Asignatura Datos del alumno Fecha

Curriculum and Apellidos: XXXXXXX December

Course Design Nombre: XXXXXX 14/2020

NEEDS ANALYSIS ACTIVITY

Student Population
Students belong to an Ecuadorian public school from 9th grade, ages around 12-14 years old,
from the city of Loja with an A1 English level according to the CEFR and the goals of the
Ecuadorian English Curriculum. It’s important to consider that all students have Spanish as
their L1, most students have been studying English as a Foreign Language at least for 5 years
in the public system, while for a minority, this would be the second year studying the
language and productive skills need special attention from the teacher.

Purpose
The present paper is a small-scale/class-specific NA survey conducted by a single teacher to
investigate the needs that the 9th graders of an Ecuadorian public school in the city of Loja
referring to personal description and family members.
The NA survey was conducted after finishing the first unit of instruction (six weeks
approximately since classes started), using two KWL charts where every student will leave
his/her desire of improving and getting more confident on each productive skill, speaking
and writing, regarding to the topic that would like to feel more confident at when using
English, with special attention in oral production.

Justification
The teacher decided to conduct a NA survey because at the end of the unit, it took a big
effort from the students to present their projects. Their effort didn’t look as a they were
trying to do their best but it seemed more like they were struggling really hard specially when
they had to present their work to their classmates, so speaking became a big issue for them
at this point.
 Asignatura Datos del alumno Fecha
Curriculum and Apellidos: XXXXXXX December
Course Design Nombre: XXXXXX 14/2020

Process
Teacher express the students the purpose of the activity clarifying the importance of their
honest responses and recalls them that even though the activity is not graded, it has to be
completed for the whole class. To lower the anxiety level on students, the teacher explains
that the activity can be done needs to be filled in using their L1 if they need it.
Two pieces of different paper color with a KWL chart on each are distributed to all the
students. The students have a few minutes to look at them and are asked to try to infer what
they are going to do and after confirming questions from the teacher, they will start working
for around 20 to 30 minutes.

Needs Analysis Document

The document is added in the annex section.

Data Analysis

After reading students’ responses, the three most important difficulties were:

 It’s very difficult to remember the vocabulary words, especially for the oral
presentation.
 It’s very difficult to describe my family writing sentences the way I want to express it.
 Fear that classmates will make fun when making mistakes in the oral exposition.

In order to facilitate students’ progress and motivate them to not to feel discouraged by
our first project presentation and outcomes, these are the most suitable strategies to
change in our learning process that will benefit the progress of the students during the
current school year:

1. Unit vocabulary quilt: This is a very important strategy that will reinforce constantly
new vocabulary words and help them memorize them by visualizing them easily and
rapidly. Since the classrooms are shared with other teachers, students and subjects,
we will have to talk to them prior starting this strategy so they will not remove the
 Asignatura Datos del alumno Fecha
Curriculum and Apellidos: XXXXXXX December
Course Design Nombre: XXXXXX 14/2020

papers we will be posting on one of the walls of the classroom. That will be considered
and respected as the English corner. When we start a new unit, we will use a wall
paper, divided into sections to help students memorize and visualize new words.
Whenever a student has a word that falls in any of the next categories, he/she will
write it at the beginning of the class, so the teacher can clarify doubts about the word
and make the whole class to actively participate in this activity throughout the unit.
2. Warm up activity: In order to increase confidence while speaking English to others,
recycling vocabulary and making sure that each student has their own turn to use the
language, every class is going to have a five minutes moment to talk to your partner.
Students will stand up to face each other and talk about what is new, different,
mastered (from a personal aspect), a forgotten word, in the vocabulary quilt. Teacher
will write on the board patterns so students can express their ideas properly, for
example:
 I see a new word under the …………… category, what about you?
 I learned the ……………. word, I am never going to forget it!
3. Exit ticket box: Since our main approach to study English as a Second Language is the
Communicative Approach, and for some students, starting the writing process is
difficult, especially for those who haven’t had the chance to study English before or
for some years as the rest of their classmates, every one is going to write
anonymously one sentence at the end of the class (exit ticket) to express how they
felt about the class, not only about the content but the emotions they felt during the
class. The patterns are:
 Today, I feel ……………… because I learned about …………..
 Today, I feel ……………… because I didn’t understand about …………
 Today, I feel ………………. because I didn’t like …………………………….

The teacher will check this information after the class to target the difficulties or use
more the strategies or vocabulary that made students feel happy or more engaged
to work.
 Asignatura Datos del alumno Fecha
Curriculum and Apellidos: XXXXXXX December
Course Design Nombre: XXXXXX 14/2020

ANNEXES

1. Needs analysis document for students.

Student Name: …………………………………………………………………………………

Grade: ……………………………………………………………….. Date: ………………………………………

Dear student:

This is an activity that will help me improve and adapt my teaching strategies to your needs
and aspirations while you learn English as a Second Language. We have concluded one unit
and it is important to continue improving, so please take some minutes to complete these
charts with honesty, using Spanish if it is hard for you to express your thoughts. The blue
one is about difficulties when speaking English, the brown one is about difficulties when
writing English.

Remember some of our subtopics were: personality, lifestyles, free time activities, likes and
dislikes and routines.

After finishing Unit 1 and presenting orally my project to my classmates on the topic “My personal
and family descriptions,” I think I:

Know I feel confident (It’s not Want to feel more confident Learned and feel confident
difficult at all) when I speak (It’s very difficult) when I when I speak about (It was
about … speak about… new but I learned it)…

.
 Asignatura Datos del alumno Fecha
Curriculum and Apellidos: XXXXXXX December
Course Design Nombre: XXXXXX 14/2020

Know I feel confident (It’s not Want to feel more confident Learned and feel confident
(It’s very difficult) when I write when I write about (It was new
difficult at all) when I write
about… but I learned it) …
about …

2. Unit vocabulary Quilt.

New word Difficult word to remember

Difficult word to write Difficult words to pronounce

Similar word to Spanish Favorite vocabulary word learned