The Online Delta: Module 3
Delta Module Three Needs Analysis
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The Online Delta: Module 3
Needs Analysis In Part 2 of your Extended Assignment you will be discussing the needs of the learners you will be writing about for your specialism. You will be using the findings from your research into their needs to help to inform your choices within the course proposal that you submit. In this section we will explore the principles of needs analysis from a practical point of view, as well as investigating some of the theory behind the use of needs analyses and the way they are described and implemented. After working on this section you should have a better idea as to how to approach this part of your assignment. We will examine a variety of different types of needs analysis and encourage you to consider the advantages and problems with each. You will be directed to a small amount of suggested additional reading that you may like to do in order to find out more about this area.
Objectives By the end of this section you will have: •
Investigated different approaches to needs analysis
•
Analysed a variety of needs analysis examples
•
•
Focused on areas you need to take into consideration when implementing a needs analysis Designed a needs analysis for the group of learners that you are intending to use for your Module Three Extended Assignment.
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Discovering Learners’ Needs The first stage in any course planning model is to establish what the learners’ needs are.
Needs Analysis The idea of analysing the needs of a particular group of learners comes predominantly from the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). A needs analysis is carried out by teachers or course planners in order to get information from and about learners. The course is then planned using this information as its basis.
Why do people enrol for an English course? Or why do parents, employers or national educational systems enrol them? To learn English, obviously - but what does that mean, exactly? People learn languages for all sorts of reasons. Some people have an immediate and specific need to use a language for a certain purpose, while others are learning out of general interest, or because they imagine the language will turn out to be useful in ways they can't predict at the moment. And others are learning simply because English is a subject on the educational curriculum - a subject which they may or may not find particularly interesting. In the contemporary era, English is rather a special case among languages. If someone sets out to learn, let's say, Icelandic as a foreign language, it's probably because they've either already got, or else would like to establish, some sort of relationship with Iceland - with the country, with the native speakers of the language and their culture. But English, nowadays, is widely used in contexts completely divorced from the countries and cultures where it is a native language, and for many learners it's a more-or-less neutral medium of international, cross-cultural communication. For some, it's essential in order for them to function optimally in some specific occupational or academic role which they already occupy or which they expect to move into. For others, knowledge of English is an investment for the future, an accomplishment that will be advantageous in unforeseen ways - in professional or academic roles, or more generally as the language of the global community. A distinction is conventionally drawn between integrative motivation, i.e. the motivation to identify with, or integrate with, the native speakers of a language and their culture, and instrumental motivation, i.e. the motivation to learn a language as a tool to achieve other purposes, without reference to its geographical or cultural origins. Of course, it's possible to have a mixture of these two types of motivation, but instrumental motivation is particularly, and increasingly, relevant in the learning of English nowadays.
This has various implications for the content of courses; it suggests, for example, that it might not be important to include materials which have a British &
or American setting, or which practise listening to native speakers, or which attempt to teach native-like pronunciation; in fact, such things may even be demotivating and counter-productive. So some learners' needs will be more clearly definable than others'. But in any case, the more precisely we can identify learners' needs, the more able we will be to provide them with an appropriate course. This includes providing value for money, since someone, somewhere - maybe the learners themselves, maybe their employers, maybe the country's taxpayers, etc. - is paying for the teaching.
You have probably used needs analyses before, perhaps you use them all the time. Look at the task below. If you have some examples of a needs analysis you have recently used, it might be a good idea to have it in front of you at this point.
Task 1: Needs Analysis (20 mins)Make some notes on the following question: 1. What sort of information should be sought by a needs analysis? Now look at the examples of Needs Analyses in Appendix 4 and consider: 2. What sort of information is sought by each? 3. The 4 examples are different. Decide which sort would fit your teaching situation best, and why. Forum Share : Post your answers on the Discussion Forum. Do other CPs who work in similar contexts to you have the same opinions? See Appendix 1 for commentary on this task.
Needs analysis can take many different forms. Alternatives to a “straight” needs analysis form or questionnaire could be: •
•
•
Setting up a whole class discussion, or smaller discussion groups. You would need to consider carefully how you would structure the discussion to maximise participation, and the type of questions you asked would be important, to ensure that you gained the sort of information you were seeking. A disadvantage to this type of approach is that the teacher relinquishes control. Individual tutorials. Again, structuring these would be important, and learners would need to be very clear as to the purpose of the tutorial. Learner journals – if learners have been encouraged to keep a journal of their learning and views and impressions on lessons, their own progress etc, this can provide valuable information to the course planner.
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•
•
•
Observation based – it is possible to derive a certain amount of information about a group from observing them, particularly in relation to learning styles, but also in terms of linguistic competencies. This relies on good monitoring skills. Homework based – Looking at the homework of a group of learners may be instructive for a teacher in terms of deriving information about their language competence and possible needs. A combination of the above, depending on the circumstances.
For the course planning aspect of your Module Three assignment, you might find it useful to collect information from more than one source. Be sure to justify your means of collecting this information in your assignment. Notice that some of these techniques may be more time consuming than others.
Subjective or Objective? It is important to consider how subjective or objective the information you have collected is because you are going to use this information as the basis for the design of a course. For example, if you use observation as a basis for information gathering, this is a very subjective technique. It is not based on fact, but on your judgement, and you may make wrong assumptions about a learner. Of course, this could be true, to a certain extent about any means of data collection. By using more than one technique, you can be more confident that your results will be accurate and useful. Generally speaking, data you collect relating to a learner’s current use of English (linguistic competence and occasions, perhaps in their job, in which they use English), and to the situation in which they will be studying (number of lessons per week, length of lessons etc.) is more objective. Remember, too, that there may be anomalies i.e. a learner might state a particular preference, but this could seem to contradict what you have actually noticed in observation. If this situation arises in your assignment, it is worth commenting on. In recent years, there has been much talk of needs analysis and its place in establishing a programme of study for learners. As we have become more aware of the need to involve learners more in the process of learning, we have come to recognise that we need to involve them in the course design, to a certain extent. The use of a needs analysis does not necessarily involve the learners in deciding on course content, however. It is a question of how the needs analysis is set up. If a teacher sets a questionnaire, gathers data, and then imposes a programme of study, this is not really involving of the learners in decision making, though in most cases there probably would be an element of discussion and negotiation.
