university in July 2022. Respondents of the four classes are from the majors of Educational 



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Technology, Chemistry, Exhibition Economics and Management, and Intellectual Property. The 

respondents in the first two classes are science students, and those in the other two classes are liberal 

arts students. The four classes are similar in class capacity, and are taught by 4 different teachers as to 

the College English course. The teachers have the same titles and academic qualifications. Meanwhile, 

they are similar in age. The findings show that online and offline blended teaching is currently carried 

out in all the classes, which to a certain extent benefits students‟ English learning in style, time as well 

as space, and conforms to the trend of the teaching reform of College English in our university. 

However, some deficiencies still exist in the present College English blended teaching, which needs to 

be improved urgently. The deficiencies are as follows: 

(1) The moral education function of the curriculum is not fully displayed. College English teaching has 

not fully involved current affairs, major knowledge, excellent traditional Chinese culture and unique 

campus culture, which is not conducive to students‟ acceptance of moral educational content. Moral 

education in the course is often preached obviously, and cannot exert an imperceptible influence on 

students‟ emotions, attitudes and values. Students study English mostly for the purpose of passing 

CET-4 (College English Test-4) and CET-6 or postgraduate entrance exams. They lack the ability to 

consciously spread Chinese culture and tell China stories in English. 

(2) Curriculum learning can not meet the development of the major. As the lessons are mainly based on 

the textbook, and there are many teaching units, students feel depressed about the learning content. 

Online learning resources are mostly centered on unit themes, and mostly remain in the consolidation 

of language knowledge. Teachers‟ self-constructed resources are insufficient, lacking the integration of 

language knowledge and major knowledge. There is also a serious lack of personalized information 

resources. Extracurricular activities related to this course are not rich enough to meet students‟ 

expectations. 

(3) The effect of online and offline integration is not ideal. Students mainly watch and learn online 

videos and micro-lectures. They feel that the use of platforms is a burden, which cannot fully activate 

their interest in online learning, resulting in the boredom of autonomous learning. Classroom teaching 

is mainly taught by teachers. Teaching methods are relatively monotonous. Students have low 

participation in the course. There are not many opportunities for individual presentations and students‟ 

collaborative learning, and there is a lack of effective interaction with the teacher and other students. 

Students‟ English learning mostly remains at the surface level of grasping language points, and their 

understanding of texts is superficial. They are also too passive to think about the profound connotations 

underlying the language, and lack in-depth understanding. Besides, teachers are not able to answer 

students‟ online questions, track their learning and provide online guidance in time. Incentives for 

online learning are insufficient, and students are easily distracted by irrelevant online information. 

(4) The course assessment is not reasonable. The assessment of knowledge is emphasized, while the 

assessment of practice and moral elements is not paid enough attention to. The current assessment 



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involves five performances including that on Xuexitong App, Unipus, Utalk, iWrite etc. Although it 

covers the training of the five skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, the 

assessment mostly focuses on textbook knowledge, and is relatively weak as to the application of the 

textbook knowledge to students‟ major, which is not conducive to the cultivation of students‟ ability to 

solve comprehensive problems. At the same time, the course assessment also lacks the reflection of 

moral elements, which can not realize the value guidance to students and is not helpful to 

whole-process education. 

 

3. The Necessity of Applying the Concept of Deep Learning to College English Teaching 

Through more than 40 years of development, deep learning is no longer just a way of learning to 

understand basic knowledge and skills, but more of a meaningful learning based on understanding and 

pursuit of the transfer. By deeply engaging students in learning and appropriately adopting advanced 

learning strategies, it promotes the development of higher-order knowledge and skills, and realizes the 

transfer of them in new situations or the generation of higher-order of them (Peng & Zhu, 2020). 

According to Bloom‟s classification of learning objectives, deep learning highlights that learners have a 

higher cognitive level, such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the knowledge learned. 

It is necessary to integrate the concept of deep learning into the whole process of College English 

teaching, which is embodied in the following four aspects: 

(1) Deep learning is conducive to students‟ in-depth learning of English. When students encounter new 

situations, they will actively establish connections between new knowledge and old knowledge based 

on their previous understanding of the old one. The construction of new knowledge and complex 

concepts is developed through the transfer and integration of previous knowledge. Deep learning is a 

meaningful learning process. It can improve students‟ ability to solve complicated problems in real 

situations and promote the development of an open and comprehensive knowledge system. 

