CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Historically, needs analysis was introduced into language teaching through the ESP
movement among 1960s to 1970s. Even though, this needs analysis was not advocated only for
ESP, but also for second/foreign language students in general. In fact, needs analysis have been
conducted informally for years by teachers who wanted to assess what language points their
students needed to learn. Indeed, the various activities usually called “approaches” are different
expressions of this desire to figure out what students need to learn. Information sources for such
informal needs analysis might include scores on an overall language proficiency test, facts
gathered from a background questionnaire that asks where and for how long students have had
previous language training, or impressions gleaned from teacher and students interviews about
the students’ cognitive and linguistic abilities (Iwai et al, 1999). Further, for Johns (1991), the
needs analysis is the first step in course design and it provides validity and relevancy for all
subsequent course design activities.

This information should include the desired outcomes or expectations of a high quality
program, the role of assessment, the current status of student achievement and actual program
content. The information should also consider the concerns and attitudes of teachers,
administrators, parents and also the learners. While the data should include samples of
assessments, lessons from teachers, assignments, scores on state standardized tests, textbooks
currently used, student perception and feedback from parents. Need analysis for English for
specific purposes course is something very necessary. The benefits are for answering the
questions of needs which have been always specific for the learners themselves, and for the sake
of make up purpose, that is to impress the students positively that the course is carried out
seriously. The analysis is classified broadly into 3 categories; target situation analysis, learning
analysis, and learner analysis. The better the need analysis the more suitable the course will be.
This paper aimed at describing how to do need analysis for a course namely English for Specific
Purposes.

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B. Identification Of Problems

1. What is the meaning of need analysis?

2. What is the purposes of need analysis?
3. Who is the user of need analysis?
4. Who is the target of need analysis?
5. How is to administering need analysis?
6. How is procedur of conducting the need analysis

C. Objectives

1. To know the meaning of need analysis

2. To know the purposes of need analysis
3. To know the users of need analysis
4. To know the target of need analysis
5. To know the way to administering the need analysis
6. To know the procedure of need analysis

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 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. What Is Need Analysis ?

It difficult to define what language needs they have and cannot distinguish between needs,
wants and lacks (Kavaliauskiene and Užpaliene, 2003, p.1). It was Allwright (1982) as quoted by
West (1994) who made a distinction between needs (the skills which a student sees as being
relevant to himself or herself), wants (those needs on which students put a high priority in the
available, limited time or in other words it is what learner feels she/he needs), and lacks (the
difference between the students present competence and the desired competence or what learner
does not know). His idea were adopted later by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), who advocate a
learning-centered approach in which learners’ learning needs play a vital role. If the analyst, by
means of target situation analysis, tries to find out what learners do with language, then learning
needs analysis will tell us “what the learner needs to do in order to learn (Hutchinson and Water,
1987).

A need analysis refers to the activities involved in collecting the necessary information for
developing an effective curriculum that meets students`s particular needs (Iwai et al.,1999). In
order for this to take place, the teacher must identify learners`s needs, and make a determining
distinction between “target” and “learning” need.

Richards explains that needs are often described in terms of a linguistic deficiency, that is, as
describing the difference between what a learner can presently do in language and what he/she
should be able to do (2002, p. 54). It suggests that needs have objective reality and are simply
there waiting to be identified and analyzed. On the other hand, Richards’ proposition is slightly
different to Porcher’s. Porcher (1977, in Brindley 1984, p. 29) as quoted by Richards clarify that
need is a thing that is constructed and dependent on judgment and reflects the interest and values
of those making such judgment. Therefore, the teachers, learners, employers, parents and other
stakeholders may have different views as to what needs are. For example, in considering the
needs of immigrants, representatives of majority population may see the immigrants’ needs as
achieving cultural and linguistic assimilation and hence may want a needs analysis to identify the
language skills immigrant require in order to survive, and assimilate into the dominant culture. In
fact, however, those immigrant minorities in English-dominant societies also have other kinds of
needs that might be related to housing, health care, access for children’s’ school, services, and
others.

