TonNuHoangAnh LAN6271 TeachingESLLearners Assignment1

Course: LAN6271 - Teaching ESL Learners
Name of assignment: Assignment 1
Student’s full name: Ton Nu Hoang Anh
Student ID: 10515082
Mobile number: +84937633556
Email: hoang21anh@gmail.com
NEEDS ANALYSIS (CASE STUDY REPORT) OF AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER 2
Teaching ESL Learners – Assignment 1
Needs Analysis (case study report) of an English Language Learner
Tôn Nữ Hoàng Anh
Ho Chi Minh City Open University

Table of Contents
1. A Literature Review of Needs Analysis..........................................................................3
2. Discussion of the Design and Content of the Needs Analysis........................................5
3. Profile of the Learner......................................................................................................7
4. References.....................................................................................................................11
5. Appendices....................................................................................................................13
A Literature Review of Needs Analysis
Regarding the idea of needs analysis, or needs assessment (NA), according to Iwai et al.
(1999) and Stern (1992), it is defined as the activities which help educators gather information
which will be the foundation for curriculum development responsive to the needs of a certain
group of learners who share different levels of proficiency and various objectives. Sharing the
same notion, the National Center for Family Literacy and Center for Applied Linguistics (2008)
added that NA plays an important role in filling in the gap between what learners already know
and are able to do and what they want to achieve through the learning process. Janesick (2003)
also emphasized the significance of NA through the fact that the curriculum not only covers the
areas of content of learning and assessment, but also takes into account the learners’ inner needs.
There are a few examples of the purposes of NA recommended by Richards (2001),
including finding out what particular language skills are needed for a learner to function in a
specific setting, determining whether an existing course is able to meet the students’ needs
sufficiently, or identifying a problem that learners may be facing. (Marshall, 2002) also gave
explanation of how NA can be made full use of throughout the course. Particularly, before the
program starts, the curriculum designers can rely on the NA to decide the most suitable content,
methods and approaches for the course. During the lessons, NA can also be conducted to make
sure that the goals and needs of the learners are being addressed and that modifications can be
made promptly when needed. And finally, after the course is completed, learners’ needs can be
reassessed to provide data for future implementation of the program.
As for the types of NA, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) divided needs into 3 types:
necessities (what learners need to communicate in the target context, lacks (the gap between
what learners already know and the proficiency level they want to achieve) and wants (learner’s
preferences in terms of styles and strategies). Necessities and lacks are objective, and wants are
subjective.
There is a wide variety of well-known approaches to NA but the approaches I chose to
apply to my NA are Learner-centered and Task-based.
Berwick (1989) and Brindley (1989) are the major contributor to the Learner-centered
approach. There are three perspectives over NA: perceived versus felt needs, product- versus
process-oriented, and objective versus subjective needs. In the first perspective, Berwick (1989)
explained that perceived needs are evaluated by the experts whereas information about felt needs
are collected from the learners. In the second perspective, Brindley (1989) defined ‘product-
oriented’ NA as the tool that aims to find out what language learners need to function in a
particular setting, while ‘process-oriented’ NA pays attention to the cognitive and affective
aspects of the learners. In the last perspective, Richterich (1980) mentioned the concept of
objective and subjective needs. According to Brindley (1989), the information yielded from
objective NA will be demographic information of learners (their background, language
competence, interests, etc.), their needs in relation to proficiency levels and language skills, and
the specific settings where they use the language. The other type of needs is called “subjective”,
which are the needs felt from the learners themselves. The information collected may include the
students’ attitude about the L2, what they expect themselves to achieve from the course, the
language skills they want to improve, and their preferences for learning styles and strategies.
Brown (2009) and Brown and Lee (2015) suggested that the information about both types of
needs can be measured and analyzed through a variety of procedures such as existing data,
different types of tests, observations, individual or group interviews, meetings, questionnaires,
and analysis of the target language.

