Needs Analysis

Needs Analysis

What are needs?

the difference between what a learner can presently do in a language and what he or she should be able to do.

The purpose of needs analysis

1. To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role
2. To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential students
3. To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular language skills
4. To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important
5. To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do
6. To collect infromation about a particular problem learners are experiencing

The users of needs analysis

1. Curriculum officers in the ministry of education
2. Teachers who will teach from the new curriculum
3. Learners, who will be taught from the curriculum
4. Writers, who are preparing new textbooks
5. Testing personnel, who are involved in developing end-of-school assessments
6. Staff of tertiary institutions, who are interested in knowing what the expected level will be of students exiting the schools and what problems they face

The target population

1. Policy makers
2. Ministry of education officials
3. teachers
4. students
5. academics
6. employers
7. vocational training specialists
8. parents
9. influential individuals and pressure groups
10. academic specialists
11. community agencies

Procedures for conducting needs analysis

1. Questionnaires
2. Self-ratings
3. Interviews
4. Meetings
5. Observation
6. Collecting learner language samples
7. Task analysis
8. Case studies
9. Analysis of available information

Designing the needs analysis

1. Examples of the procedures used by a New Zealand University
2. literature survey
3. analysis of a wide range of survey questionnaires
4. contact with others who had conducted similar surveys
5. interviews with teachers to determine goals
6. identification of participating departments
7. presentation of project proposal to participating departments and identification of liaison person in each department
8. development of a pilot student and staff questionnaire
9. review of the questionnaires by colleagues
10. piloting the questionnaires
11. selection of staff and student subjects
12. developing a schedule for collecting data
13. administration of questionnnaires
14. follow-up interview with selected participants
15. tabulation of responses
16. analysis of responses
17. writing up of report and recommendations

The results of a needs analysis

1. situations in which English is  frequently used
2. situations in which difficulties are encountered
3. comments most often made by people on learners' performance
4. frequencies with which different transactions are carried out
5. perceived difficulties with different aspects of language use
6. preferences for different kinds of activities in teaching
7. frequencies of errors made in different types of situations or activities
8. common communication problems in different situations
9. suggestions and opinions about different aspects of learners' problems
10. frequencies of linguistic items or units in different texts or situations

Situation Analysis

 

Societal factors

1. Policy makers in government
2. educational and other government officials
3. employers
4. the business community
5. politicians
6. tertiary education specialists
7. educational organizations
8. parents
9. citizens
10. students

Project factors

1. Who constitutes the project group and how are they selected?
2. What are the management and other responsibilities of the team?
3. How are goals and procedures determined?
4. Who reviews the progress of the project and the performance of its members?
5. What experience do members of the team have?
6. How do members of the team regard each other?
7. What resources do they have available and what budget to acquire needed resources?
8. What is the time frame of the project? Is it realistic, or is more or less time needed?

Institutional factors

1. What leadership is available within the school to support change and to help teachers cope with change?
2. What are the school's physical resources, including classroom facilities, media, and other technological resources, and library resources?
3. What is the role of textbooks and other instructional materials?
4. What is staff morale like among English teachers?
5. What problems do teachers face and what is being done about them?
6. What administrative support is available within the school and what is communication like between teachers and the administration?
7. What kind of reputation does the institution have for delivering successful language programs?
8. How committed is the institution to attaining excellence?

Teacher factors

1. Language proficiency
2. Teaching experience
3. Skill and expertise
4. Training and qualifications
5. Morale and motivation
6. Teaching style
7. Beliefs and principles

Learner factors

1. Past language learning experience
2. Motivation
3. Their expectation for the program
4. Their view on language teaching
5. Homogeneity
6. The type of learning approach they favour
7. The type of content they prefer
8. Their expectations for the roles of teachers, learners, and instructional factors
9. Their time to be put into the program
10. Learning resources they will typically have access to