A Needs-analysis Approach To Postgraduate English Curriculum Design In Chinese Agriculture And Forestry Universities

Shandong Agricultural University is centered in agriculture and forestry disciplines. Inorder to investigate the curriculum design for postgraduate English in Agriculture andForestry Colleges, this paper makes great attempts to probe into the target needs and learningneeds of English in SDAU. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods wereemployed in the survey. On the one hand, in-depth individual interview and large-scalestructured questionnaire were used to investigate the learning needs of non-English majorpostgraduates in SDAU. On the other hand, in order to identify target needs of postgraduateEnglish, job advertisements of enterprises together with some documents on English teachingwere analyzed. Then questionnaire for enterprises related to agriculture and forest inShandong Province had been conducted. In addition, ten employed postgraduates graduatedfrom SDAU were interviewed.The major findings of this research are as follows: first, students have complex startinglevels and unevenly developed language skills. Second, students have a high expectation oftheir English learning in postgraduate stage. They expect postgraduate English teaching canconnect with the actual situations in an attempt to elevate their abilities of English application,especially the listening and speaking skills. Third, in terms of target needs, enterprises withdifferent properties have different requirements to the employees’ English level; reading skillis used most in actual work context; all the employers think that postgraduate Englishteaching should enhance postgraduates’ applied abilities of English and support theirprofessional studies.The final conclusion of this study is that the current English curriculum design forpostgraduate in SDAU can not satisfy the needs of students and workplace completely. Thenew curriculum design must be built on scientific needs analysis to connect teaching contentwith practical and professional requirements of postgraduate English. It is preferable to joinlanguage learning to specialty study, which can elevate students’ real abilities of English useand promote their professional development. So it’s necessary to have diversified electivecourses to meet the various needs of both different students and different enterprises.Meanwhile, it is urgent to have ESP courses related to agriculture and forestry.On the basis of such major findings and results, this paper makes attempts to develop anEnglish curriculum design and implementing model for postgraduate English teaching inSDAU, hoping to offer implications on curriculum design of postgraduate English in Agriculture and Forestry Colleges and offer suggestions on personalized teaching reform ofpostgraduate English.