Need Analysis: EST Context (Week 4) Ezis Japar Sidik, MA English Program Serang, March 2011

Topics for Discussion When you teach EST students, do you know what your students really need (in terms of language skills)? What can you do to know/find out your learners’ actual need? Who would you like to ask about students’ need? What kinds of information would you like to know?

Need Analysis Definition Purpose of need analysis How to do need analysis Who you would ask for need analysis What to know in need analysis

Need Analysis/Assessment Is a systematic and ongoing process of gathering information about learners’ needs and preferences, interpreting information, and then making decisions based on the interpretation in order to meet the needs (Graves, 2000: 98) Pre-course NA =  Initial course design Ongoing NA =  Revision of course design

Scenario: Suppose, you are requested to give English training to a group of nurses who are going to work in some overseas hospitals. How do you design your course? How do you know if your couse design matches with your students’ needs to work in overseas hospitals? Would you take into accounts aspects such as (types of job, countries, patients) in your course design? What would you do if each student has specific preferences in English; can you accomodate all students’ specific preferences?

Process of NA cycle: Deciding what information to gather and why? Deciding the best way to gather it; when, how, and from whom Gathering information Interpreting the information Acting on the information Evaluating the effect and effectiveness of the action Back to 1: deciding on further or new information to gather (Graves, 2000, p. 100)

The NA process involves: Target situation analysis: identification of tasks, activities and skills learner will be using English for; what the learners should ideally know and be able to do. Discourse analysis: descriptions of the language used in the above Present situation analysis: what they do and do not know or can and cannot do in relation to the demands of the target situation Learner factor analysis: motivation, Teaching context analysis: how the course will be best run, what teacher can offer, etc (Basturkment, 2010, p. 19)

Purpose of NA In order to make decisions about what will be taught, how it will be taught, and how it will be evaluated (Graves, p. 1001)

Ways of doing NA Questionaire Interview Test (pre-course test)

Parties for gathering information Students (experienced) Peers Parents Experts

What to know in NA Present  Who the learners are  The learners’ level of language proficiency  The learners’ level of intercultural competence  Their interests  Their learning preferences  Their attitudes Future  The learners [other involved] goals and expectations  The target contexts: situations, roles, topics, and contents  Types of communicative skills they will need and tasks they will perform  Langauge modalities they will use