Needs analysis is the cornerstone of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as it helps identify learners' target needs including necessities, lacks, and wants as well as learning needs. There are two main types of needs - target needs which refer to what learners need to do in their target situation, and learning needs which relate to how learners can progress from their current proficiency to meeting the target needs. A thorough needs analysis is important for developing an effective ESP curriculum that matches learners' professional needs and motivates their language learning.

2. 1- Introduction to Needs Analysis in ESP
2- Types of Needs Analysis
2.1- Target Needs
2.1.1- Necessities
2.1.2- lacks
2.1.3- wants
2.2- Learning Needs
3- The Importance of Needs Analysis in ESP
4- Conclusion

3.  Needs analysis is considered to be the cornerstone of
English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The concept of
Needs analysis has been different along the decades.
At the initial stages of ESP( the 1960s and early 1970s),
needs analysis consisted in assessing the
communicative needs of the learners and the
techniques of achieving specific teaching objectives.
Nowadays, the tasks of needs analysis is much more
complex: it aims at collecting information about the
learners and at defining the target situation and
environment of studying ESP.

4.  Hutchinson (1991:54) states that there are
two kinds of needs, target needs and
learning needs. The former implies what the
learner needs to do in the target situation
and the latter what he needs to do in order to
learn

5.  Target needs is a general term that
encompasses the learners’ necessities,
lacks and wants. According to Hutchinson
and Waters (1987) it mainly related to ‘what
the learner need to do in the target situation’.

6.  Necessities are a type of need determined
by the demand of the target situation, to put
it in a simple term it is what the leaner has to
know in order to function accordingly in the
target situation.

7. An example taken from Munby (1978), it shows the
necessities for a learner who works as a head waiter in a
hotel

8.  Lacks are what the learners already know
and what they are deficient in. According to
what they know we decide what necessities
they’re missing. Lacks are the gap between
the target proficiency and the existing
proficiency of the learners.

9.  So far, we looked at target needs only in an
objective term, with no regards to the
learners own subjective hopes. As Richterich
(1984:29) comments: ‘… a need does not
exist independent of a person, it is the
people who build their image of their needs
on the basis of data relating to themselves
and their environment’.

10. So to put it simply, wants are the learners own personal
subjective expectations. these wants may conflict with the
necessities as perceived by the course designer, so there
must be a way to accommodate them both and find an
appropriate middle ground.
Keep in mind that individuals’ wants may not be all met
but the wants of the majority can certainly be discussed
and relatively met.

11.  Learning needs are about the learners' motivation of learning the
language, the way they prefer to learn, the available resources, the time
and place the course will take place and the learners' personal information.
Hutchinson and Waters compare the Business English course to a journey.
The starting point of the journey is the "lacks" and the destination is the
"necessities". Learning needs are how are the learners get from the
starting point to the destination. Sometimes the "destination" may be
deviated because the "necessities" perceived by the sponsors may be
different from what the learners want or feel they need ”wants”.

12. Its useful to think of learning needs as a route, if the learner doesn’t find
this route engaging enough it will lose his interest, so its important to
make the route as interesting as possible.
For example, when preparing material for a group of learners who need
to read texts on systems, most of the available texts tend to be long and
dull, so should these texts be used for ESP? certainly not! . The
motivation of the learners may not carry over the ESP course, even if
they manage to go through the texts this does not imply that they learned
from dull texts.
It is important to look for texts that are more interesting or even humorous
to capture and generate the motivation needed for the ESP course to be
effective.

13.  As we know ESP emerged as an answer to the even
growing business environment, the demand for skilled
workers increased, whether the learners are from the oil
industry or the construction industry, the principle
remains the same. The learners needs and demands
should be a primary focus when the designing an
effective ESP course.
 A number of prominent linguists such as ( Strevens,
Hutchinson and Watrers, Basturkmen) All share the
belief that needs analysis is an important insinuating
point for devising syllabus, courses and materials for
specific audiences.

14.  In conclusion, the results of the needs analysis help to
identify the students’ prospective professional needs,
the students’ needs in terms of language skills and the
students’ deficiencies in the area of language skills.
Only after analyzing the students’ needs and
determining the objectives of the language course, we
can select a material that meets the needs of the
students. Thus, needs analysis is the foundation on
which we can develop curriculum content, teaching
materials and methods that can lead to increasing the
learners ’motivation and success.