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 B. The purposes of Need Analysis

Needs analysis in language teaching may be used for a number of different purposes, for
example:

Ø To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role,
such as sales manager, tour guide, or university student
Ø To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential
students
Ø To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular
language skills
Ø To identify a change of directions that people in a reference feel is important
Ø To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able
to do
Ø To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing

In many cases, learners’ language needs may be relatively easy to determine, particularly if
learners need to learn a language for very specific purposes, for example, employment in fields
such as tourism, nursing or the hotel industry. In this case, the tasks employees typically carry
out in English can be observed and the language needs of those determined. The information
obtained can then serve as a basis of planning a training program. In some cases, “needs” also
includes student’s right.

It is the school’s responsibility to take into account the cultural, political, and personal
characteristics of student as the curriculum is developed in order to plan activities and objectives
that are realistic and purposeful. It is not the responsibility of the school to act on political
matters, but it’s the school’s responsibility to provide equal access to school opportunities and to
validate the experiences of all students, regardless of their political and/or cultural background.
(Linse, in Hudelson 1993, 46)

In the other cases, learners’ needs may not be so immediate-for example, students learning
English as a secondary school subject in an EFL context. Here English may be a compulsory
subject that is considered an important part of a child’s general education. However, even though
the students may not have any immediate perceptions of needs, curriculum planners will
generally have consulted employers, parents, teachers, and others to find out what knowledge of
English they expect high school graduates to achieve. In many countries, the introduction of
English or another foreign language in a elementary or secondary school is based on what
curriculum planners consider best for students to study at school in the same way that math,
history, and physical education are included in the school curriculum. Learners are not consulted
as so whether they perceive a need for such knowledge. Their needs have been decided for them

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by those concerned with their long-term welfare. Needs analysis thus includes the study of
perceived and present needs as well as potential and unrecognized needs.

Need analysis may take place prior to, during, or after a language program. Much of
literature on needs analysis is based on the assumption that it is part of the planning that take
place as part of the development of a source. It assumes that time and resources are available to
plan, collect, and analyze relevant information for a planned program of instruction. This ‘a
priory’ approach to needs analysis requires long-term planning assumes adequate time and
resources to devote to needs analysis.

In some cases, however, long-term planning is not an option. Little may be known in detail
about a group of learners apart from the fact that group of forty-five Mexican civil servant will
be arriving in 3 weeks’ time and want to work on their language skills. In these circumstances,
need analysis has to be carried out as part of the delivery of the course. Goals, content, and the
teaching approach are shaped by information collected during the teaching of the course.

At other times, the bulk of the information that constitutes the needs analysis may be
collected after the course is finished. The information collected is then analyzed in order to
obtain a more comprehensive view of the learners’ needs as a basis for evaluating and revising
the program.

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 C. The Users of Needs Analysis

A needs analysis may be conducted for a variety of different users. For example, in
conducting a needs analysis to help revise the secondary English curriculum in a country, the end
users include curriculum officers in the ministry education, who may wish to use the information
to evaluate the adequacy of existing syllabus, curriculum, and materials; teachers who will teach
from the new curriculum; learners, who will be taught from the curriculum; writers, who are
preparing new textbooks; testing personnel, who are involved in developing end-of-school
assessment; and staff of tertiary institutions, who are interested in knowing what the expected
level will be of students existing the schools and what problems they face (Richards, 2002, p.
56).

Determining the likely audiences is an important first step in planning a needs analysis in
order to ensure that the information they needs is obtained and that the needs analysis will have
the impact it is designed to have. Therefore, the audiences might be involved in small-case needs
analysis such as done by a single teacher on his or her class would consist of the teacher, other
teachers, and the program coordinator. Further, needs analysis can have a political dimension. It
can be used to support a particular agenda, for example by giving priority to one group to the
exclusion of others within a population or in order to justify a decision that has already been
made on economic or other grounds. Hence, there are different stakeholders where needs
analysis is being undertaken. Stakeholders are those who have a particular interest or
involvement in the issue or programs that are being examined, and it is important to try to get a
sense of what their different agendas are. Connelly and Clandinin (1988, p.124) as quoted by
Richards identify stakeholder as “a person or group of person with a right to comment on, and
have input into, the curriculum process offered in schools.” That is why different stakeholders
will want different things from the curriculum.

