CHAPTER THREE

NEEDS ANALYSIS AND A SURVEY OF NEEDS-BASED

STUDIES
 CHAPTER THREE

NEEDS ANALYSIS AND A SURVEY OF NEEDS-BASED STUDIES

3.0 Preliminaries

In chapter two we have traced the theoretical foundation of the ESP field
including definitions of ESP, its origin, classification, developments besides its
main strands namely EAP and EOP and the linguistic and non-linguistic issues
related to it. Before this, we have touched upon the term ELT, its varieties and
the position of English as a lingua franca. This chapter includes two main
sections, the first deals with the notion of 'need analysis', its status in ESP globe,
its different kinds and the famous approach to it. The second section focuses on
studies incorporating actual needs analysis carried out in different places. In one
way or another these studies have relevance to the present study on several
grounds including procedures used, aims, context, nature of subjects and needs
etc. The review of the studies will be run under the following headings:

• English for Academic Needs

• English for Academic and Occupational Needs
• English for the Workplace
• ESP Needs Studies in the Yemeni Context

3.1 Historical Glance

Needs Analysis (NA) figured notably in the literature of language teaching for
30 years and has been stressed on learners' communicative needs. Historically,
the term 'analysis of needs' first appeared in India in the 1920s (Howat, 1984;
White, 1988; West, 1994). However, referring to Berwick (1989), (Khan,
2007:41) points out that two factors led to needs - based curriculum planning in
modem times, one of them was related to the public aid to education programs in
the USA in the 1960s when identification of needs was legislative requirement
for receiving finances for activities carried out by publicly funded educational
and service-providing agencies. The second factor was the behavioral objective

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movement which emphasized precision and accountability in the educational
system by insisting on specification of goals in measurable form.

For language planning, the emergence of NA can be traced back to the 1970s
when the formal concept of NA was largely established at that time by the
Council of Europe in the field of ESP (Richetrich, 1980; Mountford, 1981;
Nunan, 1988). In fact the growth of NA is a result of looking at "syllabi that have
a functional rather than structural base and the placing of learner in a central
position in designing methodological thinking" (Mountford, 1981).

3.2 Position ofNA in ESP

It can be said that from 1970s upto date NA has become the comer stone in ESP.
Its centrality has been emphasized by a number of practitioners (Munby, 1978
Richetrich and Chancerel, 1987; Strevens, 1988; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987
Berwick, 1989; Brindley, 1989; Robinson, 1991; West, 1994; Jordan, 1997
Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998 and others). They consider it as the major
defining feature in ESP. Not only this (McDounph, 1984:9) argues that NA is
"synonymous with ESP, and it is difficult to think of one without the other comes
to mind". The centrality of NA derives from its crucial role in both learning and
teaching processes. In the former, the students can offer their views and attitudes
regarding their needs in order to enable the finding out of materials which would
match their accurate needs as they are adult learners and can perceive their
accurate needs (Sculthorp, 1974; Altman, 1980). In the latter, "it is worthwhile
for ESP practitioners to juxtapose their perception to the students' perception in
order to extract suitable materials". (Abdullah, 2005:50).

3.3 Definitions of the Notion of NA

In fact, it is difficult to have one definition of the concept 'needs analysis' as this
term is "controversial one in the field of ELT in general and the field of ESP in
particular" (Brindley, 1989:28) where "the very concept of language needs has
been never clearly defined and remains at the best ambiguous" (Richetrich,
1983:2) and "what is finally established as 'needs' is a matter for agreement and
judgement not discovery" (Lawson, 1979:37). Nevertheless, a number of

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definitions and views of 'need' and 'needs analysis' are provided by a number of
linguists. They are as follows:

Pratt (1980:79) defines NA as "an array of procedures for identifying and

validating needs, and establishing priorities among them". Holec (1980:1) looks
at NA as "classical procedures by which a link can be established between the
learners and the curricula". For Iwai (1990 cited in Sanghori, 2008:3) the term
NA "generally refers to the activities that are involved in collecting information
that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the needs
of a particular group of students". NA can be described as "what learners will be
required to do with the foreign language in the target situation, and how learners
might best master the target language during the period of training (West,
1994:1). To Richards et al (1992:214) NA is "the process of determining the
needs for which a learner or group of learners requires a language and arranging
the needs according to the priorities".

The difficulty to have a single definition of NA may be related to the difficulty to

define the notion 'need' itself This has been mirrored in the following
definitions: "The common word 'need' describes an item or any ability which is
important to a person and which he does not have or not very good at"
(Kavaliauskiene et al, 2003:36) Brindley (1989:52) states that 'need' is "a gap or
measurable discrepancy between a current state of affairs and desired future
state". That means, 'need' is the gap between what is there and what it should be.
In this sense, needs are open to contextual interpretation and contain value
judgments. 'Need' can be considered as the students' job or study requirements,
that is, what they have to do to be able at the end of their language course"
(Widdowson, 1981:2). According to (Mountford, 1981:27), "needs can mean
what the user - institution or society at large regards as necessary or desire to be
learnt from a program of language instruction".

3.4 Types of Needs

In this respect, (Widdowson, 1983:178) distinguishes between two kinds of

needs: Goal-oriented needs which refers to "what the learner needs to do with the

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language once he/she has learnt it" and Process-oriented needs which refers to
"what the learner needs to do to actually acquire the language". In the same
direction Brindley (1989) uses 'narrow' for 'product' or 'goal-oriented' and 'broad'
for 'process-oriented'. The distinction is also made between 'subjective' needs and
'objective' needs, Richterich (1972, cited in Hasan, 2008:31). According to
Richterich, objective needs are those which can be diagnosed by teachers on the
bases of analysis of personal data about learners along with information about
their language proficiency level and patterns of language use, whereas, subjective
needs (interpreted as wants, desires, expectations or other psychological
manifestation of a lack) cannot be diagnosed and are, in many cases, even stated
by learners themselves. (Nunan, 1988:44) draws the distinction between the
'objective' and 'subjective' needs stating that "objective needs result in content
specification form an analysis of the target communicative situations in which
learners are likely to find themselves. Being derived from analysis of the target
situation, they can be carried out in the absence of the learners. Subjective needs,
on the other hand, are derived from the learners themselves, while there is a
tendency to equate objective needs with the specification of content, subjective
needs with specification of methodology". Similarly, needs can be described as
'Felt' needs or 'Perceived' needs. (Berwick, 1989:55) states that "felt needs are
those, which learners have. The compotation - is one of unsophisticated,
egocentric expressions of desired future state which individuals can be induced to
express if planners ask the right questions. Perceived needs are judgements of
certified experts about educational gaps in other people's experience". In a
classification by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) needs are divided into: target
needs and learning needs. They divide target needs into: necessities, lacks and
wants, considering them as the ones that the learner needs to do in target
situation, while learning needs are what the learner needs to do in order to learn.
According to what has been mentioned above, the terms have been introduced to
describe the different factors and perspectives which have helped the concept of
need to grow. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) have reviewed the work dealing

