CHAPTER 5: NEEDS ANALYSIS
5.1 Introduction
Analysis of student needs (Stage 3 of the expanded curriculum development model - figure 4) has become increasingly important for language course designers (West 1994:13), since the appearance of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) (Tudor 1996:7-10) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the 1960's and 1970's. With the incorporation of learner training into EFL course books (e.g. Sinclair & Ellis 1992, Hegelson et al. 1999), learners have been encouraged to identify their own aims and objectives (Dickinson 1987:94). However, Richterich (1980:2) points out that the concept of language needs "has never been clearly defined and remains at best ambiguous" (Lawson [1979:37] sees them as "a matter for agreement and judgement, not discovery"), and West (1994:13) identifies a lack of awareness of the existence of needs analysis as a tool in course design, along with insufficient information on the validity and reliability of instruments used and the results obtained.
Needs analysis was an important part of this study, and a number of instruments were used to monitor student needs and adapt the programme accordingly (cf. research instruments 2, 4 & 5; sections 8.4, 8.6, 8.7; tables 55-61). However, in view of the impracticality of performing immediate pre-course needs analyses (section 5.3.2), along with the formative (process), student-centred nature of the programme, and the ambiguities of needs analysis mentioned in the previous paragraph, a further review of the literature (section 5.2, below) suggested a continuous, cyclic approach, in which ongoing reflective instruments and learning strategies would match programme principles by encouraging students to become aware of and continually reflect on their learning needs (cf. figure B-16, below).
In the gradual realisation of this approach, "objective" needs analyses in the first year of the programme (cf. the "Information Section" in TMM, appendices C-15, 16, 17, 18, 19) grew into a focus on study skills in the second year (cf. Chapter 2, NYT; e.g. appendix C-35), and into more "subjective" analyses in the third year (cf. programme summary of needs analyses, section 5.4.6), by which time learning-awareness, objective-setting, and reflection were an integral part of the learning situation (cf. the needs analyses instruments in TWA tables 41 and 42, below; cf. also the evaluation sessions in TWA, appendices C-62, 63).
Continue reading Chapter 5, Needs Analysis: Brief Literature Review