English for Specific Purposes

Needs Analysis

By:Ika P. / PBI 5F/08321

Peni R. / PBI 5F/08321 217 Pijar/ PBI 5F/08321

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH TEACHING FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS EDUCATION

IKIP PGRI MADIUN

2010Chapter 1

A. BackgroundB. The purpose of this paper

Based on the description above, this paper would analyze:a. Needs Analysisb. Who Is Conducting Needs Analysis?c. What Are Target Needs?d. Gathering Information about Target Needse. Learning Needsf. Analysing Learning Needsg. Critique of needs analysis

Chapter 2

A. Needs Analysis

Why do learners need to learn English? All courses are based on a perceived

need of some sort. Otherwise why would English find its way in school or

college timetable: someone at sometime must have decided there was a need for

it. What is the difference between ESP and GE? “In theory nothing, in practice

a great deal”. It is often argued that the needs in GE are not specifiable. In fact

this is the weakness of all arguments, because it is always possible to specify

needs, even if its only the need to pass exams at the and of school year. There is

always an identifiable need of some sort. What distinguishes ESP from GE? It is

not the existence of a need but rather an awareness of the need. It is not so much

the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP from the General course but

rather the awareness of a need, i.e. the awareness of a target situation, the need

to communicate in English. Thus, any course should be based on an analysis of

the learner needs. Analysis for ESP and GE: Questions will be the same, but the

answers will be different. Nevertheless, for the time being, the tradition persist

in GE that the learners can not be specified and as a results no attempts is

usually made to discover learners true needs. Thus if we had to state in practical

terms the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course design, it would

be needs analysis, since it is the awareness of a target situation, that

distinguishes the ESP learners from the learners of GE. What do we mean by

“needs”? According to the language-centered approach, it is “the ability to

comprehend and/or produce the linguistic features of the target situation.”

Target needs: what the students need to do in the target situation. Learning

needs: what the student needs to do in order to learn.

B. Who Is Conducting Needs Analysis?

Learners: current and former

Teachers and applied linguists

Domain experts /subject specialists

Employers

Documents

Triangulated sources

C. What Are Target Needs?

Target needs: It is like the umbrella term, which in practice hides a number

of important distinctions.

Necessities: according to the demands of the target situation, this is what

the learner has to know in order to function effectively in that situation.

Lacks: according to what the learner already knows, we decide what

necessities are missing. There is a gap between the existing proficiency

and the target proficiency.

Wants: according to what we have considered from an objective POV,

we have to say that ‘a need does not exist independent of a person. It is

people who build their images of their needs on the basis of data relating

to themselves and their environment’. Thus, objective and subjective

views of needs can conflict motivation. The ESP course designer or

teacher has to be aware of such differences and take account of them in

materials and methodology. Important decisions are to be made. To

undertake Medical Studies To succeed in Agricultural or Veterinary

studies WANTS Means of doing Medical Studies (Presumably) areas of

English needed for Agricultural or Veterinary Studies LACKS To

reluctantly cope with a “second-best” situation The English needed for

success in Agricultural or Veterinary studies NECESSITIES

SUBJECTIVE (i.e. as perceived by students) OBJECTIVE (i.e. as

perceived by course designers).

D. Gathering Information about Target Needs

The analysis of target needs involves far more than simply identifying the

linguistic features of the target situation. Different ways in which information

can be gathered about needs:

Questionnaires

Interviews

Observation

Data collection

Informal consultations

Important: the choice will depend on the time and resources available. And,

needs analysis is not a once-for-all activity. It should be a continuing process.

A Target situation analysis framework

Why is the language needed?

How will the language be used?

What will the content areas be?

Who will the learner use the language with?

Where will the language be used?

When will the language be used?

It is obviously necessary to obtain answers to the questions from a variety of

sources, and then negotiate a satisfactory compromise.

E. Learning Needs

Using our analogy of the ESP course as a journey, what we have done so far

is to consider the starting point (lacks) and the destination (necessities) and

where the destination should be (wants).What we have not considered yet is the

route. How are we going to get from our starting point to the destination? The

whole ESP process is concerned not with knowing or doing, but with learning.

We need to take into account the destination or needs of a learning situation: A

task that is enjoyable, fulfilling, manageable, generative, etc. A project in class

can be guided in terms of its general orientation by the target situation, but its

specific content is a response to learning needs. The target situation alone is not

a reliable indicator of what is needed in the ESP course. It can determine the

destination, but we must also choose our route:

the conditions of the learning situation

the learner’s knowledge, skills and strategies

the learner’s motivation

For example, in a target situation students may need to read long, dull,

complex texts, but their motivation may be high because:

They like the subject in general

Job/Promotion prospects may be involved

They will carry out interesting experiments or practical work (based on

the texts)

They like and/or respect the teacher/boss.

F. Analysing Learning Needs

A framework for analysing learning needs:

Why are the learners taking the course?

How do the learners learn?

What resources are available?

Who are the learners?

Where will the ESP course take place?

When will the ESP course take place?

G. Critique of needs analysis

Learners may not be reliable sources of information about their own

needs, especially if they are pre-experience learners

Learners may lack metalinguistic awareness

Objective needs are not the same as subjective needs

Perspectives of needs vary; whose perspective of needs should be taken

into account?

Language use is too unpredictable

Needs analysis often serves the interests of the institution rather than

learners

Chapter 3

Conclusion

The most characteristic feature of ESP course design is needs analysis. Needs

analysis is a complex process, involving much more than simply looking at what

the learners will have to do in the target situation. Most of all, we have tried to

stress that both target situation needs and learning needs must be taken into account.

Analysis of target situation needs is concerned with language use. But the language

use is not only part of the story. We also need to know about language learning.

Analysis of the target situation can tell us what people do with language. What we

also need to know is how people learn to do what they do with language. In other

words, a learning centered approach needs analysis.

Bibliography

Long, M. (Ed.). 2005. Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: CUP.

Hutchinson, Tom.1989. English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: CUP.