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Vilnius, 2012
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. 4 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 5 NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP......................................................................................... 6 ESP DEFINITION AND BRIEF OVERVIEW................................................................6 NEEDS DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION............................................................6 DEFINITION OF NEEDS ANALYSIS............................................................................7 TYPES OF NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP.........................................................................8 METHODS OF COLLECTING DATA FOR NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP...........................10 APPROACHES TO NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP...........................................................15 THE IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMING NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP...............................17 STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTING NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP............................................18 CRITICISM OF NEEDS ANALYSIS............................................................................18 CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................................... 20 REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 21 APPENDICES......................................................................................................... 22 Appendix 1 NEEDS ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK....................................................22 Appendix 2 SUMMARY OF NEEDS ANALYSIS...................................................23
ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to discuss approac hes for performing needs analysis and its role for
designing an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course for different groups of adult ESL (English as a Second Language) learners. In this theoretical study the importance for performing needs analysis prior to establishing the curriculum for a particular ESP course was looked into, as well as different ways of performing needs analysis to give constructive results were considered. The paper is divided into several parts. At first a term of ESP is defined and a brief overview of ESP is given. Second, we talk about what needs are and how they are classified. Then needs analysis is defined, taking into account different types of needs analyses that may be performed. Different models and approaches for needs analysis are discussed as well, followed by methods used for collecting relative data. At the end of the paper advantages and disadvantages of needs analysis are covered, together with conclusions show what has been learnt from this study.
INTRODUCTION
During recent years students of English have been more and more widely involved in the
process of designing ESL and ESP courses and it is being achieved by performing students needs analysis. It is important that students do not only learn the language, but learn it purposefully, profit from the course and put the gained knowledge into practice in real life situations. One of the reasons why teachers often need to perform needs analyses of their students and develop curriculums themselves is the fact that appropriate syllabuses simply do not exist. Thus extra burden is put on teachers shoulders, especially bearing in mind that usually they do not have relevant training for that purpose. After having conducted a quite extensive research on the topic of needs analysis in ESP, it has been observed that many researchers and authors talk about needs analysis from various perspectives, so there has been a lot of material to look through and a lot of effort has been put into systematising the findings. The paper is based on a number of different resources, including these books: Hutchinson and Waters English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centred approach and English for Academic Purposes Cambridge by R. Jordan, which proved to be a useful source of visual information and diagrams that helped to structure the wide spectrum of data available online and in printed resources. Besides the above-mentioned works, other online resources and articles were consulted and analysed in order to sort out information that would be most relevant for this paper.
1. Goal-oriented (target) needs, which refer to what the learner needs to do with the language once he or she has learned it (Widdowson, 1984: 192). 2. Process-oriented (learning) needs, which refer to what the learner has to do in order to acquire the language, or where the focus is on how individuals respond to their learning situation, involving affective and cognitive variables which affect learning (Brindley, 1989 in Kaewpet). 3. Product-oriented needs, which are derived from goal or target situation, and where learner needs are viewed as the language that learners require in target situations (Brindley, 1989 in Kaewpet). Authors such as Nunan (1988) divide needs into objective and subjective, which derived by the outsiders from known and verifiable facts. 1. Objective (perceived) needs, which refer to needs felt by educators or the society. 2. Subjective (felt) needs, which refer to learners expectations. Similarly, Berwick (1989) distinguishes between perceived (educators judgement about other peoples experience) and felt (learners) needs, which are derived from insiders and correspond to cognitive and effective factors. On the other hand, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) accentuate necessities, wants and lacks, the latter of which could be described as follows: wants are a subset of needs, those which a learner puts at a high priority given the time available; and the lack is the difference a learner perceives between his present competence in a particular competence he wishes to achieve (Dickinson 1991: 91). Necessities depend on the target situation demands what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987: 55). Lacks are defined as the gaps between what the learner already knows and the necessities that he or she lacks (p. 56).