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with different types of needs and summarize an existing confusing plethora of
terms as under:

Each of these terms represents a different philosophy or educational

value, and merits careful thought. Briefly, objective and perceived
needs are seen as derived by outsiders, from facts, from what is known
and can be verified, while subjective and felt needs are derived from
insiders and correspond to cognitive and affective factors. Thus "to be
able to follow instruction accurately" is an objective/perceived needs.
'To feel confident' is a subjective/felt needs. Similarly, product-
oriented needs derive from the goal or target situations and process-
oriented needs derive from the learning situations, (p. 123)

According to them, all these pairs can be seen as corresponding to 'target

situation analysis' and 'learning situation analysis (1998).

3.5 Importance of Implementing of NA

According to Knox (1990) as cited in (Hassan, 2008:30) a needs analysis enables

the researchers to justify their assumptions whether or not potential educational
needs are sound, to design program in terms of topics, materials so as to be
responsive to the needs of the participants. Such concern on satisfying learners'
needs will encourage the learners to learn and apply what they learn. Richards
(1990) discusses this issue from the point of curriculum design. He emphasizes
that the data to be collected from learners, teachers, administrators, and
employers in the planning process will help to identify general and specific
language needs and content of language program. Besides it will provide data to
review and evaluate the existing program. This evaluation as Zahra et al (2008:4)
point out "not only helps administrators plan language courses which are more
satisfying to the learners in terms of fulfilling their needs but also may improve
the existing language programs in terms of objectives, topics and materials.
Brindley (1989:67) states that "language users learn more effectively if the
programme content is relevant to their specific area of needs and interest". This
shows clearly that NA is a matter of crucial importance in the sphere of ESP
materials design and evaluation. The idea is that, if ESP learners take part in

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materials design and evaluation, this will lead to increase their motivation and
confidence in working on their own as well as learning to take responsibility for
their own learning (Kuter, 2000).

Recently, one can notice that the significance of NA for devising courses and
course books and the kind of teaching and learning that takes place is emphasized
by many researchers (Richterich, 1983; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Robinson,
1991; Jordon, 1997; Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998; Long, 2005 and others).
However, these researchers recommend that NA should be an on-going process
carried out during the life of the course since the learners' needs, attitudes and
approaches may change. This can help both the administrators and the teachers to
take the changes into account in a way that promotes learners success and
fulfillment.

Abdullah (2005:76) indicates that it will be difficult for ESP learners to learn
ESP course well and cope well with what they have learnt if they are not aware
of their needs. Further, the ESP teachers cannot teach the ESP course correctly
and handle the teaching process properly unless they fully understand their
learners' needs. As stated earlier in this chapter (3.2) the vital role of NA in the
ESP world is stressed by many practifioners. In fact NA serves a number of
purposes. It "aids administrators, teachers and tutors with learners placement, and
in developing materials, curricula, skills assessment, teaching approaches and
teacher training" Weddel et al (1997 quoted in Abdullah, 2005:37).

3.6 Approaches to NA

3.6.1 Target Situation Analysis

In (2.3.4.) we indicated that NA appeared and became widespread in the 1970s,

but it "did not find its remarkable influence and position in ESP until Munby's
approach to needs analysis came into being" (Phan, 2005:52). Indeed, Munby's
Communicative Syllabus Design (1978) was a landmark in ELT and soon drew a
great attention from syllabus designers, particularly ESP designers. The work had
a huge influence on ESP since it provided a new vision on individual needs
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:54) and "it has been very influential - either

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developments have stemmed from it or as a result of reaction to it" (Jordan,
1997:24). In the words of Phan (2005), Munby's model has influenced ESP
course development in the sense that it raises both theoretical and practical
problems to be argued among authors" (p. 56). Under this influence 'situations'
and 'functions' were discussed within the framework of needs analysis. Based on
this model. Chamber (1980) introduced the term Target Situation Analysis
(TSA). He describes it as "communication in the target situation" (p. 29). He
elaborates "... it goes into the target situation, collects and analyze the data in
order to establish the communication that really occur - its function, forms and
frequencies and provides a basis for selecting the long-range aims of the course.
In fact, many researchers in the field of TSA followed Munby's model. Most
subsequent target needs analysis research was based on it for the reason that it
"offers comprehensive data banks and target performance" (Robinson, 1991:8).

Munby's model contains controversial issues, it will be helpful to shed some

light on it. The aim of this model is to find as thoroughly as possible the
linguistic forms a prospective ESP learner is likely to use in various situations in
his target working environment. The outcome of the processing data by means of
Munby's model is, as Hutchinson and Waters (1987) say, "What the learner needs
to know in order to function effectively in the target situation" (p. 54). However,
the model consists of two stages: communicative needs processor (CNP) and the
interpretations of the profile of NA derived from CNP in terms of micro-skills:
perceptual skills, summarizing skills, study reference skills ... etc, and micro-
functions: suggestions, interruptions, contradiction, justifications ... etc. The CNP
is set out under eight variables that "affect communication needs by organizing
them as parameters in a dynamic relationship to each other (Munby, 1978:32).
The CNA operates by looking at its 'input' - the foreign language participant -
and information concerning the participant's identity and language. In other
words the learner's personal details - age, gender, nationality etc, are fed into the
CNP. Then it requires information on the eight variables:

• Purposive domain: this category establishes the type of ESP, and then the
purpose which the target language will be used for at the end of the course.