In the Task-based approach, Long (2005) described it as a way to find out the ideal
situations where learners are eager to take part in the learning process. He put a stress more on
the real-world tasks that students can do rather than the linguistics elements. Therefore, tasks are
the subject to be analyzed in this approach. Robinson (2001) also commented that the Task-
based approach makes sure that the NA is highly practical and relevant with the real-world tasks,
thus enhancing the level of excitement and intrinsic motivation among students.
Discussion of the Design and Content of my Needs Analysis
As mentioned above, the approaches that I chose to conduct my NA was Learner-
centered (Berwick, 1989; Brindley, 1989) and Task-based (Long, 2005), putting more focus on
felt, process-oriented and subjective needs. Due to the fact that no individual source or method is
adequate to assess all the aspects of learner’s needs, as suggested by Lincoln & Guba (1985),
Richards (2001) and Long (2005), upon gaining consent from the learner (see Appendix A), I
applied the procedure of triangulation, in which I combine and compared two or more sources
and methods so as to increase the credibility of the information yielded. Due to the Corona
pandemic quarantine period, face-to-face communication was not possible to be conducted.
Therefore, I used a combination of NA procedures of a questionnaire (see Appendix B) before
which I had a small talk with the learner as a form of greeting, breaking the ice and getting to
know some very basic demographic information such as his full name, date of birth, place of
birth, current residential location and level of education. Following the questionnaire, I carried
out a short semi-structured interview (see Appendix C) online via video call to exploit more
information from any answers that the learner already provided in the questionnaire. After that, I
gave the learner a placement test which was supervised directly by video call online (testing
areas of speaking, listening, reading skills and use of language) (see Appendix D). Besides, I also
gave him a short writing task with a real-world topic done in 30 minutes to evaluate his writing
skills (see Appendix E). All of the methods above are conducted prior to the first day of the
course. During the course, I intend to observe the learner’s needs through his attitude and
reactions to the activities provided in the classroom so as to adjust the teaching methods and the
types of tasks to make sure they meet the learner’s needs better. And at the end of the course, I
will have a short interview to evaluate the learner’s perception and satisfaction of the learning
program (Marshall, 2002).
Mentioned by Vargas and Anderson (2004), the advantages of questionnaires are that
they are inexpensive, not as time-consuming as face-to-face interview, and that respondents feel
comfortable to give their answers without being observed. The questionnaire was written in
Vietnamese to assure that students of all level would be able to answer; however it is also
translated into English so that readers of this report can comprehend it. This questionnaire aims
to gather data of the learner’s English language experience, real-life communication settings, his
felt proficiency and difficulties, personality, confidence, attitudes, motivation, learning styles and
his wants and expectations of the learning program. Questionnaires, to some extent, may gather
replies that are limited and does not convey the whole message from the respondents. That is
why it is followed by an online video call interview. Vargas and Anderson (2004) pointed out
that this type of interview gives researchers opportunities to dig deeper into certain aspects of the
questionnaire. It is also much easier to schedule than face-to-face ones. Moreover, video call
interviewing means that I will not miss the non-verbal cues, which contributes significantly to
the effectiveness of the communication process; I will be able to guess the learner’s attitude
more easily. With a view to investigating the learner’s necessities and lacks, he was required to
take a placement test to evaluate his language proficiency, through which diagnostic assessment
was also done to figure out his gaps and weaknesses and to put forward suitable measures to
satisfy the needs.
The placement test was adopted from the Placement Test package of the Four Corner
series. This series was chosen because it provides a communicative orientation throughout the
units, which greatly suit the needs of the learner’s needs of enhancing listening and speaking
skills. Despite these needs, the learner still wished to keep improving this reading and writing
skills. Therefore, the placement test was conducted to test not just his speaking and listening
skills, but also reading and use of English. This test package was also composed by Jack C.
Richards, David Bohlke and Chuck Sandy, who are experienced and well-known researchers and
authors. This ensures that the test is highly reliable and has a high level of validity.
Profile of the Learner
Learner’s background
Nam Anh is a sophomore who majors in Tourism at a university in Ho Chi Minh City.
His mother tongue is Vietnamese and English is his second language. He described himself as a
friendly, creative and enthusiastic person. In his spare time, he enjoys watching movies, reading
comic books and going backpacking.
Learner’s English Language Learning Experience
He has been studying English since the start of secondary school, 8-9 years until now.
The majority of the English program he took part in is from the public school curriculum, he
only joined a few English courses at the VUS Centers (English centers in Vietnam). According
to the results from the questionnaire, he uses English in quite a lot of activities such as listening
to music, watching movies or videos, writing posts on social media, reading comics, speaking
with friends and colleagues. More particularly, he reported that he usually watched movies with
English subtitles mostly when they are in American English accent and Vietnamese subtitles
when in British accent, which can help him get exposed to and learn a wide range of new
vocabulary. He is currently working part-time at a restaurant on Bui Vien Street in District 1.
There are many foreigners in his working environment and he also has many friends in the US.
Nam Anh considers his reading and writing skills to be relatively good; while his vocabulary,
grammar, pronunciation and speaking to be average, and listening to be relatively poor. Although
he has difficulties in the listening and speaking skills where he stated that some customers speaks
too fast or with strange accents, this is a great opportunity for him to be immersed in an English-
only environment, which will help him improve his English significantly.
Learner’s Motivation and Learning Style
Nam Anh’s two biggest motivations to learn English are his desire to travel around the
world and to get a good job after his graduation. Being a second-year student, he still has plenty
of time to pursue his hopes and dreams. As for his learning styles, he mostly falls into the
category of a visual learner based on the VAK learning style model by Barbe et al. (1979). In
other words, he learns best with the aid and stimulations from images, illustrations and charts.
Alignment to CEFR Levels
Upon conducting the Placement test and examining Nam Anh’s writing product, I
consider him to be at the B1 (Pre-intermediate) level in the CEFR. In the oral placement test, he
gained the overall rating of 6, which is equivalent to B1 level and the second half of the Four
Corners Level 3 course book. I put him at this level because he started to have some difficulties
in using the structures to convey his message, although there was not a complete breakdown in
communication. This decision is based on the theory of Zone of Proximal Development by

