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Abstract: On the basis of a brief introduction to language learners’ needs, this paper reviews Munby’s target situation needs and Hutchinson & Water’ model of needs, and defines the English learning needs in a Chinese context as students’ needs of classroom teaching in learning process. 116 correspondence students were surveyed with the results that their English learning needs were very low. In the end, considerations about designing a curriculum are presented.
Key Words: needs analysis; correspondence students
1 Introduction
One of the basic assumptions of curriculum development is that a sound educational program should be based on an analysis of learners’ needs. Procedures used to collect information about learners’ needs are known as needs analysis. Needs analysis was introduced into language teaching and learning through the ESP movement in the 1960s (Richards, 2001). In the foreign language teaching and learning, needs analysis is a necessary starting step for designing and carrying out the language curriculum (Shu, 2004).
According to “College English Curriculum Requirements” (Requirements here after) issued in 2007, the objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way, especially in listening and speaking, … Institutions of higher learning should set their own objectives in the light of their specific circumstances. Therefore, it is a must to conduct needs analysis before setting the particular objectives.
2 Literature Review
The term needs is used to refer to wants, desires, demands, expectation, motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements (Brindley, 1984). The first model of needs analysis in the language education, proposed by Richerich (1972) and based on a set of categories for establishing learners’ communicative requirements in the future context of language use, appeared in the 1970s in the context of the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Project.
The most thorough and widely known work on needs analysis is John Munby’s Communicative Syllabus Design (1978). Munby presents a highly detailed set of procedures for discovering target situation needs. He calls this set of procedures the Communication Needs Processor (CNP). The CNP consists of a range of questions about key communication variables (topic, participants, medium etc.) which can be used to identify the target language needs of any group of learners. The work marked a watershed in the development of ESP. Despite its concern with individual language needs, “It showed the ultimate sterility of a language-centered approach to needs analysis” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987：54). This highlighted a major gap in content-based approaches such as Munby’s: even though they were able to produce a detailed target syllabus, they did not provide an actual teaching/learning syllabus (Brumfit, 1979).
In China, some scholars such as Chen(2009, 2010), Wang (2004), Xia and Kong (1999) construct some practical models to follow the Requirements, and less empirical studies are conducted in the EFL context. This study mainly focuses on the target needs and learning needs, and defines the English learning needs as: students’ needs of classroom teaching in the learning process, such as teaching contents, teaching methods; learning objectives students want to achieve with a view to describing and analyzing the English learning needs of the basic skills for correspondence students to find a proper teaching method to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way.
3 Research Methodology
3.1 Research Questions
The survey is guided by the following research questions:
1) What are the students’ viewpoints on the basic English skills?
2) What are the students’ needs concerning English learning?
3.2 Subjects and Instruments
This study involved 130 students who did a correspondence course in College English in Lincang prefecture, Songming county and Dayao county in 2010. They were investigated in four basic skills by means of questionnaire most modified from Gravatt et al (1997), then 20 students were further interviewed to supplement the questionnaire. The total score is 125, the higher score the students get, the more willingness they want to improve the skills. Of 116 questionnaires received, 61 majored in accounting, 55 majored in business administration.
4 Findings and Discussion
4.1 Needs of Listening
From table 1 we know that the students seldom listen in English to get information. Only one of them want to practice listening although he doesn’t use English in his work and life, the other 95% interviewed also realize the importance of listening in English in modern society, yet they don’t want to work to improve their listening ability.
4.2 Needs of Speaking
Table 2 shows us that their willingness to speak English is very low. 80% of the interviewees say that they have nothing to say in English, and they are afraid to confront with foreigners. Due to the busy work they have to deal with every working day, they seldom have time to practice spoken English after school. When asked about what is the most difficult factor in improving spoken English, a greater number of them say they suffer from knowing little about how to practice by themselves.
4.3 Needs of Writing
From table 3 with interview, we can see the score of writing is a little higher than that of listening and speaking. 20% of students interviewed struggle with their limited language forms to write in English. So teachers should encourage students to write and experience pleasure of using English although their limited language forms do not correspond with their meaningful thoughts.
