3.1 Introduction

The first step toward improving English education is to redesign the curriculum of which literacy is a significant part and to rethink the pedagogy that brings the curriculum to life. For many years, there have been earnest discussions within the English education circle across colleges and universities in China about how to better prepare students to meet the needs and challenges of a vastly expanding economy and a rapidly transforming society. For nonEnglish majors, a prominent issue that is hotly contested is whether College English (i.e., 大学英语 or 公共英语) instruction should focus on English for general purposes (EGP) or English for specific/academic purposes (ESP/EAP) (e.g., 蔡基刚, 2015; 胡开宝、谢丽欣, 2014). For the English major (i.e.,英语专业), a contentious issue concerns its overall mission (e.g., preparing general talents [通识人才] well versed in English literature and Western cultures or language professionals with content expertise [复合型人才]) and accompanying curriculum emphasis (e.g., 蔡基刚，2019; 王巍巍、仲伟合, 2017). At stake in these debates is the future of the English department and the job security of its faculty, as well as the future of its graduates (蔡基刚, 2018).

This chapter contributes to these important debates by focusing on the curriculum and pedagogy for the English major. It suggests that the current predicament in English education reforms cannot be satisfactorily resolved without first reconceptualizing what it means to be literate in English. Specifically, drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), particularly its notion of register, this chapter argues that English literacy — the ability to read and write in the English language — is not a set of generalized language skills that can be applied unproblematically across different contexts, but rather a kind of social and cultural practice that requires both an understanding of how language makes meaning in context and substantive knowledge about the context in which language is used. Based on a discussion of how language varies across different academic disciplines, the chapter then describes a curriculum framework and a pedagogical approach that enable the English department to maintain its identity and integrity as a language education unit on the college campus and at the same time fulfill its core mission of preparing language workers who are equipped with the requisite content knowledge, language skills, and professional disposition to succeed in whichever field they choose to enter upon graduation. Although the chapter focuses on the English major, the discussion is also germane to non-English majors. The basic principles and arguments presented below can be used to inform similar efforts to rethink and revamp College English curriculum and pedagogy for non-English majors.(https://www.daowen.com)