| Foreign related enterprise employers have considerable reservations when it comes to graduates’ employability skills,particularly their flawed English language competence.Given the challenges faced by higher education institutions in China to match employers’ requirements,there is a need to initiate holistic and comprehensive research on the curriculum practices of current English for Occupational Purposes(EOP)courses.This study sought to present some practical reforms for EOP teaching and learning in Chinese higher vocational colleges based on the theories and modules of communicative competence.Firstly we listed and analyzed the most five influential theories of communicative competence in chronological order,Morreale,Spitzberg and Barge’s theory was decided to be the theoretical foundation of this study.Then six representative vocational colleges from Guangdong Province was investigated with the theme of teaching aims,teaching contents,teaching methods and teaching assessment.Results showed that the vitality of communicative competence has been recognized by related educational departments and academia,but reforms were still in urgent need.Combined the enlightenment of Morreale,Spitzberg and Barge’s theory with the actual situation of the EOP education in Guangdong Province,this study intended to find out the roots of the underlying problems and corresponding countermeasures.Detailed teaching aims,tasks and contents are proposed in accordance with the communicative competence module.It is also recommended that task based and stratified teaching methods should be stressed in the process of EOP teaching.As to the assessment of students’ communicative competence,this study suggested that task-based language assessment method would be able to best evaluate both the teaching and learning accomplishments.This study had yielded findings that make an original contribution to both communicative theories and practice of English for occupational purpose teaching since it adds to the broader view of workplace literacies by unveiling the requirements for English language used in a professional setting situated in Chinese foreign related enterprises.Feasible measures were also raised out and preliminary tested.These outcomes will be especially beneficial for informing all participants of EOP teaching in producing competent graduates for the future local and global workforce. |
