NEED ANALYSIS & 7 APPROACHES TO COURSE DESIGN (ESP)

PREFACE

            Firstly, the writers would like to say thanks to Allah SWT, who has given mercies and blessings so the writers can do this paper well. Then the writers never forget to convoy sholawat and salam to the last messenger or Allah, the loved prophet SAW, who has guide human’s life from stupidity to the cleverness.

            The writers realize that this paper cannot be finished without helping from other and good cooperation among the member. Because of that, the writers would like to express gratitude to:

1. Rukminingsih S,Pd.M.Pd As the love lecturer of the writers who has guided the writer well.
2. All members of group who have good struggle and good cooperation to finish this assignment.
3. All friends who have given support when the writers did this paper.

As human being the writer realize that no one is perfect in the world. Therefore, it is possible if there are some mistakes in this paper. The writers need suggestion and critic to improve the writer’s ability in the next. The writers hope this paper will be useful for the readers now and forever.

Jombang, 23^th, April 2011

Writers,

Introduction

Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) has a vital role inThe process of designing and carrying out any language course, whether It be English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or general English course, and Its centrality has been acknowledged by several scholars and authors.

According to Iwai et al. (1999), the term needs analysis generallyRefers to the activities that are involved in collecting information that will Serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the needs of a particular group of students. In formal needs analysis is relativelynew to the field of language teaching. However, informal needs analyses have been conducted by teachers in order to assess what language points their students needed to master. In fact, the reason why different Approaches were born and then replaced by others is that teachers have intended to meet the needs of their students during their learning. From the field of language teaching the focus of this paper will be on ESP. Clearly, the role of needs analysis in any ESP course is Indisputable. For Johns (1991), needs analysis is the first step in course Design and it provides validity and relevancy for all subsequent course Design activities.

      All courses are based on a perceived need of some sort. Otherwise why would English find its way on to a school or college timetable: Someone at some time must have decided there was a need for it. What then, in the terms of our definition, is the difference between ESP and General English?

      The answer to this very reasonable question is ‘in theory nothing, in practice a great deal’. It is often argued that the needs of the General English learner, for example the schoolchild, are not specifiable. This is an assumption that owes more to institutional intertia and the weight of tradition than to any reality, but it is a powerful force nevertheless. In fact, this is the weakest of all arguments because it is always possible to specify needs, even if it is only the needs to pass the exam at the end of the school year. There is always an identifiable need of some sort.

           

What distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need as such but rather an awareness of the need. If learners, sponsors and teachers know why the leaners need English, that awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course and, on the positive side, what potential can be exploited. Thus, although it might appear on the surface that the ESP course is characterized by its content (science, medicine, commerce, tourism etc), this is, in fact, only a secondary consequence of the primary matter of being able to readily specify why the learners need English. Put briefly, it is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes the ESP from the General course but rather the awareness of a need.

1.      What are target needs?

Though needs analysis, as we know it today, has gone through many stages, with the publication of Munby's Communicative Syllabus Designin 1978, situations and functions were set within the frame of needsanalysis. In his book, Munby introduced 'communication needsprocessor' which is the basis of Munby's approach to needs analysis.In his work Munby (1978) introduced Communicative Needs Processor

(CNP). As Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) say:

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.

A target need is something of an umbrella term, which in practice hides a number of important distinctions. It is more useful to look at the target situation in terms of necessities, lacks and wants.

Ø  Necessities

We can call necessities the type of need determined by the demands of the target situation; that is, what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation. For example, a businessman or woman might need to understand business letters, to communicate effectively at sales conferences, to get the necessary information from sales catalogues and so on.

Ø  Lacks

To identify necessities however not enough since the concern what the learner is knows already, so that you can then decide which of the necessities the learner lacks. One target situation necessity might be to read texts in a particular subject area.

Ø  Wants

So far, we have considered target needs only in an objective sense, with the actual learners playing no active role. But the learners too, have a view as to what their needs are.

We have stressed above that it is an awareness of need that characterizes the ESP situation. But awareness is a matter of perception, and perception may vary according to one’s standpoint. Learners may well have a clear idea of the ‘necessities’ of the target situation: they will certainly have a view as to their ‘lack’. But it is quite possible that the learners’ views will conflict with the perceptions of other interested parties: course designers, sponsors, and teachers.

	OBJECTIVE (i.e. as perceived by course designers)	SUBJECTIVE(i.e. as perceived by learners)
NECESSITIES	The English needed for success in Agricultural or Veterinary Studies	To reluctantly cope with  a ‘second-best’ situation
LACKS	(presumably) areas of English needed for Agricultural or Veterinary Studies	Means of doing Medical Studies
WANTS	To succeed in Agricultural or Veterinary Studies	To undertake Medical Studies

Gathering information about target needs

There are number of ways in which information can be gathered about needs. The most frequently used are:

      Questionnaires                        : 

      Interviews                   :

      Observation                 :

      Data collection            :

In view of the complexity of needs, we can use more than one of these methods. The choice will obviously depend on the time and resources available. It is also important to remember that needs analysis is not a once for all activity. It should be a continuing process, in which the conclusions drawn are constantly checked and re- assessed.

