PHASE 2

Business English Teacher Training (BETT)

Introduction

It’s important for the trainer to gauge the needs of the participants while
doing the need analysis . It would help to state the purpose of the training
session and see that the training session merges the needs of the
participants with the need of the company. Should there be any GAP that
can easily be bridged with ONE TOOL that is the need analysis. It requires
institutive element and the trainer’s ability to ask the right questions to
uncover the needs of the participants . The need analysis is based on the
requirement of the specific industry.
There are specific MODES of need analysis and this segment would throw
light on the various aspects of need analysis. The approach would differ
based on the people whom the trainer would interact with while doing the
need analysis. This calls for in-depth understanding of the techniques of
need analysis. The techniques like placement test , need analysis form ,
depending upon the business needs are discussed at length. The samples of
need analysis would provide a STREONG base to conduct the training
session.

PHASE 2

Business English Teacher Training (BETT)

Need Analysis

Setting up things for success – needs analysis

‘Needs Analysis’ is the effective pre-course work for in-company or in-

house Business English courses which not only makes the beginning of
courses smoother but also help to make courses successful overall.

1
The teacher needs to negotiate his/her school’s political structures
carefully and make sure that communication channels remain open and
are enhanced by the teacher’s involvement. The contributions which are
known and well explained to the students & the organizers are likely to
be welcomed & appreciated.

It helps the teacher to understand the difference between the position

of the learners’ in terms of communicative competence and where they
need to be to meet their business aims. Sometimes this needs analysis is
minimal and simply limited to a series of brief question which gives the
teacher rough idea of the needs of the group.

A needs analysis in its most basic form is essentially a blend of

information – gathering activities which use a variety of different
perspective. However simply collecting data is not enough – it is in the
interpretation and use of this data where the needs analysis really
makes its power felt.

On the other hand, need analysis can also be a more substantial

proposition. A large scales need-analysis or a language audit can be
formulated on the basis of the organization – working out its strengths
and weaknesses in terms of communication in English. The purpose is
to build up a picture of the current situation and balance that against
strategic goals as well as short terms needs, involving all levels of the
company. The process may include gathering information about future
markets, customers, suppliers and even competitors. Clearly in any
company there will be major budgetary implications in terms of the
expense of data collection and analysis as well as interpreting it to
decide the way forward.

2
 Needs analysis could generate issues like-

 The level of language competence expected from certain post holders

 How language competence might figure in recruitment policies,
 The evaluation of current language training provides, and so on.

The language audit can emerge as a key stage, helping the organization
develop and maintain a language strategy, allowing it to deal effectively
with language problems in various markets and supply chains.

Needs analysis collect critical information about the current situation,

the position of the learners, evaluate them and trace out the strategy to
reach the target situation.

The course designed (syllabus, methods, constraints, learning strategies

and so on) bridges the training gap between the two situations.
Primarily the need is to be identified & clarified –

 Need of the learner.

 Need of the company or organization paying for the training.
 The school, university or training provider is also a factor.
o The learner’s perceived needs represent the view of the other
stakeholders in the equation, such as the teacher, the sponsor, the co-
workers. In a sense these are the ‘experts’ who can identify needs based
on their own experience and knowledge. The felt needs are those needs
which represent the learner’s perspective.
o Need could be considered in terms of what & how to teach. Need could
possibly be translated into a list of products which the teacher can
deliver to the learner. It could be a list of language items, list of skills
such as giving presentations or asking question in meetings or be seen
in terms of process of delivery with emphasis on how the learning takes
place.

Training here is considered from the individual learner’s

perspective:

 How does a particular learner learn?

 What affective factors need to be considered?
 What methods should the teacher be using?

As ever in language teaching the answer probably draws on both

perspectives.

3
 Specific modes of needs analysis

Customer Care

It involves careful listening to what individual students (or sponsors)

say and then taking appropriate action. This essentially requires both
effective record keeping and information dissemination. Clear, efficient,
consistent & courteous treatment of the customers – both inside &
outside class – is also essential if students and sponsors are to feel that
they are being well looked after.