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 • Setting: the physical setting specifying the spatial and temporal aspects
of the situation where English will be used, and the psychological setting
specifying the different environment in which English will be used.
• Interaction: identifies the learner's interlocutors and predicts relationship
between them.
• Instrumentality: specifies the medium, i.e. whether the language to be
used is written, spoken or both; mode, i.e. whether the language to be
used is in the form of monologue, dialogue or any other; and channel of
communication, i.e. whether it is face to face, radio, or any other.
• Dialect: dialects learners will have to understand or produce in terms of
their spatial, temporal, or social aspect.
• Communicative key: the manner in which the participants will have to
do the activities comprising an event, e.g. politely or impolitely.
• Communicative event: states what the participants will have to do
productively or receptively.
• Target level: level of linguistic proficiency at the end of the ESP course
which might be different for different skills. (Sanghori, 2008:7)
In the second stage of the model the user must take the activities with their
communicative keys and decide which of three alternative ways of processing
them is appropriate. These alternatives are: specification of syllabus content by
focusing on micro-skills, specification by focusing on micro-functions,
specification by focusing on linguistic forms.

Munby in his model excludes the variables that affect the teaching/learning
process such as administration constraints and recourses, learner characteristics
and expectations, methodology, etc. He claims that such variables belong to the
subsequent stage and should only be considered after the syllabus specification
has been obtained (Munby, 1978:217). This claim, in fact, made the model open
to criticism. Many academics and linguists criticize this point and consider it as
one of the most serious weaknesses points of the model. For example. Hawkey
(1980:81) and Flowerdew (1995:25) consider the relegation of learners' variables
by Munby to epilogue, considering them as subsequent to the specification of the

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syllabus is a major failing of his model, because these variables are "important
factors" in language learning and teaching (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:122)
and the "fundamental variables in course design" (McDoungh, 1984:27). West
(1994:9-10) and Jordan (1997:24) also criticize Mundy's negligence of
constraints. They indicate that the model should consider practical constraints at
the start of the needs analysis procedure. For Phan (2005) these variables are
"actual facts... which actually operate a syllabus or determine how a syllabus
works" (p. 3). He adds that ignoring such variables "may addict the learner in the
sense that no workable and thorough syllabus could be implemented without
them" (Phan, 2005:4). Accordingly, it can be said that theoretically, needs
analysis cannot be completed without considering these variables on one hand
and practically, it is impossible to separate the language needs from these factors
on the other hand, because as Bin Tayea (1996:11) argues "if such factors are not
considered, the language needs will be an idealization that has nothing to do with
specific position".

Another serious weak point of Munby's model as reflected in comments and

critics of a number of researchers and practitioners deals with complexity and
inflexibility of the model. West (1994) clearly indicates to this issue stating that
"Munby's attempt to be systematic and comprehensive inevitably made his
instrument inflexible, complex and time consuming" (p. 9). Coffey (1984)
objects to Munby's model because it is a static and uneasy process. He argues
that the process provided is too complicated to put into practice in most
circumstances, besides it does not give the user flexibility to use because it is
"once-and-for-all process apparently need not be amended as the time goes on"
(p. 7). In other words, it does not respond to the changing of the students' needs.
Meads (1982:74) raises his comment on the point stating that "the instrument is
internally inconsistent: there are no formal restrictions on the membership of the
categories". Consequently, "it is very difficult for learners and LI teacher to
distinguish between elements in the attitudinal tone index given by Munby"
(Phan, 2005:54). Mead (1982:75) adds that "the relationship between the model
and its practical application is not made explicitly". In the same vein Robinson

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(1991) says that the model "gives no indication as to how the data for actual
students might be collected (p30). Phan (2005) elaborates that "Munby expects
learners to obtain a single target in spite of the fact that their targets are
variables". That is to say Munby shows no way to discriminate systematically
between more and less significant variables. Mead (1982) puts it another way "all
the variables are of equal weight".

Munby's taxonomy of language skills and functions is a point of criticism as

well. Davies (1981:334) and Mead (1982:86) criticize the non-hierarchical nature
of language skills. Similarly, Widdowson (1983:52) mentions that Munby's
taxonomy "is not organized hierarchically". In this regard Dudley-Evans and St
John (1998) point out that Munby's micro-function were not graded according to
their importance or priority.

One of the shortcomings of Munby's model is that it is not a tool that can help the
learner effectively. Hawkey (1980) and West (1994) think that the model does
not pay enough attention to the learner's needs in the process of
learning/teaching. The model, for Hawkey can be considered as "a tool for course
designers rather than for the learners" (p. 81). According to West, it "it collects
data about the learner rather than from learner" (p.9). Hawkey (1980:91) argues
that Munby assumes a homogeneous learning context in his model, but in reality
this is not the case where heterogeneous is of dominance. Coleman says Munby's
"... idealisation of the language learners implies that groups of learners are static
and homogeneous" (p. 155). To him this is not true for all cases.

In spite of that, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) appreciate Munby's model than
criticize it. They do not hide their criticism of the model for representing '...
ultimate sterility of a language - centered approach to NA" (p. 54). They
continue stating that the model focuses on necessities and does not take into
account the learning needs nor it does make distinction between 'necessities',
'wants' and 'lacks'. They conclude that what we need is "a learning - centered
approach to NA not just a list of the linguistic features of the target situation as
Munby's CNP produces" (p. 187). In the line, Davies (1981) argues that the
model is about needs only and ignores "demand' "which is one that ripe to

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analysis (p. 332). Bin Tayea (1996:11) and Afarah (2006:23) indicate that no
reference is made to the present situation or learning process. In other words, the
model does not consider the learners needs in the present situation nor does it
take into consideration the factors that may affect the learning process specially
those related to the learner. Phan (2005) puts his criticism as follows:

Munby seems forget the fact that learners are human beings who can
think, feel, sense, croak and be tired. That is why in his model,
leamers are seen as more passive and machine - like beings, who
either productively or receptively are presented by so many artificial
factors raised by Munby. It is far from the truth, (p. 57)

Munby's model has also been criticised on the language ground. West (1994:10)
points out that Munby fails to provide a procedure for converting the learner
profiles into a language syllabus. Davies (1981) and Mead (1982) observe that
Munby's work aims at providing language teachers with thorough syllabus "...
but CSD never get that for" (Davies, 1981:333) and Munby "nowhere spells out
what he means by the term 'syllabus' and its precise reference is in doubt".
(Mead, 1982: 75). Jordan (1997) in this regard says "the language items chosen
for the practice in ESP/EAP should reflect those used in real world, not the
language derived from social English as classified by Munby's model (p. 24).

