1 Introduction

The importance of building a strong education system for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is emphasized, and it is pointed out that the "Education Power Construction Plan Outline (2024–2035)" calls for breaking disciplinary barriers, promoting the reorganization of knowledge systems and the construction of the "Four New Disciplines," and reshaping talent cultivation models. Against the backdrop of technological revolution and industrial transformation, higher education is shifting from traditional models to a new paradigm characterized by interdisciplinary integration and innovation-driven approaches. The construction of New Liberal Arts emphasizes the reorganization and deep integration of multidisciplinary knowledge, driving the transformation of humanities and social sciences toward cross-boundary integration and comprehensive innovation to meet the nation's demand for interdisciplinary talent. Interdisciplinary competence, as an advanced comprehensive literacy that integrates multiple knowledge domains and employs diverse methods to solve complex problems, is a critical capability for future talent cultivation. University English education must transcend the boundaries of language courses and assume a new mission of fostering interdisciplinary knowledge integration, cross-cultural understanding, and comprehensive innovation capabilities. This paper aims to construct a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary competence among university students and explores implementation pathways using the textbook *New Liberal Arts College English* as an example, providing theoretical references and practical insights for the interdisciplinary transformation of university English education.

2 The New Goal Orientation of University English Education

The construction of New Liberal Arts drives the transformation of university English education toward interdisciplinary and innovative approaches, cultivating interdisciplinary talent with Chinese perspectives, global vision, interdisciplinary literacy, and social responsibility. The Ministry of Education emphasizes the cultivation of internationally competitive interdisciplinary talent with "one specialty and multiple skills." The *College English Teaching Guidelines (2020 Edition)* propose enhancing students' comprehensive language application skills, critical thinking, and cross-cultural awareness, while emphasizing integration with specialized disciplines. University English education should align with national strategic needs, improving students' cross-cultural communication skills, international dissemination capabilities, and professional English application abilities, strengthening cultural confidence and cross-cultural awareness, and fostering their ability to tell China's stories and amplify China's voice in English. The upgrade of university English courses from general foundational courses to core liberal arts courses facilitates students' acquisition of multidisciplinary knowledge, understanding of diverse civilizations, engagement in cross-cultural comparisons, and enhancement of higher-order thinking skills. University English education under the New Liberal Arts framework encompasses language knowledge, cultural knowledge, and multidisciplinary expertise, emphasizing cognitive-level knowledge integration and highlighting multidimensional literacy cultivation, including metacognition, collaboration, and ethical awareness. Through interdisciplinary knowledge learning, language application is situated in interdisciplinary practical contexts, guiding students to form high-level cognitive structures and innovation capabilities, laying the foundation for cultivating interdisciplinary talent. Through systematic study of university English courses, students develop comprehensive literacy that transcends disciplinary boundaries, integrates knowledge and methodologies from multiple fields, solves complex problems, and generates new knowledge. They uphold Chinese cultural traditions in cross-cultural contexts and international interactions, deeply understand China's path, theories, and systems, express China's stance, wisdom, and solutions, and effectively tell China's stories.

3 The Conceptual Framework for Cultivating Interdisciplinary Competence in University English Education

Interdisciplinary competence is an individual's comprehensive literacy to identify problems, integrate evidence, and produce meaningful outcomes across different knowledge domains, involving metacognitive ability, critical thinking, teamwork, and perspective-taking skills. In foreign language learning contexts, interdisciplinary competence emphasizes the three-dimensional integration of language, discipline, and culture. University English education should restructure its curriculum to achieve the synergistic development of language proficiency and disciplinary knowledge, systematically constructing cognitive, value-based, social, and instrumental support systems for interdisciplinary competence cultivation.

Knowledge integration is the cognitive foundation of interdisciplinary competence cultivation, referring to learners' ability to identify theoretical frameworks and thinking paradigms across disciplines, reconstruct multidisciplinary knowledge systems, and form systematic cognitive structures. Problem-solving is the key objective of interdisciplinary competence cultivation, referring to learners' comprehensive practical ability to analyze and solve complex problems using interdisciplinary knowledge and methods. Cultural negotiation is the value core of interdisciplinary competence cultivation, referring to learners' ability to transcend cultural, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries, understand differences, integrate perspectives, mediate conflicts, and construct consensus in multicultural contexts. Technological application is the conditional support for interdisciplinary competence cultivation, emphasizing the deep integration of modern digital tools with critical thinking and value rationality to adapt to the new norm of multidisciplinary smart learning.

