1　Introduction

This section outlines the developmental trajectory of the *Senior High School English Curriculum Standards* from the 2017 edition to the 2025 revised edition, noting that current senior high school English education reform has entered the "classroom deepening" stage, with the core demand being the transformation of core competencies from conceptual ideals into tangible student gains. Addressing three prominent issues in teaching—insufficient student agency, superficial learning processes, and the separation of learning from application—it proposes constructing a "problem-solving-oriented new ecosystem for English disciplinary practice-based education." This framework takes core competency cultivation as its goal, problem-solving as its driver, the English Learning Activity Approach and interdisciplinary project-based learning as its dual-track pathways, and "teaching-learning-assessment" integration as its guarantee, responding to three critical issues: classroom transformation, authentic context connection, and competency-based assessment.

2　Theoretical Foundations

This section elaborates on the theoretical sources and integration mechanisms of the "problem-solving-oriented new ecosystem for English disciplinary practice-based education": unit-based holistic teaching serves as the overall framework, with the English Learning Activity Approach and interdisciplinary project-based learning forming a "dual-track synergy" for classroom implementation, achieving closed-loop assurance through "teaching-learning-assessment" integration; its epistemological foundation lies in constructivism and problem-based learning (PBL), its methodological orientation draws from Dewey's "learning by doing" philosophy, ultimately transforming the English classroom into a social practice field where competency growth is achieved through solving authentic problems.

3　Defining the Connotation of "Problem-Solving-Oriented New Ecosystem for English Disciplinary Practice-Based Education"

This section defines the core connotation of the "problem-solving-oriented new ecosystem for English disciplinary practice-based education," constructing a dynamic synergistic system with core competency cultivation as its goal, unit-based holistic teaching as its framework, "problem-solving" as its driver, the "English Learning Activity Approach" and "interdisciplinary project-based learning" as its dual engines, and "teaching-learning-assessment" integration as its guarantee. This framework encompasses two types of progressive and complementary problems: "thematic inquiry questions" within the classroom provide cognitive and methodological reserves, while "authentic life-driven questions" under the unit grant practical momentum. Drawing on educational ecology, it emphasizes the synergistic interaction among students, teachers, curriculum content, and assessment mechanisms, with the teacher's role transforming into that of learning designer and competency assessor. The "new" in "new ecosystem" manifests in three fundamental shifts: the return of agency, integrated synergy, and competency orientation—three layers that progress sequentially to constitute a complete picture.

4　Implementation Pathway: "Dual-Track Synergy, Internal-External Linkage" Strategy

This section proposes a "dual-track synergy, internal-external linkage" strategy to ensure problem-solving permeates the entire English learning process. The first track relies on the English Learning Activity Approach to construct an "in-classroom cognitive advancement pathway," with hierarchical inquiry question chains at its core, guiding students to deepen cognition through three-level activities of "learning and understanding, application and practice, and transfer and innovation." Taking the biographical text of Lin Qiaozhi as an example, the question chain progresses from information organization to situational simulation to value judgment, achieving spiraling cognitive ascent, while emphasizing unit themes as the overarching framework, forming structured cognition through progressive multi-text learning. The second track relies on interdisciplinary project-based learning to construct an "in-class and out-of-class integrated practice pathway," with authentic driving questions derived from unit themes at its core, through creating interdisciplinary contexts, granting students social practitioner identities, and experiencing complete project processes, enabling students to experience the dual instrumental and humanistic values of language through "doing." The two pathways mutually support and dynamically cycle: the classroom provides cognitive reserves for practice, while practice provides deep experience for the classroom, forming a cycling mechanism of "cognitive foundation—practical application—reflective deepening—cognitive upgrading," creating transcendent space for students from classroom cognitive systems to social practice systems, and promoting continuous competency development.

5　Guarantee Mechanism: "Teaching-Learning-Assessment" Integration Evidence-Oriented System

This section constructs a "teaching-learning-assessment" integration evidence-oriented system as the guarantee mechanism for the new ecosystem of English disciplinary practice-based education, comprising three key links. First, designing observable competency goals provides a common measure for "teaching" and "assessment," with goals needing to demonstrate integration (language-theme fusion), progression (from personal expression to social interaction), and evaluability (clear context, behavior, and standards). Second, designing "evidence-oriented" learning activities to continuously collect "competency evidence": effective evidence should possess situational, processual, comprehensive, and performative characteristics; under the "dual-track synergy" framework, the in-classroom cognitive advancement pathway runs through pre-class diagnosis, in-class formative assessment, and post-class processual evidence accumulation, while the in-class and out-of-class integrated practice pathway relies on project-based learning to collect performative evidence, supplemented by unit comprehensive testing for overall diagnosis, with tests requiring innovative proposition methods and designed problem-solving task chains. Third, strengthening assessment feedback and improvement functions, embedding Hattie & Timperley's feedback model into the dual-track synergy dynamic cycle, with teachers making precise diagnoses based on evidence and dynamically adjusting teaching, guiding students in self-assessment and peer assessment to cultivate reflective habits, ultimately forming a "goal—activity—assessment—improvement" closed loop, transforming core competencies into visible, assessable, and verifiable student growth performance.

6　Conclusion

This study constructs the "problem-solving-oriented new ecosystem for English disciplinary practice-based education" framework, with core contributions including: responding to curriculum standard implementation demands, forming a complete chain for competency-based education; breaking the separation between cognition and practice, discipline and life through "dual-track synergy"; distinguishing inquiry questions from driving questions, revealing the mechanism of competency growth. At the practical level, with unit-based holistic teaching as the framework, it provides operational strategies for activity approach-driven classrooms, project-based learning for practice expansion, and "teaching-learning-assessment" integration for quality assurance. Future work needs to collect dual-track synergy cases to validate framework effectiveness, promote proposition reform, and make the English classroom a practice field where students solve problems.