Statement of Selected Program & Initial Plan of Needs Analysis

Statement of Selected Program & Initial Plan of Needs Analysis
Makhbuba Yusupova
Mariya Sultonova
Khilola Matniyozova
Mukaddas Tursunova
MA TESOL Webster University, Tashkent
Special Institute: English for Specific Purposes -5760
Professor: Khoorshid Sadikov
Introduction
Teaching English for specific purposes dates back its early history to the 1970s which has grown significantly in its capacity since then. It has now become a separate field of study with a wide range of focus areas such as English for Aviation, English for Law, English for Medical purposes, etc. According to a widespread definition by Dudley-Evans and Johns (1991), in ESP teaching ‘needs assessment’ and ‘discourse analysis’ are the key points to understand better what steps should be taken in an effective ESP teaching context. On this note, the role of needs analysis is inevitable which is also supported by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) that any course design, certainly, should be developed in accordance with learner’s needs. In this paper, the initial phase of the needs analysis of the students of Tashkent Transport University in learning English will be briefly reported.
Context
Target population of the study has been chosen due to current enrollment to teach them (Makhbuba Yusupova) English for Logistics Purposes course. The learners are the second year students who have been exposed to learning English language extensively for the past three years. Currently, according to the curriculum developed by university, they are to hold proficiency level at higher B1 level. However, from the experience of the teacher it is likely to be confirmed that this class is multilevel being majority of them pre-intermediate level while there are A2 and A2+ learners too. In total, 25 students participated over the course of the study, being 19 of them male and the rest 6 females.
Procedure
Initial step of needs analysis started with conducting a Diagnostic test. Brown (2010) states that for the purpose of identifying learners’ weaknesses and strengths in particular area diagnostic tests are a very helpful assessment tool. Therefore, it was first carried out to arrange what measures should be taken to tackle learner problems in learning English. This test was administered in order to identify the gap between what students currently know and what desired level they are supposed to achieve at the end of the course.
Another helpful tool was a Needs Analysis Questionnaire which consisted of twelve questions to identify learners’ needs and wants. The set of questions were prepared by group members that had been developed following samples given on the internet. Another thing to mention is that a needs analysis questionnaire was also conducted at the very beginning of the study so that it could help determine how the syllabus could be designed in accordance with learners’ needs, lacks and wants.
Data collection tools
One of the tools for collecting data was a Diagnostic test that was taken from an existing test in the textbook "Flash on English for Transport and Logistics" which is dedicated to teach English for learners whose major is transport. The themes in the course book are all reflected in the test's questions. We decided to administer this test because first-year students used it as their primary coursebook. The test consisted of four sections which included 1-Vocabulary, 2-Grammar, 3-Reading, 4-Writing sections. The assessment focused mainly on the reading and writing skills considering the learners’ future context for using the language.
The first section was focused on Vocabulary basement check-up: the students were given 10 tests to identify their current knowledge relevant topics of Logistics in English. The second part focused on Grammar points which are difficult for the learners. This part had 20 tests. The reading part contained short texts followed by comprehension checking activity and matching activity which required finding the matching pairs of the description with an object. The last section was writing. In this part participants were asked to write an essay on a relevant topic. The word limit was 100-150 words.
The test can be completed by the participants in an hour:1-Vocabulary part 5 min., 2-Grammar part 20 min., 3-Reading part 10 min., and the last writing part was 20 min.
The following tool was a two-part survey. The questionnaire contained two types of questions: 1-part questions were related to the participants’ background information regarding language learning. The 2-part questions were focused on needs, perspectives and self-perceived weaknesses of the participants.

References:
Brown, H.D. (2010) Principles of Language Assessment. Cambridge University Press
Flowerdew, L. (2013). Needs analysis and curriculum development in ESP. In Paltridge, B. and S. Starfield (Eds.) The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes, 325-346.
Johns, A. and Dudley-Evans, T. (1991) English for Specific Purposes: International in Scope, Specific in Purpose TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol. 25, No. 2
Hutchinson, T. and Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes. A learner-centred approach. Cambridge: CUP