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978-0-521-12814-8 – Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

Marjatta Huhta Karin Vogt Esko Johnson and Heikki Tulkki Edited by David R. Hall
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1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional

Profiles in ESP

Chapter overview
In this chapter, we describe the methodology we have used to conduct needs
analysis within the CEF Professional Profiles approach and how this relates to other
approaches open to needs analysis in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). We will:
• explain why needs analysis is integral to course design in ESP
• consider different ways in which needs analysis has been designed up to
the present day
• provide an overview of how needs analysis in ESP has developed up to
the present day
• explain the importance of thick description to the methodology used in
our approach to needs analysis in the CEF Professional Profiles.

1.1 The need for needs analysis in ESP course design

Teaching ESP has always been characterised by a hands-on, communicative approach
to language teaching. Learners are taught to accomplish tasks that they are familiar with from
their professional environment in the foreign language. This kind of language teaching and
learning brings the task to the forefront of the foreign language classroom (see e.g. Nunan
1989, 2004; Willis 1996; Ellis 2003).
However, the importance of tasks in language learning is not the exclusive pre-
serve of ESP: it has also been highlighted by the Council of Europe in its groundbreaking
and extremely successful document the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR). The action-oriented approach adopted
by the CEFR makes tasks central to language learning:
A comprehensive, transparent and coherent frame of reference for language learning,
teaching and assessment … The approach adopted … is an action-oriented one in so far
as it views users and learners of a language primarily as ‘social agents’, i.e. members
of society who have tasks … to accomplish in a given set of circumstances, in a specific
environment and within a particular field of action … [L]anguage activities … form part
of a wider social context, which alone is able to give [these activities] their full meaning.

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10 Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

We speak of ‘tasks’ in so far as the actions are performed by one or more individuals
strategically using their own specific competences to achieve a given result. The action-
based approach therefore also takes into account the cognitive, emotional and volitional
resources and the full range of abilities specific to and applied by the individual as a
social agent …

Language use, embracing language learning, comprises the actions performed by

persons who as individuals and as social agents develop a range of competences,
both general and in particular communicative language competences. They draw on
the competences … in various contexts under various conditions and under various
constraints to engage in language activities involving language processes to produce
and/or receive texts in relation to themes in specific domains, activating those strategies
which seem most appropriate for carrying out the tasks to be accomplished.
(Council of Europe 2001: 9, emphasis added)

The main concern of an action-oriented approach to course design is therefore to

enable our learners to use the foreign language to accomplish just those tasks that are of
most relevance to them in their professional lives. Hence, the effectiveness of this approach
to course design hinges on knowing which tasks are relevant to which professional situations.
This leads us to a problem that course designers often face, namely, how to identify the tasks
and situations (and the corresponding functions and notions; see e.g. Munby 1978; Wilkins
1976) that the learner typically has to face in the real world.
This is the point at which a needs analysis is called for, but this is a far less straight-
forward process than it might initially seem because first it is essential to establish whose
needs we are interested in. This also involves consideration of not just one perspective or one
context but multiple perspectives and multiple contexts. Needs may be investigated from the
perspective of teachers, that of the learners or that of the employers who are funding the lan-
guage course. Then within the learner group itself, perspectives on what can be learned, what
should be learned and why will differ from learner to learner (Robinson 1991).
No learner group is ever homogeneous of course, but this is particularly true of the
ESP1 group. ESP learners vary, but more often than not they will be adults or mature ado-
lescent learners, and they will have diverse learner biographies. Thus we often find ourselves
dealing with heterogeneous groups regarding the age, proficiency in the foreign language and
professional experience of the learners. The needs of the working professional with extensive
experience are likely to be very different from those of the inexperienced trainee, who must
come to terms not only with the workplace context but also with the institutional context of
whichever educational facility he or she is attending. The demands placed on the trainee by
both the educational and the professional contexts may contribute to the perception that the
1
What is true of ESP here may also refer to learner groups in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), Vocationally Oriented
Language Learning (VOLL) and Language and Communication for Professional Purposes (LCPP)

