ESP Needs Analysis for Engineering

Students: A Learner Centered

Approach

Md. Jamal Hossain

Assistant Professor, Dept. of English

Presidency University, Dhaka

Presented by: Kashif Rafique

17S-MS-ENG-16
Content
• Introduction to the study
• Purpose of the study
• Needs analysis
• Major findings of the study
• Recommendations
• Conclusion
 Introduction to the study
• The status of English as an international language
has affected many domains of life education is the
most significant one
• English has become the source of communication in
the international arena
• “With the needs of rapid communication being what
they are today, proficiency in a common language
(English in this case) is a necessity”. (Ellis and Johnson
• Local organizations at present prefer employees with
better proficiency in writing and speaking English.
 Introduction to the study
• Therefore local students want to prepare themselves fit
for job market by learning better English
• Therefore engineering students at Presidency
University are taught two courses on English for specific
purposes
• First one focuses on reading and writing
skills/proficiency
• And the second one is Business Communication or
Advanced English Communication that concentrates
on their needs for writing and speaking proficiency
 Purpose of the study
• The purpose of this study is to find out the needs and
wants required for effective professional
communication in English language (writing and
speaking proficiency) for engineering students at
Presidency University, Dhaka
• In other words, the purpose of this study is to identify
the needs and demands of the learners of Azimur
Rahman School of Engineering in improving their
English writing and speaking proficiency
 Needs analysis

• Needs analysis is considered to be the main driving

factor in ESP curriculum development.
• Brown defines needs analysis as “the activities involved
in gathering information that will serve as the basis
for developing a curriculum that will meet the
learning needs of a particular group of learners”
• Ellis and Johnson view needs analysis as a method of
obtaining a description of a learner’s needs (or group
of learner’s needs)
 • Westerfield views, “In the needs
Needs assessment process, the ESP
analysis practitioner does his/her best to
find out information about the
needs of the sponsor organization,
the needs and wants of the learner
• the ultimate goal of needs analysis
is to design a curriculum and
develop appropriate teaching
techniques
 • From the results of the study a
Major number of important facts could be
findings of found. Those are:
the study • The learners had an average level
of proficiency in the target
language, i.e. English.
• So they needed to learn Business
Communication or Advanced
English Communication
 • Though many of them could write
Major and speak correctly, they were better
findings of in writing than speaking.
the study • They could not produce analytical,
coherent and cohesive writing
• often failed to create well-
organized paragraphs.
• None of them could speak in
context, with fluency and
intonation.
• Their past language learning
experiences were not so good
 Recommendations
• The content areas (offered to them for improving language
proficiency) of Business Communication and Advanced
English Communication should be related to engineering

• improvement of writing and speaking skills are very urgent

for them.

• The instructional materials should be delivered not only

face to face, but also using Internet and multimedia
presentations with sound system. (not only in traditional
way)
 Conclusion
• The learners had previous experiences of learning
English for about twelve years. Still their level of
proficiency in English was not so good.
• They were better in writing than speaking.
• They need to learn Business Communication for use in
their future job profession
• focus should be given on both writing business
correspondence and speaking skills.
• Hence, they should be exposed to extensive writing and
speaking practices in and outside classroom.
One sentence conclusion of the
article
• In this article researcher concludes
that “there is need of further
research to make ESP courses more
beneficial for engineering students.”
Thank you so much