PAPER

Needs Analysis

Submitted as a fulfilment of assignment

English Course Book Development

The Lecturer:

Anis Azimah, M.Pd.

Compiled by Group 2

Anggun Fitria Nur Azikhin 12203183012

Boordish Diolaoda 12203183065
Erika Arisanti Sholihah 12203183035
Felinda Nur Lailatin Khasanah 12203183265

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 5thA

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF TULUNGAGUNG
SEPTEMBER 2020
 PREFACE

Praise for the presence of Allah SWT who has bestowed His mercy, taufik
and guidance, so that we can complete this paper. Good blessings and greetings
may be bestowed on the great Prophet Muhammad who has brought the dark ages
into the brightly-lit era namely Islam. Do not forget the compilers thanked:
1. To Prof. Dr. H. Maftukhin, M.Ag., as rector of State Islamic Institute of
Tulungagung.
2. To Dr. Hj. Binti Maunah, M.Pd.I., as the council of Faculty of Education and
Teacher Training of State Islamic Institute Tulungagung.
3. To Dr. H. Nursamsu, M.Pd., as head of English Education Department.

4. To Anis Azimah, M.Pd., as a tutor of English Coursebook Development who

had given directions so this paper could be fulfilled.
5. To Parents who give the best prayer and always support us.

6. To Classmates who always support in the completion of this paper.

We, as the compilers, hope that this paper can be beneficial to the compilers,
the general reader, and the community. For this reason, critics and suggestions are
highly expected from readers for the improvement and development of this paper.
Thank you.

Tulungagung, 21th September 2020

The Compilers

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

PREFACE ...............................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................ iii
CHAPTER I ........................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
A. Background .................................................................................................. 1
B. The Formulation of the Problem .................................................................. 1
C. The Purpose of Writing ................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER II ......................................................................................................... 3
DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 3
A. The Definition of Needs Analysis ................................................................ 3
B. The Purpose of Needs Analysis ................................................................... 3
C. The Users and the Target population of Needs Analysis ............................. 4
D. Administering and Designing the Needs Analysis ....................................... 7
E. Procedures for Conducting Needs Analysis ................................................ 9
F. The Various Focuses of Need Analysis ..................................................... 12
G. Discovering Needs Analysis ..................................................................... 13
H. Need Analysis Tools ................................................................................. 14
I. Evaluating Needs Analysis ........................................................................ 16
J. The Issues in Needs Analysis ..................................................................... 16
CHAPTER III ...................................................................................................... 18
CLOSING ............................................................................................................ 18
A. Conclusion ................................................................................................. 18
B. Sugesstions ................................................................................................. 18
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 19

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
A. Background
One of the basic assumptions of curriculum development is that a sound
educational program should be based on analysis of learner's needs. Procedures
used to collect information about learner's needs are known as needs analysis.
Needs analysis as a district and necessary phase in planning educational programs
emerged in the 1960s as part of the systems approach to curriculum development
and was part of the prevalent philosophy of educational accountably (Stuffibeam,
McCormick, Brinkerhoff, and Nelson 1985). Needs analysis is directed mainly at
the goals and content of a course. Good need analysis involves asking the right
questions and finding answer in the most effective way.
The needs analysis purpose in language teaching can be used to develop
learner knowledge and enable learners to master language skills more quickly
according to the needs of each learner. In conducting need analysis, there are many
things that must be considered such as the steps that must be taken in analyzing the
needs of each student. What things should be focused on when knowing the needs
of students from the shortcomings they have, the desires of students and necessities.
The task is also included in the things that are needed to be analyzed in this case,
for that it requires evaluation. Evaluation can be used as a means to find out to what
extent students' understanding of language teaching so that we know which parts
should be improved in this learning. In this paper, we will explain things about need
analysis in more detail.

B. The Formulation of the Problem

1. What is needs analysis?
2. What are the purposes of needs analysis?
3. Who are the target and the users of needs analysis?
4. How are administering and designing the needs analysis?
5. How are the procedures for conducting needs analysis?
6. What are the various focuses of needs analysis?
7. How to discover needs analysis?

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 8. What are needs analysis tools?
9. How to evaluate needs analysis?
10. What are the issues in needs analysis?

