Abstract:

Inspired by the concept of “key language” abroad and driven by the trend of “telling good Chinese stories”, “national language ability” has become a hot topic in linguistic research in China in recent years. However, a series of fundamental questions, including what constitutes national language ability, and why and for what national language ability is studied, still need to be reconsidered. Language ability is the ability of human subjects to create and use language symbols for communication and cognitive needs. There are at least three kinds of the “subjects” of modern language ability: individuals, populations and institutions. A country is essentially an “institution” that is “artificially established based on certain principle”. National language ability is the ability of a country to ensure its own development through language. Consisting of the ability to “govern language” and the ability to “govern based on language”, it is an important component of national governance ability. Goal setting determines problem discovery, and problem selection determines method design. The fundamental goal of the study of “national language ability” should be to use language and linguistic research to promote the internal governance of a country, its participation in global governance, and then the harmonious development of the whole society, and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. Without an awareness of such fundamental goal, the study of national language ability will easily go astray. Therefore, we need to discover what the problems are in the country’s language mobilization ability, language institutional governance ability, language behavior employment ability, and language knowledge production capacity, and how to solve them. Furthermore, it is necessary to recognize that the top priority in building national language ability is to build an authentic and unprecedented learning-oriented country.

Key words: national language ability, language mobilization ability, institutional governance ability, behavior employment ability, knowledge production capacity, a learning-oriented country