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ASSIGNMENT ON NEED ANALYSIS

By

Rukhsana Balal

Roll no: 19S-MS-EngL-17

Submitted to

Sir Shokat Ali Lohar

English Language Development Centre (ELDC)

Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan

Dated: 15-July-2019

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESL: English as a second language

EFL: English as a foreign Language

ESP: English for specific purpose

EOP: English for Occupational Purpose

EAP: English for Academic Purpose

LWC: Language of Wider Communication

ENL: English as a Native Language

MOI: Medium of Instruction

TL: Target Language

GTM: Grammar Translation Method

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of abbreviations 2

1. Fact finding stage: accessing societal factors 4

2. Basis for curriculum design and syllabus designing 12

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FACT FINDING STAGE: ACESSING SOCIETAL FACTORS

Before developing a new language syllabus or curriculum, initial stage is to gather information
about the learners, teachers, and need of new program, setting and its implementation. This all
information becomes a basis for establishing goals and policy.

Information Gathering Phase

Who Why Where How

(Actual consumer of program)

Learner Teacher Need of Program Setting To Implement

Societal Need

Establishing Realistic goals and policy

Lower Level Higher Level

Language Program Planner

Familiar with Existing Conditions/Setting Unfamiliar with Existing Conditions/Setting

May Be Able to supply answer by them Rely on Sociolinguistic Research

Can call on other Specialist Institutional/Governmental documents,

Interview National/International policies

In the fact finding stage, the teachers and the learners are majorly focused as for the collection of
primary information because these are the actual consumers of the language program and for
whom program and material are to be developed. To know who the teachers and the learners are
require thorough attention to the societal factors. The intended language program should be

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related to the national concerns, international ties and political trends. It can help to develop
relevant material which should be related to the context.

If the language planner is known with the existing conditions, they may be able to supply the
answers to some questions by themselves, or may call on other specialists who can provide
necessary information. In a setting where language program planner is not conversant with the
local conditions, than the planner has to rely on the governmental, institutional documents,
national, international and political trends, questionnaire, and interviews.

The data can be conducted from the various sources such as governmental or institutional
documents, questionnaire, and interview etc. In order to get related information four specified
area must be considered by the language planners.

Language setting Patterns of language use in society

Fact Finding Stage

Group and individual’s attitude towards language The Political and National Context

Figure 1.2Fact finding stage: Dubin and Olshtain’s (1986) model of sources of information for
language policy and goals

Language setting:
English Speaking Settings Non- English Speaking Settings

Reason: Acculturation Modernization/Education/Trade

Settlers Limited Period ESL EFL LWC

Survival Needs ESP/EOP

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Language setting:

Language setting refers to the totality of communication role in any speech community
(Gumperz 1968). It means categorizing language on the basis of its role in the settings. Program
planner has to evaluate the role of the target language in terms of its effect on learners and
learning process. Therefore, an initial survey of the language setting should provide a description
of the role of the TL in respect to all other languages in the country. For example, language
setting might be one in which there is strong support for the learning of the target language.

There are number of ways of categorizing language setting. Distinction can be derived from the
role of TL in the setting. Let’s take example of English. In English speaking setting where
English is used as a native language as in USA, UK and Australia. Whereas in few countries. It
is least spoken natively by the population still it is official language as in Canada, and South
Africa.

Information will need to be collected, not only on why learners want to learn the target language,
but also about such things as societal expectations and constraints and the resources available for
implementing the language program.

The Continuum:
Natively Spoken
UK USA Less Natively Spoken but one of
Official Language
Canada, South Africa
Special Status Because of
Historical Factors
Israel, Kenya, Malaysia Only official Language
Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia
MOI EFL (Modernization)
Japan/China/Brazil
ESP, EOP

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Patterns of language use in society:

Societal Need Analysis

Education Labor Market Modernization

Education

Means of furthering in education Effectiveness of existing material

Among the basic types of language setting English plays different roles as evident in the
continuum. It can be said among these languages setting English plays the role of an LWC. It can
be examined on in three major areas:

In Education:

In any setting where English is not the native language to the members in the community two
major aspects need to be considered: English as a means for furthering ones education and
Effectiveness of the existing curriculum and teaching materials.

