English Curriculum Innovation for Computer Science Majors in the Japanese EFL Context: From Needs to Tasks

Task-based language teaching has been claimed to be an effective way to promote second language acquisition. This paper reports on the process of developing a task-based English-as-a-Foreign-Language curriculum in a Japanese computer science university. 38 tasks, which language education experts perceived as important, were re-evaluated by computer science experts via an online needs analysis survey with the goal of selecting target tasks for first- and second-year English courses. The results indicate that there are both similarities and discrepancies in the perception of task importance between English and computer science faculty members. A qualitative analysis of comments from computer science professors illuminates the logic behind their judgements about the needs of teaching particular tasks. The cooperation between language and content experts is indispensable in the development of the curriculum of English for science and technology; it allows for synthesis of a variety of viewpoints and development of a stronger English curriculum.