Author(s)

Xiao Wei

Corresponding Author

Xiao Wei

Abstract

According to the “National Standard” and the “Guidelines”, humanistic education for English Majors is the foundation of comprehensive education. Reading English classics is an effective way to improve humanistic literacy of English majors. By means of data collecting on reading preference of English sophomores of Wuhan University of Technology, results demonstrate that only few students prefer English literary classics. After analyzing the reasons, this article comes up with three processes in the cultivation of humanistic literacy——humanistic awareness, humanistic adaption, and humanistic aptitude. Meanwhile, corresponding teaching approaches and suggestions are proposed in each process under the guidance of cognitive linguistics to improve English majors’ humanistic literacy through classic reading.

Keywords

Humanistic literacy, Cognitive linguistics, English classics, English majors