Curriculum Reform Of "Menu-based" College English Courses For IELTS And TOEFL Purposes:An Empirical Study

College English has always been an important component of higher education.Since College English Curriculum Requirements(Trial)was issued in 2004,colleges and universities have conducted various College English curriculum reform.To implement the reform comprehensively and to satisfy the needs of society for talents cultivation,College English Curriculum Requirements was issued in 2007.As one of the first pilot universities,Hunan University has conducted College English curriculum reform since 2012.With the continuous.strengthening of globalization and the rise of overseas study craze,more and more students have gradually come to realize the importance of learning IELTS and TOEFL.However,the experience of setting up such courses for students throughout colleges and universities is not yet mature.Under the instruction of Guidelines on College English Teaching(Draft),Hunan University has implemented the "menu-based" curriculum reform of College English courses for IELTS and TOEFL purposes.The research subjects are 255 students who have selected the College English courses for IELTS and TOFEL purposes and 10 teachers who have been in charge of these courses in Hunan University.Questionnaires on students’ needs and satisfaction,questionnaires on teachers’ satisfaction,semi-structure interviews with teachers and class observation are adopted to analyze and discuss the data on the basis of CIPP evaluation model proposed by Stufflebeam.The research is designed to address three questions:(1)what is the profile of the implementation of the "menu-based" curriculum reform for College English courses:IELTS and TOEFL?(2)Are the students satisfied with the courses they have taken?(3)What are teachers’ attitudes towards the curriculum reform in terms of IELTS and TOEFL courses?Three research findings are presented as follows:(1)the "menu-based"curriculum reform of College English courses for IELTS and TOEFL purposes has been smoothly carried out.The teachers,teaching facilities and the students’ English proficiency all have met the basic demands of the curriculum reform of IELTS and TOEFL courses,but the teaching facilities in certain classrooms need to be updated and improved.(2)The College English courses for IELTS and TOEFL purposes have met the students’ needs in terms of the teaching materials,the teachers,the teaching aids and the instruction languages in the classroom to a great extent,but there still remained some problems such as the lack of various classroom activities and the inactive classroom atmosphere.(3)Teachers,on the one hand,were satisfied with the curriculum reform of IELTS and TOEFL courses as well as the performance of students and the teaching effect.On the other hand,they pointed out that the workload of IELTS and TOEFL courses was large,the financial support was not enough and the timetable should be flexible.Meanwhile,this research also proposes suggestions for the existing system based on the research results.It can provide theoretical instruction,and practical basis for furthering College English learning and teaching.The limitations of this research still exist,for example:(1)for students from different grades and schools,it is hard to find the appropriate time to conduct the focus group interviews.(2)There are eight courses for IELTS and TOEFL purposes to choose,so it is challenging to investigate the students’ needs of the contents of each course.