Needs Analysis Of English Curriculum Development For Preschool Education (English Direction) Major

The growing importance of English language has been highlighted with the informationization of social life and the globalization of economies. In China, English education has been the priority of education in every stage. The phenomenon of teaching English towards younger age students makes preschool English education become a hot topic and one of the focuses in the society. Many kindergartens take English education as an organic component in the whole preschool education. The demand for the preschool English teachers is growing rapidly, so that many normal schools and colleges which have Preschool Education Majors change their traditional educational thoughts into a new viewpoint. That puts the focus on educating preschool English teachers. The new type of Preschool Education Major can be called Preschool Education (English Direction) Major. It is an urgent question that needs solving in the development of proper English curricula for the students in Preschool Education (English Direction) Major.Needs analysis is the essential step in curriculum development and teaching. It plays a vital role in the developing process of a language curriculum. The final aim of needs analysis is to make decisions of the curricula goals and objectives, teaching content, and evaluation to improve the teaching. It is difficult to prevent us from making decisions on the basis of subjective judgments without needs analysis.This research, based on the theory of needs analysis, explores the requirements of the students in Preschool Education (English Direction) Major and the requirements for the preschool English teachers from the employers, thus, exploring their views in order to find out the deficiencies of the English curriculum in Preschool Education (English Direction) Major, and then to provide some suggestions and solutions to such problems. Through the methods of questionnaires and interviews to the students and employers, the following problems are identified: 1) the students'proficiency of English listening and speaking is much worse than that of reading and writing, while the employers have very high requirement to the preschool English teachers for the foundation of English listening and speaking; 2) teaching methods are monotonous and outmoded; teaching content is unpractical; and the quantity of English classes can not satisfy the students'needs; 3) There is extremely significant difference between the students'views and employers'views on mastering vocational skills. The students ignore these skills which are vital and an essential part of in preschool English teaching.In conclusion,on the basis of such major findings and the results drawn from needs analysis, this research provides some implications for the English curriculum development in Preschool Education (English Direction) Major. On the curriculum goals, the students should master not only the specialized knowledge in English language but also the vocational skills; on the teaching content, 1) in the basic English curriculum, specialized knowledge in English language is the emphasis, particular attention should be paid to the English listening and speaking abilities; 2) in the curriculum of vocational skills, the teaching and practice of English songs, rhythms, stories, body language, language emotion and teaching language for children should be emphasized; on the teaching method, diversified teaching methods such as the usage of multimedia should be introduced in the English curriculum in order to arouse the students'interest to the language learning.