Effects of content-based curriculum on the language performance of Chinese English majors

Abstract

In 2014 the School of Foreign Studies of Nanjing University of Science and Technology replaced the old language-skill-based curriculum for undergraduate English majors with a new content-based curriculum. The study investigated the effects of content-based curriculum on the language performance of students in the national Tests for English Majors - Grade 4 and Grade 8 (TEM-4 and TEM-8). It was found that content-based curriculum had positive effects on the language performance of lower-grade English majors; however, the students under the new curriculum exhibited a tendency of polarization development, with both the excellence rate and the failure rate in TEM-4 greatly increasing. It was also found that content-based curriculum did not have obvious positive or negative effects on the language performance of highergrade English majors in TEM-8. Suggestions were put forward on the improvement of content-based curriculum for undergraduate Chinese English majors.