A Need Analysis On The Curriculum Design For Chinese Major Of The Public Universities In Thailand

Learning Chinese has become a hot issue all over the world, and the Chinese teaching in Thailand has developed rapidly. People have attached more and more attention to the importance of Chinese. More Chinese courses are designed for Thai students in many universities. The main issue of the Chinese teaching is course design, while the needs analysis is the first step in course design, consequently a good analysis can help to solve teaching problems. A thorough needs analysis helps people to define problems in language teaching in order to suggest changes and improve quality of courses.Based on the theories of Hutchison &Waters' needs analysis framework, this study aims to survey the college students of Chinese majors in Thailand with interviews and questionnaires. The subjects were 232 undergraduates from three public universities in southern Thailand. This study aims to investigate the main issues in the course design, such as material, teaching methodology and evaluation through questionnaires and interviews. It is hoped that the result can tell whether the above links applied in practical pedagogy can satisfy the learners' needs.Based on the above-mentioned research,some practical problems have been identified and the nature and the task of Chinese courses are reconsidered. 1. Most of students held positive attitudes towards Chinese learning for good job prospects; 2. The dull contents and monotonous pattern of materials cannot stimulate the students' learning interest;3. The single methodology results in a dull atmosphere in classroom; 4. The validity of evaluation is poor, and some language skills are ignored. After analyzing these problems, this study provides feasible basics for the solution: 1. Teaching materials must be strengthened to help students improve their Chinese language learning skills; 2. To get more students involved in class participation, student- centered learning should be integrated into the curriculum.; 3. To better meet the diverse learning needs of students, the course structure system should be designed and adjusted, and there should be a more open elective course.The research result concluded from the case study on Chinese Major Course design at Thai public universities can be used to improve the inefficiency of the actual teaching. Furthermore it could provide a valuable reference to the similar colleges in Thailand which can take advantage of this analysis.