English as a means for furthering ones education:

Here two questions arise:

First, whether English is the medium of instruction in the school system or native language or
limited to certain subjects for which there may not be suitable teaching materials. In some
countries the medium of instruction is the native language only in the early years of schooling
while English becomes the medium of instruction in secondary school or at college level. In
Malaysia, (Boey 1979) gained its independence in1957. In their constitution it was written that
Malay would be their national language whereas English as their second official language. In
their transition period it switched from English to Malay as a result level of English proficiency
at tertiary level was decreased the. Therefore English reinstated as medium of instruction for at

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least subjects. In order to evaluate the true role of English in the school system it is necessary to
have a full picture of all subjects taught at the school.

Second question arises for the cases where English is not the medium of instruction what is its
role as a language of study. This refers to the level of English proficiency is required to study
(EAP) or for vocational or technical purpose.

Effectiveness of the existing curriculum and teaching materials:

Once the role of English in education is established, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness
of existing program and teaching materials. Often a new program is required because language
program are failing to meet learner's objectives. Policy decisions will have to be made in order to
find ways to fill this gap. Graduates of formal school system enroll in private courses because
they feel that they lack the level of proficiency needed on their study or job. Therefore, there is a
growing demand for English classes outside the school system (ESP, EOP, EST, EOP etc).

In many countries, like Pakistan's college and universities offer remedial English courses to all
graduates because universities do not accept them as being sufficient advanced for studying at
tertiary level.it is an evident indication of discrepancy between the achievements of programs
and actual societal needs.

Information concerning the effectiveness of the existing program comes from two major sources.
One is through examining official documents available from ministry of education and the other
by investigation of the language program itself. It is usually advisable to conduct surveys of
English program in accordance of:

Results of language
assessment test

Opinions by teachers, students and Overall curriculum


parents

Teacher training program for in-service Existing textbooks


and pre-service

Existing teaching mathods

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Such careful investigation can provide a full picture of effectiveness of the language program.

In the Labor Market

Information sources

Agencies Interviews from individual Newspaper/Advertisements

Governmental Employer

Labor Employees (helpful to know requirements

Employment of LWC and to what extent it is needed

Job Seekers

(To know how well they are prepared in LWC and to what extent they expect to use the LWC)

In the process of Modernization

Scientific and technological information are the important factors that affect the role of English
in the process of modernization. To what extent the knowledge of LWC is required in the
community where LWC is not their local language.

In the process of Modernization

To what extent

Technological and scientific journals available in Local Languages

Instructions and catalogues available in Local Languages

Community dependent on assistance of foreign expert

Group and individual’s attitude towards language:

Societal needs can be evaluated and investigated in terms of effects of groups and individuals
attitudes towards the TL and its effect on the language program. Whatever the setting is two
types of attitudes need to be considered:

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Attitudes towards Target Language
Attitudes towards Target Language Attitude towards Learning/Acquisition

People Who Speak it Cultures it represents Individual Attitude

Group Attitude

The first type usually reflects group attitudes while the second type of is an indication of
personal factors based on individual’s experience and aspirations.

Positive Attitudes

Group Individual

Appreciation of both Personal Motivation


language and its culture

Maximum Language Acquisition

Positive attitude towards the language will reflect high appreciation for language and its culture.
It will maximize personal motivation for language learning process. These both attitudes towards
the language led maximize language acquisition process.

Negative Attitudes

Group Individual

Historical Factors Negative Attitudes of Anxiety and discriminated

Political/National/Social Target Group

Minimum Language Acquisition

Negative attitudes towards a language are usually related to historical factors, political and
national trends, or social conflicts. For instance, a country that was colonized might have anti-
LWC feelings. This would create conflict between group attitude and the real needs of nation for

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an increased use of LWC. In an English speaking settings group might face negative attitudes
from native speakers. The might feel inferior socially or culturally.

Negative attitudes of an individual might be related to their historical roots and even foster by
negative experience with language acquisition process such as anxiety discrimination inferiority
etc.