C. The Purpose of Writing

1 To know the definition of needs analysis
2 To know the purposes of needs analysis
3 To know the target and the users of needs analysis
4 To know administering and designing needs analysis
5 To know the procedures for conducting needs analysis
6 To know the various focuses of needs analysis
7 To know how to discover needs analysis
8 To know the tools of needs analysis
9 To know how to evaluate needs analysis
10 To know the issues in needs analysis

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 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. The Definition of Needs Analysis

There are some definitions about needs analysis such as:
a. Needs analysis is procedures that used to collect information about learners’
needs.
b. Needs analysis refers to a family of procedures for gathering information
about learners and about communication tasks for use in syllabus design.
c. Needs analysis is directed mainly at the goals and content of a course.

B. The Purpose of Needs Analysis

Needs analysis in language teaching may be used for a number of different
purposes, for example:
a. 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.
b. To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of
potential students.
c. To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in
particular language skills.
d. To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need
to be able to do.
e. To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is
important.
f. To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing.
g. To discover what needs to be learned and what the learners want to learn.
h. To make sure that the course will contain relevant and useful things to learn.
i. To examine what the learners know already and what they need to know.

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C. The Users and the Target population of Needs Analysis
1. 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 school
English curriculum in a country, the end users include:
a. Curriculum officers in the ministry of education, who may wish to usethe
information to evaluate the adequacy of existing syllabus, curriculum, and
materials.
b. Teachers who will teach from the new curriculum.
c. Learners, who will be taught from the curriculum.
d. Writers, who are preparing new textbooks.
e. Testing personnel, who are involved in developing end-of-school
assessments
f. Staff of tertiary institutions, who are interested in knowing what the
expected level will be of students exiting the schools and what problems
they face.
In the case of a needs analysis conducted by a private institute of language
needs of trainee accountants in international accounting firms, the target users
might be:
a. Trainers responsible for designing training programs and materials.
b. A funding body, such as the local professional society for accountants who
are interested in seeing a concrete product as an outcome of their funding.
c. Employers who are interested in improving the job performance of new
staff.
With small-scale needs analysis such as that carried out by a single
teacher on his or her class, the audience might consist of the teacher, other
teachers, and the program coordinator. In cases of large-scale needs analysis,
there will be multiple audiences for the results of a needs analysis.
Determining the likely audiences is an important first step in planning a needs
analysis in order to ensure that the information they need is obtained and that
the needs analysis will have the impact it is designed to have.

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 Stufflebeam et al. (1985, 25) comment; “It is important to remember that
not all key audiences are likely to be identified at the start of a study. Also, it
is entirely possible that the relative importance of various audiences will
change during the study.”
In any situation where needs analysis is being undertaken, there are thus
different stakeholders, that is, those who have a particular interest or
involvement in the issues 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 (l988, 124) define a stakeholder as “a person or group of
persons with a right to comment on, and have input into the curriculum
process offered in schools.” Different stakeholders will want different things
from the curriculum.
Connelly and Clandinin (1988, 131-132) suggest that when a group of
persons are working on a curriculum committee or trying to solve a
curriculum problem they should think of the planning process as a curriculum
stakeholder situation and ask the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the curriculum situation?
2. If there is a group, what is the makeup of the group?
3. Who set up the project?
4. How were the group's membership and purpose established?
From the answers to these questions, further questions follow:
1. How accountable am I to this stakeholder?
2. How much will this stakeholder be affected by my decision?
3. How much risk is there in ignoring this stakeholder?
4. How much right has this stakeholder to direct my action?

2. The Target Population in Needs Analysis

The target population in a needs analysis refers to the people about whom
information will be collected. Typically, in language programs these will be
language learners or potential language learners, but others are also often
involved depending on where they can provide information useful in meeting
the purposes of the needs analysis.

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 For example, in conducting a needs analysis to determine the focus of an
English program in public secondary schools in an EFL context, the target
population might include:
1) Policymakers
2) Ministry of Education Officials
3) Teachers
4) Students
5) Academics
6) Employers
7) Vocational Training Specialists
8) Parents
9) Influential Individuals And Pressure Groups
10) Academic Specialists
11) Community Agencies
Within each target group, subcategories of respondents might be needed
to provide different perspectives on needs. For example, in conducting a
needs analysis of students studying foreign languages at a New Zealand
university (Richards and Gravatt 1998), the following categories of students
were included to help determine students' motivations for selecting a language
course, dropping a language course, or choosing not to take a language
course:
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.
In determining the target population, an important issue is that of
sampling. In some cases, the population is small enough for every learner to
be included in the sample. In other cases, this approach is not feasible and so
decisions must be made about the size of the sample to be included in a needs
analysis. Sampling involves asking a portion of the potential population
instead of the total population and seek to create a sample that is
representative of the total population. Elley (1984) points out that a number
of factors influence the approach to sampling, such as the homogeneity of the

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 population in terms of the kinds of skills, attitudes, or knowledge being sought
or the need to study subgroups within the sample - for example, based on sex,
language group, or other factors. Where the target population is large,
specialized advice is often needed to determine what approach to sampling
best suits the purpose of the study and the sources of information available.

