一外语教育的社会功能为什么要学习外语史密斯先生决定要去日本了,他最先考虑到的准备工作之一便是,“我应该学些日语了。”这与田中先生去美国之前,首先会想到学习英语一样。一般说来,当我们预计到要与外国人发生交流的问题时,首先想到的是语言的学习。但是,外语教育真的能为我们解决与外国人交流的问题吗?在作出回答之前,我们不妨先来仔细观察一下外语教育的现状。现代社会中,正在学习外语的有几千万,乃至几亿人之多。他们为什么要学习外语呢?外语教育的主要作用确实在于帮助人们实现国际性的交际,然而,如果大多数学习者真是为了这一目标而努力不懈的话,那 A social function of foreign language education Why learn a foreign language Mr. Smith decided to go to Japan, one of his first preparations for consideration is that “I should learn Japanese.” This is Mr. Tanaka went to the United States, the first will Think of learning English. In general, when we anticipate the issue of communication with foreigners, the first thing we come to think of is language learning. However, can foreign language education really solve the problem of communicating with foreigners? Before answering, we may wish to look closely at the current situation of foreign language education. In modern society, tens of millions of people are learning foreign languages, and even hundreds of millions of people. Why do they learn a foreign language? The main function of foreign language education is indeed to help people to achieve international communication, however, if most learners really strive for this goal and hard words, then