(2) Deep learning is conducive to students‟ collaborative active learning. By giving full play to their 

initiative, students develop intrinsic learning motivation to carry out autonomous learning. They 

actively search for relevant learning resources, explore their in-depth understanding of English 

knowledge and social and cultural phenomena, and make individualized learning plans to shape and 

improve their own cognition. At the same time, students can expand their knowledge through group 

discussions, joint completion of group tasks and other collaborative learning methods, thus realizing 

the sharing and in-depth exploration of knowledge. 

(3) Deep learning is conducive to the cultivation of higher-order thinking ability. Zhu Kaiqun (2017) 

pointed out that in the adaption to knowledge economy, lifelong learning, information society and 

globalization era, “problem solving, critical thinking, open vision and innovation ability” are 

internationally recognized as higher-order thinking skills in the 21st century. As to some English 

learning unit, students get rid of the superficial understanding of the text, and deeply discuss the social 



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topics or phenomena related to the unit theme based on the comparison of Chinese and Western 

cultures. By analyzing the causes of the phenomenon, students judge whether it is reasonable or 

insufficient, and give a scientific judgment, so as to improve independent thinking ability, help to 

discover new problems, new viewpoints and new rules, and adjust their value orientation and behavior. 

(4) Deep learning is conducive to students‟ positive emotional experience. According to Wu Yongjun 

(2019), while deep learning, students‟ commitment is thorough, which involves all aspects not only 

limited to thinking, but emotions, will, motivation, spirit and even body. By actively participating in 

deep learning, they can try to obtain the sense of satisfaction and achievement in acquiring new 

knowledge, and develop a love of learning as well as the learning attitude of active thinking, in-depth 

inquiry, daring to criticize, and actively creating. This positive emotional experience not only 

influences their exploration of knowledge and understanding of Chinese and Western cultures, but also 

helps to cultivate their positive attitudes and values.  

 

4. New Initiatives of Constructing Deep Learning-oriented College English Blended Gold Course 

Based on the New Liberal Arts  

The construction of the new liberal arts meets the needs of talent training in the new era of China, and 

plays an important role in promoting the reform of College English teaching, which also means that 

College English teaching should serve the national development and cultivate international talents 

having “proficiency in one language with multilingual competence and one specialty with multiple 

capabilities”. Based on the above analysis of the current situation of College English blended teaching 

and the necessity of deep learning, exploring the construction of deep learning-oriented College 

English blended gold course under the background of the new liberal arts requires scientific planning 

and precise measures. The specific new initiatives are as follows: 

(1) Adhere to technology enabling, and create a smart blended teaching environment. Increase 

investment in smart teaching infrastructure as well as the number of smart classrooms. Fully grasp the 

achievements of modern science and technology, such as 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, and 

blockchain, and apply them to the construction of the smart teaching platform for college English. 

Analyze the functions of various existing college English learning applications, develop immersive 

learning modules, and integrate each application to give full play to the concentrated advantages. 

Monitor students‟ learning data, scientifically analyze students‟ cognition based on the monitoring 

results, and automatically push teaching resources tailored to students‟ cognition, so as to promote deep 

learning. Through the application of robot language partner, students can get answers to their learning 

questions. Meanwhile, personalized learning services are provided to stimulate students‟ learning 

motivation and meet their diverse needs. 

(2) Promote the integration of disciplines, and enrich blended teaching resources of College English. 

Based on the teaching themes of College English units, find its connection with students‟ majors, and 



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build a curriculum resources database that can mobilize students‟ learning interest and meet their needs 

for deep learning. Expand the type and quantity of blended teaching resources, which are not only 

limited to videos and animations, but also include China University MOOC, English version of Xuexi 

Qiangguo (an app: Learn more to make your country stronger), CGTN, courseware, exercise base, 

question base and so on. At the same time, blended teaching resources also include self-built 

micro-lecture resources, co-constructed WeChat public platforms, students‟ self-made V-logs, etc. 

These resources aim to take different students‟ learning preferences into account. Besides, they are 

clear in logic and step-by-step, presenting the advancing characteristics, which helps students to carry 

out systematic autonomous learning and promote their in-depth understanding of knowledge. 

