Needs Analysis In Nursing English Of Vocational Medical College

With the development of economy and the carrying out of the open-door policy, more and more international exchanges and cooperation are taking place in every field from science to culture in China. Therefore, special needs for English in each field increase gradually. ESP (English for Specific Purposes) emphasizes definiteness of target, competency-orientation, close combination with profession, which make ESP a unique field in English teaching. The demand for composite talents who have a good command of both nursing and English has burgeoned in recent years in the climate of aging of world population and nursing shortage. Over past few years, some domestic scholars and vocational medical colleges have been making exploration and efforts in nursing English teaching. However, the teaching effect is not very satisfactory. Most graduates are unable to apply what they have learned in English classroom to nursing practice, such as reading professional information and communicating with English speakers. That is caused by many reasons. Among those, lack of complete needs analysis deserves full attention.Nursing English is a branch of ESP. Following the theoretical framework of ESP, needs analysis in nursing English is conducted in this paper. By investigating respectively 102 students of nursing major from Cangzhou Medical College and 15 hospitals all over the country, the paper aims to learn about and analyze both learner's needs and society's needs for nursing English and to find out whether learner's needs are in accordance with society's needs. The research findings show that learner's needs are in accordance with society's needs in most aspects. Both learners and society affirm the importance of nursing English and believe that the present nursing English level can not meet the clinical needs completely. They think that listening and speaking skills need improving quickly and expect the teaching material, teaching model and quality of teachers to be improved. On the other hand, the two sides have different ideas in main usages of nursing English, the most useful skills and teaching emphasis, etc.On the whole, needs analysis provides precise firsthand information and reliable basis for integration of the needs of the two sides, design of syllabus, composition of teaching material, selection of teaching methods, and training of teachers in the future. Meanwhile, it helps to realize and solve the problems existing in nursing English teaching. Therefore, it is significant for perfecting nursing English course and cultivating composite nursing talents.