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1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional Profiles in ESP 11

trainee has either additional needs or else a completely different set of needs from those of
the experienced professional in the same field.
The number of potential stakeholders of which the analysis can take account, together
with the variety of perspectives from which the context can be considered have, not surpris-
ingly, produced in the literature a wide range of definitions of what actually constitutes a
‘need’. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 54) define needs as ‘the ability to comprehend and/or
produce the linguistic features of the target situation’. They make a distinction between target
needs and learning needs, subdividing target needs further according to the perspective taken.
Figure 1.1 illustrates this classification of needs.
Hutchinson and Waters’s scheme demonstrates clearly how the different roles and
positions each group of stakeholders occupies result in needs which may vary considerably.
It goes without saying that this variety in needs could lead to different views as to what kind
of course should be designed or even to a conflict of interests between one or more of the
groups. Conflicts of interest can arise when a learner group of employees perceive their needs
to be different from those of the company that employs them and is thus funding the course.
The learner-employees might lack confidence in their oral communication and so be main-
ly interested in developing their fluency in spoken discourse, whereas the company’s focus
might be on developing written skills because there has been a massive increase in the use of
email and other kinds of electronic communication.
In their attempts to classify needs, both Berwick (1989) and Brindley (1989) have gone
further than Hutchinson and Waters in exploring different kinds of perspectives on the pro-
fessional context for learning. Berwick (1989) discusses felt needs and perceived needs, the
distinction here being made between a personal, inside perspective and a more objective,
outside view of the professional learner and his or her professional context for learning.
Brindley’s description (1989: 65) also starts out with an inside/outside perspective, which he

Needs

Target needs Learning

needs

Necessities Lacks Wants

(type of need (what existing gaps (what the
determined need to be closed learner
by the target from the teaching perceives as
situation) perspective) a lack)

Society, Teachers Learners Perspective

companies,
employers

Figure 1.1: Classification of needs based on Hutchinson and Waters (1987)

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12 Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

refers to as subjective and objective needs. Here, objective needs tend to be based on facts and
may be introduced from outside views, while subjective needs are those that involve the per-
sonal perspective of the learner as an individual. For instance, an objective need for a middle
manager in the medical equipment industry might be to be able to show visitors around, but
something like to be more confident when dealing with visitors from abroad would be repre-
sentative of a subjective need.
However, Brindley then goes on to make a further distinction, between needs which
are process-oriented and those which are product-oriented, where the former are concerned
with how the learning is carried out, while the priority for the latter is the final outcome of
the course. Taking the earlier example of the middle manager, a process-oriented view would
consider how confidence in dealing with visitors can be gradually increased, and a product-
oriented need would be defined as an ability to conduct a conversation with a visitor.
What these examples show is that needs analysis demands more than a straightforward
process of one-to-one matching of means with objectives. Multiple stakeholders can have
multiple perspectives resulting in a multitude of objectives and desired outcomes for the ESP
course, some of which, as we have seen, may even be contradictory.
Consequently, the number of definitions for what can be considered ‘needs’ has led to a
correspondingly wide range of definitions of needs analysis. Ellis gives us the rather straight-
forward definition of needs analysis as ‘a procedure for establishing the specific needs of lan-
guage learners’ (2003: 345–6). While this is certainly true, it is far too general to be of much
use to the course designer. A more complete view is given in Brown (2006), which takes into
account the range of sources from which information can be gathered as well as the number
of stakeholders for whom that analysis will be relevant:

Needs analysis … is … the process of identifying the language forms that students
ultimately will need to use in the target language. However, since the needs of the
teachers, administrators, employers, institutions etc. also have some bearing on
the language learning situation, many other types of quantitative and qualitative
information of both objective and subjective types must be considered in order to
understand both the situation and the language involved as well as information on the
linguistic content and the learning processes. Needs analysis is the systematic collection
and analysis of all subjective and objective information necessary to define and validate
defensible curriculum purposes that satisfy the language learning requirements of
students within the context of the particular institutions that influence the learning
and teaching situation.
(Brown 2006: 102)

Brown shows us just how essential a systematic and thorough-going approach to needs
analysis is to ESP course design. While needs analysis can also make valuable contributions
to the design of any language course, it is especially important to ESP because here the needs
analyst has to consider the involvement of teachers, employees, the commercial interests of
the employers, the standards of professional associations, the syllabi of regional/national

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1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional Profiles in ESP 13

vocational qualifications and so on. At any one time, each of these perspectives may either
complement or contradict another.
As a starting point for needs analysis for the ESP course, Robinson (1991) views needs in
ESP on three different levels: the micro-, the meso- and the macro-levels of need. Figure 1.2 illus-
trates these three levels with examples taken from the ESP context of the middle manager in
the medical equipment industry discussed earlier.
As shown in Figure 1.2, micro-level needs are those that arise from the individual learner.
In our example of the middle manager, at the micro-level is the perceived need to be more con-
fident with visitors from abroad, which could include advanced small talk but also the necessity
to ‘talk shop’. Let us imagine that our middle manager now has to deal on a regular basis with
new business partners based in Japan. Her encounters with the Japanese company have so far
left her feeling clumsy in certain situations and so she now wants to improve her fluency.
The wider context of the workplace (or the institution providing the vocational train-
ing – in this case, a supplier of medical equipment) is considered at the meso-level. This
level deals with those needs that are related to outcomes deemed desirable or necessary to an
organisation, such as a private company or a government department. In our example, the
key concern of the medical equipment suppliers will be to build and maintain a good busi-
ness relationship with their Japanese partners. To that end, they will also need the middle

micro-level meso-level

Needs in the
Needs of the context of the
individual workplace or
learner educational
institution
I need to be more Our company needs to
confident with accommodate our
visitors. Japanese business
partners.

