NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP

CoTESOL 40th Annual Fall Convention

Needs Analysis in ESP: Outcomes and Implications
Elham Alhudithi, Jennifer Stetson-Strange, Lauren Porter, Broc Bainter, Sharayah Grattan,
Joel Grove, Dr. Tony Becker, and Dr. Tatiana Nekrasova-Beker

Overview of Needs Analysis

A needs analysis identifies tasks and language necessary for students to bridge from present
situation to target situation
The outcomes of the needs analysis help determine content for the course, help refine context
for the course, can be used to assess learning, and can be used to create authentic tasks and
activities (Basturkmen 2010)
Evolution of needs analyses: Older needs analyses (1980s) identified language and skills
necessary in the target situation, current NA approaches look at tasks that learners are asked to
complete in the target situation and move backward to identify specific language needed for
those tasks. Other factors are considered as well, including: culture, learner factors (students
wants, needs, and desires), tasks, language, and linguistic analyses (corpus analysis and move
analysis) (Basturkmen 2010)
Data triangulation is important in order to reduce bias in the results of the NA. Triangulation is
the process of gathering data from multiple resources (for example, interviews, observations,
and corpus analysis) in order to find the most frequently occurring trends, and therefore
provides a more comprehensive needs analysis. (Nation & Macalister 2010)

ESP (English for Specific Purposes) IEP (Intensive English Program)

AE (Academic English) MBA (Master in Business Administration)
EGR (Engineering)

Methods of Data Collection

Observations in present situation (IEP courses)

Observations in target situation (MBA courses and EGR courses)
Student Interviews
Instructor Interviews
Linguistic Analyses: Move Analysis and Corpus Analysis
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What is Move Analysis?

Move analysis is a helpful method of data collection to examine specialist discourse and
understand a particular genre better. A genre can be described as the way people in a specific
community typically get things done through written or spoken discourse (Basturkmen, 2010,
p. 45). Move analysis is concerned with studying the move structures within a text. For
example with a business text, individuals conducting the needs analysis can identify the major
structures of say, a business article. Analyzing the chunks that typical business articles are
written in is a useful piece of information to collect in a needs analysis because it can inform
instruction in both reading and writing for business purposes. As Basturkmen (2010) describes,
the texts in a genre set have a common function or set of functions, are often organized in
conventional ways and use similar linguistic features (p. 44). This means that by analyzing
the typical moves in a genre, an educator, course designer, and students are prepared to
understand the moves and sub-moves within a particular genre. This provides further insight
into the typical moves within written and spoken discourse, and can also provide authentic
language items for students to understand the moves (and produce their own).
Move analysis can also be used as a more general term to understand and analyze the major
moves/sub-moves in tasks that students are asked to complete

An Example of the Move Analysis Findings

The MBA students were asked to complete an email that was not an ordinary, but it was a task
the students must learn in order to be efficient (fewer than 100 words) in connecting with
prospective employers as well as having the employer respond to the 5-Point Email. The
following table shows the move analysis of this task.
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What is Corpus Analysis?

Corpus analysis is the use of online corpora, which are collections of real-world text, or large
collections of structured text, to analyze language structures and vocabulary. Corpus linguistics
is concerned with studying these collections of texts, and now that corpora are available online,
individuals can upload a piece of text and search within it for different language items.The
corpora allow individuals (conductors of needs analysis, curriculum designers, teachers, and
even students) access to authentic materials, which improves quality of language items and
tasks designated to target those language items.

Corpus Linguistic Programs

AntConc (available at http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.html) is a freeware,

multiplatform application that enables you to carry out corpus linguistic-based analysis. It
includes seven tools that can be used to analyze texts, which are concordance, concordance
plot, file view, clusters/n-grams, collocates, word list, and keyword list. Video tutorials are
available at (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiRIDpYmiC0Ta0-
Hdvc1D7hG6dmiS_TZj).

The Compleat Lexical Tutor (available at http://www.lextutor.ca/) is a free online application

for carrying out corpus linguistics analysis and data driven learning. The website is divided
into three sections: learners, teachers, and researchers. Each section includes different corpus
tools, such as range, hypertext, and tests. Video tutorials are available at
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjwfC5EOMO0).

An Example of the Corpus Analysis Findings

One of the required course books in the MBA program is 2-hour job research by Steve Dalton.
It includes 65,829 words. The following tables show the most frequent content words and their
collocations that are presented in the mentioned book with numbers of their occurrences.
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ACTIVITIES

Description: To help the IEP students succeed in the future graduate studies in MBA or ENG,
four learning activities were developed.

Business

Activity 1: Mock Interviews

Directions: Break students into paired interview teams. One person is the interviewer and the
other person is the interviewee. After the interview has been completed, students change
partners and roles change and the interviewer becomes the interviewee.
Note: the majority of ESL MBA students had difficulty with Mock Interviews and talking
about themselves to other people in their L2. This activity will help to break down any
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barriers ESL students may have in using their L2.

Questions to ask interviewee:

a. Did you bring a copy of your resume?

b. Tell me a little about yourself.
c. What are your strengths?
d. What are your weaknesses?
e. Why do you want to work here?
f. Tell me about your most recent job.
g. Why did you leave your last job?
h. Have you had any issues with former supervisors and how did you handle it?
i. Do you have any questions for me?