The analysis of target situation needs is it essence a matter of asking questions about the target situation and the attitudes towards that situation of the various participants in the learning process. Detailed procedures for gathering information are beyond the scope of this book. There are a number of books and articles that maybe referred to for this purpose, for this purpose, for example Mackay (1978), Cohen and Mannion (1980) Richterich and Chancerel (1980). And the simple framework below outlines the kind of information that the course designer needs to gather from an analysis of target needs.

A target situation analysis framework

1.      Why is the language needed?

      For study

      For work

      For training

      For a combination of these;

      For some other purpose, e.g. status, examination, promotion

2.      How will the language be used?

      Medium                                         : speaking, writing, reading, etc

      Channel                                         : e.g. telephone, face to face

      Types of text or discourse             : e.g. academic texts, lectures, informal conversation, technical manuals, catalogues

3.      What be the content areas be?

      Subjects     : e.g. medicine, biology, architecture, shipping, commerce, engineering

      Level         : e.g. technician, secondary school

4.      Who will the learner use the language with?

      Native speakers or non native

      Level of knowledge of receiver    : e.g. expert, students

      Relationship                                  : e.g. colleague, teacher, customer, superior, subordinate

5.      Where will the language be used?

      Physical setting     : e.g. office, lecture theatre, hotel, workshop, library

      Human context     : e.g. alone, meeting, demonstrations, on telephone

6.      When will the language be used?

      Concurrently with the ESP course or subsequently

      Frequently, seldom, in small amounts, in large chunks

Learning Needs

   Till now we have considered needs only in term of target situation needs. We have been considering the question: “what knowledge and abilities will the learner require in order to be able to perform to the required degrees of competence of the target situation. Using our analogy of the ESP course of journey. What we have done so far is to consider the starting points although we have also seen there that might be some dispute as to what that destination should be want.  What we have considered yet is the route. How are we going to get from our starting point to the destination. This indicate another kind of need: Learning Need.

   To understand what is meant by learning needs, lets us look a little more closely at what happens in the analysis of target situation needs’ in looking in the target situation. The ESP course designer is asking this question “what does the expert communicator need to know I order to function effectively in this situation?” this information may be recorder in terms of language items, skill, strategy, subject of knowledge.

   What the analysis can not do, however, is show bow the expert communicator learnt the language items that he use (Smith, 1984). The whole ESP process is concerned not with knowing or doing, but with leaning. The needs, potential and constraints of the route (learning situation) must be taken in account. If we are going to have any useful analysis of learner needs.

Example:

An imaginative example of focus on the learning situation is James B. Herbolich’s box kite project (1979).  Herbolich describe a scheme in which enginnering students at the University of Kuwait had to build a box kite and write a manual explaining how to construct it. Herbolich have five reason for choosing the choosing  the box kite as the object of the project: the mechine should be:

1.      Relatively new for the student

2.      Related to a field of engineering

3.      A device which allowed the attainment of new lexis

4.      Would operate

5.      Enjoyable

    It is interesting to consider how far the activity reflects target situation needs and how far the needs of the learning situation. The student would have to write manual in the target situation and this obviously explain the choice of this particular mode of expression. The student were study engineering, hence reason above but this is the limit of the influence of the target situation. In task that is enjoyable, fulfilling, manageable, generative. The project in effect is guided in terms its general orientation by the target situation, but its specific content is respond leaning needs. In the target situation they may need for example, to read long, dull or complex texts, but their motivation to do so may be high because:

1.      They like the subject

2.      Examination are looming

3.      Job

4.      Interesting experiment

5.      Like

     The target situation analysis can determine they destination it can also as compass on the journey to give general direction. But we must choose our route according to the vehicle and guides available. The existing roads within the learners mind and the leaner’s’ motivation.

Analyzing Learning Needs

To analyzing learning needs, we can use similar checklists to that used for target situation analysis:

A framework for analyzing learning needs

Ø  Why are the learners taking the course?

1.      Compulsory or optional

2.      Apparent need or not

3.      Improve their English

4.      Status

Ø  How do the learners learnt?

1.    What is the learning background?

2.    What is their concept of teaching and learning?

3.    What methodology will appeal to them?

4.    What sort techniques are likely to bore?

Ø  What resources are available?

1.    Competence of teacher

2.    Attitude of teacher

3.    Material

4.    Aids

5.    Opportunities for out of class activity

Ø  What are the learners?

1.                   Age, sex, nationality

2.                   What do they know already about English?

3.                   What subject knowledge do they have?

4.                   What are they interest?

5.                   What is the socio background?

Ø  Where will the ESP course take place?