4.4 Needs of Reading
From the investigation we know students want to improve their reading ability, “Knowledge of vocabulary” receives the highest mean score of the total 25 questionnaire items, which also reinforces our assumption that the correspondence students are in the low stage of learning English. Suggestions are to encourage students’ intrinsic interest to read in order to improve their reading comprehension and then to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way.
5 Conclusion
In China, for a long time, needs analysis have been neglected in the process of foreign language teaching and learning. Society’s needs and employers’ requirements on employees’ English proficiencies should be considered first when policy makers are designing a foreign language course, as the market demand for English personnel with interdisciplinary talents are gaining more and more popularity in the job market. To develop an efficient course also requires a much more detailed knowledge of learners’ needs and their learning preferences. The present study may give some suggestions for what teaching goals to be set and what teaching methods to be chosen.
References
[1]Brindley,G.(1984).Needs analysis and objective setting in the adult migrant education program. Sydney: N.S. W. Adult Migrant Education Service.
[2]Brumfit,C.J.(1979).Communicative Language Teaching: an Educational Perspective. In C. J. Brumfit (Eds.), The communicative approach to language teaching (pp.183-191).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3]Gravatt, B., J. Richards, and M. Lewis. 1997. Language needs in tertiary studies. Auckland: Occasional Paper Number 10, University of Auckland Institute of Language Teaching and Learning.
[4]Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning-centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5]Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6]Richterich, R. (1972). A model for the definition of language needs of adults learning a modern language. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
[7]Munby,J.(1978).Communicative syllabus design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]陈冰冰.国外需求分析研究述评，外语教学与研究[J].2009（2）：125-130
[9]陈冰冰，大学英语需求分析模型的理论构建，外语学刊[J].2010（2）：120-123
[10]教育部高等教育司，大学英语课程教学要求[J].北京：外语教学与研究出版社,2007
[11]束定芳，外语教学改革：问题与对策.上海：上海外语教育出版社。
[12]王海啸，个性化大学英语教学大纲设计中的需求和条件分析，中国外语[J]（1）：21-26,2004
[13]夏纪梅、孔宪，外语课程设计的科学性初探，外语界[J]（1）：26-31,1999
Key Words: needs analysis; correspondence students
1 Introduction
One of the basic assumptions of curriculum development is that a sound educational program should be based on an analysis of learners’ needs. Procedures used to collect information about learners’ needs are known as needs analysis. Needs analysis was introduced into language teaching and learning through the ESP movement in the 1960s (Richards, 2001). In the foreign language teaching and learning, needs analysis is a necessary starting step for designing and carrying out the language curriculum (Shu, 2004).
According to “College English Curriculum Requirements” (Requirements here after) issued in 2007, the objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way, especially in listening and speaking, … Institutions of higher learning should set their own objectives in the light of their specific circumstances. Therefore, it is a must to conduct needs analysis before setting the particular objectives.
2 Literature Review
The term needs is used to refer to wants, desires, demands, expectation, motivations, lacks, constraints, and requirements (Brindley, 1984). The first model of needs analysis in the language education, proposed by Richerich (1972) and based on a set of categories for establishing learners’ communicative requirements in the future context of language use, appeared in the 1970s in the context of the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Project.
The most thorough and widely known work on needs analysis is John Munby’s Communicative Syllabus Design (1978). Munby presents a highly detailed set of procedures for discovering target situation needs. He calls this set of procedures the Communication Needs Processor (CNP). The CNP consists of a range of questions about key communication variables (topic, participants, medium etc.) which can be used to identify the target language needs of any group of learners. The work marked a watershed in the development of ESP. Despite its concern with individual language needs, “It showed the ultimate sterility of a language-centered approach to needs analysis” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987：54). This highlighted a major gap in content-based approaches such as Munby’s: even though they were able to produce a detailed target syllabus, they did not provide an actual teaching/learning syllabus (Brumfit, 1979).