was trying to establish why learners should learn English (answer: in order to read) and how they should learn English (answer: through reading) (West, 1994 in Howard, 1997: 68). Some authors distinguish between the terms needs analysis and needs assessment , claiming that assessment involves obtaining data, whereas analysis involves assigning value to those data (Graves, 1996: 12), although these terms are often used interchangeably. Keeping this definition in mind, the concept needs analysis shall prevail in this term paper. Needs analysis could be defined as means for obtaining a picture of our learners, as regards their needs and expectations, that is, objective needs such as their previous knowledge, what they know and the problems they have, their difficulties in learning, but also subjective needs such as passing the exam, working or studying abroad, etc., and ranking of preferences, that is, what they would like to learn and how they wish to study it, mainly concerning content and language skills. (Isabel Balteiro in Glov, 2007: 8). Harding (2007: 17) suggests that before performing needs analysis it is of great importance to learn about the students learning situation. She provides a list of questions to be answered as a starting point:
Is it an intensive course (concentrated into one period of time) or an extensive course (spread out over a longer period of time)? Is it assessed or non-assessed? Is it meeting immediate needs (learners are working and studying in parallel) or delayed needs (students are pre-experience and will be working on the specialism sometime in the future)? Is the group homogenous or heterogeneous? For example, are they all at the same level of English? Do they all have the same level of knowledge of, and involvement in, the specialism? Is the course designed by the teacher or the institution or negotiated with the learner?
These are very important questions to consider and they should not be ignored, especially if the needs analysis in a particular case is being performed for the first time. A comprehensive visualisation of summary of needs analysis by Jordan (1997) is provided in Appendix 2.
Throughout the years, not only the definition of analysis of needs evolved, but also the ways that for performing it developed dramatically. Nowadays it covers not only target situation analysis, but deficiency analysis, strategy analysis, and means analysis, and, in the case of a large organisation or a whole country, language audit. (Howard, 1997: 4). Other authors supplement this list of processes with discourse analysis, present situation analysis, learner factor analysis, teaching context analysis (Basturkmen, 2010), genre analysis (Swales), register analysis and subjective needs analysis. In the next few pages we will look into some of these different types of analyses in more detail.
Target situation analysis (TSA) was formulated by Munby (1978), and it is also known as objective needs analysis, performed in order to look into the language use requirements in the contexts which the learners are likely to find themselves in where English language is needed. Deficiency analysis is used for determining the gap between present and target needs. Strategy analysis sets out to establish learners preferences in terms of learning styles and strategies, or teaching methods (West, 1994 in Howard, 1997: 71). Means analysis examines the teaching environment in which the language course is to take place and establishes the constraints and opportunities of the ESP journey, comprising classroom culture and learner factors, staff and/or teacher profiles, status of language teaching and change management (West, 1994 in Howard, 1997: 72). Language audits are operations of a considerably larger scale for establishing the practice of English for specific purposes courses. Discourse analysis involves descriptions of used language. Present situation analysis is performed in order to estimate the strengths and weaknesses of learners in their language skills and learning experience. Learner factor analysis is understood as identification of learner factors such as their motivation, how they learn and their perceptions of their needs (Basturkmen, 2010: 19). Learning analysis or subjective needs analysis is perceived as dealing with learners expectations of what the course should be like.
Teaching context analysis is identification of factors related to the environment in which the course will run (Basturkmen, 2010: 19). Genre analysis. The term genre in the context of ESP was first introduced by Swales (1981). In ESP the term genre is defined as being similar to such notions as schema, frame, prototype, speech activity, etc., and even the more general social structure (Mayes, 2002: 18). Genre analysis can be viewed as the study of situated linguistic behaviour in institutionalized academic or professional settings (Bhatia, 2008: 10). Register analysis can guide teachers in the selection and preparation of materials that should by their content validity motivate students to learn. Register analysis thus helps ensure appropriateness of content. (DeMarco, 2011) Taking into account all of these different processes that constitute needs analysis, it becomes obvious that performing needs analysis is a complex task that needs thorough consideration.
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When performing needs analysis, there is a possibility to choose from a range of needs assessment types. In this paper, we will look into several types of data collection for needs assessment: questionnaires, interviews, observation, tests, participatory needs analysis, learner diaries, focus groups, inventories of language and literacy use, timelines, brainstorming. Although other means of data collection for needs analysis exist (e.g. case studies, authentic data collection, etc.), they will not be looked into in more detail because of their nature of being highly time-consuming and low degree of global adaptability.