 Record-keeping – At the enquiry stage, records on individual’s request

or expressions of interest can be noted down and then filed for future
reference. The record needs to be updated as the student progresses
through various course and examinations.
 Information dissemination – Whenever the school offers a course which
might be of interest to a student, he or she should be informed.
Disseminating relevant information is of great value to a school because
it is a kind of advertising and might well result in fuller classes as well
as students who feel they are being kept up to date.
 Clear, efficient, consistent and courteous treatment-

o Customer need to know the exact offer, price and time frame.
o Service needs to be quick and reliable
o Competitors in the market should be taken into account. However
negative statements are not welcome.
o It’s good to learn about courtesy and then take into account the
customers’ national preferences.

Needs analysis interviews

Interviews are helpful to confirm initial comments or conclusion about

needs.

Interview with in-company course coordinators (Focus questions)

 What does the company wants the student to do?

 What are the specific situations where they will do these things?
 What is the list of priorities in terms of percentage…for the specified
jobs? (e.g. 70% report writing, 20% fax reply etc)
 What kind of feedback does the company want from the school?
 Did the students get any training before?
 Which previous training courses have been arranged in general?
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 Who attended the training?
 What kind of requests and comments have come from managers and
potential students?

Interviews with students’ managers

Better overview of training needs and requirements can be gained on

interviewing the future students’ managers. They are in direct touch
with the students’ real needs with an insight into the company’s long
term foreign language needs. They can help in organizing interview
with the key people within the organization.

(Focus questions)

o What do you want your staff to be able to do?

o What are the specific situations where they will do these things?
o What is the list of priorities in terms of percentage…for the specified
jobs? (e.g. 70% report writing, 20% fax reply etc)
o How does your staff cope now? Do they get help from colleagues? Do
they use an agency? Do they take work home? Do they use a translator
or interpreter?
o What level of success are you hoping for?
o What are your staff’s most urgent short-term needs for English?

When managers are talking, give support though reflective listening and
clarifying questions. The interviews should also help to sell your
courses to students’ managers. The clear focus of the questions should
intend at getting serious answers.

Interview with individual students

Helps to analyze students’ precise needs and also help motivation. The
clear focused questions will clearly intend at improving their workplace
language. Determining a student’s level of English in a work context will
involve more than a chat on general topics. They will need to be asked
very specific questions, such as the following:

(Focus questions)

o What do you find most difficult about English?

o Which area is most important for your job: speaking, writing, reading or
listening?

5
o What exactly you need to do in each skill area? (What kind of speaking,
writing etc.)
o How would you prioritize your needs in terms of percentages?
o How have you found training programs in the past?
o What do you think you can do to improve your performance and
success on this course?
o It is also a good idea to ask students to actually perform tasks through
role play after getting answers to these questions. This helps to
ascertain a student’s language level.

At the end of any interview it is useful to ask coordinators,

managers and students;

o Would you like to make any other comments or suggestions? Do you

have any questions?

BUSINESS ENGLISH ORAL INTERVIEW NOTES

Student’s name:
………………………………. Position:………………………………….

Details of job:

Time already with company:

Use of English at work now:

Use of English at work in the future:

Student’s comments about English:

Special hopes for this course:

Interviewed by: Date of interview:

Placement decision:

6
 Oral Interviews (guidelines)

Oral interviews fine-tune placement of students and also reveal

additional information about students’ needs.

Guideline for structuring interviews:

 What’s your job? What does that involve exactly?

 How long have you been with…? Do you enjoy working for…?
 Do you already use English at work? Do you find that easy?
 What will you soon need to be able to do? Do you think that will be
easy?

The previous questions suggested can also be adapted in case there was
no chance for interviews with course coordinators, students’ managers
or students. Can also get students to role-play next, some key situations:

 Imagine I am a visitor to your company. I am going to ask you a few

questions.
 Now let’s imagine, you are at work and I am a customer. You answer the
telephone.

Make careful notes during the oral interviews so that you later have a
useful point of reference when preparing your first classes. With no
opportunity to conduct oral interviews yourself, encourage
interviewers to do this. If oral interviews are considered unrealistic or
unnecessary in your particular context, you will need to glean
information on students’ oral English in the first few sessions of a
course.

