Mother tongue proficiency is the foundation of foreign language acquisition, and it conditions the improvement of foreign language proficiency as well. Normally, a learner of a foreign language must, first of all, have a good command of his mother tongue before he can really learn the foreign language well. The so-called "starting line" is not the key factor in foreign language learning. Adequate attention must be given to the fact that irrational "foreign-language craze" and "mother-tongue apathy" co-exist in China and they are inter-related. Appropriate duration and scope should be sought in foreign language education while the "dislocation" of mother tongue education must be rectified.