Needs Analysis Of English Undergraduates

Needs analysis is the premise of all foreign language teaching activities. Only after wehave made objective needs analysis, we can set up right goals, make appropriate teachingpolicies and develop proper curricula, so as to cultivate foreign language talents who canmeet social needs.Based on Dudley-Evans and St. John’s needs analysis model, this thesis makes arelative objective and thorough analysis of English undergraduates’ needs by triangulatedsources (students, teachers, employees) and multiple methods (questionnaire, interview andonline sources). The questionnaire survey of junior English major students in SISU andANSTU offers us students’ background information, learning needs, language proficiencyand learning strategies; online recruitment advertisements of English undergraduates fromJune to August in2012shed light on social needs of English talents; the interviews ofteachers from the above two universities provide more supplementary information aboutstudents’ language proficiency, curricula, teaching materials, teaching methods and schoolsources. The needs analysis reveals the following problems of current Englishundergraduates’ cultivation: the practicality and interestingness of curricula and teachingmaterials can’t fulfill students’ desire; students are weak in language production abilitiessuch as speaking and writing; knowledge of other disciplines are not sufficient; studentslack initiative in learning.On basis of the results, the author addresses several suggestions on curriculumdevelopment, stereoscopic teaching material exploration and assessment systemoptimization. First, add more ESP courses, open cross-disciplinary selective courses, andenrich extracurricular activities to improve students’ language abilities and comprehensivequalities in a relaxing environment. Second, enhance the construction of stereoscopicteaching material to diversify forms and contents of teaching materials; third, build arelatively perfect assessment system including in-class assessment, after-class assessment,and test.