Considerations in Needs Analysis More has been written about needs analysis for ESP classes (for example, a group of marketing executives from the same company) than for General English. This is because it is perceived as being easier to identify the needs of a more homogenous group such as is often found in ESP classes. It may also be because it is easier to define the work-related communicative skills and tasks an ESP learner will need to undertake, and to define these as course objectives. Indeed, needs analyses are sometimes derided by General English teachers as a waste of time. Some learners, after all, have very little idea of what they want or need to learn; they just want to learn English.
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Task 2: Reading on Needs Analysis (15 mins)- self-study Read the article by Seedhouse, Needs Analysis and the General English Classroom. 1. What reasons does he give for the lack of systematic use of needs analyses in General English classes? 2. Why was the needs analysis carried out and what type of needs did it focus on? 3. What do the results show? 4.
How were the results implemented implementation always be possible?
in
practice?
Would
this
kind
of
5. Did he follow the 5 point process for course design described earlier? 6. What conclusions did Seedhouse reach? Are you convinced by his research?
See Appendix 2. Arguments against the use of needs analysis have often been based on the fact that many learners do not seem to be able to identify their own needs, but it could also be the case that the questions they have been asked have been too general to enable them to do so. Often, in negotiating course content, for example, teachers have asked their learners to look at the contents page of a course book, or at a pre-prescribed sequence of grammatical / lexical items, and asked them to rank them according to which they feel would be useful to them. (See also Negotiated Syllabuses later in this unit). This is a very demanding task. It assumes that the learners are used to considering language in the same way that we as teachers are, and that they are confident enough to judge their own competence. Assuming that they are able to do these things, there is no guarantee that, at the end of the course, the learners will feel confidently able to use these items accurately and spontaneously in authentic contexts. Indeed, a great deal of research suggests that they will not be able to do so. We are all familiar with groups who ask for more ‘grammar’ or ‘speaking’, which the teacher duly provides, only to find that in the end of course feedback, the learners say that they wished they had had more and don’t feel that they have made progress in these areas! It is as if the teacher has set themself up to fail by creating false expectations in the learner. Many people would argue that this is partly as a result of the way that the list has been presented in the first place. I know that, if presented with a range of choices like this, I would err on the side of caution, not wanting to miss out on anything. In the case of phonology, for example, a lay-person is unlikely to be familiar with much of the terminology, or indeed the concepts. If presented with a choice here, I would probably say “I want everything which is important”. Most learners would identify pronunciation as something they think they would like more of. It is often difficult for them to judge how they should prioritise this.
There is also the possibility that, in offering a wide range of choices, a group of learners shows widely differing needs and preferences. It is then difficult to please everybody – again a case of setting false hopes. You need to think about how you might present these types of choices to your learners. Again, the issues of subjectivity and objectivity arise. Particularly if we want our learners to be actively involved in the needs analysis process, we need to ask them questions which can be interpreted as objectively as possible, both by the learners and by ourselves. )
Paul Roberts proposes a simple solution to many of these problems in his article Genre Analysis: A way out of the cul-de-sac.
What types of information do I need to gather? The types of information which are important, and accessible, will depend to some extent on your teaching context and the nature of your project, but are likely to include at least some of the following:
• • • • • • • •
the learners - their age, background, personalities their level of English, their strengths and weaknesses their preferred learning styles their attitudes towards English and towards learning English their expectations about course content and teaching methodology their own motivations, aims and aspirations the contexts of their present and/or future use of English - including situations, topics, functions, roles, relationships, skills, levels of performance and accuracy required the time, materials and resources available
Four Important NBs NB Some of the items listed in the section above are, of course, not really 'needs', as such, but they are all types of data which will inform the design of the course. NB It may be helpful to separate out “wants” and “needs”. Wants = what the learners say they want (or perhaps what their parents or employers or others say they want). Needs = what you identify as significant lacks or weakness NB Over recent years there has been a noticeable shift in focus on what can be included in a Needs Analysis away from purely objective goals and linguistic information towards inclusion of more subjective information, with humanism, learner autonomy and other personal factors becoming more significant in considering needs.
NB Another consideration is the need to “go deeper”. For example, finding out that a student needs “more grammar” is a relatively broad and, thus, relatively useless conclusion. Finding out specific grammatical areas that need to be focussed on directly related to the purposes for which they will need English is a different prospect altogether. The following short description of “purpose mining” in the context of an ESP group of hotel receptionists may help to clarify the idea of going deeper to reveal more than just a general, bland statement that “We need English to work on Reception”
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Purpose-mining Ask the learners: "Tell me one specific task that you need to use English for". When they answer that, ask further questions that go deeper into the previous answer and uncover more and more wide-ranging details e.g. "What does the hotel counter look
like?"; "What's the first thing that happens?"; "What kind of questions does your customer ask?"; "How do you feel when that happens?" etc. Each time you get an answer, ask more, like a miner digging deeper into the situation, moving slowly from the general situation down towards specific task difficulties and language problems. Aim to build up a focused detailed picture of one or more specific contexts or occasions where your students need English.
Analysing language ability When initially finding about learners’ language level (i.e. at this Needs Analysis stage – rather than when assessing progress and later outcomes) don’t fall into the trap of only looking at, say Grammar and Speaking. Any effective analysis might need to cover, to some degree, all skills and systems (though only in so far as they are relevant to what you already know about any needs or requirements). Keep the map of 4 systems and 4 skills in your head. Unless you have a sound reason to do otherwise, plan to find out something about all 8 areas. language systems: grammar, lexis, phonology, written and spoken discourse language skills: reading, writing, listening, speaking
A final point about needs analysis is a consideration of when it takes place.
