College English Teaching (CET) plays an important and basic part in the whole college education system in China and whether it should adopt the quality-centered education or tool-oriented training remains controversial in current Chinese CET practices. After comparing several basic concepts and analyzing the existing problems in Chinese practical CET, the paper finds that contemporary Chinese CET is largely influenced by pragmatism and utilitarianism and has an obvious instrument-driven tendency. The cultivation of humanistic quality, however, is weakened and even ignored intentionally or unintentionally. And it holds CET should give full play to the advantage of the language as well as conduct subtle humanistic education for students to achieve the integration of tool-oriented and quality-centered goal in CET.