英语论文网

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study
However, the current curriculum design for English Education majors is to some degreeunreasonable. First of all, development goals are not defined clearly in some schools, whichleads to the apparent lack of distinguishing feature of normal schools. Curriculum structureoveremphasizes basic courses and theory-oriented courses rather than the cultivation ofteaching skills. Besides, Sheng Yund（i2009）points out curriculum design for English educationmajors currently belongs to the top-down-oriented pattern which is easy to operate, however,the primary disadvantage of this pattern is that the teacher education is more likely to deviatefrom social needs.According to Guo Xiaoming (2001), normal universities are supposed to cultivateEnglish teachers for elementary and secondary schools. Whether they can have goodperformance in the teaching job may show the quality of normal education. Guo also points outthe current normal colleges and primary and secondary schools tend to operate separately without much cooperation and interaction, normal colleges cultivate will-be-teachers withoutstrong pertinence and its courses attach little importance to the new curriculum in primary andsecondary schools. A survey conducted by Chen Herong(2000) indicates 50% employers thinkthat students newly graduated from normal schools can hardly give a satisfactory performancein the aspects of instructional design, teaching evaluation, English knowledge, etc.
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1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study
This research aims to find out whether the curriculum design for undergraduate Englisheducation majors in the two normal universities in Shandong province meets socialrequirements for English teachers and intends to provide reliable data and suggestions to thefuture curriculum design for undergraduate English education majors by surveying on 1) thecurrent status quo of curriculum design for English education majors in Shandong NormalUniversity and Qufu Normal University (including curriculum objectives, curriculum intensity,curriculum variety), and the satisfaction degree the new teachers graduated from these twouniversities have over curriculum; 2) Social needs for English teachers of the elementary andsecondary schools in Jinan; 3) whether current curriculum design effectively meet social needsand how to optimize the curriculum design if there is a deviation between curriculum designand social needs.
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Chapter Two literature review

2.1 NeedsAnalysis and Social Needs
The academic researches about needs analysis mainly focus on three aspects including thedefinition of needs, data collection of needs and the model of needs.By far, the definition of “need” has been discussed by many researchers specializing in thesecond language teaching. However, due to their different research perspectives, objects orbackgrounds, there has not been a consensus on the meaning of “need”.Berwick (1989) holds that “need is the discrepancy between a current situation of affairsand a future situation learners desired.” To put it in another way, Berwick classifies two types ofneeds: perceivable needs and conscious needs. The former refers to the need set by educatorsbased on the learning experience of learners while the latter means the desires or expectationsof learners. Likewise, in the viewpoint of Brindley (1989), “need means the gap betwee