When is the right time to do a needs analysis? The answer to this may seem obvious – at the start of a course. However, course planning also occurs mid-course i.e. we may want to stop and take stock prior to planning the next phase of a course. This can sometimes make the design of a needs analysis easier. Learners are more likely to be able to state preferences and choices based on recent experience, for example, of activity or lesson types recently used by the teacher. It can be helpful, then, in designing questions, to consider how much shared experience and knowledge the needs analysis writer can exploit.
The most obvious right time is before the start of a course, since the needs "+
analysis will be an important factor in determining what the course consists of. For this assignment, you are required to do the Needs Analysis at the start of the project (though this could be in a middle part of a longer course). The resulting 20 hour programme should be a complete self-contained course in its own right – though it could be one run as part of a longer, ongoing wider course (e.g. as part of a whole year programme). Of course, it's also important to conduct ongoing needs analysis during a course, since the needs identified before the start will change in the light of progress being made, while new needs and priorities may emerge as the course proceeds. As a teacher, you are in any case constantly revising your impressions of what would be useful for your learners to focus on, and this is a kind of informal ongoing needs analysis. Particularly on longer courses, you m ay find it advisable to conduct a more formal needs analysis at certain points during the course – and this may be worth timetabling into your course programme.
Task 3: Overcoming Problems in Needs Analyses (20 mins)- self-study How have the problems and considerations of needs analyses outlined above been overcome (or not) in the different examples of needs analysis you looked at earlier? (See Appendix for the examples). Consider the following issues: •
•
•
Wording of choices (i.e. has jargon been used which learners are unlikely to understand or be able to evaluate themselves on?) Expectations (i.e. are unrealistic expectations being created?) Subjectivity / objectivity (i.e. how open to misinterpretation is the data being sought?)
See Appendix 3.
For your assignment, you will need to carry out a needs analysis with a particular group of learners. The key word here is needs. Part of the thrust of your questions will probably consider how and when your learners will need to use English, as we have seen from the previous examples. This may differ radically from group to group. Be careful at this stage to separate any existing syllabus you have from this needs analysis. With an exam class, for instance, the outline of a syllabus will be implied by the demands of the exam i.e. any group of learners studying for the same exam anywhere in the world would have similar features in their courses. However, within this exam syllabus different learners will have different strengths and weaknesses (i.e. needs). The resulting course will be a marriage between the learners’ needs, the supplied coursebook, and the demands of the exam. In the case of your Module Three assignment, you are attempting to identify and define needs for a minimum of 20 hours of a course of your choice, but not for the whole course. For further reading on needs analysis, see The Language Teaching Matrix (chapter 1), English for Specific Purposes (chapter 6) and A Course in Language Teaching (module 12). ""
Where should I look in order to gather data for needs analysis? The most obvious source of information is the learners themselves. You should certainly conduct formal diagnostic tests to find out their linguistic strengths and weaknesses and identify priorities for your course design. The list of other ideas below is adapted from Learning Teaching (J. Scrivener 2005)
Consider: • •
•
where learners are starting from: their present language level, current problems, etc.; what learners would like to learn (which may be different from what they need); how they want to study it (people have very different preferences about how they learn things).
We might use formal gathering procedures (e.g. setting questionnaires, tests, etc.) or approach it more informally (e.g. gleaning information from chats and activities over a period of time). Some key tools would be: • writing: the learner writes comments, information, answers to questions, etc.; • speaking: the learner speaks with you or with other students; • observing: you observe the learner at work (in class or at the workplace). Writing The learners are asked to: • fill in a questionnaire (e.g. about their work, interests, previous study, etc.);
• choose the best answer from a selection (e.g. ‘I like doing written work for homework,’ ‘I • •
like to do reading for homework,’ ‘I like to go over classwork for homework,’ ‘I don’t like homework’); gap-fill (or complete) sentences (e.g. ‘In class, I particularly enjoy working on !’); delete the things that are not true for you (e.g. I never / sometimes / often have to write in English); take a language test;
• • tick the picture/diagrams that represent their use of English (e.g. pictures of office telephoning, greeting customers, etc.);
• write a paragraph about topics set by teacher (e.g. ‘Your successes and difficulties with • •
speaking English’); write a letter/an e-mail/a note to your teacher (e.g. ‘Your hopes for this course’); write a homework essay about what you want to learn and why.
Speaking You can:
• interview learners individually or in pairs; • plan activities to focus learners on specific issues, leading to discussion; • ask learners to select (and reject) items from a menu or a set of cards, discussing their reasons with each other;
• ask informally for advice about what would be useful to work on next lesson; • collect oral (or written) feedback comments (e.g. about the usefulness of work you are doing) at the end of lessons; "#
• show the intended coursebook for the course and discuss it together with the class (e.g. ‘Shall we use it?’ ‘How?’ ‘How much?’ ‘Pace?’ etc.); get learners to help plan the course, the week or the next lesson; organise a social event at which informal discussions on needs arise;
• • • ask learners to describe/draw/make a model of their workplace or a diagram of their company structure, etc. Observation
• Set the students tasks to do in class that will allow you to observe them working, speaking and using language. This will give you a chance to diagnose their language/skills problems and discover more about what they need.
• If you have a one-to-one student, it may be possible to observe him at his workplace and get a realistic idea of what he needs to do with English.
• Ask each learner to bring in samples of material they work with (or expect to work with in the future): leaflets, letters, tasks, professional magazines, etc. NB If the learners’ language level is low, many of the Needs analyses ideas could be used in their mother tongue.
