Part of Ph. D Corsework

1. Role of Needs Analyses in ESP Course Design
MS. KOMAL SHAHEDADPURI
RESEARCH SCHOLAR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Ph.D Coursework Paper-2

2. Roadmap of the Presentation
Course Design in ESP
Issues in ESP Course Design
Role of Needs Analyses
Type of Needs
How to conduct needs analyses ?
Types of Analyses

3. Course Design in ESP
• According to Hutchinson and Waters ‘Course Design is the process by which the data about a learning need is
collected and interpreted in order to produce an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim
is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge and skill.’
• Principles of ESP course design
• Content should lead language
• The exercises on the material should be authentic, as well as the material itself
• There should be massive exposure to content and language
• Methods should draw inspiration from content teachers
• Massive exposure, and extracting meaningful information should be the focus - NOT language points
• A course designer should have three syllabuses: a content syllabus, a language syllabus, and a learning/skills syllabus.
• Students need exposure to the multiple genres according to their specific discipline. These genres can differ widely in
language and style.

5. Issues in ESP Course Design
Varieties of
English
Language
Lack of
Needs
Analyses
Various
approaches
to language
syllabus
design
Lack of
ESP
Training
for teachers
Varieties
of contexts
and
discourses
Different
purposes
to learn
English
Absence of
systematic
criteria to
design
ESP
courses

6. Role of Needs Analyses
• Needs Analyses is the first step of designing ESP course. It helps to find what (content) and how
(methodology) of the course and then we can proceed to design it.
• What do we mean by Needs ?
It refers to the ability of comprehend and produce the linguistic features of the target language.
• Why do learners need to learn English ?
This should be starting question to any language course design. (General or Specific).
According to Smoak, An ESP professional must be prepared to find out how language is used in real world
situations and teach that language because ‘ESP is English instruction based on actual and immediate needs
of learners who have to successfully perform real-life tasks. It is need-based and task oriented.’

7. Purposes of Needs Analyses
oTo find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role, such as
sales manager, tour guide, doctor, engineer, bank manager or university student.
oTo help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential students.
oTo determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular language
skills.
oTo identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do.
oTo collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing.

8. Principles for analyzing learner needs
Give first priority to communication needs
Give equal importance to learning needs
Take ‘context’ into account
Invite multiple perspectives
Employ multiple data collection methods
Treat needs analysis as an ongoing activity

9. Types of Needs
Target Needs refer to what the learners need to do in the target situation. (Ex. Workplace)
According to Hutchinson and Waters, the term “target needs” is divided as
Necessities refer to the demands of the target situation, that is, what the learner has to know in order to
function effectively in the target situation.
Lacks refer to what the learners do not know or cannot do in English.
According to Jordan (1997), lacks are defined as the gap between the existing language
proficiency of the learners and the one required at the end of the language course
Wants referred as ‘Subjective Needs’ which are related to learners’ motivation, readiness and
attitudes to learn.
ESP course as a journey, what we have done so far is consider the starting point (lack)
and the destination (necessities) and where the destination should be (wants).

10. Learning Needs
 Refer to what the learner needs to do in order to actually learn/acquire the language.
 Learning needs analysis looks for information about: the learners, their learning
styles and strategies, language skills, selection of teaching materials, the setting and
the time load.
 Focus on how people learn the language that relates mostly to methodology.
 Learning needs consist of input, procedure (activities), learning atmosphere, learners’
role and teacher’s role.
 The learning needs may include educational background, motivation, interest, previous
courses, preferred course length, and preferred learning arrangement, preferred
methodology, learning styles, learning goals and expectations for the curriculum.

11. How to conduct needs analyses ?
Steps to conduct Needs Analyses (Procedure)
A. Get ready to do
1. Define the objectives 2. Decide the sample from the population
3. Decide approaches 4. Recognize Limitations
5. Select data collection procedures
B. Do the research
6. Collect data 7. Analyse data 8. Interpret results
C. Use the results
9. Determine objectives 10. Evaluate the report on the NA project (Application in course design)

12. Types of Analyses
Target Situation Analysis
Present Situation Analysis
Discourse Analysis
Genre Analysis

13. TARGET SITUATION ANALYSIS
It stresses on identifying the learners’ language
requirement in the occupational or academic
situation they are being prepared for.
 Why is the language needed?
 How will the language be used?
 What will the content areas be?
 Who will the learner use the language with?
 Where will the language be used?
 When will the language be used?
PRESENT SITUATION ANALYSIS
It ascertains the students’ state of language
development at the beginning of the language course
 Why are the learners taking the course?
 How do the learners learn?
 What resources are available?
 Who are the learners?
 Where will the ESP course take place?
 When will the ESP course take place?

14. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Study written or spoken language in relation
to its social context.
Aims to understand how language is used in
real life situations.
Focus on
• The purposes and effects of different types of
language
• Cultural rules and conventions in communication
• How values, beliefs and assumptions are
communicated
• How language use relates to its social, political and
historical context
GENRE ANALYSIS
It is an attempt to explain why members of specific
discourse communities employ different and special
ways of using language.
Genre is a social action and a speech event that has
communicative goal shared by the members of a
particular discourse community.
Genre Analysis is a process of looking at several
samples of a particular genre to analyze their
similarities and differences in terms of their purposes,
macrostructure and language choice.
Ex. Research article, conference proposal, business
report, grant application, letter to the editor, reference
letter, MA dissertation, MA dissertation proposal,
lecture, seminar etc.

15. To sum up…..
Needs Analyses is an integral part of ESP course design that
helps to create more effective, reliable and applicable ESP
courses for Second Language Learners. It provides relevance
and validity between the activities in learning and the final
achievement or goal.
It should be conducted on regular basis in order to update ESP
courses according to the changing needs or requirements of the
learners.

16. References
Hutchinson, Tom and Alan Waters. English for Specific Purposes : A learning-centred approach. Cambridge
University Press, 1987.
Kaewpet, Chamnong . "A Framework for Investigating Learner Needs: Needs Analysis Extended to Curriculum
Development." Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching Vol. 6 (2009): 209–220. Electronic.
LAMRI , Dr Chams , Dr Abdelkader BENSAFA and Dr Faiza BOUABDALLAH-HEDDAM . "ENGLISH FOR
SPECIFIC PURPOSE." n.d. faclettre.univ. <https://faclettre.univ-
tlemcen.dz/assets/uploads/DOCUMENTS/cours%20en%20ligne/4-
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%20is,progress%20towards%20the%20specified%20goals%20will%20be%20measured.>.
"Needs Analysis in ESP." n.d. SlideToDoc. <https://slidetodoc.com/needs-analysis-in-esp-na-definition-graves-2000-
2/>.

17. Nelson, Deepika , Julia Devardhi and Adinew Tadesse. "The Issues Involved in ESP Course Design." LANGUAGE IN
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Plesca, Galina. "THE ROLE OF NEEDS ANALYSIS IN ESP CURRICULUM DESIGN." 2017. Academia.edu.
<https://www.academia.edu/33684100/THE_ROLE_OF_NEEDS_ANALYSIS_IN_ESP_CURRICULUM_DESIGN>.
"Principles of ESP course design." 2009. <http://www.scientificlanguage.com/esp/coursedesign.pdf>.
"Register, Discourse and Genre Analysis When Teaching English for Specific Purposes." n.d.
<https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Register-Discourse-and-Genre-Analysis-When-Teaching-281217>.
Thepseenu, Benjaporn . "Needs Analysis for ESP Course Development: Thai Civil Engineering Students’." Asian
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"What is discourse analysis?" 23 August 2019. Scribbr. Ed. Amy Luo.
<https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/>.