CURRICULUM MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

NEEDS ANALYSIS ENVIRONMENT

Constrains and Steps in Learning English at ASSISI
SIANTAR High School

Lecture: David Berthony Manalu, M.Pd

ARRANGED BY :

Name : Afrio Romualdo Guivarch Pasaribu

NPM : 1801030106
Group : PI.A2

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM STUDY

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
HKBP NOMMENSEN PEMATANG SIANTAR UNIVERSITY
2020

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 Preface

Praise and Gratitude go to God Almighty because for His blessings and inclusion, the
author is still in good health and can complete this paper on time.

The author is also grateful to those who helped me in writing and completing this paper,
especially to the lecturer who has provided many and complete references to make it easier for
the author to complete this paper.

The author realizes that there are still many shortcomings in writing this paper.
Therefore, the authors expect constructive criticism and suggestions from readers to improve
future paper writing.

Hopefully this paper can be useful for readers. Thank you very much.

Pematangsiantar, 19th October 2020

Writer

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Table of Contents
PREFACE 2
TABLE OF CONTENT 3
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 4
BACKGROUND…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

CHAPTER II DISCUSSION 6
Definition and Theory………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6

The purposes of Needs and Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8

Steps in Environment Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Example of Environment Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

CHAPTER III CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

According to a survey about the future of the English language (Graddol, 2000) English
will not be replaced by any other language as a lingua franca for the next 50 years. It will
continue to have a strong status becoming the language of science, medicine, politics, business,
internet, online communication, arts and sports.

Curriculum design is a complex process. It consists of the main steps for developing and
implementing a curriculum. Although there are different opinions about these steps, (Richards,
2001, Nation 2010, Litwack 1979; Briggs 1977;

Nicholls &Nicholls 1972 etc.) almost all of them mention three main elements: (1)
environment analysis; (2) needs analysis; (3) objectives. Environment analyses, often called
‘constraint analysis, refers to the analyses of the context where a language curriculum will be
used. Every context contains factors which may facilitate or hinder a curriculum’s success. This
is the reason why it is important to identify those factors and their effect. The factors may be
social or institutional. Social factors include educational policies, language teaching tradition and
community attitudes to language learning.

Institutional factors include the human aspect (teaching staff and institutional policies and
the physical aspect (environment where the learning process takes place). Environment analysis
is an important part of curriculum design because it ensures that the course will be usable. For
example, if the level of training of teachers is very low and is not taken into account, it might
happen that the teachers are unable to handle the activities in the course. Similarly, if the course
material is too expensive or requires facilities that are not available, the course may be unusable.
Generally, the importance of a factor depends on the effect it has on the validity of a course.

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 The second important part of an ESP curriculum design is needs analysis. It aims to
obtain information about the learners’ professional and linguistic backgrounds, their preferred
learning styles, learning strategies, their motivation, and their willingness to attend classes, do
homework, and commit themselves to learning. Learners’ linguistic proficiency and the lack
thereof are also very important in order to shape the syllabus and provide for quality teaching
and teaching materials according to the learning context.

Finally, the third element of curriculum design is objectives and goals. They are very
important because they assist the teachers and students in directing and defining the vision they
should have along the process of learning a foreign language. The goals help the teacher in
measuring the students’ progress. Similarly, they help the students in measuring their own
linguistic knowledge and progress (Haloçi et al.2008).

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 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

1. Definition and Theory of Needs Analysis

Curriculum design is a complex process. It consists of the main steps for developing and
implementing a curriculum. Although there are different opinions about these steps, (Richards,
2001, Nation 2010, Litwack 1979; Briggs 1977; Nicholls &Nicholls 1972 etc.) almost all of
them mention three main elements: (1) environment analysis; (2) needs analysis; (3) objectives.

Environment analyses, often called ‘constraint analysis, refers to the analyses of the
context where a language curriculum will be used. Every context contains factors which may
facilitate or hinder a curriculum’s success. This is the reason why it is important to identify those
factors and their effect. The factors may be social or institutional. Social factors include
educational policies, language teaching tradition and community attitudes to language learning.
Institutional factors include the human aspect (teaching staff and institutional policies and the
physical aspect (environment where the learning process takes place).

Environment analysis is an important part of curriculum design because it ensures that

the course will be usable. For example, if the level of training of teachers is very low and is not
taken into account, it might happen that the teachers are unable to handle the activities in the
course. Similarly, if the course material is too expensive or requires facilities that are not
available, the course may be unusable. Generally, the importance of a factor depends on the
effect it has on the validity of a course.

Environment analysis (Tessmer, 1990) involves looking at the factors that will have a
strong effect on decisions about the goals of the course, what to include in the course, and how to
teach and assess it. These factors can arise from the learners, the teachers, and the teaching and
learning situation. Environment analysis is also called “situation analysis” (Richards, 2001) or
“constraints analysis”. A constraint can be positive in curriculum design. For example, a

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constraint could be that the teachers are all very highly trained and are able and willing to make
their own class activities. This would have a major e ffect on curriculum design as much of the
format and presentation work could be left to the teachers. In some models of curriculum design,
environment analysis is included in needs analysis.