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 D. The Target Population

According to Richards, the target population in a needs analysis refers to the people about
whom information will be collected. For example in conducting a needs analysis to determine
the focus of an English program in public secondary school in an EFL context, then the target
population might include:

 Language learners or potential language learners

 Policy makers
 Ministry of education official
 Teachers
 Academic
 Employers
 Vocational training specialists
 Parents
 Influential individuals and pressure groups
 Academic specialists and Community agencies

Basically, sampling is an important issue in determining the target population. Sampling

involves asking a portion of the potential population instead of the population and seeks to create
sample that is representative of the total population. For example, in conducting a needs analysis
of studying foreign languages at a New Zealand university (Richards and Gravatt, 1998) toward
students’ motivation for selecting a language course, dropping a language course, or choosing not
to take a language course, then the sample that might be taken from the whole population of New
Zealand university students are:

1) students currently enrolled in a foreign language course

2) students previously enrolled but no longer studying a language

3) students who have never studied a foreign language

Actually, there are some factors influenced in determining the approach of sampling,
such as the homogeneity of the population in terms of kinds of skills, attitudes, or knowledge
being sought or the need to study subgroups within the sample (based on sex, language groups,
or other factors).

E. Administering The Needs Analysis

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 Planning a needs analysis involves deciding who will administer the needs analysis and
collect and analyze the results. Needs analysis will be vary in their scope and demands, from a
survey of a whole school population in a county to a study of a group of thirty learners in a single
institution. Sometimes a team of personnel is assembled specifically for the purpose of doing the
analysis, at other times two or three interested teachers may be the only ones involved. For
example, in a needs analysis of the language needs of non-English-background students studying
at a New Zealand University, the following were involved:

 the researcher team made up of two academics and a research assistant

 colleagues in different departments who discussed the project and reviewed sample
questionnaires
 students who piloted the questionnaire
 academic staff of the university who administered some of the questionnaires
 secretarial support involved in preparing questionnaires and tabulating data

In some language, program informal needs analysis is part of the teacher’s ongoing
responsibilities. Shaw and Dowsett (1986) describe this approach in Australian Adult Migrant
Education program: Informal needs assessment deals with the informal negotiations that take
place between class teachers and students and form of chats with either individual students,
group of student, or the whole class in order to select a focus for the class and create group
cohesion by establishing a coincidence of learning needs. Informal needs assessment is normally
the main task of the classroom teacher during week one of the course it is a necessary
component of information retrieval on students’ learning needs and should be recorded. It can
subsequently be used as an input for aims and objectives setting and for devising course outlines.
(Shaw and Dowsett 1986, 47-49).

F. Procedure For Conducting Needs Analysis

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 A variety of procedures can be in conducting needs analysis and the kind of information
obtained is often dependent on the type of procedure selected. Since any one sources of
information is likely to be in complete or partial, a triangular approach is advisable. Many
different sources of information should be sought. For example, when a needs analysis of the
writing problems encountered by foreign students enrolled in American universities is conducted,
information could be obtained from the following sources:

 Samples of students writing

 Test data on student performance
 Reports by teachers on typical problems students face
 Opinion of experts
 Information from students via interviews and questionnaires
 Analysis of textbooks teaching academic writing
 Survey of related literature
 Examples of writings programs from other institutions
 Examples of writing assignments given to first year university

Procedures of collecting information during a needs analysis can be selected from among
the following:

a. Questionnaires

Questionnaires are one of the most common instruments used. They are relatively easy to
prepare, they can be used with large numbers of subject, and they obtain information that is
relatively easy to tabulate and analyze. They can also be used to elicit information about many
different kinds of issues, preferred classroom activities and attitudes and beliefs.