D. Administering and Designing the Needs Analysis

1. Administering the Needs Analysis
Planning a needs analysis involves deciding who will administer the
needs analysis and collect and analyze the results. Needs analysis vary in their
scope and demands, from a survey of a whole school population in a country
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:
1) The research team made up of two academics and a research assistant.
2) Colleagues in different departments who discussed the project and
reviewed sample questionnaires.
3) Students who piloted the questionnaire .
4) Academic staff of the university who administered some of the
questionnaires.
5) Secretarial support involved in preparing questionnaires and tabulating
data.

2. Designing 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 learners' needs and that represent the interests of the
different stakeholders involved.

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 Decisions have to be made on the practical procedures involved in
collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting the information collected. It
is important to make sure that the needs analysis does not produce an
information overload. There needs to be a clear reason for collecting different
kinds of information so as to ensure that only information that will actually
be used is collected. In investigating the language needs of non-English-
background students at a New Zealand university (Gravatt, Richards, and
Lewis 1997), the following procedures were used:
1) Literature survey
2) Analysis of a wide range of survey questionnaires
3) Contact with others who had conducted similar surveys
4) Interviews with teachers to determine goals
5) Identification of participating departments
6) Presentation of project proposal to participating departments and
identification of liaison person in each department
7) Development of a pilot student and staff questionnaire
8) Review of the questionnaires by colleagues
9) Piloting of the questionnaires
10) Selection of staff and student subjects
11) Developing a schedule for collecting data
12) Administration of questionnaires
13) Follow-up interviews with selected participants
14) Tabulation of responses
15) Analysis of responses
16) writing up of report and recommendations
In smaller-scale needs analysis such as that of a teacher or group of
teachers assessing the needs of new groups of students in a language program,
needs analysis procedures may consist of:
1) Initial questionnaire
2) Follow-up individual and group interviews
3) Meetings with students
4) Meetings with other teachers

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 5) Ongoing classroom observation
6) Tests

E. Procedures for Conducting Needs Analysis

A variety of procedures can be used in conducting need analysis and the kind
of information obtained is often dependent on the type of procedure selected.
The sources of the information can be get from many sources, information could
be obtained from the following sources:
1) Sample of student writing
2) Test data on student’s performance
3) Reports by teachers on typical problems students face
4) Opinions experts
5) Information from students via interviews and questionnaires
6) Analysis of textbooks teaching academic writing
7) Survey or related literature
8) Example of writing assignments given to first-year university students
Procedures for collecting information during a needs analysis can be
selected from among the following:
1. Questionnaires
Questionnaires are one of the most common instruments used. They
are relative easy to prepare, they can be used with large of subjects, and they
obtain information that is relatively easy to tabulate and analysis. They can
also be used to elicit information about many different ins of issues, such as
language use, communication difficulties, preferred learning styles,
preferred classroom activities, and attitudes and beliefs.
Questionnaires are other based in a set of structured items (in which the
respondents choose from a limited numbers of responses) or unstructured
(in which open-ended questions are given that the respondent can answer as
he or she chooses). Structured item are much easier to analyze. The
advantages of questionnaires that the information obtained may be fairly
superfi ial or imprecise and will often need follow-up to gain a fuller
understanding of what respondents intend.

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2. Self-ratings
Self ratings consist of scales that students or other use rate their knowledge
or abilities. Self rating might be also included as part of a questionnaires.
The disadvantage of self-rating is that it provides only impressions
information and information that is not very precise.
3. Interviews
Interviews allow for a more in-depth of issues than is possible with a
questionnaire, though they take longer to admisitrater and only feasible for
small groups. An interview may often be useful at the preliminary stage of
designing a questionnaire, since it will help the designer get a sense of what
topics and issues can be focused on the questionnaire. A structured
interview in which a set of questions is used allows more consistency across
responses to be obtained. Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or over
the telephone.
4. Meeting
A meeting allows large amount of information to be collected in a fairly
short time. The information obtained in this way br impressionjstic and
subjective and reflect the ideas of more outspoken members of group.
5. Observations
Observations of learner’s behaviour in a target situations is another way of
assesin their needs. However, people often do not perform well when they
are being observed, so this has be taken into account. 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.
6. Collecting learners language samples
Collecting data on how well learners perform on different language task and
the documenting the typical problems they have is useful and direct source
information about learners language’s needs. Language samples may be
collected thorough the following means :
· Written or oral task
· Simulations or role plays

