Coursebook Evaluation Of English For Major Of E-commerce Based On Needs Analysis

With rapid development and popularization of computer and internet technology, great changes have taken place in people’s life. E-commerce which is based on internet technology even changes our traditional consumption patterns. In recent years, English for major of E-commerce as one of the English for special purpose develops continuously under the background of international economics and trades. To cultivate more and more professional talents, the construction of the EC subject, especially English for major of E-commerce teaching materials plays a more and more important role.This thesis attempts to make a systematic evaluation of the coursebook, English for major of E-commerce, on the basis of Hutchinson & Waters’theory of needs analysis and the criteria of materials evaluation of Hutchinson & Waters as well as McDonough & Shaw. The following three questions will be addressed to:(1) What are the learners’needs, that is, what are the learning needs and target needs of the students of E-commerce major?(2) To what extent does the target coursebook meet the students’ target needs and learning needs?(3) To what extent does the target coursebook satisfy the cultivating aims and teaching objectives specified by the Curriculum?The subjects of the study are students whose major is E-commerce. Questionnaires were handed out to 57 EC students of Grade 3 and Grade 4 in Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute to investigate their learning needs and target needs.57 copies of the questionnaires are collected and proved to be effective. An in-depth interview was carried out with two English teachers who are using this coursebook.The results and findings of the study are as follows:1. The purpose of students’studying English for major of E-commerce is to meet the needs of future work and improve their oral English. Most of them are positive learners and they hope there will be more classroom teaching activities such as role-play to improve their communicative competence. At the same time, they hope to read more about business letters and faxes to improve their reading skills, to communicate with the customers face-to-face to improve listening and speaking and to learn more about letter writing and contract translation to improve their writing and translating skills, etc.2. The students are satisfied with the textbook. They think the current textbook can meet their requirements in reading and writing. However, they are not quite satisfied with the textbook in the aspect of listening and speaking. There are few practical activities and exercises for them to improve their listening and speaking skills.3. The limitation of the textbook lies in that too much emphasis is lay on cultivating students’reading and writing skills while neglecting listening and speaking skills, thus fail to meet the needs of the Curriculum Requirements for listening and speaking.