Placement Test

The next significant part of communication need is to gauge the

learners’ current communicative competence. The placement test is
a common tool for that, designed to provide a comparison with other
learners (or with known standards or benchmarks) so that learners can
be placed with others having similar needs and ability.
Placement testing often comes later in the pre-course needs analysis
because different tests are applicable for different needs and also
special arrangements are required when large numbers of students are
involved. Placement tests can be produced in-house or commercially.

7
 Written placement tests (guidelines)

If carefully written, these tests can be quickly administered and should

reliably sort students into broad categories. However, because of the
likely inadequacies of any written test it is best to adjust your decision
on placement by means of oral interviews. While preparing the test, the
following needs to be noted:

 The content of the test should reflect the type of program being offered.
Thus it is useful to conduct the initial need analysis before
administering tests.
 The test should be ‘valid’ in testing terms. It should give information on
what the teacher really want to test.
 Test needs to take your potential students into account. Must be able to
differentiate between very weak and the fairly weak candidates.
 Items need to be carefully weighted to take the teaching context into
account.
 Despite time constraints amongst busy working adults; your test should
be substantial enough to give you reliable information. One hour is a
reasonable amount of time to expect a student to sit at a placement test.
 Test should provide a reliable indication of level when administered to
different students in different contexts. In BETT context, reliable
information can be availed only if the test is confidential and conducted
under exam conditions. It is suggested to test students from any one
company, together.
 Test should be easy to administer and mark. Multiple choice programs
are a realistic option for large number of students. With less number of
students marking criteria needs to be clear and possible answers
predetermined for quick marking. A clear marking scheme ensures
consistency and more reliable placement when different people mark
the test.
 Test should give a starting point for oral interviewing. The section
asking questions about the student’s job or focusing on his/her hopes
for the course is very useful in this respect.

Besides conforming to the requirements of the learner’s specific

situation a good placement test also needs to have certain
characteristics.

 It should be quick and easy to administer.

 It should have validity in that it should test what it is designed to test.
 It should also have face validity or be credible to the learner.

8
 Tests should also be authentic, reflecting the target language and the
way it is used (thus a placement test should ideally follow the target
situation analysis)
 Test should be reliable so that if different testers do the same test, the
result should be the same and similarly if the learner took the same test
on the two days, they should get the same result.

BUSINESS ENGLISH PLACEMENT TEST

Answer Key
Part 1: 1E, 2C, 3D, 4A, 5B – 1 mark for each correct answer
Part 2: 1i (order), 2j (credit), 3d (balance), 4r (delivered), 5q
(possible) – 1 mark for each correct correct answer.
Part 3: Award points out of 5 in accordance with the following
criteria:

Planning & organization 1 2 3 4 5

Style & use of vocabulary 1 2 3 4 5
Grammatical accuracy 1 2 3 4 5
Clarity of meaning 1 2 3 4 5

You can develop your own detailed scales for these areas or use the
following as a guideline:

1 = None/no awareness of this

2 = A little/slight awareness/slightly effective
3 = Some – but with many errors, misjudgments or inappropriacies
4 = Quite a lot – but with some errors, misjudgments or
inappropriacies

Part 4: As for Part 3.

Total possible points: 50.

9
Placement

How you place students will depend on the nature of the courses you
are offering. Usually you will be looking for a minimum level of
performance, which you may want to calculate numerically. When
considering students’ potential courses you will, of course, need to
take into account the problems typically experienced by this type of
student, the type of ‘errors’, the course material and the teaching
approach to be used on the course. This will affect your judgment
about possible progress and therefore the suitability of students for
the course.

The following test breakdown summarizes the main focus of

each part of the test.

Part 1 : This tests recognition and placement of formulaic phrases.

Total beginners cannot do this. False beginners often can.
Part 2 : This tests students’ knowledge and/or awareness of
vocabulary typically used in business correspondence.
Students with no experience of business writing are likely
to make to make mistakes in this section.
Part 3 : This tests students’ ability to write a fairly simple memo.
The students’ memo will give an indication of level in
terms of the following: use of conventions and typical
phrases, organization of content, appropriacy of style
range of vocabulary and grammatical accuracy.
Part 4 : These tests students’ write in a broader sense because
there is more scope for error. Appropriate use of
vocabulary or formulaic
expression and grammatical expressions is important here,
as is
planning and appropriacy of content. A student who
performs well in this section may be quite a proficient
writer.