Phan (2005) has revised most of these criticisms mentioned above. The
conclusion is that "Munby only makes links to parts of how people learn a
language". He elaborates "Munby's model fails to satisfy its audience and
customers since it only emphasizes sociolinguistic and linguistic aspects.
Moreover, it ignores vital down-to-earth facts to put the model into effect, such
as socio-cultural and administrative features" (p. 58).

3.6.2 Present Situation Analysis

The term Present Situation Analysis (PSA) was first proposed by Richterich and
Chancerel (1980) as a complement to TSA (Robinson, 1991; Tudor, 1996;
Jordan, 1997). While TSA tries to establish what the leamers are expected to be
like at the of the language course, this approach attempts to identify what they

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are like at the beginning of it (Sanghori, 2008:10). "It estimates strengths and
weaknesses in language skills and learning experience" (Dudley-Evans and St
John, 1998:125). If the destination point to which the students need to get is to be
established, first the starting point has to be defined, and this is provided by
means of PSA. The sources of information in PSA approaches are the students
themselves, teaching establishment and user-institution e.g. place of work.
Surveys, questionnaires and interviews are used to collect data from these
sources. The required information focuses on levels of abilities, resources and
views on language teaching/learning. West (1994:10) mentions that two central
components are mostly included in this approach a) an inventory of potential
target needs expressed in terms of activities and b) a scale that is used to establish
the priorities among them, because "... we cannot or at least should not specifying
teaching materials without reference to the type of learner and his or her learning
objectives" (Mc Dounph, 1984:35).

3.6.3 Learning Needs Analysis

As noted, within the realm of ESP, one cannot rely either on TSA or PSA as they
seem insufficient to enhance learning and teaching the required goals.
Consequently, the Learning - Central Approach emerged as a reaction to these
approaches in order to complete what is missing in them. It is Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) who strongly advocate this approach in which learners' learning
needs play a vital role as such analysis will help the practitioners to know "what
the learner needs to do in order to learn" (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:54).
They draw distinction between learner-centered, which infers that 'learning is
totally determined by the learner' and learning-centered, which involves learning
'a process of negotiation between individuals and society' which includes in turn
teaching, syllabus, method, materials, etc (1987:172). Because ESP for them is
an "approach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent
reasons for learning" (1987: 16), they obviously advocate a process-oriented
approach, not product one. What learners should be taught according to this
approach are skills that enable them to reach their target, the process of learning
and motivation should be considered as well as the fact that different learners

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learn in different ways (Sanghori, 2008:12). Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
consider knowing the starting point (PSA) and destination (TSA) is not
sufficient. Target situation can determine the destination but we must choose our
route according to the conditions of learning situation (resources, the learner's
knowledge, skills and learner's motivation for the study) (Dhubyani, 2004:32).
Hutchinson and Waters confirm that both; target needs and learning needs should
be taken into consideration. They elaborate:
The ESP learning situation and the target situation will both influence
the nature of the syllabus, materials, methodology and evaluation
procedures. Similarly each of these components will influence and be
influenced by others. (1987: 74).
For analyzing learning needs (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987:62-63) suggest a
framework which consists of several questions, which in turn are sub-divided
into some detail ones. The framework proposed by them is the following:

• Why are the learners taking the course?

• How do the learners learn?

• What resources are available?

• Who are the learners?

• Where will the ESP course take place?

• When will the ESP course take place?

Nevertheless, there is a clear overlapping between this checklist and the Munbian
model. The only difference is that Munby suggests the implementation of the
variables after designing the syllabus (see 3.6.1) whereas Hutchinson and Waters
consider the checklist prior to the design of the syllabus. Anyhow, it can be
concluded that learner involvement in the process of NA will be helpful on
several grounds. It can help in deciding on the contents and on specifying how to
teach these contents on one hand and how to make the teaching materials more
responsive to the learners' subjective and objective needs on the other hand.

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3.6.4 Strategy Analysis

As its name indicates, this type of NA deals with the strategies that learners
employ in order to learn a language. This approach tries to establish how the
learners wish to learn rather than what they need to learn, West (1998 cited in
Sanghori, 2008:12). The TSA and PSA, as one can notice easily, have not been
concerned with the learners' view of learning. In other words these approaches
pay attention more to 'what' to teach which is different aspect from 'how' to teach
and learn. Strategy analysis is concerned with the latter. Its main concern is
methodology ( Nunan,1988). However, related areas in strategy analysis are
preferences in group size, correction procedures and methods of assessment
(Jordan, 1997:27). To establish such needs, AUwright (1982) who is the pioneer
of this approach proposes the use of questionnaires, group discussions and
interviews. According to him investigation of learners' preferred learning styles
and strategies gives us a picture of the learners' conception of learning the
language and their priorities in learning it. It is AUwright who makes a
distinction between 'need', 'want' and 'lack'. He uses the word 'need' to mean the
language skills which are relevant to the learners; 'what' which the learner puts
on a high priority in the available and limited time; and 'lack' to refer to the gap
between the learners' current competence and the desired one. His ideas were
adopted later by Hutchinson and Water (1987). (Shujaa, 2004:82) points out that
recent research in learning strategies calls for the necessity of strategies teaching
and training. He quotes Peacock (2001) who nicely reviews some research
studies in the area of learning strategies and suggests that learning strategies can
be taught. After conducting a study on 140 students at City University, Hong
Kong, Peacock concludes that learning strategies need not be trained explicitly.
Rather, they could be embedded in teaching tasks and activities. Learning
strategies training can be helpful especially in ESP field where the available time
is limited in the classroom.

3.6.5 Means Analysis

In (3.6.1.) it has been indicated that one of the important shortcomings of

Munby's model that has received a lot of criticism is its relegation of the practical
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constraints. It seems that this approach is a kind of a reaction to Munby's (1978)
model. It tries to investigate those considerations that Munby excludes (West
1998, quoted in Sanghori, 2008:15). It provides us "information about the
environment in which the course will run" (Dudley-Evans and St John,
1998:125). Holliday and Cooke (1982) who strongly advocate this approach to
establish a workable course design, consider it as an attempt to adapt language
courses related to local situations such as the teacher, teaching methods, facilities
available, cultural attitudes, etc. The rationale behind it for them is that "... it
allows sensitivity to the situation and prevents the imposition of models alien to
the situation" (1982: 33). One of the main ideas Means Analysis is concerned
with is an "acknowledgement that what works well in one situation may not work
in another" (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998:124). They add that "The needs and
how they are prioritized, ordered and then met will be different" (1998). Swales (
1989:89) lists five factors which are related to the learning environment and
should be considered by curriculum specialists if the course is to be successful.

