Author(s)

Jiayue Wei

Corresponding Author

Jiayue Wei

Abstract

This study takes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the theoretical framework, combining with corpus linguistics methods, to conduct a systematic comparative study on the elements of national consciousness in 11 core foreign language education policy texts of China and the United States. The study constructs policy corpora for both countries, and based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework (description of text - interpretation of discursive practice - explanation of social practice) and Wang Zhen’s "three-dimensional structure of national consciousness" (national cognition - national identity - national responsibility), it analyzes the differences in discursive representation of national consciousness elements and their social contextual driving factors from the lexical, sentential, and textual levels. The results show that: U.S. foreign language education policy constructs an "instrumental-exclusive" national consciousness discourse centered on "national security and global competition", with its key words centering on "security", "military", and "competition", reflecting the needs of hegemonic strategy and global capital expansion; China, on the other hand, forms an "educational-inclusive" national consciousness discourse focused on "cultural inheritance and international exchange", with key words focusing on "culture", "development", and "core literacy", reflecting the orientation of peaceful development and high-quality development. Both countries recognize the national strategic value of foreign language education, but their functional orientations are significantly different. This study fills the research gap in the national consciousness dimension in existing comparisons of Sino-U.S. foreign language education policies and provides a new perspective for understanding the interactive relationship between educational policies and national consciousness.

Keywords

Foreign Language Education Policy; National Consciousness; Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); Sino-U.S. Comparison; Corpus Linguistics