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 · Achievements test
· Performance test
7. Task analysis
Task analysis is the kind of analysis of the kinds of tasks the learners will
have to carry out in English in future occupational or educational setting
and assessment of the linguistic characteristics and demands of the task.
The emphasis of target situations analysis is on the nature and effect of the
target language communication in particular situations (Berwick, 1989).
Expert analysis of communication establishes standards against which
current performance can be gauged.
8. Case studies
With a case study, a single student or a selected group of students is
followed through a relevant work or educational experience in order to
determine the characteristic of that situation. For example, a newly arrived
students exchange member might be studied English for three months,
during the time the students keeps a log of his or her daily language
experience in English, the situations in which language used, and the
problems he or she encounters.
9. Analysis of available information
In any situations where a needs analysis is needed, a large amount of
relevant information is generally available in various sources. These
include:
· Books
· Journal articles
· Reports and surveys
· Records and files
An analysis of available information is normally the first step in a needs
analysis because there are very few problems in language teaching that have
not been written about or analyzed somewhere.

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F. The Various Focuses of Need Analysis
Needs is divided into target needs (i.e. what the learner needs to do in the
target situation) and learning needs (i.e. what the learner needs to do in order to
learn. (Hutchinson & Waters, as cited in Nation & Macalister, 2009, p.24.)
Hutchinson & Waters (1987) divided target needs into three terms of the
target situation that is necessity, lacks, and wants.
1. Necessity
Nation & Macalister (2009) stated, “Necessity is related to What is
necessary in the learners' use of language?” (p. 24). For example, a
businessman might to understand business letters, to communicate effectively
at sales conferences, to get the necessary information from sales catalogues
and so on. He will presumably also need to know the linguistic features –
discoursal, functional, structural and so on – which are commonly used in the
situations identified.
2. Lack
What do the learners lack? For example, are there aspects of writing that
were not practiced in their previous learning (L1, L2)?
3. Wants
What do the learner intention to learn?
Another way to look at needs is to make a major division between presents
knowledge and required knowledge; and objective needs and subjective needs.
Very roughly, Lacks fit into present knowledge, Necessities fit into required
knowledge, and Wants fit into subjective needs. (see Table 3.1).
Table 3.1 Types of needs
Present Knowledge Required knowledge
Objective Needs
Subjective Needs
Questionnaires, personal interviews, data collection (for example, gathering
exam papers or text books and analyzing them), observation (for example,
following a learner through a typical day, informal consultation with teachers
and learners, and test are the ways how information about objective needs can
be gathered. While, learner self assessment using lists and scales, and
questionnaires and interview are the way subjective needs are discovered.

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 Table 3.2 can be used to make sure that a needs analysis is gaining
information on a suitable range of learning goals.
Questions for focusing on needs
Types of information in

Sounds
Vocabulary

activities will the learner Functions

Degree of accuracy
Degree of fluency

G. Discovering Needs Analysis

Discovering needs is organised around necessities, lack and wants.
Observation and analysis may involve process and product. Observation of
skilled and unskilled writers performing target tasks may reveal important areas

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 that need attention during a course. For example, there is table 3.3 that suggest
a range of methods for discovering needs.

H. Need Analysis Tools

· Necessities
Necessities are the demands of the target tasks. For example, if we
take assignments as one of things that students have to do, we could analyse
type kind of language need to do an assignment as a way of working out
what the learners would need to know. We could do this by doing a
vocabulary analysis of good assignment, using program like frequency
program or the Range program. We can also look at the last assignment
topic to see the kinds of discourse that learners have to handle. We could
interview the staff who is involved in the setting and marking such
assignments to see what they expect in a good assignment. Another source
of information of this would be to look in course outlines and other
department information to see if there are any guidelines on writing
assignments.

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· Lacks
An important part of needs analysis involves looking at where
learners are at present. The assignment can be analyzed from an information
perspective, from a grammar perspective and from the discourse
perspective.
Another way to look at an assignment is ti look at the parts of the writing
process and to see what degree of skill in each part is reflected in the
assignment.
Another source of information about lacks could come from the
university lecturer who marks such assignment. What do they see as
strengths and weakness of the assignment the learner has written? This
information could be gathered using a think-aloud protocol as the examiner
marks the assignment, or it could be gathered by getting the examiner to
reflect on the assignment they have just marked.
The learners themselves are also a very useful source of information
about lacks. How does the learner interpret the assignment task? One way
of gathering information about this is to question the learner about the
assignment task using a carefully prepared set of interview questions.
Another way is to get learner to talk about the assignment task encouraging
them to say what they think they have to do answer assignment.

