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ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Part II

NEEDS ANAYSIS

Learning outcomes:

Upon completion of part II, students will be able to:

- Define the concepts of “need” and “needs analysis” in education;

- Know the types of needs as depicted by researchers;
- Know some models of needs analysis offered by scholars;
- Know the methods allowing for the identification of learners’ needs;
- Understand the main components/stages of the needs analysis process.

Contents

Needs analysis in English for Specific Purposes

1. Definition of “need” and “needs analysis”
2. Types of needs
3. Methods for identifying learners’ needs
4. Models of needs analyses

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Introduction

One of the key concepts in English for Specific Purposes is needs analysis; this
is considered as a corner-stone stage in the process of designing ESP courses, since
this latter is intended for learners with "specific" purposes. To understand what
needs analysis is all about, this handout is divided into four sections. On the one
hand, the first and second sections discuss basic knowledge on needs analysis; this
throws light on the definition of the concepts of need and needs analysis, and
explores the types of needs in education. On the other hand, having paved the way
for further knowledge on this particular subject of needs analysis, the third and
fourth sections tackle the methods allowing for the identification of learners’ needs
with special interest in questionnaires, and the models of needs analysis organizing
those methods.

I. Definition of Needs Analysis

According to Brindley (1989, p. 65), the term “need” refers to “the gap between
what is and what should be”. This implies that learners should already have
developed certain skills (what is) – let us remember that, as mentioned in part one,
one of the requirements to take an ESP course is that learners’ language proficiency
level must be intermediate or advanced. On the other hand, those learners have
specific goals that they have already set; this falls under the phrase: “what should
be.” Now, the “needs”, according to Brindley, are the gap between the already
developed skills and those to be developed. Thus, the only way to properly identify
this gap would be carrying out a “needs analysis” (also called needs assessment).
Brown (1995, p. 36) views needs analysis as: “the systemic collection and
analysis of all subjective and objective information necessary to define and validate
defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy the language learning requirements of
students within the context of particular institutions that influence the learning and
teaching situations.” Brown’s definition seems to go beyond the scope of merely
defining needs analysis in that it denotes, on the one hand, the centrality of the

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process of needs analysis, and, on the other hand, the strong relationship between
three main factors that influence ESP course designs; these are as follows:
1- The collected learners’ subjective and objective information, and, by extension,
the learner;
2- A valid curriculum defined based on the collection and analysis of the learners’
needs; and
3- The institution(s) influencing the learning and teaching situations.

In fact, Brown’s idea on the centrality of needs analysis to curriculum design is

echoed in Johns’ (1991); who notes that the validity and relevancy of all subsequent
course design activities are the result of needs analysis. Applying this to the
teaching of ESP, needs analysis provides course designers with a clear vision on the
right approach to follow.

Building on the above mentioned elements, the learner is viewed as the main
actor in the whole teaching system; thus, the collection and analysis of information
on and about the learner constitute a key to an effective course design that would
help both learners and teachers meet their needs. To do so, needs analysts must
know the type of information they should get collected and analysed; this particular
point is addressed in the next section.

II. Types of Needs

From a historical perspective, a review of literature related to needs analysis

reveals that it was in the 1980s that classifications of needs started to emerge. In this
regard, two frequently cited classifications are: Hutchinson & Waters’ classification
(1987), and Brindley’s classification (1989).

From Hutchinson and Waters’ perspective, needs are divided into two main
types: target needs and learning needs. On the one hand, Target needs denotes what
learners need to do in the target situation (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p. 54); in
other terms, these refer to the purpose of using the language in the target situation.
In the same context, Hutchinson and Waters use target needs as an umbrella term
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encompassing three other terms; these are: necessities, lacks and wants. While
necessities refer to “the type of need determined by the demands of the target
situation,” lacks refer to what the learners do not know; in other words, lacks are the
gap that the learners seek to fill. By wants, Hutchinson and Waters refer to the
learners’ motivation and attitudes to the course. An attempt of making a connection
between the definitions of the three terms (necessities, lacks and wants) may, thus,
reveal that target needs are the learners’ reasons for taking an ESP course; these are
determined through the identification of: 1) the requirements of the target situation
(i.e. the situation in which the learners want to function properly upon completion
of their ESP course); in other words, the skills that the learners should have
developed before being in that specific situation; an example of these skills would
be negotiating (contract terms for instance) in business settings, 2) the skills that the
learners should develop to meet their goals; referring back to the example of
negotiating business contract terms, learners would want to know the typical
sentences and phrases that could be used for this purpose (negotiation), 3) the
learners’ psychological readiness to take that particular course.

