A Study On The Needs Analysis Of English Learning For IT Engineers

The Information Technology(IT)industry has developed rapidly during the past two decades.The development of internationalization in the IT industry has shifted the knowledge and skill demand for IT engineers from a background of pure computer technology to interdisciplinary knowledge and skill,especially the comprehensive English ability related to computer specialty.Presently,many IT engineers have inadequate industry specific English ability to effectively communicate at an intercultural level.Computer science majors professional English is a branch of ESP(English for Specific Purposes)studies.In recent years,many colleges and universities have set up ESP courses for specific majors such as medicine,law,business,etc.,but ESP courses integrated into with computer science majors are still rare.The study aims to provide some suggestions for ESP curriculum of computer major,based on the deep analysis of IT engineer's English learning needs.Different from previous studies focusing on the needs of students or teachers in school,this study focuses on the IT engineers,based on the analysis of IT engineers' English learning needs and industry requirements,and provides a reference for the construction of ESP courses in computer science majors.The main research questions this study seeks to some answers.1)What is the use of English in the work of IT engineers?(based on the recruitment requirements of IT industry and the evaluation from native speaking IT Engineers)2)What is their computer science majors learning experience of college English education?The study makes an in-depth analysis of the gap between the first two so as to put forward some suggestions for computer science majors ESP course.Based on the analysis of the English learning needs of IT engineers and the requirements of it human resource staff for the candidates,this study shows that the CET-4/6-centered English education is far from enough for the current English Teaching of computer sience majors.This study shows that it is necessary to offer ESP course for computer science majors students in junior or senior year.In addition,this study also provides suggestions for ESP curriculum design of computer science majors,and proposes situational teaching methods focusing on meeting the needs of English in daily work of IT industry.