Abstract: The talent training goal of foreign language and literature majors in application-oriented institutes is to cultivate applied foreign language talents with physical and mental health, morality, solid foreign language knowledge and better practical abilities to meet the need of local economical development. Reasonable and scientific curriculum design of general education is the basic way of achieving such a goal. General education curriculum is the essential part of the curriculum system of foreign language and literature majors, which aims to promote students' comprehensive abilities and qualities. How to design general education curriculum scientifically and reasonably is the key guarantee to realize the talent training goal of foreign language and literature majors.

Key words: application-oriented institutes, foreign language and literature majors, general education curriculum design