On the other hand, Hutchinson and Waters note that learning needs are what the
learners need to do in order to learn (Ibid, p. 55). Hence, if the identification of
target needs aims to reveal “what” the learners’ needs are, the aim of identifying
learning needs is to unveil “how” learners will meet those needs.

At a practical level, Hutchinson and Waters (as cited in Songhori, 2008, 13-14)
suggested the following list of questions to analyse learners’ needs:

1. Why are the learners taking the course?

• compulsory or optional;
• apparent need or not;
• Are status, money, promotion involved?
• What do learners think they will achieve?
• What is their attitude towards the ESP course? Do they want to improve their
English or do they resent the time they have to spend on it?
2. How do the learners learn?
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• What is their learning background?

• What is their concept of teaching and learning?
• What methodology will appeal to them?
• What sort of techniques bore/alienate them?
3. What sources are available?
• number and professional competence of teachers;
• attitude of teachers to ESP;
• teachers' knowledge of and attitude to subject content;
• Materials;
• Aids;
• Opportunities for out-of-class activities.
4. Who are the learners?
• Age/sex/nationality;
• What do they know already about English?
• What subject knowledge do they have?
• What are their interests?
• What is their socio-cultural background?
• What teaching styles are they used to?
• What is their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English speaking world?

Another classification of needs is offered by Brindley (1989), who divides

needs into two types; objective needs and subjective needs; this division is also
echoed in Brown’s definition quoted above (see section I: definition of needs
analysis). Needs assessors can identify objective needs through the collection and
analysis of learners’ biographical data, such as age, nationality, gender, marital
status, educational background, current language proficiency level, difficulties in
foreign language learning, current or future profession. This information should be
embedded into the process of assessing objective needs. Likewise, subjective needs
can be identified through the collection and analysis of the learners’ affective and

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cognitive factors. These factors include the learners’ personality, self-confidence,

personal cognitive styles1, expectations and self-esteem during the learning process.

Building on the above, some commonality between the meanings of certain

terms may be noticed; for instance, Hutchinson and Waters’ necessities may be used
interchangeably with Brindley’s Objective needs in that both terms refer to the type
of needs that should be identified; the identification of the learners’ biographical
data (Brindley) may lead to the identification of those needs.

III. Methods for identifying learners’ needs

There are various methods that needs analysts can follow to identify the
learners’ needs. In this vein, Brown (1995, p. 45) suggests six types of instruments
that can be used to carry out a needs analysis; these are: existing information, tests,
observations, interviews, meetings, and questionnaires. In the following section, we
will focus on questionnaires.

Questionnaires can be structured (see index 1), i.e. having several sections
following a particular sequencing and order, or unstructured (see index 2), i.e.
questions asked within no specific sequencing or order.

IV. Models of needs analysis

Historically speaking, needs analysis, as a functional approach, was practically

established in the mid-70s (West, 1998). This is when researchers’ contributions on
finding models for analyzing needs started to emerge. In this context, Munby’s
1978 model was probably the major researcher contribution to teaching ESP. An
overview of Munby’s model is

In 1978, Munby wrote his book “Communicative Syllabus Design”. In his book,
Munby introduced his model consisting of seven elements, among which the most

1
Field-dependent and field-independent are probably the most well know cognitive learning styles; field-
independent learners are likely to learn more effectively so long as they are motivated (self study).
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significant is the Communication Needs Processor (CNP). Aiming to use the CNP
in order to provide a detailed description of particular communication needs,
Munby (1978, p. 32) considers “the variables that affect communication needs by
organizing them as parameters in a dynamic relationship to each other.” CNP eight
parameters are shown in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1: Munby’s eight parameters of the CNP

Songhori (2008, p p. 6-7) summarizes Munby’s CNP parameters as follows:

• Purposive domain: this category establishes the type (i.e. the branch, such as
Academic or Occupational) of ESP, and then the purpose which the target language
will be used for at the end of the course;
• Setting: the physical setting specifying the spatial and temporal aspects of the
situation where English will be used, and the psychological setting specifying the
different environment in which English will be used;
• Interaction: identifies the learner’s interlocutors and predicts relationship
between them.
• Instrumentality: specifies the medium, i.e., whether the language to be used is
written, spoken, or both; mode, i.e., whether the language to be used is in the form
of monologue, dialogue or any other; and channel of communication, i.e., whether it
is face to face, radio, or any other.