1.       Surrounding pleasant

2.       Dull

3.       Noisy

Ø  When will the ESP course take place?

1.                   Every day

2.                   Once week

3.                   Full time

7 approaches to course design

Course design is the process by which the raw data about a learning need is interpreted in order to produce an integrated series of teaching-learning experience, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular sate of knowledge. There are probably as many different approaches to ESP course design as there are course designers. We can, howevwer, identify three main types : language-centred, skills-centerd and learning centred.

1.      Language-centred course design

This is the simplest kind of course design process and is probably the one most familiar to English teacher. It is particularly prevalent in ESP.

The language-centerd course design a connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the ESP course. It proceeds as follows:

At the first sight, this many seem to be very logical procedure. However logical and straightforward as it may seem, it has a number of weaknesses :

a.       It start from the learners and their needs, and thus it might be considered a learner-centred approach, but it is, in fact not learner-centredin any meaningful sence of the term.

Language – centered
course design

n  The simple one

n  The weaknesses

Skill – centered
course design

n  Need to read subject text in English

n  2 fundamental, 1 theoretical, the other pragmatic:

n  The basic theorotical hypothesis

n  Widdowson(1981)– Holmes (1982)

n  Goal - oriented

n  Process - oriented

SKILLS –CENTERED COURSE DESIGN

The skills-centered approach is founded on two fundamental principles, one theoretical, and one pragmatic:

a)      The basic theoretical hypothesis is that underlying any language behavior are certain skills and strategies, which the learner uses in order to produce or comprehend discourse. A skills-centered approach aims to get away from the surface performance data and look at the competence that underlies the performance. A skills-centered course, therefore, will present its learning objectives (though probably not explicitly) in terms of both performance and competence.

This example from a Brazilian ESP syllabus for Library science students is given in Maciel et al. (1983):

§  General objective (performance level):

The student will able to catalogue books written in English.

§  Specific objectives (competence level):

The student will able to:

ü  Extract the gist of a text by skimming thorough it.

ü  Extract relevant information from the main parts of a book.

b)      The pragmatic basis for the skills-centered approach derives from a distinction made by Widdowson (1981) between goal-oriented courses and process-oriented courses. Holmes (1982) points out that:

In ESP the main problem is usually one of time available and student experience.

§  First, the aims may be defined in terms of what is desirable, for example to able to read in the literature of the students specialism, but there may be nowhere near enough time to reach this aim during the period of the course.

§  Secondly, the students may be in their first year of studies with little experience of the literature of their specialism.

In experience it sees the ESP course as helping learners to develop after ESP course itself. It is not provide a specific corpus of linguistic knowledge but to take the learners into better processors of information. The role of need analysis in a skills –centered approach is twofold.

§  Firstly it provides a basis for discovering the underlying competence that enables people to perform in the target situation.

§  Secondly, it enables the course designer to discover the potential knowledge and abilities that the learners bring to the ESP classroom.

The skills-centered approach, therefore, can certainly claim to take the learner more into account than the language-centered approach:

ü  It views language in terms of how the mind of the learner processes it rather than as an entity in itself.

ü  It tries to build on the positive factors that the learners bring to the course, rather than just on the negative idea of “lacks”.

ü  It frames its objectives in open-ended terms, so enabling learners to achieve at least something.

THE DIAGRAM OF A SKILLS-CENTERED APPROACH TO COURSE DESIGN

IDENTIFY TARGET SITUATION

ANALYSE SKILLS/ STRATEGIES REQUIRED TO COPE IN TARGET SITUATION

THEORETICAL VIEWS OF LANGUAGE

THEORETICAL VIEWS OF LEARNING

WRITE SYLLABUS

SELECT TEXTS AND WRITE EXERCISES TO FOCUS ON SKILLS/ STRATEGIES IN SYLLABUS

ESTABLISH EVALUATION PROCEDURES WHICH REQUIRE THE USE OF SKILLS/ STRATEGIES IN SYLLABUS

 

A Learning – Centered Approach

n  Learner – centered

n  Learning

n  Target situation

n  Influence

n  Maximize learning

2 implications

n  Course design as negotiated process

n  Course design as dynamic process

Conclusion

n  The course design process should be more dynamic and interactive

n  A learning- centered approach: an approach with the avowed aim of maximizing the potential of the learning situation

n  Recognition of the complexity of the learning process

n  Look at how the approach can be applied to the construction of a syllabus and to the evaluations, design and teaching materials.

NEED ANALYSIS & 7 APPROACHES TO COURSE DESIGN

Lecture: Rukminingsih, S.Pd Mpd

 

by:

Ainin Chusnul (087009)

Anik Ida

Eni Dwi

Wury

Diana

Engga Wati

Enlish Departement

2008-A

SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN

PERSATUAN GURU REPUBLIK INDONESIA

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