Negative feelings are also developed when there is a clash between perceived needs and
specified goals of language program. This serious contradiction will affect learner's motivation.
To overcome this issue material developer should develop such an effective materials and design
interesting task that can help to change learner's attitude at least towards learning process. At the
higher level policy makers should focus on these issues and look for suitable solutions. Therefore
one of the outcomes of the fact finding stage is to make planners aware of existing feelings in the
community.

The Political and National Context

Political national and economic considerations are closely related to with each other, but in the
fact finding stage it is necessary to focus the separately. Political consideration is linked to the
administration and how it views language. In English speaking seating how laws maintain the
languages of minority groups or bilingualisms.

In non-English speaking settings, national considerations might be important for the countries
which are grappling with nationhood. In their early period, priority might be given to the national
language at the expense of LWC. If the preferred national language is resented by some group
within the national entity, this may allow LWC to gain considerable strength and can be the
language of educated group as it happened initially in Philippines. Or in the early stages,
different languages may prevail in different domains. For example, Local Languages for early
education, national language for intermediate while LWC (international language) for
government and higher education.

Whenever new curriculum design or materials are launching planners must be aware of political
and national priorities of community. In decision making process all these factors need to be
considered.
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Basis for Curriculum Design and Syllabus Designing:

Next task for course designer is to develop goals from the gathered information. At the national
level curriculum advisory committee specify goals and pass to the syllabus committee. Whereas,
at the local level teachers specify goals as well as develop syllabus. These both bodies change
societal needs into the achievable goals.

Establishing realistic goals

National level Local level

Curriculum advisory committee Teachers

Specify goals and pass to the syllabus committee Specify goals and prepare course syllabus

Translate societal needs into attainable goals

Information gathered from fact finding stage need to be interpreted to set policy/ goals, define
audiences (ESL, EFL, and ESP) and how program can be best suited to the school, community,
or language course.

In an EFL Setting

National level Local level

Group Individual

General/overall societal goal Specific goals

E.g to communicate with world Personal growth and enrichment

ESL setting

Societal/survival needs Academic-professional need

Acculturation ESP MOI EOP

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Surveying existing programs
Most new programs are designed either to provide remedy for the existing ones or to expand and
improve them. For this designers should survey existing programs. While examining the
program, planner should focus on these areas: the existing curriculum and syllabus, the Materials
in use, the teacher population, the learners and the resources of program.

Such investigation can help to understand the strength and weaknesses of existing programs and
help to provide better suggestions.

The existing syllabus

Syllabus is a document which says what is objectives of course, what will be learnt, how will be
learnt, and how it will be evaluated. When a syllabus is available, it becomes useful for initial
inspection. However often syllabus fails to supply necessary information. It may lack essential
details for course. In such cases one may expect it lacks cohesiveness in materials. If the
available syllabus is detailed and provide basic required information problem may occur in its
component. May be the course goals are unrealistic or not related to the context. Or the
approaches used in the course are outdated or not suitable for the learners.

Material in use:

Anything which is used by teachers and learners to facilitate the learning of a language, materials
can be in the form, for example, of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a CD-ROM, a video, a
photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard: anything which
presents or informs about the language being learned.

The defining characteristic of materials is that the materials designer builds in a pedagogic
purpose. The teaching should meet the needs and wants of the learners. Materials need to be
written in such a way that the teacher can make use of them as a resource and not have to follow
them as a script. It seems that most classroom materials are written though for teachers and
students to follow.

An important dimension of this is checking all the sources of information. It is also important to
update outdated information and to provide more contextually relevant information. In surveying

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existing material, it is necessary to develop questions that can guide in evaluation process. Some
of the questions are given below:

By whom and where were materials developed?

Were the material developers familiar about settings and students?

Why they developed material/ what are is objectives?

Are materials compatible with syllabus?

If not each should be analyzed separately?

How materials are teachable and learner able?

Do most of materials provide alternatives for teachers and learners?

Which area of language is covered? Are they prepared separately or integrated?

It is the essential feature of effective material, that it provides wide variety. Teachers or learners
can choose what suits them. It is stimulus for learning process. Materials often reflect material
developer’s preferences for some language skills at the expense of others.