NEEDS ANALYSIS (CASE STUDY REPORT) OF AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER10
Vygotsky (1978) in which a learner will learn best when he has to make effort a little bit more
than his current level. Although he could be easily understood, Nam Anh’s lexical range was not
large, he still use mostly common and basic words and phrases in his answers. He sometimes
misses the final sounds and still needs to work on his intonation a bit more. Concerning his
listening skills, he was able to understand the gist of the listening but failed to capture the details.
He doesn’t seem to have too much difficulty with reading. His total score for the Objective
placement test aligns him at the rating of 6, equivalent to the level of the second half of Level 3
book. Through his piece of writing, I could see that he was able to build sentences and
paragraphs with good cohesion but he still need to diversify his structures and pay more attention
to subject-verb agreement and verb tenses. Therefore, my NA of this learner drew me to the
conclusion that his overall level can be aligned to the B1 level.
Recommendations
Taking all the aforementioned factors into consideration, I would suggest that Nam Anh
enrol for a General English course using the first half of Level 3 of the Four Corners series. So as
to improve his listening skills, it is highly recommended that he increase his range of vocabulary
over different topics as well as paying more attention to the pronunciation features in the speech.
Being a visual learner, Nam Anh can use images and illustrations to help him learn vocabulary
more effectively. Besides watching movies or videos, he can also do more listening exercises to
help him put more focus and try hard to understand what is said in the recording, not just listen in
an undeliberate way like in movies. Regarding the speaking skills, he is also advised to learn
more collocations and expand his range of vocabulary and structures. Getting himself used to
some basic pronunciation features is also necessary. He should take advantage of the fact that he
has friends in the US and foreign co-workers, which provides him with a great environment for
improving speaking. As a student majoring in tourism, although enhancing listening and
speaking skills are at the heart of his intention, reading more kinds of travel books and articles,
practice writing travel blogs, exposing himself to more topics, and learning new structures will
not only help boost his proficiency level but also brings him joy in his journey of acquiring the
English language.
References
Barbe, W.B., Swassing, R.H. & Milone, M.N. (1979). Teaching through modality strengths:
concepts and practices. Columbus, Ohio: Zaner-Bloser.
Berwick, R. (1989). Needs assessment in language programming: From theory to practice. In
R.K. Johnson(Ed.), The second language curriculum (pp. 48–62). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Brindley, G. (1989). The role of needs analysis in adult ESL programme design. In
Johnson, R. (ed.), The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge, CUP.
Brown, J. D. (2009). Foreign and second language needs analysis. In M. H. Long & C. J.
Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 269-293). Oxford: Blackwell.
Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language
pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centered
approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Janesick, V. (2003). Curriculum Trends - A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-
CLIO.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (eds.) (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park: Sage.
Long, M.H. (2005). Methodological issues in learner needs analysis. In M.H. Long (Ed.), Second
language needs analysis (pp. 19–76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marshall, B. (2002). Preparing for success: A guide for teaching adult English language
learners. Washington, DC, and McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta
Publications. Available from www.calstore.cal.org/store.