These considerations are:

• Classroom culture research

• EAP staff
• Pilot target situation analysis
• Status of service operations
• Study of change agents

3.7 Modern Concept of NA

A modem and comprehensive concept of NA is proposed by Dudley-Evans and

St John (1998:125) which encompasses all the above mentioned approaches.
Their current concept of NA includes the following:

• Environmental situation-information about the situation in which the

course will be run (mean analysis);
• Personal information about learners-factors which may affect the way they
learn (wants, means, subjective needs);

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 • Language information about leamers-what their current skills and
language uses are (present situation analysis);
• Learner's lacking (the gap between the present situation and professional
information about learners);
• Learner's needs from course-what is wanted from the course (short-term
needs);
• Language learning needs- effective ways of learning the skills and
language determined by shortcomings;
• Professional information about leamers-the tasks and activities English
learners are/will be using English for (target situation analysis and
objective needs);
• How to communicate in the target situation-knowledge of how language
and skills are used in the target situation.

3.8. A Survey of Needs-Based Studies

3.8.1 English for Academic Needs

In order to gather information about comprehending lectures in English and the

difficulties and problems that may face foreign students, Schimdt (198:208)
conducted a study using the case study approach to NA. His subject was a non-
native speaker who started her study in business administration in an American
school. The student had agood background knowledge of her specialization in
her native language. The researcher conducted a number of interviews with the
student to find out the difficulties that she faced dealing with lectures, taking
notes and writing essays. He also attended classes with her for three weeks
observing her performance and taking notes. Interviews were also conducted
with her instructor to question him about his perception of the student's
difficulties and needs. Schmidt concluded that the student's needs were in note-
taking and exam writing. He claims that although it is difficult to realize the
findings of an individual case on a large population, one can benefit from such an
approach at the pre-investigation stage for the purpose of designing the research
tools.
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Depending on her long experience as a lecturer in Medicine and Dentistry
faculties at Damascus University, Al-Hakim (1984, cited in Shujaa, 2004:88) has
analyzed the problems faced by students learning the ESP course, to see whether
there are differences or not in perception of English language needs between the
students and their lecturers. Before developing materials for the students, the
teaching staff perceived their students' English needs for their specialization lies
in reading articles in English, and speaking with occasional visiting professors.
One of the major findings was the conflict between needs perceived by lecturers
and needs felt by the students. The researcher during the implementation of the
course found a mismatch between the student's actual needs and what was
perceived by the teaching staff. She discovered that what the students felt and
their immediate need was to perform well in their final exams, which were done
in English. However, there was nothing mentioned about the instruments of the
study or the number of the subject. Besides the researcher did not provide any
solution in order to avoid the mismatch between what is taught and what is
actually needed.

Zughoul and Hussein (1985) as cited in Bin Taya'a (1996:18) conducted a large
scale investigation on the students' language needs at Yarmouk University,
Jordan. The study included six faculties involving Natural Sciences, Engineering,
Medicine, Economics, Administrative Sciences and Arts and Humanities. The
aim was to investigate three issues: the extent of using English language at the
university, perceptions of the students' language abilities and perceptions of
English language needs. This was done through distributing two questionnaires
on a sample group of 1147 students and 90 faculty members. The questionnaires
covered various dimensions of English language needs, including the importance
of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) for the
students' academic study and frequency of using these skills. The findings
revealed the following:

1. English language was used extensively by both students and faculty.

2. Students overestimated their language abilifies, whereas faculty members
gave a more realistic assessment of the students' capacities.
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 3. Both students and faculties agreed on listening skill being the most needed
for success at the university level. But, whereas the students perceived
their needs for English in this order - reading, writing and speaking, the
faculties ranked speaking as the second needed skill then reading followed
by writing. There was close agreements about the ranking of the sub-skills
of each skill.

On the whole, this study is in contrast with Al-Hakim's (1984) study discussed
above in that the findings of this study revealed that both students and their
teachers are in close agreement regarding perceiving the importance of English
skills, sub-skills and the priorities among them, whereas Al-Hakim's study lacked
such agreement.

Jacobson (1986) in Althawr (1997:21-22) investigated the communication needs

of non-native speakers of English in an undergraduate physics lab. He argues that
there are specific strategies the students need to develop in order to sort out and
make use of the data gathered during lab sessions. Therefore he attempted to
explore the students' needs in terms of strategic competence which the students
need to cope with their lab practical. Two instruments were used: observations
and interviews. At the beginning four lab sessions were attended and taped where
the researcher made notes about the following points:

- The type of materials used;

- How these materials were used by the instructors;
- Difficulties faced by students during lab sessions.

The researcher then conducted interviews with the coordinator of the lab
instructors and the instructors themselves to obtain information about the goals
and requirements of the lab and their expectations regarding the learners and
their problems. Jacobson divided the data collected from the instrument into six
categories as follows:

1 - Course requirements and students' evaluation procedures

2 - Students' preparation before the lab
3 - Instructors lectures at the beginning of the lab
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 4 - The period of performing experiments
5 - The period of compiling data and conclusions
6 - Instructors' comments
He concluded that the observation results supported his hypothesis that there are
specific strategies the students need to develop to perform effectively during lab
sessions.

Two stages were followed by Mustafa et al (1986, cited in Albadri, 2001:22) in

order to design a reading course for the first year students of the faculty of Earth
Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. In the first stage the faculty
was asked what they want, besides analyzing the present position regarding the
students' level, the course length, etc. The faculty reported that students should be
able to read English academic texts and references related to their specialization.
In the second stage the use of English was examined in the faculty to get an idea
about the required terminal behavior (Mustafa 1986). It was reported that there
were different uses of English in the faculty ranging from courses which used
Arabic in giving instruction with certain terms in English to courses given
entirely in English. Reading comprehension was found to be the most needed
skill.

Ramani et al (1988:82-8) adopted an ethnographic approach to analyze students'

language needs at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. The aim was
revising and redesigning the ESP course taught in the institute. This was done not
through predetermined questionnaires or structured interviews but through a
detailed procedure proposed by the researchers. This process included the
following:

- Observation of the students in their natural academic environment;

- Asking the students about their communication practices, needs and
problems;
- Asking the subject specialists;
- Asking the English language specialists.

