1 Introduction

This section discusses the importance of college English education in enhancing national soft power amid changes in the international communication landscape, emphasizing the necessity of cultivating students' ability to engage in foreign discourse. It introduces the release of the Understanding Contemporary China College English Comprehensive Coursebook, which aims to integrate resources through textbook fusion to improve students' intercultural communication skills and international communication literacy. It also highlights the issue of limited class hours in college English teaching and shares exploration experiences from some institutions in textbook integration. Finally, the article examines four strategies—thematic fusion, skill fusion, task fusion, and distinctive fusion—using Understanding and New College English as examples, providing practical directions for college English teaching reform and the cultivation of international communication talents.

2 Integration Strategies

This chapter explores four strategies for integrating college English textbooks: thematic fusion, skill fusion, task fusion, and distinctive fusion. Thematic fusion involves combining units with similar themes from two sets of textbooks to design content-driven teaching tasks, enhancing students' language skills and intercultural understanding. Skill fusion focuses on selecting core language skills from both textbooks to design teaching activities, facilitating skill transfer and competency improvement. Task fusion organically integrates comprehensive tasks from units in both textbooks, designing engaging and contemporary high-level output tasks to achieve deep integration of language proficiency, cultural awareness, and value guidance. Distinctive fusion tailors content selection based on institutional strengths, curriculum design, and talent cultivation goals, ensuring alignment with local needs and educational objectives. These integration strategies help enhance students' comprehensive language abilities, critical thinking skills, and international communication literacy, achieving the teaching goal of understanding China and engaging with the world.

3 Conclusion

This section emphasizes the educational mission of college English courses in the new era, including imparting language knowledge, fostering intercultural communication skills, critical thinking, and international communication abilities. Using the integration of Understanding and New College English as an example, the article explores four integration approaches—thematic fusion, skill fusion, task fusion, and distinctive fusion—and analyzes their positive roles in strengthening ideological education, expanding teaching depth, and improving students' comprehensive abilities. It also notes that integration strategies should be applied holistically, considering factors such as textbook systems, students' language proficiency, and curriculum design, to enhance teaching effectiveness. Challenges such as class scheduling and content coherence remain in textbook integration and require continuous optimization in practice. In the future, college English courses should continue exploring diverse integration models to maximize teaching resources and cultivate high-quality interdisciplinary talents with both national pride and a global perspective.