[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
sis, talking with students both past and present, surveying the environment,
looking at pieces of work, talking with teachers, employers and assessors,
and using personal experience and commonsense. Because needs analysis is
basically a kind of research it is important to get the research questions
right as soon as possible and use these to guide the choice of methods of data
gathering.
Good needs analysis thus covers a range of needs using a range of data-
getting tools. Needs are not always clear and are always changing so it is
important that needs are looked at from a variety of perspectives at a variety
of times. The perspectives can vary according to the type of need (lack,
necessities, wants; or present knowledge, required knowledge, objective and
subjective needs), the source of information (present learners, past learners,
teachers, present tasks and materials, future tasks and materials, future col-
leagues or future assessors or teachers), the data-gathering tools (text and
discourse analysis, frequency counts, interviews, questionnaires, observation,
negotiation and discussion, reflection on experience), and the type of infor-
mation (learning goals, preferred styles of learning, learners commitment to
learning).
The times of needs analysis can include needs analysis before a course
begins, needs analysis in the initial stages of a course, and ongoing needs
analysis during the running of the course. If a course is to be repeated with
different learners, then needs analysis at the end of a course is useful.
Evaluating Needs Analysis
Needs analysis is a kind of assessment and thus can be evaluated by consider-
ing its reliability, validity and practicality.
Reliable needs analysis involves using well-thought-out, standardised tools
that are applied systematically. Rather than just observing people performing
tasks that learners will have to do after the course, it is better to systematise
the observation by using a checklist, or by recording and apply standardised
analysis procedures. The more pieces of observation and the more people
who are studied, the more reliable the results.
Valid needs analysis involves looking at what is relevant and important.
Consideration of the type of need that is being looked at and the type of
information that is being gathered is important. Before needs analysis begins
it may be necessary to do a ranking activity to decide what type of need
should get priority in the needs analysis investigation. The worst decision
would be to let practicality dominate by deciding to investigate what is
easiest to investigate!
Practical needs analysis is not expensive, does not occupy too much of the
learners and teacher s time, provides clear, easy-to-understand results and
Needs Analysis 31
can easily be incorporated into the curriculum design process. There will
always be a tension between reliable and valid needs analysis and practical
needs analysis. A compromise is necessary but validity should always be given
priority.
Issues in Needs Analysis
There are several issues in needs analysis that have been the focus of
continuing debate. Three are briefly discussed here.
1 Common core and specialised language What are the content
selection stages that a special purposes language course should follow?
From a vocabulary point of view (Nation and Hwang, 1995; Sutarsyah
et al., 1994) there is evidence to support the idea that learners should
first focus on a common core of 2,000 words, then focus on general
academic vocabulary common to a wide range of disciplines (Coxhead,
2000) if their goal is academic reading and writing, and then focus on
the specialised vocabulary of their particular disciplines (Chung and
Nation, 2004).
Study of vocabulary occurrence shows that this sequence of goals is
sensible and generally gives the best return for learning effort. If goals
are very focused, it is possible to shorten each step a little, focusing
on around 1,600 word families of the common core and about 650
general academic words (Sutarsyah, 1993). It is likely that there is a
similar progression for grammatical items, perhaps of two stages with
stage 1 consisting of high-frequency widely used grammatical items,
and stage 2 focusing on those particular to the text types of the discipline
(Biber, 1990). This kind of progression should not be rigidly kept to. It is
possible to focus on the content of the discipline using common core
vocabulary and a few general academic and technical items. Most of the
very-high-frequency content words in a particular discipline are from the
common core and general academic vocabulary, for example price, cost,
demand, curve, supply, quantity in Economics (Sutarsyah et al., 1994).
Table 3.4 Vocabulary stages
Specialised/Technical Stage 3
(approximately 1,000 word families)
General academic Stage 2
(570 word families)
Common core Stage 1
(2,000 word families)
32 Needs Analysis
2 Narrow focus wide focus Detailed systems of needs analysis have
been set up to determine precisely what language a particular language
learner with clear needs should learn (Munby, 1978). The arguments in
favour of a narrow focus include the faster meeting of needs, the reduc-
tion of the quantity of learning needed, and the motivation that comes
from getting an immediate return from being able to apply learning.
Hyland (2002) finds support for a narrow focus in social constructionist
theory, arguing for the importance of successful communication within
a specific discourse community. Such a focus, however, runs the risk of
teaching parole and not langue (De Saussure, 1983), that is, of not
teaching the language system so that learners can be flexible and creative
in their language use. If language learners have more than very short-
term goals for language learning, it is important that their language
learning not only satisfies immediate needs but also provides the basis for
the development of control of the wider language system.
3 Critical needs analysis Benesch (1996) points out with some striking
examples that needs analysis is affected by the ideology of those in
control of the analysis. That is, the questions they ask, the areas they
investigate, and the conclusions they draw are inevitably influenced by
their attitudes to change and the status quo. For this reason, it is worth
considering a wide range of possible viewpoints when deciding on the
focus of needs analysis, and seeking others views on where change
could be made.
Needs analysis makes sure that a course will be relevant and satisfying to the
learners. This is such a basic requirement that it is worth giving careful
thought to needs analysis procedures. To neglect them is to run the risk of
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]