Don’t forget that other people who may be accessible and able to contribute relevant information include:
• • • •
other English teachers and/or educational administrators (previous test results, achievement reports) employers and potential employers (recruitment ads, job descriptions) teaching staff in other subjects, in the case of EAP, ESOL parents, in the case of Young Learners
Generally, the more sources of information you can use, the more complete and reliable a picture you will be able to form.
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Avoiding Token Needs Analysis The biggest danger with Needs Analysis is that it can all end up as a rather token exercise. Teachers prepare questions that ask relatively little and get answers that reveal relatively little and, as a result, the whole thing has minimal impact on the course that is subsequently planned (which may have been the hoped-for outcome on the teacher’s part anyway!) In asking big broad questions (as many Needs Analyses tend to do) such as “Do you need more listening?” or “Do you need to use social English?” you are likely to get only broad, largely useless responses. The secret to a good Needs Analysis is finding a way to get answers that are actually true, relevant and meaningful – and this is surprisingly hard to do. But the better the quality of the data you get out of the process, the more the rest of your assignment will “write itself”! If you can find genuine, concrete, addressable needs, then the planning of a course neatly starts falling into place. So...
• Prepare really useful questions and then plan a way of getting real answers out of learners (and others). For example, if you try to cram a quick questionnaire into 5 minutes at the end of a lesson you will get virtually worthless answers. But plan the Needs Analysis as, for example:
• a three stage process – e.g. a few initial questions which learners answer – and from which you prepare a detailed, more-focussed follow-on questionnaire – and which you allow quiet focussed time for answering – and whose responses you later discuss one-to-one with some or all learners Something like this is likely to produce a valuable resource of data, quotes, statistics etc – and a real basis for your course plan and tests. At the other extreme, beware of a Needs Analysis that takes ages to complete or do and seems to the students to take up an undue amount of course time. Learners can tire very quickly of being asked to do things whose value is not immediate and obvious. Overconsideration of needs can be as much of a sin as ignoring their existence completely.
Question words One way of planning a Needs Analysis is to first consider what range of WH questions you could ask the learner under a number of headings. You can consider where the learner is starting from, where they hope to head to (the “target situation”) and the route between the two (the “learning context). Ideas in the table below are partially drawn from English for Specific Purposes, Hutchinson & Waters, 1987. The sample focuses and questions are only examples. Try using the question words and the column headings to generate more of your own.
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And remember – some things are observable rather than askable of students!
Start Point Who?
Why?
Learning context
Target situation Who will you be in future?
Who are you?
Who are you in class?
The learners’ identity and language skills, inc age, sex, nationality, command of target language etc
What kind of learner are you?
Why have you learnt English before?
Why are you learning here, now?
Why are you studying the language?
Was it your choice?
Compulsory / optional? Status / money / promotion?
The purposes for which the target
Other’s? Specific or general aim?
e.g. Manager? Presenter? Guide? etc
What Learning style do you have?
language is required
Motivation in class, response to method, energy, ability to focus / study on their own, need for direction / peer support What?
What have you achieved so far in learning English?
Level, tests, books used etc Objectives reached or missed?
What will you use to help yourself learn?
Teacher(s), classes, coursebook, exercises, resources, materials, workbooks, teacher knowledge, out-of-class opportunities
What language will you study?
What language items have priority? 5 language systems; 4 language skills; tasks Specification of variety and/or dialect; e.g. UK / US? content area / subjects / topics (e.g. architecture, computers) interpersonal attitude and tones the learner needs to master
When?
When did you last study?
When will you study?
Years ago? Weeks ago?
Dates, times, frequency and whether the course is prior to, or simultaneous with target situation
Not since school?
When will you use the language?
Times, frequency, duration
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Where?
Where did you study?
Where will you study?
School? Privately?
The educational setting – e.g. private language school class of six people, in-company class of two
Where will you use the language?
Physical setting (at work, at conferences, etc) Human setting ( alone, presentations etc) Linguistic context (home / abroad)
With whom?
With whom did you study?
With whom will you study?
Teacher? (Trained? Friendly?) Teacher? (Trained? Friendly?) Other students? (Peers, strangers, friends, same age, colleagues)
How?
Other students? (Peers, strangers, friends, same age, colleagues etc ?)
How did you study? was it?
How How will the study be done? How should we work together? Traditional methods? Lots of grammar? Difficult? Teaching methodology, Enjoyable? learning styles, evaluation methods, home study etc Learning background? Expectations?
How will you help the teacher?
With whom will you be interacting
Peers, strangers, friends, same age, colleagues etc ? NS / NNS? Expert / layman? relationship? (E.g. customer) How will the target language be used?
What kind of language? the medium (spoken / written, receptive / productive), the type of text (lecture/technical manual/informal convers. etc), the channel (i.e. face to face, indirect, telephone, meetings etc )
How much?
How much did you achieve?
How much input / intake is possible?
How much English do you need? What is the target level?
Do you feel you got where you wanted? Psychological effect of sucess or not?
What is the working pace? How much is learnt? recalled? used? How fast does input become intake?
The Target level – the degree of mastery which you will need to gain
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Task 4: Designing a Needs Analysis (45 mins) Look back at the examples of needs analyses earlier in this unit (in Appendix 4). Decide if there is an approach which particularly lends itself to your group. It may well be that you choose to combine questions from a range of different sources. Design a needs analysis questionnaire. If possible, try it out on a different but similar group of learners, or perhaps ask a colleague to do so for you. Look at the data you obtain and decide if there are any questions which could be reworded to avoid misinterpretation, or which could be made more directive. Forum Share: Post on the Discussion Forum the 3 most successful questions from your final questionnaire for the discussion group to comment on. See Appendix 4.
