CEFContemporary Education Frontiers3029-18793029-1860Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/CEF.v4i6.15454ArticleReassessing the Value of Humanities-Oriented Foreign Language Textbooks in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Conceptualization, Functions, and Future Directionshttps://artdesignp.com/journal/CEF/4/6/10.26689/CEF.v4i6.15454WanZhongyan2026462026-06-26The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the value of foreign language education. Since machines are capable of producing translations, texts, and graded exercises on demand, the skills-training function that has long underpinned foreign language learning textbooks in China is also diminishing, which makes a reassessment of the value of humanities-oriented foreign language textbooks important. Drawing on research on foreign language textbook development and Chinese curricular practice, this paper examines three questions: how such textbooks should be conceptualized, how their forms have evolved, and what distinctive functions they still retain. It argues, first, that humanities-oriented foreign language textbooks are moving beyond the transmission of linguistic knowledge toward the cultivation of meaning and values; and, second, that in the age of generative AI, their core functions are consolidating around four axes—cultivating deep reading and critical thinking, fostering intercultural understanding and cultural self-awareness, supporting value formation and character education, and nurturing both humanistic sensibility and the critical literacy needed to engage with AI. Looking ahead, three developmental directions are identified: human–AI collaboration, open and co-constructed textbook systems, and interdisciplinary content reconstruction under the New Liberal Arts agenda in China. The paper concludes that AI has not weakened humanities-oriented foreign language textbooks but has instead thrown their irreplaceability into sharper relief, and that how well such textbooks are developed will directly shape the educational substance of foreign language education in the age of generative AI in China.Humanities-oriented foreign language textbooks,Generative AI,Humanistic value,Functions,Future directions

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