Questionnaires are either based on a set of structured items or unstructured which open-
ended questions are given that the respondent can answer as he or she chooses

b. Self-ratings

These consist of scales that students or others used to read their knowledge or abilities.
For example a student might rate how well she or he can handle a job interview in English. The
disadvantage of such an instrument is that it provides only impressionistic information and
information that is not very precise.

c. Interviews

Interviews allow for a more in-depth exploration of issues than possible with a
questionnaire, though they take longer to administer and are only feasible for smaller groups. An
interview may often be useful at the preliminary stage of designing a questionnaires, since it will
help the designer get a senses of what topics and issues can be focused on in the questionnaire.

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Due to these questions, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) as quoted by Songhori (2007) suggest a
framework for analyzing learning needs which consists of several questions, each divided into
more detailed questions, as follows:
1. Why are the learners taking the course?

a.Compulsory or optional;

b.Apparent need or not;

c.Are statuses, money, promotion involved?

d.What do learners think they will achieve?

e.What is their attitude towards the ESP course? Do they want to improve their English or do
they resent the time they have to spend on it?

2. How do the learners learn?

a.What is their learning background?

b.What is their concept of teaching and learning?

c. What methodology will appeal to them?

d.What sort of techniques bore/alienate them?

3. What sources are available?

a. Number and professional competence of teachers;

b. Attitude of teachers to ESP;

c. Teachers’ knowledge of and attitude to subject content;

d. Materials;

e. Aids;

f. Opportunities for out-of-class activities.

4. Who are the learners?

a. Age/sex/nationality;

b. What do they know already about English?

c. What subject knowledge do they have?

d. What are their interests?

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e. What is their socio-cultural background?

f. What teaching style are they used to?

g. What is their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English-speaking world?

Finally, as Allwright (1982, quoted in West, 1994) says that the investigation of learners’
preferred learning styles and strategies gives us a picture of the learners’ conception of learning.

d. Meetings

A meetings allows a large amount of information to be collected in a fairly short time.

Information obtained in this way may be impressionistic and subjective and reflect the ideas of
more outspoken members of a group.

e. Observations

Observations of learners’ behavior in target situation is another way of assessing their

needs. In addition, observation is a specialized skill. Knowing how to observe, what to look for
and how to make use of the information obtained generally requires specialized training.

f. Collecting learner language samples

Collecting data on how well learners perform on different language tasks and
documenting typical problems they have is a useful and direct source of information about
leaners’ language needs. Language sample may be collected through the following means:
Writer of oral tasks, Simulations or role plays, Achievement tests and Performance tests.

g. Task analysis

This refers to analysis of the kinds of tasks the learners will have to carry out in English
in a future occupational or educational setting and assessment of the linguistic characteristic and
demands of the tasks.

h. Case studies

With a case studies, a single student or a selected group of students is followed through a
relevant or educational experience in order to determine the characteristics of that situation. In
any situation where a needs analysis is needed, a large amount of relevant information is
generally available in various. These include: Books, Journal articles, Reports and surveys and
Records and files.

a. Design the needs analysis

Designing a needs analysis involves choosing from among the various options discussed
above and selecting those that are likely to give a comprehensive view of learner’s needs and that

11
represent the interest of the different stakeholders involved. Decisions have to be made on the
practical procedures involved in collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting the information
collected. In investigating the language needs of non-English-background student at a New
Zealand university (Gravtt, Richards, and lewis 1997), the following procedures were used :

 Literature survey
 Analysis of a wide range of survey questionnaires
 Contact with others who had conducted similar surveys.
 Interviews with teachers to determine goals.
 Identification of participing departments
 Presentation of project proposal to participing departments and identification of liaison
person in each department.
 Development of a pilot student and staff questionnaire.
 Review of the quetionnaries by colleagues.
 Piloting of the quetionnaries
 Selection of staff and student subjects
 Developing a schedule for collecting data.
 Administration of questionnaires
 Follow up interst with selected participants
 Tabulation of responses
 Analysis of responses
 Writing up of report and recommendations

In smaller-scale needs analysis such as that of a teacher or group of teacher asseing the needs of
new groups of student in a language program needs analysis procedures may consist.