Negotiated Syllabus In 1983 a symposium was set up in Toronto to discuss the issue of the future of syllabus design in English Language Teaching. In a paper presented there, Breen put forward a very strong argument for involving learners in the negotiation of classroom content. He wanted “to engage learners themselves in the design of their own classroom syllabus” (General English Syllabus Design, p58). This process of discussion is sometimes referred to as a negotiated syllabus, an idea which has increased in popularity in recent years. In a sense, this is a misnomer, as we shall see later. But for now, let’s take the idea of working through with students how their course should be organised. There are clearly advantages to such an approach. It is likely that learners will appreciate the fact that their course is being designed in a personalised way, and that they have the opportunities to make requests and state their preferences. As we have seen, there can be disadvantages too, particularly if learners are not used to being asked for their views. There can even be a danger that the teacher appears not to know how to go about designing their course!
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What should I do with all this information? Collating and considering all the information you have been able to gather will enable you to decide what are realistic aims and objectives, what to include in your course, how the various components should be weighted and which should be prioritised over others, and what types of materials and methodology should be employed. In your assignment, you will describe the needs analysis procedures you used and present a summary of the materials, actual tests, questionnaires, etc. in the Appendices - these should be clearly numbered and named for ease of reference. But make sure you do not leave the work of interpreting the data to the reader; this is your job. The appendices are only for checking out original sources and comparing them against your conclusions. The reader will not plough through trying to make his or her own sense of the message conveyed by the data.
Objectives can be formulated in terms of:
• • •
the real-world tasks that learners will be able to fulfil the skills, sub-skills and strategies they will be able to employ the language items they will be able to understand and/or use
However the objectives are formulated, they should be fine-tuned to specify, as relevant:
• • • • • •
how well? how successfully? how accurately? how confidently? in what circumstances? at what speed? etc.
You obviously have to be realistic in assessing how far you can go towards meeting the needs you have identified within the 20 hours available for the course you are planning. The more precisely the objectives are stated, the easier it will be to evaluate the learners' progress and achievement, and the success of the course.
What if the results of my needs analysis are ambiguous or contradictory? It's quite likely, in fact, that the results of your needs analysis will point in more than one clear direction. Here are two possible scenarios:
1 A group of learners who use English in their work say in answer to your questionnaire or interview that their most urgent need is to improve their grammatical accuracy, but observation of them actually carrying out job-related tasks suggests that their level of grammatical accuracy is quite high; the mistakes they do make don't have a detrimental effect on their performance, and that in order to improve their performance they would benefit most of all from vocabulary expansion and developing their interactive speaking skills. What should you do? You might perhaps decide to include a small amount of work on grammatical accuracy initially, so that the learners feel their expressed needs are being met. But you would probably decide to focus ")
rather more on the needs you have identified, and include some class discussion based on analysis of their performance, with the aim of persuading the class that your decision is wellfounded.
2 Your needs analysis reveals quite disparate needs among a group of learners, perhaps related to different vocational or academic needs or aspirations. What should you do? You will naturally try to ensure that all components of the course are as relevant as possible to all class members. Perhaps there's scope for including activities in which by playing different roles, different learners get the chance to practise different skills? One of the modern watchwords of education is differentiation – i.e. allowing different people with different levels and skills to get something useful out of being in the same class.
3 Similarly, you might find that two members of a class of ten appear to be strongly 'kinaesthetic' in their learning style, while the other eight are broadly 'auditory' and 'visual'. What should you do? You will probably decide to include a variety of types of activity which goes some way towards providing for everyone's preferences of learning style; the result will inevitably be a compromise. (However, be careful in using terms like 'kinaesthetic' as labels for people - the labels are simplistic, and people are more complex!)
The usefulness (or not) of Needs Analyses Needs analyses are not always as useful as teachers hope they might be. This may be because learners (for some reason) have not taken their task seriously enough and have produced little information, or information they have not thought very carefully about, or even untrue information. This suggests that it is essential to carefully introduce a Needs analysis task so that learners understand the importance and value of what they are doing and take an appropriate amount of time to complete it. One useful purpose in doing a Needs analysis (even if you entirely ignore the resulting data!) is to allow learners to discover that other people in the room have different views, expectations and needs than themselves. It’s natural that a student might imagine that everyone in class has approximately similar ideas to his own; to discover the breadth of different views can be an important ‘light-bulb’ moment, and thus a Needs analysis can be a vital awareness.
‘But, teacher – you know best’ Students may find the concept and practice of Needs analysis difficult. They may greet a Needs analysis with comments such as ‘You are the teacher – you know best,’ ‘You decide. I trust you.’ This may be because the learner genuinely doesn’t know what he wants or needs, or it may be because he can’t be bothered or doesn’t think that it is a student’s job to think about things like this. Many students may have spent their whole educational career being told what to do all the time, constantly presented with work that has included minimal elements of choice. They may never have stopped to realise that what they learn and how they do it involves their own personal choice, and that it is their own time and energy they are investing. It may be a real surprise to be asked what they want or need, and not surprisingly they might need a clear explanation as to the purpose of it – and guidance as to how to start thinking about and conveying their ideas. Humans don’t necessarily think first and then write down their ideas. Often I don’t know what I think about something until I start writing my ideas down; then I find during the process of writing that my thoughts are becoming clearer and more structured. Maybe then I have to cross out the first two paragraphs, but I needed to write them to get me to paragraph 3 (which is a cracker!). Your students may find that the same thing happens to them when they start to wonder what their needs are.