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QUESTIONNAIRES Before performing a questionnaire survey, it is essential to initially try it out with a few respondents and see how it works. It is important to check whether the respondents understand the questions and to consider whether the answers will be easy to analyse and compare later on. It could be a good idea to design a questionnaire in such a way that it could be performed online or possible to analyse by a computer. The strong point of questionnaires is that it is relatively easy to distribute or send out by email to a large number of respondents. However, the drawback is such that the respondents might be reluctant in filling the questionnaires in or they might not understand the questions of the questionnaire correctly, thus it should be considered whether the questionnaire should be filled-in with the help of the course designer, so that the respondents would have a possibility to clarify some points of how the questionnaire should be filled in. It would also be beneficial to go through the questions of the questionnaire step-by-step together with the respondents In this case, however, the needs analyst might consider conveying an interview instead.
INTERVIEWS Conveying an interview with the potential course-taker is a more interactive way of conveying needs analysis, where a respondent is guided through the questionnaire by the interviewee. This method can be quite helpful when working with respondents who have special needs and might not be able to understand or respond to questions of the questionnaire because of their individual disabilities or shortcomings. Structured interviews and semi-structured interviews, discussed by Mackay (1978), are defined as non-directive and allows the interviewee to speak for themself, to enable the researcher to understand the categories and meanings of the actor rather than (as in a questionnaire, for example), to impose those of the researcher (Mackay 1978: 120). Semistructural interviews differ from ordinary interviews in a way that the questions of the questionnaire are covered in random order, allowing the procedure of the interview take as natural course as possible.
OBSERVATION
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Irrespective of the comprehensiveness of a questionnaire or an interview, in order to get the full picture of a learner, supplementary observations are needed before the beginning of the course as well as during the course and might further influence the course design in the learning process.
TESTS Testing students before the beginning of each ESP course is a crucial part of needs assessment, especially when learners are not complete beginners in learning the language. Testing helps course developers reveal the level of learners language abilities and their weak points.
PARTICIPATORY NEEDS ANALYSIS Participatory needs analysis is yet another type of needs analysis, which could be rendered in a form of discussion, where students could express their opinions on what kind of results they should be able to accomplish at the end of the course or express their individual and collective needs.
Hyland (2003) suggests using different methods for collecting data, depending on the type of information that needs to be collected. An example of some methods for collecting needs data is provided in Table 1 below.
Type of information Students goals and priorities Learning preferences Background information (age, gender, prior learning, L1, L1 literacy, occupation, years in country) Current L2 proficiency (English literacy and writing experiences) Target behaviours
Data collection method Brainstorming, group discussions, interviews, student diaries Interviews, group discussions, individual questionnaires, interviews,
questionnaires, observations Placement or diagnostic tests, individual interviews, classroom observations, self-assessment Interviews with learners, interviews with experts, literature reviews, genre analyses, observation of target tasks, observations of target sites, questionnaires, case
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studies
Table 1. Some common needs data collection methods (Hyland, 2003 in Hyland 2006: 277).
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A SYSTEMIC APPROACH Systemic approach for identifying needs of adults, learning a foreign language, was suggested by Richterich and Chancerel in 1977. According to this model, learners are the centre of attention and their needs are thoroughly investigated before starting the course and during the course. It is important to note that these two researchers recommend using more than one or two data collection methods for needs analysis such as surveys, interviews and attitude scales (Kaewpet, 2009).
COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS PROCESSOR In 1978 another specialist in ESP, John Munby, developed a sociolinguistic model for defining the content of purpose-specific language programmes. This model is also known as Communicative Needs Processor or CPN. In this model two types of variables that affect communication needs are taken into account: one set of constraints (a posteriori) that depend upon input from another set of constraints (a priori) before they can become operational (Munby 1981: 32). Munbys model consists of a range of questions concerning nine key communication variables that are: participant, purposive domain (e.g. educational), setting (e.g. at school), interaction (e.g. dialogue), instrumentality, dialect, target level (e.g. intermediate), communicative event (e.g. writing an email to a potential employer), and communicative key (e.g. on the phone). All of them relate to the learners' communicative requirements. However, despite of being one of the most comprehensive and prominent works on needs analysis at the time, Munbys model proved to be rather complex and imperfect.
