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Lebanese University

A Critique
Journal Article Critique of

Zeinab Adnan Hayek

Professional Masters, English Language and Literature

English for Specific Purposes

Professor: Ghada Chhimi

Due Date: June, 18th, 2020

Article Critique

Mahraj, M. (2019). ESP Needs Analysis in Moroccan Higher Education. The Case of Computer

Engineering Students. International Arab Journal of English for Specific Purposes, Ibn Tofail
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University, Morocco, 2 (1), 30-44

I. Statement of the problem

a. Research Topic

The article seeks to address the important role of needs analysis in the process of any

language learning course and especially in the context of ESP. The author discusses this topic

by investigating the English language learning needs of Moroccan computer engineering

students at the National School of Applied Sciences in Berrechid. The author asserts that the

student’s needs are not taken into consideration during the process of the English Language

learning which sets the context for the more specific research problem.

b. Research Problem

In the Department of computer engineering at the National School of Applied Sciences in

Berrechid., English language instructors who are not specialists in the field and who are not

experienced at all carry out the teaching of English for specific purposes. The problem is that

the students are not acquiring the skills of the English language be. To be more specific, the

author states that these instructors are neglecting the English academic requirements of these

students, so the students are having problems in acquiring “the knowledge of English language

as far as their specialty is concerned.”

c. Research objectives

The present work aims to analyze student’s, at the Moroccan ENSAB, English Language needs.

It also investigates the way they are acquiring the English language skills in the context of

learning.

a. Research Questions/Hypotheses
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The author states five research questions that are going to be answered in the research, but no

specific hypothesis was mentioned in the research. However, in the last paragraph of the

introduction, it was predicted that the article is going to focus on the idea that if the English

instructors of ESP at the, Moroccan ENSAB, are not experienced, then the student’s English

skills are going to be weak.

II. Methodology

For this study, the author uses a quantitative research by which it is to quantify data and

generalize results from a sample to the population of interest. In this study, the author uses close-

ended questionnaires for his data collection method, which is an appropriate tool to answer the

research questions. The questionnaires included student’s demographic information, student’s

view points towards English language learning and their English learning needs.

Random undergraduate students were the only participants of this study. More specifically, the

participants are “CE students who are taking English as a compulsory course during their first

year (S1)”. The author stated that “(54. 8%) of them were male junior students, while 15 (45.

2%) were female students”, and that “(48%) is between 18 and 20, while 15 participants (48%)

of them aged under 18. Only 2 respondents (4%) are between 20 and 22 years old.”

III. Results

The researcher uses both descriptive and inferential statistics to calculate his results. He used

tables and graphs to demonstrate these findings. According to the study, it was concluded that

male students are more interested in studying English as a compulsory course than female

students. A circle chart is used to show the gender statistical results. Moreover, the findings
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showed that most of the students taking this English course are under 18 or between 18 and 20

years old. This result is important to show that the new generations students are really interested

in English. The author specified that “all students 32 (100%) stated that they like English

classes.” He also stated that, “Yet, some of them miss classes.” This study also revealed that

most of the students (18 out of 32) learn English because

“they need it for communication”. However, others learn English (08 out of 32) because “they

like the teacher”. Thus, the researcher concluded that “this language is a necessary component to

cope with their studies as well as their future careers”, and “that CE students are highly

motivated to learn English.” Accordingly, the author explained that the student’s motivation is

intrinsic and instrumental. Thus, the findings showed that this motivation should be given

attention in any course design or material development for the success of the English course.

Most of the researcher’s findings are about the student’s skills and levels in English Language.

He used tables and graphs to demonstrate these findings. One of the finding showed that “most

of students’ level of the four skills is moderate: listening and speaking (64.50%); reading

(71.00%); writing (67.70%).” CE student’s English level is low, and that they must work on their

English productive skills.

The research includes many graphs and tables to show the research findings. One research

findings have revealed that the students have a problem in the language production, and not in

the language awareness. The author has stated that “Speaking and writing are the two productive

skills that CE students find difficulty with and, hence the need to develop these skills.” Also, it

has been discovered that students must develop their reading and listening skills. According to

researcher, the data discovered about student’s skills proves that “there should be an integrative
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approach to teach the receptive skills within the productive ones” to develop oral and written

communication in the English class.

At the end of the findings, student’s said that they are interested in fostering their “productive

and listening skills” in English. Thus, this shows that “an integrative approach to teaching the

four skills is highly recommended”.

IV. Conclusion

Since the results show that students are interested in learning English and in improving their

listening, speaking and writing skills, a task-based approach was applied to improve students’

needs in the three skills. Some CE students were asked to work on projects related to their field

of study, other students are asked to write paragraphs about these presentations. Also, the

researcher stated that the students were also asked to sit for mock interviews and to participate in

speaking contests.

V. Implications