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Moreover, students and their teachers were allowed to freely express their
language needs and difficulties facing them. It was believed that unstructured
field work followed by interviews could help to overcome the biased perception
of outsider analysts.

The results revealed that critical reading was the key skill for the students'
academic studies in addition to report writing. Ramani and her colleagues came
to the conclusion that such an approach to NA can lead to more relevant ESP
programmes.

3.8.2 English for Academic and Occupational Needs

One of the early attempts to design a special purpose English language course
was that reported by Mackey (198:138-39) on a project to design ESP course for
undergraduates in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production at
Mexico University. The project aimed at providing undergraduates, animal
scienfist and veterinarians with the variety of English language skills that would
be of most professional use during their studies.

To identify the students' language needs, two structured interviews were

conducted with 42 lecturers and 52 students representing every field of the study.
The findings revealed that only the reading skill emerged as a real need. Further,
it was felt by the staff and the students that reading knowledge of English would
help students to increase the quality of their academic and professional
knowledge considerably.

Al-Attili (1986, cited in Abdullah, 2005:68) investigated the language needs of

Computer Science students at Kuwait Business Institute (KBI). The aim of this
study was to determine and design teaching materials that would be geared up to
the students needs. The sample of his study comprised three groups: 150 KBI
graduates, 60 full time teachers of all disciplines in the institute and 10 bodies
that would potentially employ the graduates of KBI. Al Attili believed that
involving all the concerned parts would enrich the study. He used questionnaires,
text analysis of course textbooks, lecture discourse analysis as the tools of his

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study. The questionnaire which consisted of three versions was given to three
participants groups. It was divided into five sections including the following:

1. Personal details
2. English language skills and level of proficiency required for
graduates
3. Task to be performed using English
4. In-service training needs
5. General (e.g. the present proficiency of graduates)

It was reported that the need for both EAP and EOF course was unmistakably
indicated by the study. The findings indicated the subjects' needs for listening,
reading, writing and speaking respectively for both academic and occupational
purposes. Moreover, social English was needed within the KBI for
communication between the lectures and students.

A case study on implementing an ESP approach to CALL Courseware design for

undergraduates and postgraduates at Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology (HKUST) was described by Flowerdew (1995:19-29). This study
aimed at providing the students with job-seeking skills such as writing
application forms and interview techniques. To achieve this purpose an eclectic
method of needs analysis was used based on Munby's (1978) model (target
situation), Hutchinson and Water's (1987) approach (learning needs) and the
application of genre analysis (Bahatia, 1993; Swales, 1990) for the writing
exercise material. The first step was to identify students' learning needs. This was
done through a modified version of Hutchinson and Water's (1987) question type
framework. Then, for the identification of target needs, the three concepts of
needs (lacks, wants, necessities) were investigated separately. The students' lacks
were determined by an error analysis of five different types of business letters
collected from 40 students on business communication skills course over a 15-
week semester. The analysis revealed that the students had problems in style and
tone. As for the students' needs, they were investigated by informal interviews
with 58 subjects. The results matched those of the error analysis of business

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letters, except 10 subjects who had some work experience. All were of the
opinion that the materials should reflect the actual kind of language used in
business writing in the local business community in Hong Kong.

Hiu-Uen Chia et al (1999:111-115) carried out a study on students needs at

Chung Shan Medical College in Taichung, Taiwan. The purpose of the study was
to describe the perception that medical college students and faculty have of the
English language needs of the students in their academic study and future work.
The researcher used two questionnaires; one was administered to the students
(349) and the other to the faculty members (20). Survey information included
respondents' opinion on the issues:
1. The importance of English language use in students' studies and their
future careers;
2. Basic English skill needed in Freshman English course;
3. Suggestions for development of an English language curriculum.

Resuhs showed the following:

1. English was perceived as important for students' academic studies and
their future work.
2. Students wanted basic English language course at Freshman level.
3. Students named listening skill as the most important needed skill to be
improved.
4. Students and faculty desired more than one year of English language
study.

On these lines, a case study was conducted by Tarantino (1988) in (Shujaa,

2004:90). The study aimed at bringing out qualitative and quantitative data on the
specific linguistic needs of Italian scientists who have to use EST variety for
study and work purposes. The sample included 19 researchers and 34 professors
of physics, chemistry and computer sciences who were given a questionnaire in a
form of a structured interview which in turn was developed by suggestions from
the subjects themselves and from researcher's experience in editing the subjects'
academic English writing. The findings were:

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 1. Subject confirmed that both Ustening and writing skills were the most
troublesome skills to master at the macro and micro levels.
2. Speaking was considered the second least difficult skill, whilst reading
was perceived as the easiest skill to master.
3. Modals, verb sequencing, connectives and articles were identified as the
major problems sources.

3.8.3 English for the Workplace

Florence and Mead (2000:363-4) reported on an investigation into the workplace

of textile and clothing merchandisers who communicate in the international
marketplace. The study aimed at obtaining a far deeper understanding of day-to-
day activities of textile and clothing merchandisers and updating existing
program to cope with recent technological developments in sending and
receiving messages. The subjects of the study were graduates from two Hong
Kong institudons, namely: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Poly U) and
the Kwun Tong Technical Institute (KTTI). A total of 360 graduates from the
two institutions, all who had been working as merchandisers for at least one year,
were the subjects of the study, besides 15 of their workplace supervisors. Two
independent but complementary questionnaires were administered to graduates
from the two institutions mentioned above. The information common to both
included:

1. The extent of English usage;

2. The countries with which business is conducted;
3. The most common channel(s) of communication;
4. The most preferred channel(s) of communication;
5. The main purpose of written communication;
6. The use of abbreviations in written messages.

