This document discusses different types of needs that should be considered when developing an English for Specific Purposes course, including target needs, learning needs, and constraints. Target needs refer to the language requirements of learners' target situations and include necessities, lacks, and wants. Learning needs involve determining how learners will meet the target needs through considerations like course format, materials, and learner characteristics. Constraints refer to non-pedagogical limits on course planning, such as policies and budgets. A thorough needs analysis considers all of these factors to design a course that addresses learners' language requirements and learning process.

1. Types of Needs

2. Definition of Needs
The requirements of the
target situation
Enable the learner to
communicate effectively in
the target situation
Levels of language
knowledge of the learners

3. This means that there are different
types of needs (Dudley-Evans and St Johns 1998)
Professional information about
the learners: the tasks and
activities learners are/will be
using English for
Professional information about
the learners: factors which may
affect the way which they learn

4. English language information
about the learners
Learners lacks
Language learning
information: effective ways of
learning the skills and
language

5. Professional communication
information
What is wanted from the course
Information about the
environment in which the course
will be run (means analysis)

6. Hutchinson and Waters (1987,
Robinson1991, West 1993)
Needs
Learning
Needs
Target
Needs

7. 1) Target Needs
Target
Needs
Necessit
ies Lacks Wants

8. Necessities
The requirements of the target
situation
The needed level of language
proficiency of the students to
achieve their academic or
occupational purposes
They are also called the
objective needs

9. Activities Language
skills
Target
activities
Lectures Listening and
understandig of
content, listening
to key words and
phrases, note
taking, asking
questions
Presentation
s
Seminars Asking and
answering
questions ,
understanding
and expressing
different points of
view, reporting on

10. Practices Understanding
instructions, asking
questions,
understanding
informal language,
interacting,recording
results
Fieldwork
Reading
Books/article
s
Understanding the
overall content,
distinguishing main
points from supporting
detail
Reading
reports
Writing
Essays,
Dissertation
Construction of
reasonably accurate
sentences and
paragraphs, good
organisation of ideas
Writing reports, letters,
etc

11. Lacks
The course designer has
to analyse the learners’
present backgound in
order to be able to identify
what the language lacks
are when compared

12. Wants
Refer to the learners’ own
feelings toward his most
important needs
They may have personal
aims in addition to the
needs of the target
situation

13.  The learners have a clear idea
about the necessities
 They may also be aware of their
lacks
 The views of the students may
conflict with the perception of the
other parties involved in the ESP
situation

14. Constraints (WEST 1993)
It involves the non-
pedagogic limits that
control a course planning
process such as the role of
the national policy and the
financial restrictions

15. Learning Needs
 They involve an answer to the
question:
How are we going
to the destination?

16. The aims of the course
Type of the course
Time Load

17. Type of
Learners
Their learning
Styles

18. The available
materials
Setting

19. A set of questions can be put forward
when determining the learning
needs:
 Should the course be extensive or intensive?
 Should the learners performance be assessed
or non assessed?
 Should the course deal with immediate needs
or delayed needs?
 Should the course have a broad focus or a
narrow focus?
 Should the course be ‘pre-study’ or ‘pre-
experience’ or run parallel with the study
experience?
 Should the materials be common core or

20. Should the group taking the
course be homogeneous or
heterogeneous?
Should the course be worked
out by language teacher after
consultation with learners and
the institution, or shoud it be
subject to a process of
negociation with learners?(Dudley

21. The balance of parameters
mentioned in the above
questions allows the researcher
to link the different expectations
and learning needs of the
learners

22.  Learning needs analysis which takes
into consideration the pedagogical
requirements that allow the learners to
get to the destination. (learners attitudes
can also be included within this step)
 The learning environment is an
important resource for teaching aids
including the institution, the type of
classroom and the time load for the ESP
training.