CHAPTER 6
NEED ANALYSIS


The Distinguish between GE (General English) with ESP (English for Specific Purpose)
            There are two points that distinguish the General English and English for Specific Purpose, they are:
1)    The need of GE (General English) are not specifiable
It is often argue that the needs in GE are not specifiable. This is the weakness of all arguments, because it is always possible to specify needs, even if it’s only the need to pass exams at the end of school year. There is always an identifiable need of some sort.
2)    The awareness of need
It is not so much the nature of the need which distinguishes ESP from GE but rather the awareness of a need, e.g. the awareness of a target situation, the need to communicate in English. Thus, any course should base on an analysis of the learners needs.

Analysis for General English and English for Specific Purpose is the question will be the same but the answer will be different. Nevertheless, for the time being the tradition persists of GE that the learners cannot be specified and as a result no attempt is usually made to discover learner’s true needs. Thus, if we had to state in practical terms the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course, it would be need analysis, since it is the awareness of a target situation, that distinguish the ESP learners from the learners of GE.

Target Need Analysis
       Target need is something of an umbrella term, which is practice, hides a number of important distinctions. In other words, target need is what the learner needs to do in the target situation. Thus, it is more useful to look at the target situation in terms of necessities, lacks and wants.

a)     Necessities
        Necessities are about what the learners has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation. In other word, necessities also mean the need of someone to be success in his or her business. Moreover, according to Allwright (1982, quoted in West, 1994) wants is the skills which a student’s sees as being relevant to himself or herself. For, example, a businessman or -woman might need to understand business letters, to communicate effectively as sales conferences, to get the necessary information from sales catalogues and so on. He or she will presumably also need to know the linguistic features- discoursal, functional, structural, lexical- which are commonly used in that situation identified. Thus, observing the situation the learner will need to function and then analyzing the constituent parts of them is important in order to now the necessities of the learners.

b)    Lacks
      Lack is the difference between the student’s present competence and the desire competence (Allwright 1982, quoted in West, 1994). Moreover, based on English for Specific Purpose book lack is about what the learner knows already, so that the teacher or the facilitator can decide which of the necessities the learner’s lack (Hutchinson, Waters and Breen, 1979 page: 56).

c)     Wants
        According to Allwright 1982, quoted in West, 1994 wants is those needs on which students put a higher priority in the available, limited time). Moreover, according to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) definition of wants is perceived of subjective needs of learners. Wants also means that the students need to know what they want to be learned. From that situation, students will do some efforts to achieve their willing.

Gathering Information about Target Need
The analysis of target situation needs is in essence a matter of asking question about the target situation and the attitude towards that situation of the various participants in the learning process. There are some ways in which information can gathered about needs. The most frequently used:
·    Questioners
·    Interviews
·    Observation
·    Data Collection ( e.g: gathering text) target profile of language skills
·    ONGOING, e.g regular class discussions.
The simple framework below outlines the kind of information that the course designer needs to gather from an analysis of target needs. 

A target situation analysis framework

Why is the language needed?
-               for study;
-              for work;
-              for training;
-              for a combination of these;
-              for some other purpose, e.g status, examination, promotion

How will the language be used?
-       Medium : speaking, writing, reading, etc
-       Channel : e.g. telephone, face to face
-   Type of text or discourse : e.g. academic texts, lectures, informal conversations, technical manuals, catalogues.

What will the content areas be?
-       Subject :  e.g. medicine, biology, architecture, shipping, commerce, engineering ;
-       Level :  e.g technician, craftsman, postgraduate, secondary school

Who will the learner use the language with?
-       Native speakers or non-native
-       Level of knowledge of receiver : e.g. expert, layman, student;
-       Relationship: e.g colleague, teacher, customers, superior, subordinate.

Where will the language be used?
-       Physical setting : e.g. office, lecture theatre, hotel, workshop, library;
-       Human context : e.g alone, meetings, demonstration, on telephone;
-       Linguistic context : e.g. in own country, abroad

When will the language be used?
-       Concurrently with the ESP course or subsequently
-       Frequently, seldom, in small amounts, in large chunks

       It is clear that interpretations of needs can vary according to the point of view of the particular respondent. ESP like another educational matter is concern with people such as to all the vagaries and foibles of human behavior. For example: in analyzing the need of students, it would be normal practice to ask both the lectures and the students about their English needs.

Learning Needs Analysis
            Learning need is what the students need to do in order to learn. Using our analogy of the 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). Moreover, the whole ESP process is concerned not with knowing or doing but with learning. We need to take into account the destination or needs of a learning situation: A task is enjoyable, fulfilling, manageable, and generative. While, a project in class can be guided in terms of its general orientation by the target situation, but it specific content is a response to learning needs. The target situation alone is not a reliable indicator of what is needed in the ESP course. It can determine the destination, but we must also choose our route: the conditions of the learning situation, the learner’s knowledge, skills strategies, the learner’s motivation. Moreover, for the example in a target situation students may need to read long, dull, complex texts, but their motivation may be high because:
-         they like the subject in general
-         examination are looming
-         job or promotion prospect may be involved
-         they may be going on to do very interesting experiments or practical work based on the text
-         they may be like or respect the subject teacher or boss.

Analyzing learning needs
To analyzed learning need, we can use a similar checklist to that used for target situation analysis.

A framework for analyzing learning process
Why are the learners taking the course?
-       - Compulsory or optional;
-       - Apparent need or not
-       -  Are statuses or money, promotion involved?
-       - What do learners think they will achieve?
-      - What is their attitude toward ESP course? Do they want to improve their English or do they resent the time they have to spend on it?
      
How do the learners learn?
-       What is their learning background?
-       What is their concept of teaching and learning?
-       What methodology will appeal to them?
-       What sorts of techniques are likely to bore or alienate them?

What recourse are available?
-       Number and professional competence of teachers;
-       Attitude of teacher to ESP
-       Teacher’s knowledge of and attitude to the subject content;
-       Materials;
-       Aids;
-       Opportunity for out-of-class activities

Who are the learners?
-       Age/sex/nationality
-       What do they now already about English?
-       What subject knowledge do they have?
-       What are their interests?
-       What is their socio-cultural background?
-       What teaching style are they used to?
-       What is their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English- speaking world?

Where will the ESP course take a place?
-       Are the surrounding pleasant, dull, noisy, cold, etc?

When will the ESP course take a place?
-       Time of day?
-       Every day/one a week;
-       Full time or part-time;
-       Concurrent with need or pre-need.


Conclusion
Need analysis is a complex process, involving much more than simply looking at what the learners will have to do in the target situation. Most of all, we have tried to stress that both target situation needs and learning, need must be taken into account. Analysis of target situation needs and learning need must be taken into account. Analysis of the target situation can tell us what people do with language. What we also need to know is how people learn to do what they do with language. In order words, a learning centered approach need analysis.