To supplement the information obtained via questionnaires, telephone interviews

were used with 18 graduates. Besides the interviews with graduates 15 of their
workplace supervisors were also interviewed to gather information about the
company communication profiles and obtain their views about the graduates'

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particular communication needs. The researcher also collected samples of
authentic correspondence to be analyzed and conducted visits to the workplace in
order to obtain more understanding of the relevant issues. The findings could be
summarized as follows:
1. Extensive use of English
2. Extensive use of fax as the most common and preferred channel followed
by telephone
3. Three activities were ranked highly: following up on an order, advising
updated status and clarifying order queries.
4. There was a need to improve the learner's performance in specific areas
of language and communication work. These included consideration of
presentation, paragraphing, headings and numbering, abbreviations,
grammatical accuracy, tone, business jargon, connectives and sentence
completion.
Staba et al (2002:6-9) carried out a study to investigate the needs and
expectations of the Tourism and Management students with regard to the writing
course offered in three colleges in Malaysia. The study attempted to reveal
whether the courses offered reflected the specific writing needs for the workplace
in the hospitality industry. The subjects selected were 50 students from three
different institutions, all who had been studying several courses ranging from
general English to more specific ones (EOP), and had undergone their practical
training at several hotels in Malaysia. The significance of having these students
is that they came back to the institutions after completing the training and would
be able to identify and compare the writing skills needed to function well at their
workplace (Stapa et al, 2002:6). The only instrument used for this study was a set
of questionnaires designed to gather information about the students' needs and
expectations, and to find out the gap of the students' needs to match with the
workplace. The questionnaire consisted of three sections:
• Personal details;
• English writing needs;
• Current writing program at the three selected higher learning institutions.

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The most important findings were:
1. Students were not satisfied with the syllabus offered at colleges because it
focused on grammar and not related to workplace functions.
2. There was a mismatch of what writing courses offered at the institutions
with real needs of writing in tourism and hotel industries.
3. Students identified report writing, formal letters, memo, summary, and
notices as the most needed writing skills.

Kaur and Hua (2004:9) studied the workplace oral communication needs of
Information Technology (IT) graduates as received by IT employees in order to
identify the forms and skills of oral communication in English frequently used by
IT graduates. Effective oral communication is vital for IT graduates as it is a
significant challenge they face in their day-to-day job, where they are expected to
perform various communicative events, Dickson et al (2001 cited in Kaur and
Hua (2004:1). The aim of the study was to find out about the nature of oral
workplace communication for IT graduate employees from the manufacturing
sector in Penang's Free Industrial Zone, Malaysia. The instruments of the study
were a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Two sets of
questionnaires were used at the beginning of the study. The first was distributed
to 69 employees and the second to II employers. Then interviews were
conducted with 4 managers at their workplace. The required information was
related to importance, skills and frequency of oral communication used by IT
graduates on job as well as the people they worked with, and forms of this
communication. The findings revealed the following:

The three most frequently used forms of workplace oral communication were:

• Social interaction;
• Participation in meetings;
• Telephone conversation;
There was a 'skill gap' between the IT graduates' actual oral communication
performance in English and the IT employers' expectations.

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A study by Shaaban (2005:2) was carried out to study English language skills
most needed by employees in the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, who
were increasingly coming in contact with English-Speaking faculty, employees
and the guests of the University. The study aimed to help the programme
administrators in the University to identify the objective communicative needs of
the employees. The subjects who participated in this study were personnel
officers, supervisors, and a sample of the employees themselves included:
janitors, gardeners, security guards, library staff, and Comptroller's Office staff.
The needs analysis survey conducted was a combination of the target situation
analysis and present situation analysis. The first step was to find out about the
employees' background of learning English. The next step was conducting
interviews with the mentioned subjects. The findings were:

1. The general proficiency in English was found to be rather low.

2. The employees needed functional English in their work, including basic
social English communication, following directions and giving
instructions plus work-related terms and expressions.
3. The employees were found to be keenly aware of the need to invest their
time and effort in learning English.
4. It was felt that the English program could address some other issues - to
develop a keen sense of responsibility, longer attention span, patience and
teamwork - as a part of the curriculum.

Chen (2006:30) described by a means of case study, a project to design an ESP

program for learners of various disciplines within a Chinese industrial institution.
The project was a workplace English training program intended to improve the
English of technical employees in The Chongging Iron and Steel Designing
Institute (CISDI). This study stressed the importance of the identification of
'common core' of English language needs among the program participants, as
well as teaching a diverse range of discourses and genres to meet their 'specific'
needs. The study aimed at identifying the sponsor's expectations, job-related
needs and the learners' general and specific needs. To fulfill this end, the study
made use of questionnaires, interviews and pre-tests to investigate pre-course
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needs on one hand and weekly students feedback, students testing results and
course evaluation reports to investigate ongoing needs on the other. The subjects
of the study were the administrative personnel in the Education Section and the
chief engineer in the institutes in addition to 22 learners. The result of pre-course
needs analysis stage revealed the following:

a) Objective needs as perceived by the sponsor:

• Reading specialist literature, academic journals, and instructions;
• Writing instructions, drawing labels, writing technical and academic
articles;
• Attending conferences, lectures, technical or business negotiation in
English;
• Communication with foreign engineers in design and at work;
• Visiting and receiving foreign visitors.
b) Subjective needs as perceived by the learners:
• Passing English examinations for professional promotion;
• Working or studying abroad or in joint ventures;
• doing part-time translation;
• enjoying films and songs in English;
c) Learners' difficulties
The learners feh that they lacked and wanted mostly a focus on
improvement of their listening and speaking skills.
As for the ongoing needs analysis stage, the findings revealed that the course
design, materials selection and instruction needed some modifications in spite of
that the learners' speaking skill had improved.

Kim (2006:166-9) conducted a research to explore the practice of English for

Occupational Purpose training in Korea. The aim of the study was to investigate
how EOP training was perceived and operated in adult language education in
Korea, and to explore the possible linkage between scholarly inquiry into EOP
and general training for human resource development. The study adopted a
mixed-method research design, utilizing a case study within a single institution

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consisting of field observations and interviews, as well as a survey in
representative EOP institutions. Three months of field work was conducted in an
EOP program provided for a group of EOP learners from the human resource
development department of a major corporation. The study also utilized a survey
conducted in seven locafions in order to complement the case study. The major
findings were:

1. Participants universally expressed that English proficiency was an

essential job qualification in their fields and that they always felt the need
to improve their English.
2. Participants seemed intuitively able to articulate the core elements of EOP
although they were not familiar with EOP as a term.
3. The EOP instructors had autonomy to design and develop their EOP
curriculum and instruction without a significant extent of curricular
guidance or standard to follow.
4. Participants generally saw the similarities between EOP and general
training in terms of their core objectives and characteristics.
5. However, the implementation of training models and techniques was
rarely observed in the selected case.
6. The discrepancy between perceived and actual needs for EOP was one of
the strongest themes that surfaced in the course of data collection and
analysis.