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The process of writing (or talking) about things helps to give some form to thoughts that maybe didn’t exist in any clarity until then. (I often find myself saying something like the content of this paragraph to suspicious learners; it sometimes helps!) You may still come across the 100% ‘abdicating’ student – one who gives up any right to make any decision about his own future. It’s worth pointing out to such a student that he is crediting me, the teacher, with magical, wizard-like ‘mind-reading’ abilities. My response will probably be to state that, yes, I do know something about language and teaching, but I am not an expert on him and have no insight into the inside of his head, his past life and learning, his preferences or his future plans. I hope – by means of explaining why it is important – to encourage this learner to realise that ‘learning’ is not another product that one buys ready-made off the shelf, but is something that has to be adjusted and remade every time. It is a ‘living’ thing, not a piece of dead meat. I don’t always manage to persuade every learner, but it’s worth trying! Curiously, the hard-line abdicator is often the very same student who complains at the end of courses, saying how unsuitable and useless the course was, and how the teacher knows nothing about what students need.
Other problems with Needs analyses Other problems with Needs analyses may arise when the learners have not themselves chosen to do the course (e.g. because the students have to attend secondary school or because a course has been chosen and paid for by an employee’s company). Of course, in these circumstances, a Needs analysis may serve an additional purpose: encouraging the course participants to start taking ownership of their course, making choices about what they want or need (rather than assuming that everything has already been decided and is cut and dried). When people feel they have some power or responsibility over what happens to them, it can really change their attitude to it. Of course, with any Needs analysis, there might be a danger that, in asking people what they want or hope for, you might lead them to expect that everything they ask for will happen. Having said that, I guess it’s much better to find out rather than to pretend that the differences don’t exist.
Cambridge Guidance The following guidance is given in the Delta Modules handbook:
Length: 900 words
• Who is your specialist group? What are their main characteristics? e.g. age, educational and language level, nationality, learning style(s), motivations, job, etc.
• How did you identify the needs of your specialist group? For example: Did you use a questionnaire, interviews, examination results?
•
What form of diagnostic testing did you use? What were the results of the diagnostic test(s)? How did you use these in clarifying the learners’ needs and identifying language areas requiring attention? What aspects did you focus on and why? What priorities have you identified from the above? •
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Advice to candidates
• A portrait of the group of learners is needed with emphasis on language learning
• • •
background, motivation, learning styles, learning needs and level, and should include comments on the candidate’s assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Questionnaires and/or interviews may be used here. In order to adhere to the word count candidates need to provide brief, relevant information.
Candidates are expected to show awareness of principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing. Terminology should be used and referenced to its sources.
•
Understanding of principles of needs analysis and diagnostic testing does not mean purely stating lists of factors. Candidates need to show how awareness of these principles has influenced their choice of diagnostic assessment procedures.
•
Candidates are expected to choose appropriate diagnostic test(s) to diagnose the group’s strengths and weaknesses. Simply using off-the-shelf placement tests is unlikely to be sufficient. The diagnostic test(s) should address language and skills areas (e.g. grammar, lexis, discourse, phonology, reading, listening, writing and speaking) as appropriate to the learners’ needs and goals and the objectives of the course.
•
It is essential that candidates show how they have used the needs analysis and diagnostic test data to identify learners’ needs and language areas which require attention. This needs to be highlighted here in brief and then used to form the basis of the course proposal in the next section.
Suggested reading on needs analysis Brindley, G. (1990) The Role of Needs Analysis in Adult ESL Programme Design in Johnson, RK, (1989) The Second Language Curriculum, (CUP.) Graves, K. (1996) A Framework of Course Development Process – in Graves, K (1996) Teachers as Course D evelopers, (CUP.) Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses – A guide for Teachers. Heinle & Heinle. Gupta, K. (2007). A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment. Pfeiffer Hutchinson and Waters (1987) English for Specific Purposes (CUP) Nunan D (1988) Syllabus Design (OUP) Richards JC (1990) 'Curriculum development in second language teaching' in The Language Teaching Matrix (CUP) Seedhouse, P (1995) Needs analysis and the General English classroom, ELTJ 49 (1) (OUP)
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Appendix 1: Needs Analysis 1. Your answer to this first question could have been very comprehensive. Alternatively you could have said that almost any information is potentially useful to the course planner. Information such as level, nationality, age, gender mix and occupation i.e. personal information is extremely useful to enable the course planner to start to build up a mental picture of the group. Other practical details, such as location of course, length of lessons, frequency of lessons, length of course etc. are all things we generally expect to know prior to planning for a new group of students. The type of language to be focused on (i.e. ESP or general English) is also of primary concern. In fact, needs analyses vary a great deal in what they seek to find out. Look at the examples below:
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Needs Analysis 1 Welcome! Your name:.................................................................................................... Your job: ........................................................................................................ Why exactly do you need English? ....................................................................................................................... When did you last need it? (give 3 examples) 1) ................................................................................................................. 2) ................................................................................................................. 3) ................................................................................................................. What is your specific target for these two weeks? ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... What will YOU do yourself to reach this target? ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... How will things be different after the course? ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... Think of a time when you learned something successfully in the past. What helped you to learn most? ....................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................... When you learn, how do you feel about these: Seeing things (pictures/videos/texts)?.......................................................... Hearing things (music/cassettes/talking)?.................................................... Moving about (roleplay/visits)? ..................................................................... Working with numbers and figures? ............................................................. What do you like doing outside your work?.................................................. ....................................................................................................................... So if you are ready to learn, sign here:.........................................................
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Needs Analysis 2
1. What would you like to be able to read more efficiently? recipe
magazine
cheque
sign
advert
report
play
instructions
story
novel
notice
poem
text book
menu
essay
article
message
review
bill
interview
manual
biography
letter
pamphlet
newspaper
2. What would you like to be able to write more efficiently? recipe
notice
note
bill
instructions
report
letter
essay
cheque
brochure
review
message
3. What would you like to be able to listen to more efficiently? joke
lecture
conversation
chat
advert
speech
story
song
seminar
interview
debate
presentation
anecdote
argument
radio programme
discussion
play
quiz
4. What would like to be able to do in speaking more efficiently? joke
interview
conversation
chat
argument
discussion
speech
story
lecture
presentation
From Roberts, P. 1996 Genre Analysis: A Way Out of the Cul-de-sac International House Journal of Education and Development Volume 3
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Needs Analysis 3
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From Richards, J. C. 1990 The Language Teaching Matrix Cambridge University Press (chapter 1 Appendix 1)
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Needs Analysis 4 Pre-Advanced Class – Needs Analysis To help me tailor the course as closely as possible to your needs, please complete this as fully as possible. Name: 1. What do you need to do in English outside school? Is there anything which you would like to be able to do, but can’t do yet?