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A LEARNING-CENTERED APPROACH A learning-centred approach that was introduced by Hutchinson and Waters in 1987, could be considered to be an improved substitute for Munbys CNP. It is one of the most well-known approaches to ESP, claiming that it is more important to focus on how learners learn, rather than what their language needs are. As Figure 2 below illustrates, according to these two authors, basic distinction should be made between target needs (i.e. what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and learning needs (i.e. what the learner needs to do in order to learn) (Hutchinson & Waters 1987: 54).
As defined previously, Hutchinson and Waters introduced target needs as an umbrella term for necessities, lacks and wants. The latter are further divided into objective and subjective, and the conflict between these two groups of target needs of course designers and learners can be represented by Richard Meads (1980) analysis performed for Medicine, Agriculture and Veterinary students, illustrated in Table 2 below.
OBJECTIVE NECESSITIES LACKS (perceived by course designers) The English needed for success in Agricultural or Veterinary Studies (Presumably) areas of English needed for Agricultural or Veterinary Studies
SUBJECTIVE (perceived by learners) To reluctantly cope with a secondbest situation Means of performance in Medical Studies
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WANTS
To
succeed
in
Agricultural
or
Veterinary Studies
Table 2. Necessities, lacks and wants (Hutchinson & Waters 1987: 58).
For analysing learning needs Hutchinson and Waters provide a comprehensive framework (see Appendix 1). It covers factors such as who the learners are (their age, gender, nationality, etc.), what are their reasons for taking the course, what their learning techniques are, what resources are available to them, as well as the place and time for taking the ESP course among other elements.
According to Richards (2001), needs assessment assures a flexible, responsive curriculum rather than fixed, linear curriculum determined ahead of time by instructors.
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quite often happens that educational institutions are not genuinely interested in learners needs, which are frequently superseded by those of institutions. Another interesting attitude towards needs analysis concerns immigrant learners. Tollefson (1991 in Basturkmen, 2006: 19), states that language training for specific purposes can be a covert means to channel immigrants into marginal occupations, ensuring that they only have sufficient English to perform specific low-wage jobs and do not have good enough English to be able to move out of these jobs. On the other hand, learners themselves might not be able to correctly identify their needs as they might not be sure of what situations they are likely to find themselves in further down the road. Even though this is usually the case with younger learners, similar situation might occur with adult learners as well, especially if they are in a process of deciding on what field of studies they should enrol in or what kind of job they will perform. As it was mentioned earlier in the example of Meads analysis, subjective and objective needs do not necessarily coincide. For example, IT students may not be solely interested in learning computer-related vocabulary and read texts that deal with information technologies. Individual learners have different ranges of interest, which they might want to be able to read or talk about outside of class, thus concentrating solely on technical topics may demotivate learners. Likewise, the way needs analysis is performed is likely to differ from one needs analyst to the other, suggesting that a syllabus, based on a particular needs analysis, is likely to differ quite significantly from the syllabus that another course developer would propose to the same group of learners. This observation raises an assumption that ultimately the course will be designed depending on the subjectivity of a course designer. It may also be problematic to ask students about their language needs, as they might not be aware or have relevant vocabulary to be able to describe what their language-related needs are, thus preventing sound decision-making process towards effective syllabus design (Chambers, 1980 in Basturkmen, 2006: 19). These insights on drawbacks of needs analysis show that in spite of all the different methods used for data collection and techniques for implementation of analysis of needs, one must be careful when proceeding to the next step, which is syllabus design for ESP.
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CONCLUSIONS
The goal of this term paper is to provide an overview of needs analysis theoretically, with a possibility to expand this work into a more comprehensive study with practical implementation. We can draw the conclusion that needs analysis has influence on how students are placed in a subsequent course level-wise, it determines which materials are to be chosen and used in an ESP course, and which teaching methods are to be considered. Needs analysis should not be employed as a onetime activity, but rather as a continuous process, helping to adjust a syllabus at any given time during the course, depending on results of successive needs analyses. It is obvious that needs analysis is a starting point for designing a syllabus for a course in English for specific purposes, although it largely depends on objectivity of needs analyst and course designer. In order to obtain most relevant results, it is important to look into each situation individually and carefully select and analyse data needed for designing an ESP curriculum.
