Commencing over 60  years ago ，foreign language teaching  as a  specialty  education  is currently  a  discipline with the largest enrolment of undergraduate students in China．  The present paper begins with a general survey of the changing discipli- nary  orientations in foreign language teaching over the  past  years ，then  explicates  the  establishment  of  the  dual － track  mode  of foreign language education ，necessitates the correction of  several erroneous conceptions and policies when implementing the dual  － track mode ，examines the disciplinary planning for the foreign language specialty ，and finally elucidates the principles to follow and the problems to avoid when employing the dual － track mode．