Activity 2: Crafting a 5-Point Email

Directions:
1. Go through the basic sub-moves in a 5 Point Email structure. These can be found above in Table X.
2. Handout the first example 5 Point Emails below. Pair students up and ask them to identify the major
sub-moves in the emails.
a. Note: This can be done in multiple ways. Students can be asked to put boxes are the different sub-
moves, highlight the sub-moves in different colors, etc.
b. You can also ask students to identify recurring or frequent vocabulary in business emails (such as the
language units in Table X above)
3. Have a group share their sub-moves on the doc cam, and discuss and negotiate as a class
4. Handout the second example 5 Point Email and ask students to identify the sub-moves individually.
a. To scaffold this, you can write the basic sub-moves on the board or keep up the first example email
with the moves identified
b. To make it harder, dont allow students to see the basic sub-moves
5. Go over as a class, or collect and review students work
6. For homework, or in class, ask students to compose their own 5 Point Emails based on the move
structure of business emails
a. You can ask students to compose their own, then have them switch emails with a partner and try to
identify if their partner incorporated the basic sub-moves into their email

Handouts:
(Sample emails taken from http://www.cgu.edu/Include/drucker/career/5%20Pt%20Email.pdf)

An example of the initial email:

SUBJECT: Drucker MBA student seeking your advice

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Dear Mr. Jones,

My name is Peter Smith, and I am a first- year Drucker MBA student who found your
information in the Drucker alumni database. May I have 20 minutes to ask you about your experience
with IBM? I am trying to learn more about marketing careers in technology companies in California,
and your insights would be very helpful.
I recognize this may be a busy time for you, so if we are unable to connect by email Ill try to
reach you next week to see whether that is more convenient.
Thank you for your time,
Peter

An example of an already identified a job posting:

SUBJECT: Drucker MBA student seeking your advice

Dear Mr. Jones,

My name is Peter Smith. I am a first-year Drucker MBA student who found your information
on the Drucker alumni database. May I set up a phone call with you to discuss your experience with
IBM? Your insights would be greatly appreciated, as I am now in the process of applying for an open
marketing manager position there.
I recognize that this may be a busy time for you, so if we are unable to connect by email Ill
try to reach you next week to see whether that is more convenient.
Thank you for your time,
Peter

Engineering

Activity 4: Class Observations

Have students from IEP course observe one or more courses in their target situation (graduate
engineering course of their specific major)
Teacher should provide a handout for students to use and follow as they observe
This handout could have simple observation and comprehension questions:
Did you understand most of what the teacher was saying
If in this class, would you have been able to answer the questions brought up during the
lecture?
Were there any terms that you did not recognize or know how to use?
Did the teacher allow time for clarification questions and absorption of material throughout
the lecture?
A follow up activity on the observations and after completion of
the handout, the teacher could have students look up the words they had difficulty with
in the lecture and either do a quick presentation in front of the class providing an
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explanation of the terms and how they are used in the discipline, or they could have the
option of writing a short paper (one page) where they do something similar.

Example Observation Handout:

Name:___________________ Date:____________ Course name/number:__________

Directions: When observing one class in your prospective program please fill out the following
questions. You may also add any of your own questions or comments that seem relevant to
your success in this class in the future

1. Is the seating arrangement and class size similar or different compared to the classrooms you
have studied in before?
______________________________________________________________________
2. Does the teacher do most of the talking, or do they allow for students comments and
questions?
______________________________________________________________________

3. Do you understand most of what the teacher is saying? (in terms of vocabulary and concepts)
______________________________________________________________________

4. If in this class, would you be able to answer the questions brought up during the lecture?
______________________________________________________________________

5. Does the teacher allow time for clarification questions or repeat important information and
terms more than once throughout the lecture?
______________________________________________________________________

List some words below (or on the back) you hear during the class that are unfamiliar and seem
important in the lesson (Some of these will be used for an upcoming assignment, so please
write down at least 3!)

Activity 5: Description

At the beginning of the course the teacher could provide students with a list of discipline-
specific articles from the fields the students are planning to enter
In Intensive English Programs the students will usually have a variety of majors/fields they are
currently in or are planning on applying for
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The teacher should have access to what programs their students are in before the course begins
so they have time to research and find a few qualified articles in the respective fields for
students to choose from
In one of the first classes of the course the list of articles should be given to the students so
they have plenty of time to choose one article (or two) to write a summary on utilizing
academic writing skills such as citing and paraphrasing
Other activities could be created and tied to this major one preparing students to succeed in
their article summaries
Scanning and skimming skills and practice
Paraphrasing practice
Citation work
Finding the main idea exercises
These article summaries can be collected at any point in the semester, and can be extended into
full academic papers and made into entire semester/quarter projects, depending on the
enthusiasm of the students or the goals of the course (e.g. a writing specific course)
Suggestions: Professional development for IEP Instructors
a. Discipline-specific training for teachers with no previous knowledge in the field
b. Could be a quick weekend seminar, or a contact/resource they could use for clarification if
needed

Our Contact Information

Elham Alhudithi: elham@rams.colostate.edu

Broc Bainter: N/A
Sharayah Grattan: Sharayah.Grattan@colostate.edu
Lauren Porter: lporter0812@gmail.com
Jenny Stetson-Strange: Jenny.StetsonStrange@colostate.edu
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Further Readings & References

Basturkmen, H. (2010). Developing courses in English for specific purposes. New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Dalton, S. (2012). The 2-hour job search: using technology to get the right job faster.
Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.
Jasso-Aguilar, R. (2005). Second language needs analysis. M. Long (Ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
Nation, I.S.P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. New York, NY: Taylor &
Francis.
Serafini, E., & Lake, J., & Long, M. (2015). Needs analysis for specialized learner
populations: Essential methodological improvements. English for Specific Purposes, 40, 11-26.