10
 Needs analysis

 It does not produce sharply defined list of things to do in the classroom.

 Further analysis with the progress of the course makes it even difficult
for the needs to be fulfilled
 However the process offers a chance to identify the areas which are of
more relevance to the learner or the company.
 Units of information collectively contribute in understanding, through
need analysis
 Also differentiates a general course from a course for specific purpose.
 On certain courses it can also be used as a justification for what
happens.
 Need analysis is training situation-specific with no standard model or
single best way to do it.
 Not an objective exercise; it entails exercising judgment and finding
compromises to make the best use of resources in a particular teaching
context.
 The learners decide on the best path to progress.

In spite of all efforts, needs analysis is inevitably vague in parts which

tend to dissatisfy the sponsors or the learners.
The teacher thus working with the company is expected to be aware
and able to produce a need analysis that is business like, efficient,
realistic and with no far flung promises for language training and
achievement.
To avoid the problem of using ELT jargon the teacher should make sure
that he/she spoke the same language as those paying for the training
(sponsor).
Conflict can be avoided by regular consultation, clarification and
negotiation with the learners & sponsors regarding their view of the
different aspects of learning.

Need analysis often involves access to private and sensitive information

which requires to be handled with care and confidentiality by the
teacher. Agreement such as Data Protection Acts and Privacy laws are
liable to impose constraints on the teacher and the institutions. There
may also be ethical question to consider.

 Is all the information gathered really necessary? Who has access to the
information?
 What will the department head be told about their employee?

11
 Was the employee made aware of this at the time the data was
collected?
 Is the teacher competent enough to use this information in order to
make decisions which could affect people’s careers?

And so on.

A tidy needs analysis prescribing a course design which in turn dictates

materials design is more likely to be encountered in textbooks than in
real life. In reality it is dynamic and messy and doesn’t end until the
course is over and even then the information gathered are not fully
taken care of. But it is also the best way we have to produce a focused
course. A needs analysis in its most basic form is essentially a blend of
information – gathering activities which use a variety of different
perspective. However simply collecting data is not enough – it is in the
interpretation and use of this data where the needs analysis really
makes its power felt.

Name:............................................... Company:...........................................
Contact numbers:.........................................................................................
BUSINESS ENGLISH NEEDS ANALYSIS FORM

To help us make the English program useful, please fill out the form
below. What do you need to do in English? How good are you already?
Do you urgently need to work on improving the skill? Refer the key at
the bottom before you start.

How urgently do I
Language area How good am I?*
need this skill?*
Now very soon next
Talking to clients 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Letters or formal faxes 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Using the telephone 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Dealing with visitors 0 1 2 3 4 Now very soon next

12
 year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Talking to colleagues 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Reporting to managers 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Giving presentations 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Attending meetings 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Negotiating 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Note-taking at Now very soon next
0 1 2 3 4
meetings year don’t know.
e-mail, faxes or Now very soon next
0 1 2 3 4
memos year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Report-writing 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.
Understanding the Now very soon next
0 1 2 3 4
news year don’t know.
Now very soon next
Other: ------------------ 0 1 2 3 4
year don’t know.

How good am I? 0 = I can’t do this at all

1 = I try but I’m not very good
2 = I can do it but I make a lot of
mistakes
3 = I am OK at doing this but I
make a few

mistakes
4 = I’m quite good at doing this – I
don’t make

many
5 = I’m very good at doing this – I
hardly make any

13
 How urgently do I need the skills? Circle the words which are true for
you.

Any comments or requests?

Thank you for your time.

Decision-making

Post needs analysis and testing, appropriate decisions must be made if

courses are to have a good chance of success. Decisions about grouping
students or timetabling classes might have a significant impact on
students’ learning.

Grouping students

In many situations it is preferable to teach mixed-status or mixed-level

classes if students all have the same needs. Budgets or internal politics
might also influence the way in which students need to be divided up:
the in-company course organizer will have inside information on this. In
dealing with these issues, you must, of course respect the country or
company’s culture.

