Analyzing College Students’ Needs In English Courses For Specific Purposes:

Since 1982, China’s college English education has experienced three phases of reform, in which teaching contents, methods and teacher’s beliefs have been greatly updated and improved, as well as the teaching conditions and environment. Now with the advent of economic globalization, integration of science and technology, and cultural diversity, the phase Ⅲ reform is centered on the transformation of curriculum mode, which aims at cultivating college students’ integrative capabilities to use English. Under this circumstance, it is highly important for college English to take reform and shift the focus from the teaching of general English to the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).At the tertiary level, ESP generally refers to English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which can be subcategorized as English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP). EGAP focuses on the common core elements of different subjects, whereas ESAP or subject-specific English is the language required for a particular academic subject.An ESP course should be based on the needs assessment of the students and the identification and analysis of students’ needs is the basis of ESP course design, materials development, teaching and testing issues. Students’ needs vary among different levels of proficiency, grades and majors. If students’ needs in ESP courses can be accurately specified, then this specification can be used to determine the content of language teaching that will better meet these needs. It is based on this assertion that the study embarks on analyzing the English learning needs in ESP courses of non-English major students in a multiversity university in the west of China.This study makes a thorough literature review to explore the research and development situation of ESP courses. On this basis, this study analyzes the ESP learning needs of non-English major students in Southwest University (SWU) with a multi-method of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The selected participants involved in the study are 228 non-English major students from 24 departments and colleges at SWU during the 2014-2015 academic year. Their current levels of English proficiency, specific learning needs in four macroskills, and the perceptions of ESP instruction are investigated through questionnaire. Their instructors’ views are also investigated by interviews for the sake of triangulation. The analysis of the current situation reveals that learning ESP courses is necessary for students’current studies and future careers or academic research. Most of the students report their lacks in speaking and translating, while those with low levels of proficiency express their lacks in listening, vocabulary and grammar knowledge. A majority of the students in high grades have a strong need to read specialized literatures and working materials, to listen to specialized course and conversations in the workplace, to speak at seminars and meetings and to write paper abstracts, working emails and reports in the workplace, and published papers. However, the ESAP textbooks, the instruction methodology and the course duration are not efficient enough to meet the students’needs. Thus, some implications on the revision of the present ESP course are proposed based on the findings and discussion.