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REFERENCES
1. Basturkmen, H. 2006. Ideas and Options in English for Specific Purposes. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Mahwah, New Jersey, London. 2. Basturkmen, H. 2010. Developing Courses in English for Specific Purposes. CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne. 3. Bhatia, V. K. 2008. Advances in Discourse Studies. Routledge. 4. DeMarco, C. 2011. The Role of Register Analysis in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum. Retrieved on November 1, 2012, from http://www.tesol.org/read-andpublish/newsletters-other-publications/interest-section-newsletters/teis-newsletter/2011/10/31/therole-of-register-analysis-in-an-english-for-special-purposes-%28esp%29-curriculum-%28fromwinter-1986-vol.-2-no.-2%29 5. Glov, D. 2007. Languages for Specific Purposes: Searching for Common Solutions. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 6. Graves, K. 1996. Teachers as Course Developers. Cambridge University Press. 7. Harding, K. 2007. English for Specific Purposes. Oxford University Press. 8. Hyland, K. 2006. English for Academic Purposes. An Advance Resource Book. Routledge. 9. Howard, R. 1997. Teacher Education for Languages for Specific Purposes. Multilingual Matters. 10. Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. 1987. English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 11. Jordan, R. 1997. English for Academic Purposes Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 12. Kaewpet, C. 2009. A Framework for Investigating Learner Needs: Needs Analysis Extended to Curriculum Development. Retrieved on September 15, 2012, from http://eflt.nus.edu.sg/v6n22009/kaewpet.htm 13. Lawson, K.H. 1979. Philosophical Concepts and Values in Adult Education. Milton: Open University Press. 14. Munby, J. 1981. Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dickinson, L. 1991. Self-Instruction in language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 15. Richards, J.C. 1996. Teachers as Course Developers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 16. Robinson, P. 1991. ESP TODAY: A Practitioners Guide. Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1 NEEDS ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1987)
Objective needs (target situation analysis framework) Why is the language needed? - for study; - for work; - for training; - for a combination of these; - for some other purpose, e.g. status, examination, promotion. How will the language be used? - medium: speaking, writing, reading etc.; - channel: e.g. telephone, face-to-face; - types of text or discourse: e.g. academic texts, lectures, informal conversations, technical manuals, catalogues. What will the content areas be? - subjects: e.g. medicine, biology, architecture, shipping, commerce, engineering; - level: e.g. technician, craftsman, postgraduate, secondary school. Subjective needs (framework for analysing learning needs) Why are the learners taking the course? - compulsory or optional; - apparent need or not; - Are status, money, promotion involved? - What the learners think they will achieve? - What is their attitude towards the ESP course? Do they want to improve their English or do they resent the time they have to spend on it? How do the learners learn? - What is their learning background? - What is their concept of teaching and learning? - What methodology will appeal to them? - What sort of techniques are likely to bore alienate them? What resources are available? - number and professional competence of teachers; - attitude of teachers to ESP; - teachers knowledge and attitude to the subject content; - materials; - aids; - opportunities for out-of-class activities. Who are the learners? - age / sex / nationality; - What do they know already about English? - What subject knowledge do they have? - What are their interests? - What is their socio-cultural background? - What teaching styles are their used to? - What is their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English-speaking world? Where will the ESP course take place? - Are the surroundings pleasant, dull, noisy, cold, etc.?
Who will the learners use the language with? - native speakers or non-native; - level of knowledge of receiver: e.g. expert, layman, student; - relationship: e.g. colleague, teacher, customer, superior, subordinate.
Where will the language be used? - physical setting: e.g. office, lecture theatre, hotel, workshop, library; - human context: e.g. alone, meetings, demonstrations, on telephone; - linguistic context: e.g. in own country, abroad. When will the language be used? - concurrently with ESP course or subsequently? - frequently, seldom, in small amount, in large chunks.
When will the ESP course take place? - time of day; - every day / once a week; - full-time / part-time; - concurrent with need or pre-need.
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