NAME : EXANTY SAFIERA SECIORIA ASJHARI

NIM : 160210401071

ESP - C Class

Need Analysis

Need analysis is collecting and assessing students want and lack of a course. It have to
be done before the course begin, so teachers could know what her or his students want in the
class. In the book untitled Language Curriculum Design by I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister
stated “Need analysis is directed mainly at the goals and content of a course. It examines
what the learners know already and what they need to know. Needs analysis makes sure that
the course will contain relevant and useful things to learn.” In pedadogical, need analysis
cannot stand alone. It means that after teachers is done collecting the need analysis part, it
continued with course design, teaching learning, assesment, evaluation then back to need
analysis. ESP (English for Specific Purposes) started to study about need analysis from
1970s. Need analysis itself has long story in ESP. It is shown by having different names of
“need analisis” by some researchers. For instance, target situation analysis or TSA by West in
1994; present situation analysis or PSA by Richterich and Chancerel in 1997. Even the name
is changing or different, the main point is the same. Need analysis is looking for students’
wants or needs and students’ lacks or weaknesess.

In this part, the book said about how to do the analysis for ESP. We know that need
analysis is collecting the data of the lacks and needs of the students. There is a research,
Long, stated that “Instead of a one-size-fits- all approach, it is more defensible to view every
course as involving specific purposes, the difference in each case being simply the precision
with which it is possible to identify current or future uses of the L2 ” ( 2005 : 10) It can be
done by interviewing, questionnaire and etc. In Long’s point of view “Use of interviews is
widely reported in needs analyses in ESP ” ( 2005 : 37)

The question that should be ask also the important thing. We should ask some
questions that could represent students needs and lacks. Lincoln and Guba ( 1985), states that
unstructured interviews are appropriate when the interviewer “Does not know what he or she
doesn’t know and must therefore rely on the respondent to tell him or her.” It means that it
would be good, if the students donot know what they donot know, so while fulfill the
questionnaire or do the interview they would be know their lacks. Another method of doing
the analysis is collecting ethnographically. These would include detailed, longitudinal
observations of the setting, focus group discussions, and analyses of participants ’ diaries and
journals, in addition to the more quantitative data collection methods (see Brown 2 009, for a
discussion of qualitative vs. quantitative methods).

Of course by giving the interview or questionnare, the result must be valid and
reliable. Hyland in 2006 notes “there are 3 main ways to acheive the validity and reliability.
First, Triangulation -Conclusions are developed using a range of data sources, research
methods or investigators-; second, Prolonged engagement -The use of repeated observation
and collection of sufficient data over a period of time.- and third, Participant verification-
The analysis is discussed with participants and its “ reality ” verified by them-.

One of the chapters in this book says about need analysis in academic purposes or
EAP, which based on the four basics skill of language. The four basic skills are reading,
listening, writing and speaking. Usually the priority of the skill is writing, it will define the
strength and weakness of the students. Still in EOP or english for occupational purposes, the
analysis based on workplaces and academic. According to Orr in 2002, “contains six case
studies for learners in the university covering various EOP fields such as law, nursing,
business, and tourism.” It means that this chapter trying to wide-open the analysis and
emphasize on its subject.

According to me, this book is quite good. Its helpful the students to understand how to
design the curriculum based on the needs of the students. Consist of many information and
the way to do need analysis. Eventhough, so many implicit details and for me it is hard to get
the point. Therefore, this book needs to have a person who mastering this book, so it would
be clear and not confusing.