Curriculum Reform Of "Menu-based" College English Advanced Writing Courses:An Empirical Study

College English,as an important part of higher education curriculum,has drawn greater attention of the educators and the society.To guide the reform of College English,the Ministry of Education has published three guiding documents—College English Curriculum Regquirements(2004,Trial),College English Curriculum Requirements(2007)and Guidelines on College English Teaching(2015,Draft).Those documents have made specific requirements for college students' English writing ability.First of all,they emphasize English practical writing proficiency of college students,such as professional papers and academic reports.Moreover,they lay stress on students' individual development as a characteristic of quality education and encourage them to express their views clearly and freely.Lastly,students are required to write longer thesis.To cope with the new situation,Hunan University has implemented the English curriculum reform since 2012,including "menu-based"curriculum reform.Based on the relevant theoretical and empirical research,this study is to evaluate the curriculum reform for the College English advanced writing courses from the perspectives of teachers and students.The research mainly focuses on 222 students taking part in the College English advanced writing courses from different colleges and grades as well as 7 teachers who teach the corresponding courses in Hunan University.The descriptive analysis was conducted to analyze the data obtained from the questionnaires by means of SPSS 19.0 and the content analysis was employed to analyze the data collected fr-om the interview.The research employs both quantitative method and qualitative method,aiming at answering the three research questions as follows:(1)What is the profile of the implementation of the curriculum reform for the College English advanced writing courses?(2)Which aspects of the non-English majors,needs for English learning have been met?(3)What are EFL teachers,attitudes towards the curriculum reform in terms of the College English advanced writing courses?Research findings are as follows:(1)Small-class teaching is adopted in the College English "menu-based" advanced English writing courses,which helps improve teaching efficiency and conduct various kinds of classroom activities;the leader responsibility system is of significance to stimulus teachers' work enthusiasm and subjective initiative;the well-equipped facilities,abundant funds,well-structured teaching faculty and students with good English foundation have met the requirements of the curriculum reform.Overall,the curriculum reform has been implemented smoothly.(2)Students are satisfied with the College English advanced writing courses in terms of curriculum design,courses arrangement,teaching materials,teachers,evaluation mode,teaching language,teaching aids,teaching mode,credits and class hours.But their satisfaction with teaching activities and class atmosphere is relatively low.(3)EFL teachers hold a positive attitude towards the curriculum reform in terms of the College English advanced writing courses and were satisfied with teaching effects.Though they are not very satisfied with teaching aids and class atmosphere,they all agreed on the need to continue to implement the curriculum reform in terms of the College English advanced writing courses.Some limitations are still existing in the study.For example,group interview of students who participated in the College English advanced writing courses are not arranged,which causes that the findings are not objective and comprehensive.Hence,more research instruments should be adopted in further study to compensate this drawback.