ESP ( NEED ANALYSIS )

Chapter Two

NEED ANALYSIS

MEANINGS OF NEEDS AND NEEDS ANALYSIS

Need Analysis is the process of identifying and evaluating needs (see sample definitions below) in a community or other defined population of people. The identification of needs is a process of describing “problems” of a target population and possible solutions to these problems. A need has been described as:

•         A gap between “what is” and “what should be.” (Witkin et al., 1995)

•         “A gap between real and ideal that is both acknowledged by community values and potentially amenable to change.” (Reviere, 1996, p. 5)

•     May be different from such related concepts as wants (“something people are willing to pay for”) or demands (“something people are willing to march for”). (McKillip, 1987)

Need analysis focuses on the future, or what should be done, rather than on what was done as is

the focus of most program evaluations. Some people use the related term “needs assessment”

Steps and examples:

These steps may seem familiar to people aware of general guidelines for evaluation planning

(see, for example, the “Key Questions for Evaluation Planning“ in the ICYF Spring 2000 newsletter and logic model descriptions). The focus here is entirely on “gap” or need analysis. The following steps are suggestions from McKillip, 1998

1. First, you identify the audience and purposes for the analysis (what McKillip, 1998, calls the users and uses). For example, members of a rural community might have concerns about youth loitering at a local park. The PTA might commission a need analysis to investigate the issue and to try to find solutions to youth “hanging out” and getting into trouble.

2. Second, you fully describe the target population and service environment. Altschuld et al. (2000) point out three levels of target groups and their respective needs: Level 1 (Primary) targets are the direct recipients of the services; Level 2 (Secondary) targets include the individuals or groups who deliver the services; and Level 3 (Tertiary) involves the resources and inputs into the solutions (e.g., buildings, salaries, facilities, etc.). These researchers emphasize that the focus of the need analysis should be on Level 1 because that is the reason for the existence of levels 2 and 3, not the other way around. In this example, the primary target population would be the rural youth. The local teachers, coaches and school personnel would be one set of secondary targets. The salaries, facilities, equipment, curricula and support mechanisms for the school personnel would be tertiary

targets.

3. The third step is

need identification where descriptions of the problems (beyond the general level noted in step 1) and possible solutions are generated. This is where illustrate the gaps between expected/ideal andactual outcomes. You want to gather information from more than one level of target, although you should focus on the primary targets. For example, if you only asked school personnel about the perceived needs of the rural youth, you might get a different set of answers than you would if you asked the youth themselves. Include a description of the expected outcomes of the various solutions and, if possible, the estimated costs of each possible solution.

4. The fourth step is called

needs assessment by McKillip (1998). This is the time to evaluate the identified needs. Which are the most important? Do any of the needs conflict with other needs? Is there consistent agreement across levels of target groups about the relevance and importance of the needs? For example, an after-school program might want to increase academic achievement of youth by offering extra activities that take time the youth otherwise might have spent finishing their homework. An unexpected outcome might be lower grades due to incomplete homework. Therefore, the youth might not hold the same value for “extra” academic activities as the program staff who created the program in the first place.

5. Finally, you

communicate your results to the audience identified in the first step.

Techniques/methods:

Space here is limited so only a list of sample techniques and possible steps where they could be

used are included. Refer to the web sites and other citations below for a complete description.

Resource Inventory (Who provides What to Whom?; STEP 2)

•         Secondary Data Analysis (US Census, other data archives; STEP 2)

•         Surveys (Key Informants, Client Satisfaction, Training; STEPS 2, 3, 4)

•         Group Procedures (Focus Group, Nominal Group, Public Hearing, Community Forum (ALL STEPS)

Cautions/pitfalls:

“...the most serious conceptual flaws in needs assessment research involve problems with sampling, failing to gather the right information to measure the desired components of need, and using methods inappropriate to justify the conclusions. These weaknesses reflect a basic failure to develop a conceptually coherent, logical, and well-integrated  plan for conducting the needs

assessment” (p. 70, Reviere, et al., 1996). In addition to the above description, other common

problems include the following (from Soriano, 1995; Witkin, 1995):

•         Missing primary target population (e.g., not asking clients of services, holding meetings at inconvenient times/locations)

•         Confounding means (solution strategies) with ends (outcomes) or needs with wishes (wants)

•         Using only one method for gathering information

•         Assuming levels of need are similar across levels of target groups

•         Failing to set priorities based on collected data

TARGET SITUATION ANALYSIS

            A needs analysis which focuses on student ‘ needs at the end of a language course can be called a target situation analysis (TSA). This term is introduced and discussed in a useful article by chambers (59). The best known framework for a TSA type of needs analysis is formulated by Munby, who present a communication needs processor comprising a set of parameters within which information on the student’ target situation can be plotted.