 Initial qustionnarie
 Follow up individual and group interviews
 Meeting with student
 Ongoing classroom observation
 Test

b. Making use of the information obtained

The result of a needs analysis will generally consist of information taken from several
different sources and summarized in the form of ranked lists of different kinds.

One of the findings of a needs analysis of problems of ESL student attending university lectures
was a list of the frequency with which students experienced difficulties with speaking and
listening skills (Gravett et all. 1997, 36). The most common difficulties reported were (by rank) :

1. Large group discussions

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2. Class discussions

3. Interactions with native speakers

4. Out-of class projects

5. Small-group work

6. Desmonstrator interactions

7. Class participation

However, such a listing provides little useful information about the prescise type of problems the
learners experience in relation to each event. Even if more detailed information had been
provided , the result would still be impressiontistic. Johns and Johns (1997) providesuch a list
based on needs analysis of problems student have with discussions. The most frequent
difficulties were.

1. Comprehension of spoken English (‘they speak too fast’ : ‘they mumble : ‘vocabulary is
idiomatic’)

2. The pressing need to formulate a contribution quicly (‘I can’t think what to say’)

3. Shyness about the value of a contribution (‘I might say something wrong’)

4. Inability to formulate an idea in English (‘ I don’t know how to say it in English’)

5. Awareness that a given fuction may be realized in different ways (‘I don’t know the best
way to say it’)

6. Frustration about being unable to enter the discussion (‘some students speak too much’)
(Johns and Johns 1997)

In the course of carrying out a needs analysis, a large number of potential needs may be
identified. However, these needs will have to be prioritized because not all of them may be
practical to address in a language program , or perhaps the time frame available in the program is
suitable for addressing only a portion of them. And the mere fact that needs have been identified
does not automatically imply that changes will have to be made in the curriculum. First, the
exciting curriculum (when there is one) has to be examined to see to what extent the needs that
have been identified are being met. Dicisions will therefore have to be made concerning which of
the needs are critical, which are important, and which are merely desirable. In addition, soe
needs will be immediate and others longer-term. For some, solutions will be feasible , for others,
they may be impractical.

It also important to remember that because needs are not objective facts but subjective
interpretations of information from a large variety of sources , a great dealof consultation is

13
needed with the various stakeholders to ensure that conclusions drawn from a needs analysis are
appropriate and relevan.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

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 A. CONCLUSION

Need analysis is a way or method that used to know the differences between the should be
condition and the real condition(what is). A need analysis refers to the activities involved in
collecting the necessary information for developing an effective curriculum that meets students.

particular needs (Iwai et al.,1999). One of the purposes of need analysis is to find out what
language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role, such as sales manager, tour
guide, or university student. A needs analysis may be conducted for a variety of different users.
For example, in conducting a needs analysis to help revise the secondary English curriculum in a
country, the end users include curriculum officers in the ministry education, who may wish to use
the information to evaluate the adequacy of existing syllabus, curriculum, and materials.

Planning a needs analysis involves deciding who will administer the needs analysis and
collect and analyze the results. Needs analysis will be vary in their scope and demands, from a
survey of a whole school population in a county to a study of a group of thirty learners in a single
institution. Sometimes a team of personnel is assembled specifically for the purpose of doing the
analysis, at other times two or three interested teachers may be the only ones involved.
Procedures of collecting information during a needs analysis included questionnaires, Self-
ratings, Interviews, Meetings, Observations, Collecting learner language samples, Task analysis
and Case studies.

REFERENCES

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Hutchinson, T and Alan W. 1994. English for Specific Purposes. A learning-centered approach.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jack C Richard. Curriculum Developement In Language Teaching. Cambridge University, page: 55

Oemar Hamalik, Kurikulum dan Pembelajaran, (Jakarta: Bumi Aksarsa, 1995)hal 30-32

Richard, Jack c. curriculum development in language teaching. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 2001

http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/how-to-conduct-a-training-needs-analysis/

http://www.wiziq.com/tutorial/6723-Curriculum-types

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