NEED ANALYSIS OF ESP

Introduction Needs analysis has figured notably in the literature of language teaching for 30 years, and has been focused on learners communicative needs. It has generally been accepted that an initial pre-course needs analysis has an aim of establishing the structure and content of a language course. On the whole, needs analysis is a complex process which is usually followed by syllabus design, selection of course materials, teaching / learning a course, and evaluation. Learners often find it difficult to define what language needs they have and cannot distinguish between needs, wants and lacks. Although these three concepts are interrelated, it is important for teachers to be aware of their impetus on successful learning. Another stimulus for successful learning is adjusting the course to changing learners needs. This implies the significance of ongoing needs analysis. This paper aims at presenting the on-going analysis of learners needs, wants and lacks at a tertiary level and prospective implications for successful language learning. Students in ESP classes often have restricted time to learn English, it makes sense to teach them only the English they need. Thus, the task of the ESP course developer is generally seen to be to identify the needs of the learners and design a course around them. Rationale of Needs Analysis One main purpose of conducting a needs analysis is, according to Gardner and Winslow (1983:76), "to produce information which when acted upon makes courses better adapted to students needs and "part of the object of formal needs identification is to back up one's proposals with quantitative evidence of their importance". Furthermore, they added, "in many cases, concrete evidence of particular needs, such as these surveys produced, could be directly used as part of the course validation / approval procedure. However, as Coffey (198553) pointed out, "the whole process (of needs analysis) is so complicated that in most circumstances, there is never time to put it into practice. Lack of time was also a major reason given by the Polytechnic staff whom Gardner and Winslow (1983) surveyed, for not setting up and implementing needs identification procedures. Even though the lack of time often makes it impossible to conduct a needs analysis before designing a course syllabus or putting it forth for validation, an existing, already validated course /syllabus can also benefit from a formal needs analysis as it ought to produce information to give feedback on the course design so that revision and improvement can be made. Thus Janice Yalden (1983:97) observed, in many cases, "it is more a question of having to modify an existing programmed rather than building up a whole operation from the beginning. Needs The magic word is the word needs. We can only start teaching an ESP student when we know what their needs for the language are. This is also true of all students of course, even if the 1

only thing we find out is that they have no specific needs. The other thing we need to know before starting is what the students want. These two things are often very different from each other! We can find out student needs and student wants by asking the students questions about themselves and the language (which is what we will be calling needs analysis here) and then finding out how much you agree with what they just said (diagnostic testing). Given the definition of diagnostic testing used here it seems obvious to tackle it after needs analysis, and it will be dealt with in the second article, on the subject of First Classes. Needs Analysis When we are deciding how to go about needs analysis with a student/group of students, we need to think about two questions: 1. What do we want/need to know about them? 2. How can we find it out? Needs analysis: What do we need to know about our students? A good way of starting to design a needs analysis for a student (or a general needs analysis format for a school) is to brainstorm all the questions you could possibly want to ask them, and then edit them down. We can brainstorm and organize the questions they should/can be asked by several schemes: a. b. c. d. By question word By skills and language By time By place

By question word

What- e.g. What exactly do you do in English in your job? When- e.g. When is your next meeting in English? Which- e.g. Which parts of the language do you find most difficult? Where- e.g. Where do you use English? - in meetings Who- e.g. Who do you speak English with - native / non-native speakers? How- e.g. How formal does the English you use need to be? How much- e.g. How much homework can you do? How long- e.g. How long have you been studying English? How often- How often do you watch English language films? How far- e.g. How far do you want/need to go with your English? How many-

By skill and language

Which skills do you use/need/lack most? By time Past/present/future e.g. study / use of English / exposure to English in each of these three times. By place Inside work (see above) / outside work (e.g. travel/films/TV) Needs analysis: how to carry it out in the classroom There are two times needs analysis can be done, with various advantages and disadvantages: a. Before class b. During the first class Before class This can be done by giving them a form to fill in or by asking them questions in the level test and making notes to be passed onto the future teacher During class The method depends on the situation:

