Research Of English Course Offering In Business English Major Based On Students Needs Analysis

Business English is one of the most developed branch of English for special purpose (ESP), its course design should be based on needs analysis. The author of this study, who have worked as an English teacher of Business English major in Wuxi Teachers' College for a long time, found that the school did not do needs analysis before offering the English course. This causes many problems on course offering.The study intends to investigate the learning needs of students of Business English major in Wuxi Teachers' College through the application of need analysis by using Maslow's theory of requirement level and the theory of relationship between need analysis and ESP course offering. The author some problems on course offering through the study. For example, there're too many general courses and they cost students too much time, the category of specialized courses is too limited and specialized courses are offered in upper grade, there is also a lack of optional courses and so on. Then the author make some suggestions according to the conclusion of the study and the suggestions of students, such as doing needs analysis before offering the English course, adjusting the proportion of general courses to specialized courses, emphasizing listening and speaking courses, offering optional English courses and creating better campus English culture. The ultimate purpose is to improve the quality of the English teaching and raise the English level of students in Wuxi Teachers' College.The paper includes six parts. Part one presents the backgrounds of the study and definitions of some concepts. Part two is literature review. Part three presents the theoretical basis of the study. Part four presents the investigation on students' learning needs. The author make the investigation through asking students to fill in questionnaires and interviewing students. Part five is the analysis of course offering based on the results of the investigation. The last part, part six, the author presents the implications from the study, and makes several suggestions for the improvement of current situation of English course offering.