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NEED ANALYSIS

Need Analysis
The first questions:
Why do learners need to learn English? What is the difference between ESP or general English? Why do we mean by needs? What does Need Analysis mean?

Why do learners need to learn English?


There are many reasons;
Communicate with people Get access to knowledge Push your career forward Get satisfaction And so on

What is the difference between ESP or general English?


In theory ;

NOTHING,
In practice ;

A GREAT DEAL

Why do we mean by needs?


Target Needs : What the learner needs to do in
the target situation

Learning Needs: What the learner needs to do


in order to learn

What does Need Analysis mean?


Definitions: Need Analysis is the process of identifying and evaluating needs in a community or other defined population of people. The identification of needs is a process of describing problems of a target population and possible solutions to these problems. A gap between what is and what should be. (Witkin et al., 1995) A gap between real and ideal that is both acknowledged by community values and potentially amenable to change. (Reviere, 1996, p. 5)

Target Needs
Necessities Lacks Wants

Necessities
The type of need determined by the demands of the

target situation, that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation
For example: A businessman needs to understand

business letters, or communicate effectively at sales conference

Lacks
To indentify necessities alone is not enough since the

concern in ESP is with the needs of particular learners. We also need to know what the learner knows already, so that we can decide which of the necessities the learner lacks.

Wants
a need does not exist independent of a person.

It is people who built their images of their needs

on the basis of data relating to themselves and


their environment (As Richterich (1984 p. 29) comments)

Need analysis focuses on the future, or what should be done, rather than on what was done as is the focus of most program evaluations. Some people use

the related term needs assessment

STEPS and EXAMPLES:


The focus here is entirely on gap or need analysis.
The following steps are suggestions from McKillip, 1998.

1- First, you identify the audience and purposes for the analysis 2- Second, you fully describe the target population and service environment. 3- The third step is need identification where descriptions of the problems (beyond the general level noted in step 1) and possible solutions are generated. This is where you illustrate the gaps between expected/ideal and actual outcomes. You want to gather information from more than one level of target, although you should focus on the primary targets.

4- The fourth step is called needs assessment by McKillip (1998). This is the time to evaluate the identified needs. Which are the most important? Do any of the needs conflict with other needs? Is there consistent agreement across levels of target groups about the relevance and importance of the needs? 5- Finally, you communicate your results to the audience identified in the first step.

Process of Developing a New ESP Course


In evaluating an ESP program and determining the language needs of the students, needs assessment is not the first and last thing to do. There are other steps as well.

Step I is to conduct the Needs Assessment. Needs assessment can prove two types of information.

The first gives information on their current level on


ESP, and the second elicits information on what to achieve in ESP in the future work domain. This kind of assessment is really crucial in an ESP courses, as many language problems emerge as a result of teachers not paying attention to learners needs and ignoring students as a source of basic information.

On the other hand, in step I, the tools and techniques of needs assessment is also important, therefore it is necessary to mention some of them;
Surveys NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE ESP.doc Interviews Analysis of statistics, records Suggestion box

Step II
In this step the language teachers have a clear picture of what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach. Nunan (1988) maintains that following seems to form the objective of a course

1. Students will learn that.....................


2. Students will be aware of.................... 3. Students will develop.....................

Step III
Here teachers should determine which aspects of ESP learning will be included, integrated and used in the syllabus to meet the students needs and expectation. The course may focus on the cultural things or technical areas or vocabulary part of the intended target language.

Step IV
Once the content of the ESP course is determined, the next step is to decide on which materials best meet the needs of the learners. This is also very important in implementing the objectives of an ESP course.

Step V
In this step in order for the course to go smoothly and

make the student understand the subject areas given in an ESP material, activities are given in an order.
This order may be deductive or inductive.

Step VI
After giving the students the course according to the
result of needs assessment, one needs to reevaluate the students at the end of the course so that s/he can see whether the students have reached the intended level or not.

If they have not reached


If they have not reached the intended level, the assessment starts from Step II again, with the

formulation of goals and objectives.

If they have reached


If they have reached the intended level, the details of the curriculum is formulated and the process ends.

TARIK ATALAR

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