2. Look at the following list of language areas. How easy do you find each one? Mark yourself on a scale of 1 – 5 (where 5=no problem, 3=average and 1=difficult) a. Speaking fluently
...........
b. Speaking accurately
...........
c. Understanding what is said to me
...........
d. Understanding when more than one person is speaking
...........
e. Reading short texts quickly
...........
f. Reading and understanding long texts
...........
g. Using language appropriate to different situations
...........
h. Writing different types of texts (e.g. reports / formal letters) ........... Which areas are most important for you to work on? Please number them a, b, c (where a is most important). 3. We can do a wide range of activities in the class. Which of the following do you thin you would find useful ( ) or not useful (x)? Which are you unsure about (?)? a.
Project work (e.g. producing information presentations for other classes in the school).
packs,
class
magazines
or
b. Individual presentations: 5 minute talks given by each member of the class on topics of interest. c. ‘field study’ trips: class outings to topical events during the day. 4. Which of the following topics would you be interested in discussing in class? Please rank them in order of interest. (1=the most interesting etc.). current affairs
cultural events in London
art
literature
politics
jobs & work
film & television
cross-cultural issues
social issues
Please add any topics which interest you to this list.
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2. & 3. The 4 examples here differ significantly from each other. They range from taking as their basis the situation within which the learning takes place (what Hutchinson and Waters call a situation analysis), to an analysis of the types of contexts in which learners might need to use English (Roberts calls this genre analysis), to questioning them about their jobs, reasons for using English and their preferred learning styles (so a mix of information is collected). Notice that none of them asks learners to consider the structural / linguistic content of their lessons except with reference to skills work. Needs Analysis 1 This asks learners to relate English directly to their own lives by asking when they last needed it. It asks them to set specific targets for their learning and it also seeks information on preferred learning activities, an element of learning styles. Note that the learners are asked to sign the document at the end. The reason for this is to encourage them to really think about what they have said / written, it forms a learning contract and places responsibility with the learner as well as the teacher for achievement of course objectives. This should make learner involvement in midcourse evaluation of the course easier. Needs Analysis 2 This is simple in its conception. It asks the learners to consider genres or text types, dividing them into listening and reading, and asking the learners to state which they would like to be better able to listen to or read. The course is then designed around the idea of genre so that language and skills development will come from the analysis of each genre the learners have identified as important. Needs Analysis 3 This asks for largely personal information in the form of learning preferences. It asks the learners to consider how they would like to spend their learning time both inside and outside class. It goes into more detail than Needs Analysis 1 and is the only example here to ask learners about classroom interaction. Needs Analysis 4 This asks learners to consider their immediate or short term needs in relation to using English, to prioritise their own skills needs, to consider 3 types of classroom activity (probably those which the learners are less used to doing in class), and to state topic areas of interest as themes for lessons – the only needs analysis here to specifically focus on this area. Your choice of type of needs analysis is a personal one. It is most likely that you will want to take ideas from more than one source. All of the examples here would need setting up carefully, and learners who have been studying (regularly) recently are probably more likely to make more informed choices than those who have not studied formally for a while. You will probably want to consider ease of administration as a factor in needs analysis design – compiling results is quicker and easier with simple yes/no answers or ranking type questions, though these may give you less personalised information.
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Appendix 2: Reading on Needs Analysis 1. A general perception that needs in General English classes are too broad to be specified. A lack of research and writing on how to analyse data, despite a lot of literature on techniques for gathering data. 2. The needs analysis was carried out because the learners were not responding well to or engaging with the assigned coursebook materials. The aim was to establish the psychosocial needs of this particular group of teenage learners, studying in Barcelona. The questionnaire itself focused on reasons for study, favoured modes of study and problems areas. In its conception it was a simple form, and so was relatively uncomplicated for the learners to fill out. 3. The results appear to be homogenous. Seedhouse interprets this as the learners being able to identify their own needs. This could be debated – with any questionnaire, there is always the possibility that people fill it out in a way that they think they should (e.g. with ‘What would you do if !’ type questionnaires). However, in as far as it discovered how the learners felt about their learning, it provides some useful data. A final point here could be that it is not surprising that a group of teenagers were interested in youth culture and wanted to be able to express themselves as internationally sophisticated young people – most younger learners teachers would have been able to identify that already! Similarly, the learners’ desire to be entertained in class comes as no surprise. 4. In terms of implementation, the first issue to raise is that not every teacher would be so free from institutional constraints. For example, working in a school which is very results oriented, a teacher may find that they have to set tests regularly and teach to those tests – parental and school pressure will dictate that this is so. However, there were constraints in that the coursebook could not be abandoned or changed, it was supplemented. The new materials were designed specifically with the learners’ stated interests and needs in mind. 5. Although the needs analysis was carried out mid-course (rather than pre-course as was implied as the norm earlier in this section), Seedhouse follows a very similar pattern of course design, moving from the learners’ needs (taking constraints and variables into account), to setting objectives, deciding on content and activities, and considering evaluation techniques. 6. In conclusion, Seedhouse argues for needs analyses in General English. He describes a rather neat set of circumstances under which a needs analysis was carried out, with surprising results in terms of the outcome. In the examples he describes, the teacher was able to respond very specifically to the needs of a group of learners. This would seem to be a very persuasive argument in favour of carrying out a needs analysis for every General English group. Do you think the results would always be so tidy? Perhaps the key is in the design of the questions the learners are asked. This group were asked to describe particular attitudes to learning and preferred activities. The advantage to asking these questions mid-course is that the learners all had some experience which they could refer to in choosing their answers. The teacher was in a position to implement the changes i.e. it would probably not be a good idea to mention video as a mode of input if there is no video facility in the school! Obviously, your reactions to this article will be different and personal. At the very least, though, the research serves as a useful reminder to consider our target group in terms of age, interests and motivation in planning a course. I suspect that the results would be different in a scenario in which there were 12 learners ranging in age from 16 to 76, with a range of social and even cultural backgrounds.
