Needs Analysis Of Business English In Higher Vocational Institutes

Needs analysis is a systematic and ongoing process of gathering students'needs and preference through questionnaire, interview, observation, etc. interpreting the information, and then designing courses based on the interpretation in order to meet the needs. ESP researchers believe that ESP course design would not be effective without needs analysis.Business English is regarded as an important branch of ESP, and the research into it should follow the framework of ESP. Therefore, it is of great importance to conduct needs analysis before designing BE courses due to the unpredictable language skills used in business situations. However, few analyses have been carried out to find out non-English majors'needs for BE in higher vocational institutes, which brings out many problems of BE teaching. Under this circumstance, this thesis intends to explore the needs for Business English in higher vocational institutes.The subjects here are 120 non-English majors from a higher vocational institute, and the research instruments are questionnaire and interview. The results indicate that:(1) The students are not so content with the teaching methodology. The current Business English textbooks can not cater to students'needs and arouse their interest. With respect to BE courses, the students are satisfied with the course variety and arrangement, but they think the courses are a bit difficult for them to learn. Majority of the students consider it necessary to study BE courses and helpful in learning their majors. BE (2). The students have a clear idea about the purposes of learning BE. They mainly study BE for the instrumental purposes, among which finding jobs and furthering education are recognized by most of the students. (3) Majority of the students are clear about the gap between the present level and the expected level of Business English. But, they do not have a clear idea about what BE skills will be needed in their future jobs. (4) The students prefer the combination of Business English skills and business knowledge taught in class. Besides, they are eager to know latest business affairs and news related to BE. Majority of the students expect to be taught bilingually and mainly in English. The students have a preference for class activities like role-play, simulation and games and hope to be given more chances to practice operational skills. They hope teachers should spend less time in explaining the textbooks. And they prefer studying Business English in small groups. The students order the preference for the five BE language skills from the highest to the lowest: "speaking, reading, listening, translation and writing". Their favorite learning method is learning by multi-media. The students find it difficult in mastering business terms and expressions as well as its language features. And their favorite extracurricular activity is internship. The form of BE tests is similar to that of the General English tests, which can not reflect students'BE level. Among all the qualities, teachers with command of business knowledge are popular with the students.Based on these findings, some implications are proposed:Firstly, various teaching methodologies should be employed with assistance of the multimedia equipment to improve BE teaching and enrich the course content. Varied combination of course content should be ensured in class teaching to arouse students' interest in learning BE. And a variety of class activities can be carried out to improve students'BE skills, integrating the study of business knowledge into language application. Secondly, students should be encouraged to take part in English professional qualification exams concerning their majors, which make them more competitive in job markets. Establishment of practice training bases by schools and different trade enterprises is expected to offer job-oriented training to students, which enables them to put what they have learned from BE courses into practice and accumulate practical abilities. Thirdly, it is suggested textbooks selected for those students be theoretical and practical on the basis of students' language level. Teachers may also adapt textbooks in various ways to meet students'needs. Lastly, BE teachers, working as advisers and facilitators in teaching, should assist students in promoting their studies and accomplishing a range of learning purposes.