A Study Of Curriculum Development Of General Education Courses Of College English Based On Needs Analysis

With the internationalization of higher education,the talents with English learning backgrounds are required not only to have proficient language skills,but also to acquire necessary core competencies including intercultural communication abilities and so on.General education courses of College English stress the importance of the students' overall development in an English context and implement the idea of cultivating general talents.However,current studies pay less attention to the general education courses of College English.In light of needs analysis,this study investigates the needs of undergraduates,graduates who have worked for roughly two years and employers,and discusses the influencing factors of curriculum development of general education courses of College English in order to provide suggestions for future curriculum development.This study designed a revised framework of needs analysis for curriculum development of general education courses of College English based on Dudley-Evans and St.John's needs analysis model,which was applied as the theoretical framework of this study.Based on the revised framework,both questionnaires and interviews were conducted to analyze different needs.Additionally,the factors influencing curriculum development of general education courses of College English were sorted out and discussed.Three groups of participants were involved in the study,including 165 undergraduates from a university in East China,5 graduates and 10 employers.All the collected data was analyzed by means of SPSS 23.0 and Microsoft Excel 2016.The results of the present study are shown as follows: On the one hand,the current curriculum development of general education courses of College English was not able to meet all the needs of undergraduates,graduates or employers,since the notion of general education failed to be fully permeated into every aspect of the curriculum development.The undergraduates in the present study were generally unsatisfied with the current curriculum development of general education courses of College English.Specifically speaking,they believed that the current teaching materials could not embody the cultivation of general abilities.Also,the teaching styles and teaching concepts of the teachers influenced the degrees of satisfaction among the undergraduates.The teachers with rich teaching experiences and humorous teaching styles were more popular among the undergraduates.As for graduates,the knowledge they obtained from the courses cannot match the requirements of the workplace.The practicality of the courses was of great necessity to be complied with the social demands.In addition,the needs from the employers stressed the competencies of the talents and urged the talents to master general abilities in an English context.On the other hand,the factors influencing the curriculum development of general education courses of College English mainly covered the educational goals of the university,the principles of the general education curriculum development and the students' learning characteristics.The educational goals of the university to some extent influenced the direction of the curriculum development;the principles were the specific elements influencing the concrete development process of the curriculum;and the students' learning characteristics were various,which influenced the adjustments and optimization of the curriculum to achieve its efficiency.Based on the results mentioned above,relevant implications of the present study can be concluded.First of all,the revised needs analysis framework adopted in the present study can provide a new perspective for future studies and can be applied to the curriculum development in language teaching.Then,it is necessary for curriculum developers to consider the needs of different parties while establishing general education courses of College English.Meanwhile,valuable implications in teaching can be inspired from the present study.Teachers of the general education courses of College English need to adjust their teaching styles and equip themselves with advanced teaching concepts.Besides,flexible teaching methods that combine the Internet platform with discovery learning method can be taken into account in the process of conducting teaching activities.