National Center for Family Literacy and Center for Applied Linguistics. (2008).
Practitioner toolkit: Working with adult English language learners. Louisville, KY,
and Washington, DC: Authors.
Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Richterich, R. (1980) A Model for the Definition of Language Needs of Adults. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: A triadic
framework for examining task influences on SLA. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and
second language instruction (pp. 287 – 318). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Iwai, T., Kondo, K., Limm, S. J. D., Ray, E. G., Shimizu, H., & Brown, J. D. (1999). Japanese
language needs analysis. Retrieved April 2020 from:
http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/Networks/NW13/NW13.pdf
Stern, H. H. (1992). Issues and options in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vargas, D. & Anderson, L. (2004). A Needs Assessment Tool for ESL Programming. Edmonton,
Alberta: Norquest College. Retrieved from
https://www.norquest.ca/NorquestCollege/media/pdf/educationalresources/NeedsAssess
mentToolAug2004.pdf
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Google drive link to the recording of the short semi-structured interview online via video call:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1AV_KPbPZCOzXGi2njaYPfAOKp-v31emL
Appendix D
PLACEMENT TEST
The test consists of 2 parts: Placement Speaking Assessment and Objective Placement Test
(including listening, reading and use of English questions).
Google drive link to the audio file of the test:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1AV_KPbPZCOzXGi2njaYPfAOKp-v31emL
The materials can be downloaded from
https://www.cambridge.org/gb/cambridgeenglish/catalog/adult-courses/four-corners/resources?
resourceType[]=Placement%20Test
Appendix E
A short writing task with a real-world topic (time allowed: 30 minutes):
Write a short essay describing a holiday you recently had. (about 150-200 words)

TonNuHoangAnh LAN6271 TeachingESLLearners Assignment1

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TonNuHoangAnh LAN6271 TeachingESLLearners Assignment1

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Course: LAN6271 - Teaching ESL Learners

Name of assignment: Assignment 1

Student’s full name: Ton Nu Hoang Anh

Student ID: 10515082

Mobile number: +84937633556

Teaching ESL Learners – Assignment 1

Needs Analysis (case study report) of an English Language Learner

Tôn Nữ Hoàng Anh

Ho Chi Minh City Open University

1. A Literature Review of Needs Analysis..........................................................................3

2. Discussion of the Design and Content of the Needs Analysis........................................5

3. Profile of the Learner......................................................................................................7

A Literature Review of Needs Analysis

There are a few examples of the purposes of NA recommended by Richards (2001),

reassessed to provide data for future implementation of the program.

There is a wide variety of well-known approaches to NA but the approaches I chose to

apply to my NA are Learner-centered and Task-based.

objective NA will be demographic information of learners (their background, language

different types of tests, observations, individual or group interviews, meetings, questionnaires,

and analysis of the target language.

Discussion of the Design and Content of my Needs Analysis

As mentioned above, the approaches that I chose to conduct my NA was Learner-

pandemic quarantine period, face-to-face communication was not possible to be conducted.

Therefore, I used a combination of NA procedures of a questionnaire (see Appendix B) before

program (Marshall, 2002).

satisfy the needs.

Profile of the Learner

comic books and going backpacking.

Learner’s English Language Learning Experience

vocabulary. He is currently working part-time at a restaurant on Bui Vien Street in District 1.

Learner’s Motivation and Learning Style

Alignment to CEFR Levels

communication. This decision is based on the theory of Zone of Proximal Development by

conclusion that his overall level can be aligned to the B1 level.

improving speaking. As a student majoring in tourism, although enhancing listening and

concepts and practices. Columbus, Ohio: Zaner-Bloser.

Berwick, R. (1989). Needs assessment in language programming: From theory to practice. In

Johnson, R. (ed.), The Second Language Curriculum. Cambridge, CUP.

Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 269-293). Oxford: Blackwell.

pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A learning-centered

approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

language needs analysis (pp. 19–76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Publications. Available from www.calstore.cal.org/store.

and Washington, DC: Authors.

Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge

second language instruction (pp. 287 – 318). New York: Cambridge University Press.

language needs analysis. Retrieved April 2020 from:

Alberta: Norquest College. Retrieved from

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

(including listening, reading and use of English questions).

Google drive link to the audio file of the test:

The materials can be downloaded from

A short writing task with a real-world topic (time allowed: 30 minutes):

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