The cultivation of interdisciplinary competence is a spiraling process from cognitive integration to value judgment, then to cultural negotiation and technological practice, involving a comprehensive system of multidimensional features such as knowledge, skills, literacy, and values. These dimensions are interwoven and function as an interconnected system.

4 Implementation Pathways for Cultivating Interdisciplinary Competence in University English Education

The pathways for cultivating interdisciplinary competence in university English education are explored, emphasizing that its formation is a generative process involving cognitive, competency, value, and technological factors. University English education should position language learning as a medium for knowledge integration, a tool for problem-solving, a platform for cultural negotiation, and a driver of technological innovation. By reinforcing cognitive foundations through knowledge fusion, shaping value orientations through cultural negotiation, strengthening action capabilities through problem-based approaches, and expanding learning boundaries through technological empowerment, students' knowledge reconstruction, cognitive leaps, and cultural dissemination capabilities are enhanced.

The textbook *New Liberal Arts College English*, based on the New Liberal Arts construction philosophy, strengthens the intersection of language, culture, technology, and multidisciplinary topics. Centered on the core task of "telling China's stories well," it features interdisciplinary themes covering language and cognition, cultural heritage preservation, social governance, technological archaeology, circular economy, digital media, artistic innovation, and mutual learning among civilizations. Through task-driven and problem-based learning approaches, it provides students with opportunities to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge and engage in interdisciplinary practices in authentic contexts, constructing a new model of university English education characterized by "language as the foundation, disciplines as the wings, technology as the medium, and culture as the soul."

Knowledge fusion is the starting point and foundation of interdisciplinary competence cultivation. University English courses need to build bridges for understanding and applying disciplinary knowledge, using multidisciplinary knowledge integration to deepen language learning. *New Liberal Arts College English* promotes knowledge fusion through structured interdisciplinary thematic units, following a learning path of "Unlocking the topic—Viewing to know—Reading to explore—Telling China’s stories" to guide students in exploring interdisciplinary topics.

Practice orientation is the key link and practical hub of interdisciplinary competence cultivation, focusing on real-world tasks and problem-based scenarios to enable students to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge in language use and develop action-oriented capabilities for complex realities. Interdisciplinary problems often exhibit complexity and openness, requiring the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and multiple values for systematic thinking. Given that problem-driven project-based learning is an important pathway to enhancing interdisciplinary practical abilities, university English education should bridge language use and practical action, transforming language learning into a process of solving real-world problems.

Cultural interaction is the humanistic core of interdisciplinary competence cultivation, extending beyond language teaching to serve as a vital pathway for idea exchange and value co-construction in multicultural contexts. In the new era, university English education must contribute to the nation's international communication capacity building, helping students tell China's stories well in English. Under this orientation, university English education, as a cultural mediator, should employ contextualized, problem-based, and task-based instructional designs to guide students in developing the ability to understand differences, respect diversity, and co-construct meaning in cross-cultural discussions.

Technological empowerment is the practical support and innovation engine for interdisciplinary competence cultivation, serving as the key to its sustainable development. University English education can establish smart learning ecosystems to achieve deep integration of language learning and interdisciplinary expansion, while leveraging artificial intelligence and learning analytics to visualize learning processes and provide personalized guidance. *New Liberal Arts College English* relies on the U Campus Smart Teaching Cloud Platform AI Edition to construct a "teacher-student-machine" tripartite collaborative ecosystem, enabling simultaneous progress in digital learning, learning analytics, and personalized feedback.

5 Conclusion

The paper highlights the goal reorientation of university English education under the New Liberal Arts framework, proposes a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary competence cultivation, and explores its implementation pathways. The framework, centered on knowledge integration, problem-solving, cultural negotiation, and technological application, aims to cultivate students' ability to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge, solve complex problems, and enhance cultural dissemination and innovation capabilities to meet the demands of building a strong education system. It also notes that the perspectives in this paper are based on literature review and textbook analysis, lacking empirical data support, and that the conceptual framework requires further validation and refinement in teaching practice. Future research could explore these themes through classroom practice or multi-case comparisons.