In China, some scholars such as Chen(2009, 2010), Wang (2004), Xia and Kong (1999) construct some practical models to follow the Requirements, and less empirical studies are conducted in the EFL context. This study mainly focuses on the target needs and learning needs, and defines the English learning needs as: students’ needs of classroom teaching in the learning process, such as teaching contents, teaching methods; learning objectives students want to achieve with a view to describing and analyzing the English learning needs of the basic skills for correspondence students to find a proper teaching method to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way.
3 Research Methodology
3.1 Research Questions
The survey is guided by the following research questions:
1) What are the students’ viewpoints on the basic English skills?
2) What are the students’ needs concerning English learning?
3.2 Subjects and Instruments
This study involved 130 students who did a correspondence course in College English in Lincang prefecture, Songming county and Dayao county in 2010. They were investigated in four basic skills by means of questionnaire most modified from Gravatt et al (1997), then 20 students were further interviewed to supplement the questionnaire. The total score is 125, the higher score the students get, the more willingness they want to improve the skills. Of 116 questionnaires received, 61 majored in accounting, 55 majored in business administration.
4 Findings and Discussion
4.1 Needs of Listening
From table 1 we know that the students seldom listen in English to get information. Only one of them want to practice listening although he doesn’t use English in his work and life, the other 95% interviewed also realize the importance of listening in English in modern society, yet they don’t want to work to improve their listening ability.
4.2 Needs of Speaking
Table 2 shows us that their willingness to speak English is very low. 80% of the interviewees say that they have nothing to say in English, and they are afraid to confront with foreigners. Due to the busy work they have to deal with every working day, they seldom have time to practice spoken English after school. When asked about what is the most difficult factor in improving spoken English, a greater number of them say they suffer from knowing little about how to practice by themselves.
4.3 Needs of Writing
From table 3 with interview, we can see the score of writing is a little higher than that of listening and speaking. 20% of students interviewed struggle with their limited language forms to write in English. So teachers should encourage students to write and experience pleasure of using English although their limited language forms do not correspond with their meaningful thoughts.
4.4 Needs of Reading
From the investigation we know students want to improve their reading ability, “Knowledge of vocabulary” receives the highest mean score of the total 25 questionnaire items, which also reinforces our assumption that the correspondence students are in the low stage of learning English. Suggestions are to encourage students’ intrinsic interest to read in order to improve their reading comprehension and then to develop students’ ability to use English in an all-round way.
5 Conclusion
In China, for a long time, needs analysis have been neglected in the process of foreign language teaching and learning. Society’s needs and employers’ requirements on employees’ English proficiencies should be considered first when policy makers are designing a foreign language course, as the market demand for English personnel with interdisciplinary talents are gaining more and more popularity in the job market. To develop an efficient course also requires a much more detailed knowledge of learners’ needs and their learning preferences. The present study may give some suggestions for what teaching goals to be set and what teaching methods to be chosen.
References
[1]Brindley,G.(1984).Needs analysis and objective setting in the adult migrant education program. Sydney: N.S. W. Adult Migrant Education Service.
[2]Brumfit,C.J.(1979).Communicative Language Teaching: an Educational Perspective. In C. J. Brumfit (Eds.), The communicative approach to language teaching (pp.183-191).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3]Gravatt, B., J. Richards, and M. Lewis. 1997. Language needs in tertiary studies. Auckland: Occasional Paper Number 10, University of Auckland Institute of Language Teaching and Learning.
[4]Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for specific purposes: A learning-centered approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5]Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6]Richterich, R. (1972). A model for the definition of language needs of adults learning a modern language. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
[7]Munby,J.(1978).Communicative syllabus design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8]陈冰冰.国外需求分析研究述评，外语教学与研究[J].2009（2）：125-130
[9]陈冰冰，大学英语需求分析模型的理论构建，外语学刊[J].2010（2）：120-123
[10]教育部高等教育司，大学英语课程教学要求[J].北京：外语教学与研究出版社,2007
[11]束定芳，外语教学改革：问题与对策.上海：上海外语教育出版社。
[12]王海啸，个性化大学英语教学大纲设计中的需求和条件分析，中国外语[J]（1）：21-26,2004
[13]夏纪梅、孔宪，外语课程设计的科学性初探，外语界[J]（1）：26-31,1999