            The information sought for a TSA may relate to two different stages in the student lives. Thus the English course may be preparing the students for a further training course, which will be conducted through the medium of English, after which the studens will then take up jobs. For example, note-taking from books and answering examination questions may be needed for the training course, but job may involve much discussion and negotiation in English and little reading and writing. Student will understandably want to practice examination-answering on the language course, but may also want to rehearse for their later jobs by doing a lot of oral work.

PRESENT SITUATION ANALYSIS

            As a complement to TSA we may posit PSA (present situation analysis). A PSA seeks to establish what the students are like at start of their language course, investigating their strengths and weaknesses. They suggest that there are three basic sources of information: the student themselves, the language-teaching establishment, and the user-institution, for example the student ‘place of work. For each of these we shall seek information regarding their respective levels of ability: their resources, for example financial and technical: and their views on language teaching and learning.

THE LANGUAGE AUDIT

A combined TSA and PSA is provided by the language audit, used in language training for business and industry and described by pilbeam. The language audit is used to plot the role played by a foreign language in a commercial or indusrial enterprise.

KEY METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

            Mountford (81.p28) suggest three sets of methodological problems related to needs analysis :

            The problems of perception ; whose analysis of needs?

The problems of principle ; what should the analysis include and exclude as relevant -content?

The problems of practice ; how should the analysis be undertaken and applied?

Rather than seeing these as problems, let us simply treat them as factors to be taken into account, and consider them in turn.

PERCEPTION OF NEEDS

In the next step of the perception process, we actually perceive the stimulus object in the environment. It is at this point that we become consciously aware of the stimulus. Let's consider our previous example, in which we imagined that you were out for a morning jog in the park. At the perception stage, you have become aware of that there is something out on the pond to perceive. Now, it is one thing to be aware of stimuli in the environment, and quite another to actually become fully consciously aware of what we have perceived. In the next stage of the perceptual process, we will sort the perceived information into meaningful categories.

PRINCIPLES OF DATA SELECTION

            The type of information sought during a needs analysis is usually closely related to the approach to teaching and learning and to syllabus design followed by the analysis. For example, where the analysis favour a pedagogic approach which focuses on linguistic forms and their accuarate reproduction by students, then needs analysis is likely to involve some study of the students grasp of linguistic forms and linguistic analysis of targer-level texts. Student needs will expressed in terms of language item which must then be taught. In other cases, common for EAP, investigation wil focus on the skills and subskills which are employed in certain study situation. For example, if reading is identified as an important skill, then investigators need to identify the types of text which must be read and the modes of reading employed for them : speed reading, reading for gist. Scanning and so on. Any study of specific linguistic forms will be a secondary rather than a primary consideration. A processes oriented needs analysis, then, would focus on information about these processes and strategies.

THE PRACTICE OF NEEDS ANALYSIS

            Suggests that ‘there are essentially four techiniques for investigating needs : the questionnaire, the detailed interview, participating observation, case studies, tests, authentic data collection, and participatory needs analysis. By press ads, he means that advertisements of job vacancies in the newspaper might indicate the language needs of the jobs. To schroder’ list we could add testing and the collection of authentic materials, such as audio and video recordings and documents from the students workplace or specialist academic department.

CONDUCTING A NEEDS ANALYSIS

            Planning the needs analysis

Before embraking on a needs analysis we need to consider very carefully how much time there is available, both to do the actual collecting of the information and then to process and analyse it. We should also have some idea of how we are going to analyse and use the information. Mackey and Bosquest, in a very clear account of LSP curriculum development warn that if the researcher assumes that the first step is  to gather all possible information about the learner his or her needs, the uses to which the language might be put, the expectations of the community before deciding how the information will be analyzed and for what purposes it will be used, this phase is certain to end in frustration and is likely to end in the abandonment of the data.

It is also important to consider the likelihood of obtaining the type of data that we think we want. If the students have not yet arrived at the place where ESP course will be taught, then can a questionnaire be sent to them? Can they be asked to take some sort of recognized test before leaving? What relevant material can they be asked to bring with them? Some of the problems of operating at a distance are discussed by Dronbic and Hirayama-Grant and Sedgwick.

Thus, when necessary, needs analysts must ‘use their existing stock of knowledge and make professional quesses.

When should the needs analysis be carried out

                        There is general agreement that as much as possible of the needs analysis should be completed before any course or series of courses starts. Richterich and chancerel, and holliday and cooke and other, however, also suggest that needs analysis needs to be repeated during the life of each course. This is most obviously because the PSA may change.