Timetabling classes

While more intensive courses seem to inject interest and sustain

motivation, extensive courses allow for recycling and more relaxed
learning. Such long term courses might also help students to integrate
English practice with their daily work routines. One class per week,
however, is often too little for a student to make any progress because
of the lack of continuity and lack of time for practice.

14
Ideally, classes should be timetabled for times when attendance is likely
to be high. This usually means holding classes during work time,
perhaps contrary to expectation.

Liaison

Means staying in touch with anyone involved in course set-up, both I

your school or in-company. Problems are often averted as a result of
good ongoing liaison because issues or possibilities are discovered
before they have a chance to become problems.

In order to establish and maintain a dialogue with key people it may

often be necessary to take informal opportunities to liaise – in
corridors, cafeterias, and other informal locations. Sometimes you will
also need to create opportunities to chat by popping your head round
people’s doors. Don’t be afraid to ask managers, or students, if they
have noticed any progress or have any comments. Your question will
clearly show that you are open to ongoing feedback or ideas that you
care about the success of the course. Managers will be pleased you are
taking an active interest and, in addition, their comments should give
you important tips for improving what you do in class.

Keep talking to the coordinator(s) in your school too, because they

should have greatest access to any ongoing feedback or inspiration
(from students, course organizers or enquirers), as well as information
on new exams and materials. Keep them up-to-date on what has been
said in your discussions with students or in-company personnel too.

Need Analysis reveal different categories of needs that forms the

basis for Business English teaching.

Communication Needs

Communication needs vary inevitably with different types of

communication.
One of the aims is to find out maximum about the different areas, styles
and discourse the learners might engage in. This would give a better
idea about the target situation and also help the teacher to gauge the
learner’s actual usage of the language. Language is only one of the
several layers of communicative competence.

15
 First of all to analyzing communication need it is necessary to find out
as much as possible about the learners’ practical requirement of English
that is what they need to do in English. For example, they may need to
be able to use the telephone with English speaking clients or they may
need to travel to other countries in order to sell their product. Tools like
questionnaires, interviews and observation can be used for this section
of the needs analysis.

A brief need analysis chart or form often provided by companies and

schools are a convenient option to gather insight into the learner’s
communication needs. They can be photocopied shortly before a lesson
and distributed to collect snapshots that can build a composite picture
of the learners’ current situation. However the need to fill up the forms
in ‘English’ might be an impediment in getting the entire information
from the learners. These forms can therefore at times be translated into
the learners’ native language or be adapted to suit the specific teaching
context.

However these brief forms are rarely sufficient as the sole source of
information. Further details can be availed through interviews during
the course of the lesson, or by getting direct access to the workplace of
the prospective learners.

 Depending on the level and language competence of the interviewer

and interviewee, the process can be conducted in English or another
language or a mixture of both.
 As an alternative to direct observation, detailed questions about the
target performance area can be asked while analyzing the skills needed.
 The answers can be used to design classroom activities and further
diagnose target language.
 On discussing a typical meeting the teacher can stress upon points like
things discussed, strength of attendance and their intra-organization
relationship, typical agendas, duration, whether any native English
speakers are present, what other nationalities are present, job, types,
whether the discourse is formal or informal and so on.
 Such discussions help the teacher to get a feel of the particular activity
and allow the creation of realistic simulations, mirroring some of the
language used.

16
 During a first-hand observation of a meeting or face-to-face interaction,
the points worth noting is –

o Attendees (names, roles)

o Type of discourse (e.g. formal relaxed)
o Location
o Topics of conversations
o Interlocutors relationship (who holds the power /)
o Areas of conflict
o Was it a typical conversation or rare?
o Did your learner get what she or he wanted?
o Intercultural aspects
o Communication problems

The placement tests here are effective tools for assessing the learner’s
current communication competence. However a potential problem with
the number of commercial tests available for purchase and on the
Internet is that many have tried to use a particular course book or
doing a particular course (they check the point at which the person can
join the course)

Others test with reference to guidelines and standards such as the

standards provided by the CEF (Common European Framework) or
ACTEL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Language) These
tests are often adequate for assessing receptive language skills such as
listening and reading and can be used to get a rough idea of level but
will not test people for specific job requirements. It is arguable how
well they test productive skills (that is where the learner has to produce
language). Most language placements tests ignore intercultural
competence completely.

