Needs Analysis Of Occupational English In Higher Vocational Education

Nowadays, the teaching mode of general English, in the most of vocational highereducation colleges, is English for General Purposes. That is the Comprehensive Englishwhich brings listening, speaking, reading, writing, translating together. The content ofthe teaching materials put emphasis on literature and history, lacking practicability andoccupationality. This kind of English teaching mode is divorced from reality andpractical situation of English learning. It neither meets the social needs or the students’needs. According to the English curriculum teaching requirements of higher vocationaleducation issued by National Education Committee in2000, English curriculum shouldnot only help students lay a foundation of language knowledge but also focus oncultivate the ability of using language. English language teaching is mainly includedEGP (English for General Purposes) teaching and ESP (English for Special Purposes)teaching. The former puts emphasis on cultivate students’ language ability, while thelatter stresses on foster students’ vocational communicative ability. Therefore, in orderto raise the efficiency of the general English teaching, it is necessary to introduce ESPteaching mode into the general English teaching. Under this background, more andmore higher vocational education colleges offer Occupational English course to meetthe needs of society and students.Occupational English is a branch of ESP, so the research on it should follow thegeneral theoretical framework of ESP. Needs analysis is the most important part of ESP,so the author will focus on it. This paper intends to examine whether the subjectiveneeds recognized by students are in line with the objective needs held by curriculumdesigner through analyzing students’ needs by questionnaire and interviews, in order toimprove the efficiency of Occupational English course.The findings of questionnaire and interview display that the subjective needsrecognized by students are not in keeping with the objective needs held by coursedesigner. The difference between these two needs lies in the aspects of target situation,course arrangement and learning needs, which indicate the direction for futureimprovement. According to the actual teaching situations of Occupational Englishcourse and the findings of the questionnaire and interviews, the author summarizes theproblems and proposes some suggestions for teaching and learning.