Needs Analysis For Curriculum Development Of Graduate English In Central South University

Postgraduate English teaching is confronted with various challenges. Rapid social and economic development imposes higher requirements upon postgraduates who are judged not only by his or her professional knowledge but by English proficiency in many cases. In the new century, postgraduates are required to be able to use English to efficiently gather needed information and participate in international exchange and cooperation. Higher requirements of English proficiency, enlarging enrollment of postgraduates and shortening of study time combined pose a great challenge for postgraduate English teaching. In addition, Curriculum for Non-English Major Postgraduate English issued in 1992 can't keep pace with present postgraduate English teaching in China. Furthermore, it is a fact that each university has its own characteristics of students'quality, teaching staff and educational facilities. Therefore, it is unadvisable to confine all of us to only one curriculum which even turns out to be outdated to some extent.Needs analysis, an indispensable element of curriculum development, accounts for providing reliable sources for decision-making in other elements of curriculum development, such as setting objectives, designing syllabus, choosing materials, teaching and evaluating. Without needs analysis, it would be difficult to prevent us from making decisions on the basis of subjective judgments. On the basis of conducting needs analysis among postgraduates in Central South University, this study makes great attempts to probe into the target and learning needs of postgraduates in CSU. The findings of this needs analysis will shed light on the various elements of graduate English curriculum design (goals, materials, course arrangement, teaching and evaluation). In this research, learners or postgraduates who are studying serve as the major part of needs analysis. The subjects involved in this needs analysis are mainly composed of 115 postgraduates from different colleges and departments in CSU. Both questionnaires and interviews are adopted to investigate their target needs and learning needs on graduate English. In addition,10 employed postgraduates who have graduated from CSU are invited to receive interviews which serve as a research support to identify target needs of graduate English.The main findings of this research are as follows:first, the majority of postgraduates, who are learning within school, consider listening and speaking skills to be the most needed language skills. However, employed graduates hold that reading skill is most important in actual work. This study suggests that reading skills remain to be prioritized. Graduate English teaching shouldn't develop students'communicative skills at the cost of further enhancing their reading abilities. But this doesn't mean that communicative skills, which are assuming greater and greater importance with the rapid advancing of our economy and society, can be put aside. The point is that we should reflect on in which way and to what extent, postgraduates'listening and speaking will be enhanced. These decisions should be based on scientific needs analysis. Second, postgraduates should have more access to communicative activities and language environment to practice listening and speaking skills, especially the latter. This study suggests that the reason why postgraduates'skills of oral communication lag behind reading skills is that they have limited opportunities to practice listening and speaking. Third, postgraduates' awareness of autonomous learning has improved dramatically. More attention needs to be paid to how to translate such awareness into concrete and effective language learning activities. On the basis of such major findings and results drawn from needs analysis, this study makes great attempts to provide implications on curriculum design of graduate English in CSU.