In one-to-one classes, you can simply ask them the questions and write down the answers. For this, a reminder list of possible questions and a form to write the answers down on are useful (see below). In group classes, they can ask each other questions about themselves and the language, or they can negotiate priorities or even the syllabus together. To ask each other the questions, the teacher will need to give them some help by brainstorming some categories of questions, such as the question words brainstorm above. They will then need a format to write them down on (see Interview Form). Negotiating a syllabus can be done by giving them a list of things to priorities by importance/usefulness, and then ask them to agree together on those priorities in ever larger groups (a pyramid ranking debate - see Lesson Plan below).

Main Components in ESP needs analysis: 1. Target Situation Analysis - What learners will have to do in English in the target situation?

- What skills and language do they need? 2. Learning Situation Analysis - What are the learners subjective perceptions of their English? 3. Present Situation Analysis - Investigation of learners weaknesses or lacks. 4. Means Analysis - Analysis of the environment in which English is taught versus that in which it is used. Outline of Needs Analysis procedures 1. Deciding objects of analysis, 2. Selecting Method & instrument for data collection, 3. Data Collection, 4. Data Analysis 5. Results 6. Course / Syllabus Design SOME METHODS FOR DATA COLLECTION (Courtesy: Eleni Bindaka and Marisa Christopoulou) NA can be carried out in a number of different ways which can be classified as either inductive (case studies, observations etc.) or deductive (questionnaires, surveys etc.) (Berwick,1989: 56-7) Some of the most common ones are: (West, 1994: 7-8) 1. Pre-course placement/diagnostic tests which estimate the language level of the learners. 2. Entry tests on arrival which can have a diagnostic value and identify learners language weaknesses and lacks. 3. Observation of classes which are of value mainly for deficiency analysis. 4. Surveys based on questionnaires which have been established as the most common method and help us draw a profile of our learners needs/lacks/wants/learning styles/strategies etc. and at the same time make them aware of these needs/lacks etc . 4

5. Structured interview which consists of pre-planned questions the answers to which can either be recorded or written down. 6. Learner diaries which can be used as supplementary to end-of-course questionnaires offering retrospective, qualitative information. 7. Case studies which provide in-depth information about the needs and difficulties of individual learners or groups. 8. Final evaluation/feedback usually in the form of questionnaires which provides information on the evaluation of the course and helps design/improve the next course. It is clear that depending on the method of data collection NA can be (West, 1994: 5): a. off-line, which is conducted in advance of the course, so that there is plenty of time for syllabus design and materials preparation. b. on line or first-day, which is carried out when learners start the course. c. on-going needs re-analysis which reformulates objectives periodically as awareness of the demands of the target situation increases and the needs become more focused. It is important to have in mind that there is no single approach to needs analysis or method of data collection and that a combination or adaptation to ones own teaching situation might be more illuminating. What is of paramount importance to remember is that what really matters is not perhaps the data collected through a NA process/project, but how we exploit it to our students benefit. In the light of the above we favor the use of an on-line questionnaire (at the beginning of the school year) which, as the course progresses and hopefully the needs awareness increases, can turn into an on-going needs re-analysis. The following questionnaire is an indicative example of an on-line NA, which can be adapted according to your students needs, interests and profile.

Sample ESP Needs Analysis (Learning Situation Analysis) 1. Whats your job/intended profession precisely? 2. How much do you use English? 3. What fields/ topics do you need to talk about? 4. In which of these areas do you most need to improve your English? 5.Are you doing anything to improve your English at the moment?

6. Do you do anything else in English-CNN, subtitled movies, DVD, newspapers? 7. What resources do you have at home/ work? (Dictionary- bilingual/ monolingual, Internet access, TV/ DVD, Press newspapers or magazines) 8. Whats the next thing you have to do in English? 9. Any conferences/ meetings/ trips/presentations coming up? 10. How far do you want to go with your English (listening, speaking, reading, writing)?

REFERRENCES

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