ESP Curriculum Design From Needs Analysis Perspective: A Case Study

In recent years, continuous monitoring data from relevant authorities indicates that there is an increasing demand for skilled workers and professionals in human resource market. The key to solve this contradiction is to improve the quality of graduates from vocational education. With the background of economic globalization, a grasp of certain English skill in workplace will undoubtedly enable them to better cope with their future job and strengthen career competitiveness. How to make English serve for profession is a hot issue in the field of language teaching.English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is designed for certain particular profession or relevant disciplines, which aims to develop and improve the learners’ ability to use English in his or her job. Nowadays China has launched a lot of studies on ESP curriculum design, while the subjects are mainly on undergraduate and higher vocational stage, with emphasis on relatively developed field, such as Business English, Medical English and Legal English. There are limited amounts of researches for the ESP curriculum design of secondary vocational section, and fewer for those specific to textile profession. Textile industry is not only one of the pillar industries for Chinese national economy, but also the major export industry. The economic growth of this industry and its closer integration into foreign exchanges pose an urgent needs for textile-major graduates to improve English proficiency in their jobs. Hence, it is pretty significant to survey the present situation and learners’need of ESP curriculum design.Adopting Shu’s (2004) classification of foreign languages needs, this case study takes Guangxi Textile Industry School as subject. Data were collected from 129 second-year students of textile major in this school, 18 graduates from this major in the past decade who still engage in the related fields, 6 teachers who have the experience of Textile English teaching and 8 textile companies. Those students, as the information resource of learners’ needs, are studied through questionnaire, the design of which is based on Chen’s(2010) model of needs analysis, which divides the learners’personal needs into four dimensions:learners’basic information, individual desire, process needs, and environment needs. The other three groups (graduates, teachers and relevant employers), information source of social needs, are conducted by interviews.With quantitative and qualitative approaches in the study, it can be concluded that the analysis to the learners’needs reflects their motivations, expectation, study preference and their opinions to textbooks, teachers, teaching methodology and evaluations, and that the analysis to graduates, teachers and employers helps us find out the society’s requirement to employees’English proficiency in workplace. The findings in the research show that 1) appropriate instruction objectives and learning strategies should be designed, language goals and professional knowledge better integrated; 2) when selecting and compiling school-based textbooks, students’cognitive level and future employment should be fully considered, which embodies all the features of being modular, integrated, three-dimensional, diversified and up-to-date; 3) the selection and training for ESP teachers by National Training Plan should be highlighted; 4) online resources and platforms should be utilized to promote self-directed learning; 5) students’positive attitude towards evaluations and multidimensional evaluation system should be adopted and utilized. The findings provide reference for ESP curriculum design in secondary vocational school to better promote teaching and learning.