The Teachers:

The teacher population is the most significant factor in determining the success of syllabus and
materials. Teacher is the interpreter of the syllabus. It recounts how an inexperienced teacher
would finish in two minutes an activity that he would expend twenty minutes. Therefore, the
following factors need to be considered while evaluating teacher population:

Teachers command on TL Teachers training, Qualification,

The Teachers:

Teaching Experience, Teacher’s attitude towards changes in program

Teachers who received traditional training cannot implement or handle modern teaching
materials. When teacher is non-native it is important to know his command on the target
language. Therefore it is important to have a reliable picture of the teacher who will implement
the program.
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The Learners:

The student population is another significant factor in the classroom. They join a language
program and have different assumptions (difference in need and want) about teaching and
learning which greatly affect the success of program. So, it is important to know what they want
and is their actual need. In many new programs students are expected to take an active part in
their learning process. They are put in such situations where they have to share responsibilities,
make decisions; evaluate their learning, and learning how to learn. Sociocultural method is
applied for their better learning.

The Resources:

Policy making can be realistic and effective only if it consider the limitations of available
resources for implementation. Such limitations can be taken into account from number of key
factors like time availability, classroom setting and availability of equipment such as tape
recorders, slides, films, multimedia, printer, pictures, posters, other visual aids and so on.

Time available for the acquisition of the target language is a key factor. The objectives and the
ways in which they can be achieved are always dependent on the amount of time available and
how it is distributed.

Classroom setting is also an important factor, reflecting a number of relevant features teaching
and learning situations. Classrooms physical environment (light, shape of the room,
moveable/immoveable desks and so on) can affect learning process positively or negatively.

While planning a new language, it is important to carefully evaluate both existing resources and
their limitations either they lead to failure or success of program.

When the material constitutes the syllabus or curriculum:

When there is no syllabus or curriculum, teachers have to put instructional plans based on
commercial textbooks. Program designer use these materials as a vital source for the program.
In such case, material developer has to focus on following questions:

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 Do the commercial textbooks in use contain statements about educational and linguistic
point of views?
 Do these policy statements coincide with the views held by the teachers using the
materials?
 How have the teachers using the textbooks adapted them to the time frame and other
constraints of the course?
 Do the teachers make any cultural adaptations with the textbooks?
-by changing names?
-by changing place names?
-by altering culture-bound topics?
 What adaptations do teachers make to fit local attitudes towards language learning?

Separate purpose of curriculum and syllabus:

Candlin (1984) suggests that Curriculum is a broader term. It contains descriptions of overall
educational-cultural Goals. It is concerned with making general statements about language
learning, learning purpose, and experience, evaluation, and the relationship between teachers and
learners. Whereas syllabus is syllabus is more specific term and based on account and records of
what actually happens at their classroom level as teachers and learners apply a given curriculum
to their own situation.

Components of curriculum:

Since the major function of curriculum is concerned with the formulation of policy on the basis
of educational, cultural and language goals. Educational approach could focus on any one f the
following views:

Approach: Behavioristic Rational-cognitive Humanistic


Focus: Language form Language learning Pedagogy
Compatible: Structuralist view of language Transformational- Communicative view
generative linguistics of language
Method: GTM, Audio-lingual Direct Salient way, Student centered,
Method Suggestopedia, Socio-cultural
Natural approach activities
(Krashen 1983)

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Types of syllabus:

Structural-grammatical syllabus Semantic-notional syllabus Functional syllabus

Language centered Semantic unit Language in use

Grammar oriented Theme oriented Language in society

Form focused Space Time Obligation

Recently, however, communicative approach to curriculum and syllabus design in language has
gained in popularity. In this approach, needs of the learners are considered while selecting
linguistic, thematic or functional elements. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learners in
learning, involving students in various activities, to take responsibility of their own needs and
seek for help from teachers and materials.

Policy makers/material developers should carefully consider these various approaches in


curriculum and syllabus design so as to combine best and to bring positive results.

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REFERENCES:
Candlin, C. N. (1984). Syllabus design as a critical process. General English syllabus design, 29-
46.

Gumperz, J. J. (1971). Language in social groups (Vol. 3). Stanford University Press.

Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Addison-Wesley Longman
Ltd.

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