A task-based assessment can help to avoid such problems. Its design

based on knowledge gained from target need analysis reflects the real
life situation. For example people in need to give presentation can be
asked to model one, an accountant might be asked to explain a balance
sheet to her boss, a manager might have to discuss changes to a project
schedule, and a secretary might have to use the telephone to change an
appointment. The assessment would be done, considering a list of
points. For example, a learner having need to take part in a meeting
would probably require to demonstrate ability to:

 Read and understand the points on an agenda

17
 Take part in real-time interaction including putting forward a point of
view explaining a course of action asking for clarification and dealing
with unpredictable language.
 Produce a set of minutes summarizing the key decisions.

Such a test is sometimes called a diagnostic test with intention to

diagnose any weakness. Once tests have been carried out, the results
can be checked against a list of proficiency or can do statement such as
those used by the CEF or list of proficiency or can do statements, such
as those used by the CEF or ACTEL. Sometimes they may be specially
drawn up for the company or organization involved. Following, are the
example extracts from the CEF and ACTFL.

ACTFL PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES – SPEAKING (REVISED 1999)

from Foreign Language Annals * Vol. 33, No. 1

SUPERIOR
Superior-level speakers are characterized by the ability to:

 Participate fully and effectively in conversations in formal and informal

settings on topics related to practical needs and areas of professional
and/or scholarly interests
 provide a structured argument to explain and defend opinions and
develop effective hypotheses
 within extended discourses.
 Discuss topics concretely and abstractly
 Deal with a linguistically unfamiliar situation
 Maintain a high degree of linguistic accuracy
 Satisfy the linguistic demands of professional and/or scholarly life

ADVANCED
Advanced-level speakers are characterized by the ability to:

 Participate actively in conversations in most informal and some formal

settings on topics of personal and public interest
 Narrate and describe in major time frames with good control of aspect.
 Deal effectively with unanticipated complications through a variety of
communicative devices
 Sustain communication by using, with suitable accuracy and confidence,
connected discourse of paragraph length and substances

18
 Satisfy the demands of work and/or school situations

INTERMEDIATE
Intermediate-level speakers are characterized by the ability to:

 Participate in simple, direct conversations on generally predictable

topics related to daily activities and personal environment
 Create with the language and communicate personal meaning to
sympathetic interlocutors by combining language elements in discrete
sentences and strings of sentences
 Obtain and give information by asking and answering questions
 Sustain and bring to a close a number of basic, uncomplicated
communicative exchanges, often in a reactive mode
 Satisfy simple personal needs and social demands to survive in the
target language culture

NOVICE
Novice-level speakers are characterized by the ability to:

 Respond to simple questions on the most common features of daily life

 Convey minimal meaning to interlocutors experienced with dealing
with foreigners by using isolated words, lists of words, memorized
phrases, and some personalized recombination's of words and phrases.
 Satisfy a very limited number of immediate needs

© ACTFL, Inc., 1999

Business Needs

Business needs play a critical role in language training where it is very

important for the trainer to

19
 consider the needs of the sponsor, who may be a company or
departmental head or the HR (Human Resource) manager. The course
expanse is also outlined by this understanding.

Businesses, in case of any trade deal expect return and profit out of its
investment of time and money. Company-paid language training is also
expected to deliver some sort of profit, be it in form of more motivated
workers, more effective negotiators, better presenters, managers or
whatever. Therefore it is mandatory for the trainer to assure the
sponsors that their requirements have been recognized and will be
addressed while remaining realistic about what is promised.

Some research on the company, prior to meeting people, gives a better

perspective about business needs. A trainer or language school having
considerable knowledge about the company’s product, market, size,
profile etc. creates favorable impression on the corporate clients.
Internet is a convenient tool for the same. But the perspective of annual
reports is designed more to tempt would-be investors. Similarly
websites meant for public are also not loaded with appropriate and
adequate detail suitable for a teacher. Some basic information is
required for the teacher to strike conversation with the company
people, frame the right questions – reflecting an overall
professionalism. There is a difference between asking a manager what
the company’s main product is ( which is expected to be in knowledge
already) and asking about how the company is organized (which might
be information not available to the public).