· Wants
Learners have their own views about what they think is useful for
them. At very last, information about this useful in working out whether the
learners' view and the need analyst's view are the same or not. If they are
not same, then the curriculum designer may need to rethink the results of
the need analysis or persuade the learners that there is more useful view of
what they need. We can gather information through an interview or
questionnaire.

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I. Evaluating Needs Analysis
Need analysis is kind of assessment and thus can be evaluated by
considering its reliability, validity and practicality.
Reliable
Reliable needs analysis involves using well-thought-out, standardised tools
that are applied systematically. Rather than just observing people performing
tasks that learners will have to do after the course, it is better to systematise the
observation by using a checklist, or by recording and apply standardised
analysis procedures. The more pieces of observation and the more who are
studied, the more reliable the result.
Validity
Valid need analysis involves looking at what is relevant and important.
Consideration of the type of need that is being looked at and the type of
information that is being gathered is important
Practical need analysis
Practical need analysis is not expensive, does not occupy too much of the
learners' and teacher's time, provides clear, easy to understand results and can
be easily be incorporated into the curriculum design process. There will always
be a tension between reliable and valid need analysis and practical need
analysis. A compromise is necessary but validity should always be given
priority.

J. The Issues in Needs Analysis

Nation and Macalister (2009) briefly discussed three of several issues in
needs analysis that have been focus of continuing debate (p. 31).
1. Common core and specialized language
What are the content selection stages that a special purposes language
course should follow? From vocabulary point of view there is evidence to
support the idea that learners should first focus on a common core of 2000
words, then focus on general academic vocabulary common to a wide range
of disciplines if their goal is academic reading and writing, and then focus
on the specialized vocabulary of their particular disciplines.

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 Vocabulary stages

approximately 1000 words familiar

(570

(2000words families?

. Narrow focus – wide focus

Detailed systems of needs analysis have been set up to determine

precisely what language a particular language learner with clear needs should
learn (Munby, 1978). The arguments in favour of a narrow focus include the
faster meeting needs, the reduction of the quantity of learning needed, and the
motivation that comes from getting an immediate return from being able to
apply learning. Hyland (2002) finds support for a narrow focus in social
constructionist theory, arguing for the importance of successful
communication within a specific discourse community. Such a focus,
however, runs the risk of teaching “parole” and not “langue” (De Saussure,
1983), that is, of not teaching the language system so that learners can be
flexible and creative in their language use. If language learners have more
than very short term goals for language learning, it is important that their
language learning not only satisfies immediate needs but also provides the
basic for the development of control of the wider language system.

3. Critical needs analysis

Benechsch (1996) points out with some striking examples that need
analysis is affected by the ideology of those in control of the analysis. That
is, the questions they ask, the areas they investigate, and the conclusions they
draw are inevitably influenced by their attitudes to change and the status quo.
For this reason, it is worth considering a wide range of possible viewpoints
when deciding on the focus of needs analysis, and seeking others’ views on
where change could be made.

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 CHAPTER III

CLOSING
A. Conclusion
Analyzing student needs before creating a curriculum is very useful for
getting effective results in learning. With need analysis, we can find out where
the shortcomings of the learning are taking place and we can know the extent to
which students understand and understand the learning context as a whole so that
as teachers we can choose which learning method is more appropriate to use to
teach each child. There are many ways that can be used to perform analysis,
starting from the simplest and easiest to prepare to those that require a longer and
complicated preparation. For example, questionnaires, self-rating, interviews,
observations, tasks analysis, case studies, anakysis of available information. By
holding need analysis, it can be ensured that learning can be more effective and
run better.

B. Sugesstions
The contents of our paper will help readers to understand in more detail
what need analysis is, the steps, and what things need to be prepared before
carrying out need analysis activities. So that it will be very helpful for them when
doing need analysis on their students later. Readers are also welcome to read
from other sources to get more knowledge. Suggestions and constructive
criticism are welcome to be conveyed to us so that we can fix existing
deficiencies.

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 REFERENCES

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

centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Macalister, John. 2010. Language Curriculum Design. New York: Roudledge

Nunan, David. 1988. Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Richards, Jack C. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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