1.1 Curriculum development
First of all, it’s necessary to have an overall understanding of the definition ofcurriculum. A curriculum is an educational programme which contains the educationalpurpose of the program (the ends); the content, teaching procedures and learningexperiences which will be necessary to achieve this purpose (the means); some means ofassessing whether or not the educational ends have been achieved (Richards, Platt &Platt2017:118). And Candlin (1984) puts forward the view that curriculum concerns itselfwith making general decisions about language teaching and learning, learning goals andobjectives, evaluation, and the roles of teachers and learners. Nunan (1988) also putforward the definition that curriculum is about the planning, conduction, evaluation orevaluation, management, and administration of an educational program. Similarly, Dubin& Olshtain asserts that a curriculum is a broad description of general educational goalsby referring to an overall educational-cultural philosophy, which is often a reflection ofnational and political trends; (Dubin & Olshtain, 1986, p.36).According to the above definitions, we can safely draw the conclusion thatcurriculum is a broad, general, and comprehensive conception. It refers to all the relevantdecision making processes of all the participants in the leaning, for examples, the generalstatement of learning goals and objectives, planning, implementation, assessment, andthe teachers’roles, and management of an overall educational program.
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1.2 Need analysis theories
In this part, the theories of need analysis will be discussed, including its definition,models of need analysis, and its function in the realm of foreign language teaching. Need analysis/NA refers to a technique and method serving the study of need withthe means of introspection, interview, observation and questionnaire. In the realm offoreign language teaching, the importance of need analysis equals the diagnosis that isbefore a doctor’s prescription for a patient (Long, 2017). Need analysis makes it possiblethat the language curriculum accommodates the students’ needs of different countries,levels and target groups successfully. It is a basic step in the foreign language curriculumdesign and the application of instruction. And all in all, need analysis plays anindispensable role in the foreign language teaching (Chen, 2017).In the field of foreign language teaching, need analysis was applied in English forSpecial Purpose (ESP) at first. In 1920s, it was the first time that need analysis appearedin the Indian literature. It was proposed by Michael West(Howatt, 1984:245) when hefound that the senior English learners’ needs were not specified precisely and learnerswere in the state of TENOR (Teaching English for Obvious Reason). After that, thetheories about need analysis hardly appeared in the related literature until 1970s. Councilof Europe worked hard to advocate the application of need analysis in the field ofEnglish for Special Purpose. With the change of focus from learners’ language needs tolearners’ learning needs, need analysis started to be applied in the field of English forGeneral Purpose and it becomes a necessary step for the language curriculum design.
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