Аннотация:Abstract: University teachers of humanities will probably agree that there are fundamental questions which normally lie dormant in periods of social and academic stability, but in turbulent times rise from some deeper layers of consciousness and start demanding answers or at least some attention. This seems particularly true for teachers of languages to students of non-linguistic specialities as the issues of existential character are not normally included in their syllabus. We seek to define three of the possible approaches to foreign language teaching and assess their value in the current academic and social environment with particular regard to students of economics and management. The approaches are described as pragmatic, philosophic and what can here be called Alexandrian, to avoid the term post-modern. The choice of the approach depends on whether the faculty deem it necessary to use language training for the purpose of raising students’ cultural and ethical or even moral awareness, thus becoming part of a broader issue of humanizing higher education. An attempt is made to show that in most cases students best respond to the approach here called Alexandrian, in the sense that it uses elements of literature, art and philosophy in order to build behavioral models to be discussed as well as generate novel insights into the experience they have already acquired.