Under the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and the strategic requirements of ideological-political course construction, College English, as a compulsory public basic course with wide coverage and long teaching duration, serves as an important field for ideological and political education in colleges and universities. The outcome-based education (OBE) concept is highly consistent with the guiding ideology of ideological-political courses—student-centered, outcome-based, and continuously improving—and provides strong support for the reform of ideological and political education in College English. This paper first expounds on the compatibility between ideological-political courses and the OBE concept, as well as the significance of ideological and political education in College English. Then it systematically analyzes the practical dilemmas of College English ideological-political courses in four dimensions: objectives, content, teaching mode, and evaluation. Finally, it proposes practical paths for the teaching reform of College English ideological-political courses based on the OBE concept from four aspects: constructing a dual-dimensional objective system, reconstructing teaching content, innovating teaching modes, and reforming the evaluation system. The study aims to solve the problem of “separation between language teaching and ideological guidance” and realize the coordinated cultivation of linguistic competence and ideological-political literacy to fulfill the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education.
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