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• Dialect: dialects learners will have to understand or produce in terms of their

spatial, temporal, or social aspect.
• Communicative event: states what the participants will have to do productively
or receptively.
• Communicative key: the manner in which the participants will have to do the
activities comprising an event, e.g. politely or impolitely.
• Target level: level of linguistic proficiency at the end of the ESP course which
might be different for different skills.

As stated above, Munby’s CNP has brought about a shift towards considering
the learner as central to ESP teaching, in that it emphasized the importance of
investigating the target situation needs.

In fact, the importance of Munby’s approach to needs analysis seems

unquestionable; in this context, Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 54) noted that:
“With the development of the CNP it seemed as if ESP had come of age. The
machinery for identifying the needs of any group of learners had been provided: all
the course designers had to do was to operate it. By introducing his model, the main
contribution Munby made was turning the focus to the learner’s communication
purposes.

In 1998, Dudley-Evans and St. Johns offered their own needs analysis model;
this comprises three levels: the first level is named Target Situation Analysis (TSA);
the second level is termed Present Situation Analysis (PSA); and the third level is
named Learning Situation Analysis (LSA).

The concept of Target Situation Analysis was first introduced by Chambers

(1980) to refer to “the communication in the target situation.” Based on this,
analyzing the target situation implies investigating the learners’ target proficiency
level. In other words, target situation analysts look at what skills the learners look
forwarding to developing in order to function properly in the target situation. On the
other hand, the Present Situation Analysis (PSA), to Dudley-Evans and St. John

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(1998, p.125), estimates the strengths and weaknesses in language skills and
learning experience.

All in a nutshell, unlike target situation analysis, present situation analysis looks
at the current learners’ language-proficiency level.

Conclusion

In this handout, we have looked at the definition of the concepts of need and
needs analysis in the context of education. Furthermore, we have shed some light on
the classifications of needs. Also, we have explored the methods allowing for the
identification of ESP learners’ needs, and some models suggested by scholars for
carrying out the processes of needs analysis.

In this part, the following has been shown. First, the concept of need in the
educational context (and more specifically in ESP teaching) refers to the gap
between what the learners’ already has as knowledge and what s/he would like to
have in order to be able to function properly in the target situation of
communication. Second, the concept of needs analysis, in ESP, refers to the process
of identifying learners’ needs in order to design a course. Also, needs are identified
through knowledge of specific information on and about the learner; this is
objective information (e.g. the learners’ biographical data), and subjective
information (i.e. this has rather to do with the psychological aspect: e.g. learners’
motivation to learn). Third, in order for needs assessors to identify the above
mentioned needs, various methods (tools) can be applied; a questionnaire is one of
these. Fourth, the organisation of the information gathering and analysis process has
been an interest area for many researchers, who offered models (frameworks). This
part focused on Munby’s Communication Needs Processor.

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Indexes

Index 1: Sample of a structured questionnaire

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Index 2: Sample of an unstructured questionnaire

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References

Brindley, G. (1989). The role of needs analysis in adult ESL program design. In
R. K. Johnson (Ed.), the second language curriculum (pp. 63-78).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, J.D. (1995). The elements of language curriculum: A systematic

approach to program development. Boston, Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle
Publishers.

Chambers, F. (1980). A re-evaluation of needs analysis in ESP. ESP Journal, 1

(1), 25-33.

Dudley-Evans, T., St. John, M. (1998). Developments in English for Specific

Purposes: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. UK: Cambridge University Press,

Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A

learner-centered Approach. UK: Cambridge University Press

Johns, A. M. (1991). English for Specific Purposes: its history and

contributions. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or
foreign language. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Munby, J. (1978). Communicative Syllabus Design. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Nunan, D. (1988). The Learner-Centred Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Songhori, M. H. (2008). Introduction to Needs Analysis. In English for Specific

Purposes World. Issue 4 (pp. 1 - 25)

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