3.8.4. ESP Needs Studies in the Yemeni Context

Althawr (1997: 127-130) conducted a research (MA study) to investigate the

English language needs of the undergraduates in the Faculty of Science,
University of Sana'a. The main objectives of the study were:
• To provide a systematic and comprehensive profile of the undergraduates
English language needs in the Faculty of Science.
• To see to what extent the existing EAP program achieves these needs as
perceived by lecturers and students.

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 • To make some general recommendations for improving the EAP program
in the light of the findings of the intended needs analysis.

For the data gathering, she adopted both quantitative and qualitative
techniques through three different research tools (questionnaire, observation
and interview). The questionnaire consisted of 43 items that covered skills
and sub-skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening and future needs. Two
identical questionnaires were used, one for the teachers (31 subject teachers
and 5 English teachers), the other for the students (317). As for the interview,
two versions of an interview were conducted with 60 students and 22 subject
teachers, covering the importance of English in the faculty, the actual use of
English, difficulties, etc. Besides the questionnaires and interviews, 26
lectures and practicals from the 3rd and 4th years were also observed. The
findings revealed the following:
1. Reading was the most needed skill followed by writing while speaking
and listening were perceived to be less important.
2. There was general dissatisfaction regarding the achieving of the English
needs in EAP course offered to the students.
3. There were no significant differences in the perception of the importance
of English among the departments of the college.
4. Two kinds of needs should be taken into account: short-term related to the
students' field of study and long-term related to general communication
purposes.

Abdullah (2005:187) investigated the needs of ESP learners for practical English
communication with reference to the first year students at the Faculty of
Medicine, University of Aden. The study tried to achieve the following aims:

• To evaluate the medical English materials in use at the Faculty of

Medicine and match them with the entire needs of the learners.
• To investigate the needs of the learners for practical English
communication from the points of view of the students.

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 • To investigate the needs of the learners for practical English
communication from the point of view of the teaching staff.
The researcher used two instruments (questionnaire and interview). The
questionnaire which consisted of 22 items was administered to 100 students;
whereas the structured interview consisted of 4 parameters including 22 items
was conducted with teachers (10) who were actually involved in the teaching of
the concerned students. The major aims of these instruments included:

1. English implementation and students' attitudes and motivation

2. Evaluation of the medical English materials in use
3. Learner's needs
4. Difficulties that hinder the students in English communication.

The major findings of the study were:

1. The medical English materials in use at the Faculty of Medicine, Aden

University did not thoroughly match the entire needs of the learners.
2. Medical English alone does not satisfy the needs of such learners.
3. Semi-medical English and general English are also needed to express
basic functions in the practical work, occupation and even the daily
communication.

Hassan (2008: 111-113) tried to investigate the students' English language needs
at the Industrial and Technical Institute, Aden city. The study endeavored to:

1. Investigating English language needs of the students at the mentioned

institute.
2. Identifying and classifying the students' perceptions of their English
language needs.
3. Finding out how learners rate their own competence in English.
4. Determining whether or not the teachers' perceptions of the students'
needs match those needs perceived by the learners themselves.

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The subject of the study included students, subject's teachers, EngUsh teachers
and ELT experts. The researcher used different instruments and different samples
as follows:

Interviews: 10 subject teacher, 4 English teacher and 2ELT experts

Questionnaires: 100 students from different departments.

The instruments of the study were used to collect information about a number of
issues which are related to the study. These included:

1. Students' needs as perceived by students, their teachers and ELT experts;

2. Attitudes towards English, allotted time for English class weekly and ELT
materials currently in use in the institute;
3. Difficulties in different aspects of English (skills, grammar, vocabulary);
4. Methodology.

The findings of the study clearly showed that:

1. Technical learners need to expose to both ESP and General English to be

able to use the language in communicative situations.
2. English language teaching materials in use did not match the students'
needs.
3. There was disagreement on language needs between the teachers and their
students' need. In other words the teachers' perceptions of the students'
needs did not match the entire needs of their learners.
4. Profile of learners' needs was recommended to be the basis for designing a
course for English language program in the institute.

A study by Ali (200:86) was carried out to study the communicative use of
English by a group of employees in the National Water and Sanitation Authority
(NWSA). The aim of the study was to explore the various problems, which the
NWSA employees face in their communication with foreign experts i.e.
contractors, suppliers, consultants and representative of the International
Organizations during their site visits, meetings and correspondences with

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NWSA. The subjects of the study included 20 technicians, engineers and
administrative staff in NWSA. For gathering the required data, the researcher
used questionnaires, speaking, reading and writing tests (nothing mentioned
about listening). The questionnaires covered issues related to the subject's
background, their use of English in NWSA, their language needs, abilities and
difficulties. The tests focused on the language skills to assess their language
proficiency. All the subjects filled out the questionnaires and performed the tests.
The most important findings were:

1. Speaking was the most needed skill followed by listening.

2. The employees need to improve their English to communicate effectively.
3. The employees need both ESP and EGP.

Karama (2003:72) attempted to investigate the language needs of Yemenia staff

and propose a set of principles for designing a language course in Airline
Business. His aim was to investigate the Yemenia staff language needs from
different perspectives, and to examine the positive/negative relationship between
the staff level in English language and their professional commitments. The
researcher used questionnaires, interviews and observations as his instruments of
investigation. The questionnaires were administered to 30 staff informants, 10
work-field managers and 5 instructors. The staff and work-field managers were
randomly chosen from sale-offices, passenger handling sections and cargo
handling sections in Sana'a and Aden Yemenia work-sites. The interviews were
conducted with 5 high managers in the company. In addition to this, the
researcher's observations as one of the airline staff were also considered. The
results obtained showed:

1. The staff needs not only English for Airline Business but also English for
General Purposes that would enable them to have easy access to the airline
specialization literature, and to use the language communicative in and
outside the workplaces.

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 2. The researcher proposed a set of principles for designing a language
course divided into basic, intermediate, and advanced levels with a sample
lesson for each level.

3.4 Conclusion

The chapter consists of two sections. The first deals with the notion of "Needs
Analysis" (NA), which can be considered as the comer stone of the study. It
covers: definitions of NA, position of NA in ESP, types of NA, importance of
NA, famous approaches to NA and the modem concept of NA. The second
section focuses on studies incorporating actual needs analysis carried out in
different places in the world. In one way or another, these studies have relevance
to the present study.

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