Abstract：Abstract: As an essential part of the educational system, foreign language education greatly contributes to the development of a nation’s politics, economy, society, culture, etc. This paper reveals by questionnaires that higher foreign language education in China suffers the following 5 major problems: (1) it does not enjoy a high status and receive due attention; (2) it is not closely related to national development strategies; (3) it scarcely meets social needs, (4) higher foreign language education teachers are not fully aware of the importance of foreign language education research, and (5) they by and large neglect national teaching theories. The paper suggests that these problems be resolved by enhancing scientific research on related issues in higher foreign language education, highlighting the importance of research in guiding its development, and manifesting the theoretical as well as practical values of foreign language education studies (FLES) as an independent discipline.
Key words: higher foreign language education; problems; foreign language education studies (FLES)