Needs analysis was introduced into language teaching through the ESP movement. From
the 1960s, the demand for specialized language programs grew and applied linguists increasingly
began to employ needs analysis procedures in language teaching. By the 1960s, in many parts of
the world a “needs-based philosophy” emerged in language teaching, particularly in relation to
ESP and vocationally oriented program design. (Brindley,1984).

Environment analysis is an important is an important part of curriculum design because at

its most basic level it ensures that the course will be usable. There are many factors that could
affect curriculum design, so as a part of the procedure of environment analysis, the curriculum
designer should decide which factors are the most important. The importance of a factor depends
on: (1) whether the course will still be useful if the factor is not taken into account; (2) how large
and pervasive the effect of the factor is on the course.

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 2. The purposes 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 student from a group are most in need of training in particular
language skills.
d. To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important.
e. To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able
to do.
f. To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing.
g. To assess their level of language acquisition in their native language and in English.
h. To determine their communicative abilities in English.
i. To determine their formal knowledge of English.

3. Steps in Environment Analysis

The steps in environment analysis can be as follows:
a. Brainstorm and then systematically consider the range of environment factor that will
be affect the course.

b. Choose the most important factors (no more than five) and rank them, putting the
most important first.
c. Decide what information you need to fully take account of the factor. The information
can come from investigation of the environment and from research and theory.
d. Consider the effects of each factor on the design of the course.
e. Go through steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 again.

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4. An Example of Environment Analysis in “SMA ASSISI SIANTAR”
The important constraints on the special second language maintenance class were as
follows:
1. There was very limited class time and contract time with English. Although an
"English Day" activity has been carried out every Wednesday at school to increase
English lessons, it is still considered insufficient to improve students' abilities at
school.
2. There would be a drop in the learner’s interest in learning English as they identified
more strongly with Science and being scientist.
3. The learners knew that they could communicate more easily with each other in
Indonesian language and their mother tongue.
4. There are various gaps that appear between some students in the school. There are
some who are fluent in English because they are taking courses and there are also
those who are not proficient in English because they only learn English from school.
In other words, there was a range of levels of English proficiency with some learners
appearing to be very proficient for their age.

The above constraints can have an impact on learning that has been regulated in the RPP
and syllabus that is in accordance with the previously designed curriculum. Therefore the
learning process should:
1. Parents should be guided in living their children some extra contact with English.
2. The activities should be fun so that the children look forward to doing them for their
own sake.
3. Some of the activities should carry over to the next class so that the children look
forward to continuing them.
4. The activities should be largely teacher-centered rather than group or pair work.
5. Most of the activities should be meaning-focused. Language-focused activities should
mainly involve correction.

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 This would mean using activities like the following:
1. Listening to a serial story.
2. Reading English newspaper and other high-interest material.
3. Listening and speaking games.
4. Writing to be “published” or read aloud.
5. High-success quizzes and activities with awards.
6. Production of a newsletter where everyone gets a mention.

Sometimes it is necessary to consider wider aspects of the situation when carrying out an
environment analysis. There may, for example, be institution government policies requiring the
use of the target language in schools (Liu et al., 2004), or there may be negative attitudes towards
the target language among learners in post-colonial societies (Asmah, 1992). For example, the
language curriculum in a situation where:
1. The target language is recognized as one of a country’s official languages (the
political and national context).

2. there are relatively few native speakers (the language setting)

3. there are relatively few opportunities to use the language outside the classroom
(patterns of language use in society)
4. majority-language speakers doubt the target language has contemporary relevance
(group and individual attitudes)

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 CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION

Environment analyses, often called ‘constraint analysis, refers to the analyses of the
context where a language curriculum will be used. Every context contains factors which may
facilitate or hinder a curriculum’s success.

Environment analysis is an important is an important part of curriculum design because at

its most basic level it ensures that the course will be usable. There are many factors that could
affect curriculum design, so as a part of the procedure of environment analysis, the curriculum
designer should decide which factors are the most important. The importance of a factor depends
on: (1) whether the course will still be useful if the factor is not taken into account; (2) how large
and pervasive the effect of the factor is on the course.

Environment analysis (Tessmer, 1990) involves looking at the factors that will have a
strong effect on decisions about the goals of the course, what to include in the course, and how to
teach and assess it. These factors can arise from the learners, the teachers, and the teaching and
learning situation. Environment analysis is also called “situation analysis”

In order to understand a constraint fully, it is usually necessary to examine the nature of

the constraint in the environment you are working in, and to examine previous research on the
constraint. Some of the major constraints investigated by research and analysis include the time
available, cultural background, the effect of the first language on language learning and special
purposes. The following section looks at time as an example of an important constraint in the
environment, and provides information that would be useful in helping to plan the length of a
course. This investigation of the time constraint provides a model of the application of the steps
in environment analysis that can be applied to other constraints.

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 REFERENCES

Nation, I.S.P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language Curriculum Design. New York: Routledge.

Paci, M. (2013). Needs Analysis and Environment Analysis: Designing an ESP Curriculum for
the Students of the Polytechnic University of Tirana. Vol 3. Tirana. Albania

https://www.linguistikid.com/2017/01/definition-of-environment-analysis.html

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