With increasing international contact and the deepening of education internationalization, EAP (English for Academic Purposes) course development has become increasingly important. By collecting questionnaire data from the college freshmen of the Faculty of the Built Environment, an English learning needs analysis was conducted from the following five aspects: students’ past learning experience, learning objectives, their expectations of college English courses, target needs and their understanding of the necessity of EAP courses in Chinese universities. The results show that students have years of past learning experience and have already acquired the basic knowledge and skills in English. They have multiple target needs and a strong desire to associate English learning with their subject study and future career development, thus they are eager for EAP courses at the university. This paper also presents some suggestions concerning the necessity of EAP course development, multiple course design, refinement of course contents and the adoption of research-based methodology, in the hope of enhancing students’ academic communicative competence, and making them the inter-disciplinary talents who are needed by the society.