1. Introduction

Under the background of the new liberal arts, foreign language disciplines in universities have diverse innovative practices and explored multiple development paths. From May 2019 to September 2022, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) has published over a hundred academic analyses discussing the history, philosophy, and future of the construction of new liberal arts. This article aims to explore three major issues: foreign language teacher research, student development, and subject discourse construction. Technology empowers foreign language education in distance education, academic fields, and methods, while talent cultivation focuses on multilingual, interdisciplinary, and regional national abilities, aiming to cultivate international composite talents. The goal of the construction of new liberal arts is to transcend the dependence on objects, form an attractive academic ideological system, and achieve coexistence and resonance between oneself and others, one's own country and other countries, and Chinese civilization and world civilization.

2. Three levels of foreign language and new liberal arts construction

In the context of the new liberal arts, the innovative practice and academic reflection of foreign language disciplines mainly revolve around three levels: technological integration, talent cultivation, and discourse innovation. In terms of technological integration, new technologies such as virtual simulation and machine translation have had a profound impact on foreign language education, promoting the massive amount of teaching resources and the diversification of learning environments. Open distance education resources such as MOOCs provide learners with ubiquitous, balanced, and specialized course resources. Technological empowerment has also expanded academic fields and innovative research methods, promoting the development of various disciplines under the first level discipline of foreign language and literature. The transformation and upgrading of the knowledge and ability structure of translation researchers, coupled with the technological empowerment of translation studies and interdisciplinary collaboration, have given rise to numerous research branches. Corpus technology has changed the cognition of translation research objects and expanded the scope of research objects.

3. Reflection: Humanism, Ontology, and Inclusiveness

In the context of the new liberal arts, significant achievements have been made in the innovative practice of foreign language disciplines, but academic competition continues. The humanistic nature of foreign language disciplines is challenged by technological integration. Although there are cultural differences between humanities intellectuals and scientists, traditional humanities are still indispensable in literary interpretation and the improvement of humanistic literacy. The international composite talent cultivation model faces the problem of unclear disciplinary attributes and blurred boundaries, and there is controversy between foreign language majors and majors such as finance and trade in cultivating composite talents. The pursuit of Chinese discourse should avoid falling into narrow nationalism and be coordinated with the pursuit of humanity and values, promoting global governance and enhancing international affinity.

4. Conclusion

Under the background of the new liberal arts, foreign language disciplines face the challenge of balancing technological empowerment and humanistic attributes, and need to rationally examine the application of technology. The cultivation of international composite talents needs to respond to changes in the international situation while avoiding disciplinary crises, and a high standard selection and elimination mechanism should be established. The pursuit of subjectivity in Chinese discourse should avoid narrow nationalism, and foreign language disciplines should seek a balance between cultural input and output, helping the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation while pursuing the goal of a community with a shared future for mankind. The innovative practice of foreign language subject needs to achieve dual pursuit in a two-way constraint.