Needs Analysis Draft 2 Oct 20

7/27/2019 Needs Analysis Draft 2 Oct 20

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2. Needs Analysis and Commentary

Class profile

The learners are all Vietnamese, are all either 19 or 20 years old and are taking IELTS in

order to get into the 3rd

year of their business programme. Their levels hover around theB1/B2 crossover threshold i.e. IELTS Band 4.5/5/5.5. . They have been studying in EIU for

between 1 and 2 years and most have them have spent two semesters in the Business

Administration department where, in spite of not having language tuition, they were able to

improve their reading and writing levels. As touched upon above, the learners motivation for

the exam seems, as per Gardener and MacIntyres (1991) dichotomy, to be mostly

instrumentally motivated.

Needs Analysis Methodology

There appears to be a consensus with regard to the fact that a course can only be written after

a needs analysis has been conducted (Munby 1978). This will allow the course designer tobuild a syllabus which isboth relevant and suitable to the learners needs.

With this in mind, I developed a needs analysis whereby I attempted to ascertain the learners

necessities under three principle aspects identified by Hutchinson and Walters (1987:55-58):

a) Necessities: what the learner has to know in order to function effectively i.e. whatneeds to be known in order to pass the exam.

b) Lacks: The systems knowledge which the learner has deficiencies in.c) Wants: What the learner believes they need in order to pass.

Following this, I developed a questionnaire using google drive-

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS

70/viewform, which I made available to the students by posting a link on the class page of

the educational social media sitewww.edmodo.com. A summary of the results can be seen

here:https://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOS

GoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalytics.

I suggested students take time to complete the answers in as much detail as possible and I

pointed out that this would allow me to create a syllabus which would be well adapted to

their specific language needs. The questionnaire collected qualitative as well as quantitative

information on, amongst other things, their knowledge of the IELTS exam, learnerpreferences and the students own perceived strengths and weaknesses. I followed up on the

findings of the NA with a recorded interview. This was thought necessary in order to make

up for any shortcomings in the design of the questionnaire and to allow the learner to

elaborate on key information identified in the NA. It was recorded in order to let other

teachers offer their opinions and consult at a later date if needs be.

Results

The spoken interviews complemented the questionnaires effectively. These together allowed

me to confirm many of my suspicions about the group, i.e. that they are strongly extrinsically

motivated. Moreover, I was able to narrow down many of the needs and wants to focus onwhen designing the course.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewformhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewformhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewformhttp://www.edmodo.com/http://www.edmodo.com/http://www.edmodo.com/https://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttps://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttps://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttps://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttps://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttps://docs.google.com/a/eiu.edu.vn/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewanalyticshttp://www.edmodo.com/https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewformhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9HHY2so5mIZuerGH61xvpCNhqHOSGoiVNUML2znS70/viewform


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According to the results of the needs analysis:

Learners suggest that they require the most help in the productive skills, especiallyspeaking.

All of the learners, except for one, want to achieve an overall band 6. The exceptionwants to get a 7.

The majority of the learners are quite familiar with the format of the exam. However,they say they are lacking in confidence in certain parts of the exam e.g. the matching

headings to paragraphs exercise in the reading test and the note completion exercise in

the listening test.

The learners dont appear to be familiar with the marking criteria for both thespeaking and writing papers.

While a majority of the students feel that they have a sufficient grasp of systemsknowledge to be able to do the exam, some do not feel so comfortable with

pronunciation e.g. not being able to use chunking and natural intonation.

A number of learners believe that the application of their systems knowledge iswanting.

They are least confident when speaking and writing about more academic topics suchas consumerism and advertising.

All of the students, save one, have access to the internet in their place of residence. The learners appear to be intrapersonal and verbal-linguistic (Puchta 2005).

Diagnostic Test and Priorities

The NAprovided me with a great deal of information on the learners subjective wants. Itwas important, however, to verify these data using more objective means in order to discover

what the learners lack and to identify what further teaching is necessary (Hughes 1989:13).

I took into account the learners perceived lacks as per the NA when selecting the material for

the diagnostic test. I also picked a recently published practice test that I felt that the learners

wouldnt have seen before as not only would this be a more accurate reflection of the test

they would take in December but also would reduce the chances of any of the learners having

skewed scores. I also felt that while the learners had given the two productive skills as their

main weaknesses, I thought it would be prudent to give them a DA on all four skills to see

whether the objective data agreed with these finding. Furthermore, I choose a test that

included as many examples as possible of the various task types which can be asked.

I used test 1 from Cambridge IELTS practice tests book 9 (UCLES 2013). I scored it using

the public version of the IELTS marking criteria. Satisfyingly, the results of the DT

concurred with the students own perceptions of their wants. Almost all of the students hit

their target band in both the listening and reading paper, except for Duy Nguyen who wants

to get a band 7 overall.

In addition to the DA and NA, a grammar test was written which used as its primary corpus

student errors from the writing and speaking papers of the diagnostic. This allowed me to

identify key areas of difficulty in terms of lexis and grammar and assess all 12 of the

students competence in them.


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Through the needs analysis and diagnostic testing I have formalised the following problem

areas and priorities:

Problems which lost students the most

marks

Objectives

Writing

Addressing all parts of the prompt (TR, T2) To be better able to respond to the prompt

Proof-reading & error correcting effectively To use be better able to use checklists and the

error correction code as a way to notice errorsand upgrade their own writing.

Demonstrating grammatical range (GRA, T1) To be better able to use a variety of complexsentences

Presenting an overview with informationappropriately selected (TA, T1)

To be better able to present an overviewwhich highlights main trends/ key features.

Lifting too much language from the prompt(T1/T2)

To be able to paraphrase the prompt moreeffectively in task 1 and 2

Speaking

Giving short of minimal answers in Part 1

(i.e. struggling to maintain a flow of speech)

To be better able to maintain a flow of speech

and give more extensive answers in Part 1

Speaking at length without too manynoticeable pauses (F&C) To be better to use strategies for dealing withhesitation

Dealing with breakdowns in communication

and requesting clarification (F&C)

To be better able to use repair & clarification

strategies

Speaking for the required time in Part 2(F&C)

To be able to plan more effectively for Part 2

Demonstrating a wide enough vocabulary inPart 2 (LR)

To be able to use the one minute planningtime before the long turn to brainstorm non-common lexis & grammar and base their

speech on these.

Accuracy of syllable final consonants, wordstress in multisyllabic words, L1 interferencein intonation and chunking (P)

To produce syllable-final consonants, wordstress in multisyllabic words, stress-timedintonation and chunking more accurately.

Inaccurate regular past tense pronunciation To produce regular past tenses more

accurately

(Word count: 989)

Documents

Needs Analysis Draft 2 Oct 20