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Appendix 3: Overcoming Problems in Needs Analysis Choices / Jargon Needs Analysis 1 The section on specific targets is rather vague. It is doubtful whether or not learners would come up with achievable objectives in this section without further guidance from a teacher, and in fact this is how it was intended to be used, in a one-to-one tutorial with a teacher. It avoids the use of jargon throughout the first 2 sections by asking the learner to use their own words. This, however, makes it slightly more time consuming than offering boxes to tick or items to rank. The last part is simply worded.
Needs Analysis 2 This does not overload the learner, and asks them to relate the genres to their own lives. It avoids the difficulties associated with making structures the starting point, focusing instead on the types of language the learners will need to be able to use via text types. Needs Analysis 3 In itself this should not pose too many choices for the learners, since they are asked to consider themselves. There may be occasions, however, when the learners wish there was a ‘Sometimes’ category. It also assumes that the learners are used to taking responsibility for their own learning and/or have recently been in a learning environment. Needs Analysis 4 This avoids the use of unknown jargon, categorising the skills work in simple language and exemplifying the learning activities so that the learners can imagine how they work. At the level this is aimed at there should be no lexical difficulties with the topics mentioned. Specific language areas are not mentioned, and the emphasis is on personal preferences rather than learners being asked to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses. This is an issue of wording – “How easy or difficult !?” rather than “How good are you at !?”. Expectations Needs Analysis 1 Unrealistic expectations are avoided because objectives are phrased by the learner (with a teacher’s help). Its contractual nature should ensure that the learner is clear as to what they have stated. Needs Analysis 2 It is possible that learners could feel that only listening and reading are to be focused on in their course. It is important, then, that a teacher using this type of needs analysis is very clear with the learners as to how this information will be used and the types of lessons that will ensue. There is a danger that very different genres be identified as important by different learners (see below).
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%$ Needs Analysis 3 As there is no emphasis here on the content of the lessons, it is unlikely that unrealistic expectations will arise, though there may be major differences in the way that learners want to spend their time (see below). Needs Analysis 4 Some of the questions here could be open to misinterpretation; question 2, for example, does not preclude an anxious learner from ranking all the skills work as very high priority. Question 3 could lead learners to believe that these are to be the 3 main learning activities in class time, and question 4, though offering other topics, could be seen as restrictive – for example a learner could just choose politics as important and dismiss the others out of hand. The careful setting up of this type of questionnaire, then, is crucial to its success. •
Subjectivity / Objectivity / Interpretation
The more open questions can be more subjectively interpreted by learner and course designer, but they also offer more choice and so are likely to provide more information. Remember, though, that in offering choice, you need to be able to and be willing to respond to learners’ demands. For example, you need to consider what you would do if a whole group specified that they would prefer to work silently and alone, mainly on reading and writing activities in class, and that they would rather not do any homework. If there are situational constraints e.g. the learners’ employer expects them to do homework 3 times a week, this needs to be made clear within the needs analysis. The issue of subjectivity often becomes apparent after a needs analysis has been conducted, when a teacher discovers that, for example, a group of learners who all gave high priority to group work, don’t appear to be benefiting from or participating in it in reality. All of the needs analyses here are relatively short, the longest being less than 2 pages of A4. None of them contains language or information choices which would not be understood by the majority of language learners. However, the potential problem of a wide range of answers / preferences is not avoided. It is probably impossible to do so, as the nature of individuals means that there will probably be a wide range within a given group of learners. It is important that learners understand why they are being asked to answer the questions, what you will do with the results, and that they see the results – in this way a wide range of needs / wishes can be catered for.
Appendix 4: Designing a Needs Analysis Your choice of an appropriate needs analysis will depend on a number of factors. For example, if you are already familiar with your learners’ learning context (e.g. if you are employed by their company), then clearly you will need to seek less information of this type. In your own course planning it may be the case that you are already provided with a great deal of information relating to the background and previous educational experience of each member of the class. You may even have taught them before. For your assignment you are designing course for a group of learners you may or may not already know. When you have the opportunity to observe them, it may be that you feel able to describe their preferred learning styles very easily, and if you are familiar with their learning situation, you will be able to focus on their linguistic needs.
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Make sure, then, that you design a needs analysis which provides you with pertinent information. And remember to state your sources of information so that if, for example, you already know a lot about your learners’ preferred learning styles, state how you know this. Otherwise your assignment will read as if you are making sweeping statements. Remember that it is important not to swamp the learners with questions, as potentially they may feel that, from their point of view, they gain very little from undertaking such an activity. It is, therefore, important that they understand why they are being asked questions – many learners will not feel that they have a role to play in course design because they will have no previous experience of being asked for this sort of input. As a final reminder, they need to see how their input has influenced the course i.e. it’s important that they get to see the results of the needs analysis in some form. For example, if I had stated that for me learning to write formal letters was a priority, that I had very little free time, and that I preferred to work alone, and If I knew that most of my colleagues in the class felt the same way, I would probably feel aggrieved to see a timetable for study in which there was no writing, a heavy homework load and an emphasis on pair and group work! Try out your needs analysis on a similar group if you can. This will help you to see if there are any glaring omissions, or any ambiguous questions which don’t reveal as much as you had hoped they would.
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