The trainer is suggested to be conversant with the various business

functions of the trainees involved:

 The engineering department for example will have a perspective very

different from that of people in the financial department.

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 It is suggested to find out a little about the product from a production
point of view.
 Mobile-phone making engineers having knack for materials, technical
specifications and so on will have different perspective from the mobile
phone users.
 The financial people will be more interested in the last auditors report
and next week’s balance sheet.
 The commercial clerks may be more interested in the process (and
paperwork) of actually getting a product to the customer with all the
terms of payment and delivery which that involves.
 The level of the person in company hierarchy will also cause variety in
business needs even if they both have the same marks in a language
placement test.
 At some point the teacher will need to meet the various stakeholders.

These are the people who have some sort of stake or interest in the
English training and could include the learners the sponsors, the HR
department the head of department, the head departments whose
employees the trainer will be working with, and so on. A key
stakeholder will be the person who triggered the course in the first
place .The teacher will want to discuss reasons and possible outcomes
for the innovation in as much depth as possible. These meetings are also
a chance to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the company and as
pointers for further research. Teachers will also use these meetings to
find out exactly what the company is expecting them to provide.

It is important for the learners to have a perspective of the business

context where the language will be used .However, owing to factors like
confidentiality and business ethics such information is not always easily
available. Work shadowing is one way to get around this problem and is
an excellent tool for getting to understand a company’s and or learner’s
needs. Here the teacher simply stays with a person for an agreed length
of time and observes everything that the person does. A variation is to
include teaching and feedback at opportune moments.

This example of needs analysis in practice is a copy of report submitted

by a freelance teacher for a language school. The sponsors have clear-
cut vision of the course they are aiming at.

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 A copy of the sample is mentioned below.

(Sample)

Aim

To assess language competence within Lambada Associates, and

recommend training measures to improve standards of spoken and
written English.

Background

Lambada Associates supplies technical consultants to customers both

within and outside Italy. The secretarial staff often have to deal with
telephone calls and emails in English, while the consultants increasingly
have to deal with clients who do not speak Italian. A long-term goal for
the company is for the consultants to be able to conduct their business
in English (currently interpreters are used). The owner of the company,
Luigi Lambada, identified the requirement for the improvements to be
made in these areas, and asked Wonder Language School to carry out a
needs analysis and produce recommendations for a training program to
meet their needs. He was very clear, however, that the initial need was
for an extensive general English program at a low level, which would
meet the needs of many in the company.

Needs analysis

I interviewed 4 members of the company and discussed specific needs

and perceived problem areas. I also discussed various options with Mr
Lambada. Depending on the results of the placement tests currently
being carried out, the following initial decisions have been agreed:

 Training to take place twice a week, 90 minutes per session. Facilities

will be provided on company premises, including DVD player and
multimedia projector.
 Materials should be based on a commercially available course book,
supplemented by tailor-made materials.
 Groups should not be larger than eight people.
 Attendance records are to be submitted to Mr Lambada at the end of
each month.
 There is no requirement for a commercial test at the end of the course.

The following outlines for each level were also agreed:

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 Initial course (Pre-intermediate): 70 hours. Should concentrate on skills
such as telephoning, making small talk, improving general oral fluency,
and providing a foundation for further training.
 Intermediate: 70 hours. Should concentrate on the skills already
covered in pre-intermediate course (see above), but develop general
fluency normally associated with this level. Content can partly be based
on technical issues normally encountered by the participants. Emails
should be introduced.
 Upper intermediate: 70 hours. Should be restricted to consultants likely
to have to interact with customers in English. The training will
concentrate on presentation skills, as well as language necessary for
describing/discussing technical needs.

 Next steps

1. Use placement results to form initial groups.

2. Confirm times and location of training.
3. Design course and select materials.
4. Select and brief trainers.

Assessment: This formal report is composed with a view that someone

else can conduct the

course. Some of the key course designs mirror the priorities and
conditions laid down by the sponsors. It also illustrates the difficulty of
segregating between information gathering and course design: as in
practice the two are often inextricably linked.

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