(3) Strengthen moral guidance and optimize blended teaching process oriented by deep learning. Moral 

education is carried out throughout the whole process of College English teaching giving full play to its 

educational function, so that students can build up their Chinese confidence and put forward Chinese 

solutions on the basis of understanding Western culture. Therefore, cultural exchanges between China 

and the West are promoted. Task-based language teaching (TBL), production-oriented approach (POA), 

heuristic teaching method and other teaching methods are adopted appropriately. In terms of blended 

teaching under POA, the teacher releases learning tasks through online learning platforms before class. 

Students learn vocabulary and text content on their own to gain a preliminary understanding of the 

main idea. They can expand their knowledge by reading extracurricular learning materials, and present 

online feedback on learning difficulties through preliminary attempts on the unit output task. In class, 

the teacher makes reasonable use of APPs according to the teaching content, and carries out group 

discussions, teacher-student interactions, project-based teaching, etc., so that students can solve the key 

and difficult knowledge in the lexical, syntactic and textual aspects on the basis of mastering the text 

structure. The teacher provides scaffolding to guide students to make in-depth interpretation of the text 

and explore the social and cultural phenomena underlying the text. Attention is given to the 

interconnections among disciplines. Students consult a wide range of materials, engage in active 

thinking, and complete each subtask. After class, students consolidate what they have learned, improve 

the unit output task, and make evaluations through the online platform. Based on what they have 

learned in the unit, the teacher provides major-related online learning resources to further guide them to 

conduct individualized deep learning. 

(4) Realize assessment for learning, and build a multi-dimensional and open curriculum assessment 

system. College English teaching in the context of new liberal arts is not only limited to classroom 

teaching, but also actively develops extracurricular activities related to this course, promotes the 

integrated development of industry, academia and research, and realizes collaborative education inside 

and outside the class, so the evaluation subject is also expanded from the original teachers and students 

to mentors, off-campus institutions, and so on. Combining online and offline assessment, it should 

cover both formative and summative assessment. As to the evaluation index, both students‟ academic 



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performance and their emotions, value orientation and other moral elements should also be taken into 

account. The purpose of the above open and multi-dimensional construction of curriculum assessment 

system is to enable students to identify deficiencies in the learning process through assessment and to 

make continuous improvement in their learning, so as to promote their overall development. 

(5) Advocate the update of concepts, and strengthen the comprehensive professional competencies of 

teachers. In order to create College English gold classes, teachers‟ teaching  quality is very 

important. In the context of the new liberal arts, college English teachers should have noble 

professional ethics and deep love for education. They need to take the initiative to learn and actively 

participate in academic conferences, so that they can constantly update teaching concepts and master 

modern foreign language teaching theories. They need to expand their knowledge, pay attention to its 

connection with other disciplines or industries, and have the comprehensive ability to teach general 

English and English for special purposes (ESP). College English teachers should also master certain 

information technology, be good at using modern teaching tools, and strengthen the ability of 

courseware making, micro-lecture making, resources searching, etc., so as to lay a solid foundation for 

blended teaching. In short, the improvement of teachers‟ teaching research and teaching practice ability 

is a strong guarantee for teachers‟ professional competence. 

 

5. Conclusion 

In the context of the new liberal arts, the construction of deep learning-oriented College English 

blended gold course should adhere to student development as the center, continuously optimize the 

effect of online and offline blended teaching with the help of modern information technology, and 

guide students to carry out deep learning, so that they can solve real-life problems with the help of the 

English language, and realize both language learning and practical application. On the basis of 

promoting their academic quality, students should be educated to keep our country in mind, possess 

international vision and innovative spirits, and realize all-round growth, so that more innovative and 

interdisciplinary talents will be cultivated for society to serve the development of new quality 

productive forces. Since the construction of the new liberal arts is a long-term process, the research 

group also needs to make continuous improvement on interdisciplinary deep learning resources and 

teaching quality, so as to make the course meet the standards of “high level, innovation and challenge” 

and ensure every lecture is a gold lesson. 

 

Funding 

This research was supported by English Teaching Reform Research and Practice Project of Hebei 

Colleges and Universities, 2022, Research on the Construction of Deep Learning-oriented College 

English Blended Gold Course in the Context of New Liberal Arts. Project number: 2022YYJG062. 

 



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Conflicts of Interest 

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper. 

 

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