Needs of society

Our economy needs to have well-

trained employees with good
English skills because we rely on
exports.

macro-level

Figure 1.2: Needs in ESP on three different levels based on Robinson (1991)

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14 Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

manager to be confident in dealing with these important visitors, as she will need to attend
to the Japanese delegation during visits. However, in order to accommodate the Japanese, it
may also be necessary for her to be able to take part in business negotiations. We can see here
how needs on the micro- and meso-levels overlap, but it is important to note that this will
not necessarily be the case in other contexts or with other companies.
Finally, the needs of society as a whole are considered at the macro-level, making the
concerns of this level the most abstract of the three. Needs at this level are related to questions
of general importance to language-in-education planning, such as ‘What languages should
be known, learned and taught at all?’, ‘What is the objective in language teaching or learn-
ing?’ or ‘What methodology and what materials are employed over what duration?’ (Baldauf
& Kaplan 2005; van Els 2005). In the case of the example we have been considering here, a
macro-level need might therefore concern vocational training on a national level, such as
We need a workforce which is proficient in English, as our national economy relies heavily on
exports to North America.
We have taken Robinson’s (1991) description of needs, which can accommodate varied
perspectives and sources of information, as our starting point for the main subject of this
book: the CEF Professional Profiles Project. The approach in this project pays particular
attention to meso- and macro-level needs, for it is from our investigation into these two levels
of needs that the end product of our needs analysis, the CEF Professional 2 Profiles, derives.
The basic aim of a CEF Professional Profile is to describe the language and communication
needs of professionals at a level of detail sufficient to create an effective ESP workplace train-
ing programme or vocationally oriented language course. The profiles show how the CEFR,
which focuses on general language use, relates to professional language needs.
Needs analysis for the creation of a profile begins with an investigation into what
experienced professionals view as typical contexts, texts, communication situations, etc. in a
particular professional field. We have particularly highlighted the meso-level because of the
crucial role that the reality of workplace communication plays in the profiles. Each profile
includes a focus on the typical contexts that professionals encounter in their working lives on
a regular basis – in other words, routine situations. We refer to these ‘slice-of-life’ presenta-
tions of the particular professional fields as snapshots. However, we felt it was important not
simply to stop at these snapshots but to include in the profiles those contexts which experi-
enced professionals regard as a challenge. These were situations that were potentially more
complex or that occurred less typically.
What the CEF Professional Profiles provide us with is a new approach to needs ana-
lysis in ESP, one which we refer to as second generation needs analysis. In contrast to the
language-centred approaches of the first generation, which focus exclusively on functions
and notions and on the four skills of speaking, listening, writing and reading (see Wilkins
1976; Munby 1978; Robinson 1991; Dudley-Evans & St John 1998), a second generation needs
analysis requires a comprehensive task-based approach. We are not suggesting that there is
a definite divide between the two generations of analyses, yet following Long (2005), we see
2
‘Professional’ is used here in its broadest sense and should be taken to include occupations other than law or medicine, such
as hospitality, retail, facilities management, etc.

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1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional Profiles in ESP 15

the task as the primary unit of needs analysis. However, we would like to go further than
this, setting the task in the framework of one of the most important documents in language
learning and teaching: the CEFR.
As we pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the CEFR is an action-oriented
approach which stresses the importance of tasks in all communication (Council of Europe
2001: 9, 43–56). One of the key features that interests us in the ESP context is the professional
discourse activity. By this we mean a communicative task that is integral to the professional
workplace context, but which is primarily fulfilled through the application of language and
discourse skills (as opposed to, for example, workplace tasks that require specific technical
expertise).
Professional discourse activities are tasks that engage the whole person of the learner.
As a person, every learner is interwoven socially into diverse networks, each of which can be
characterised by a different strand of social relationship. Not only is the learner a contribu-
tor to the learning experience of a group, he or she is also a family member, a stakeholder in
local and national elections and, of course, a colleague in the workplace. The learner’s par-
ticipation in these various networks forms his or her identity as a person. This phenomenon
is what the CEFR calls social agency (Council of Europe 2001: 1).
We can now see why a needs analysis which will take account of the goals, values and
priorities of each of the stakeholders is clearly a necessity. This kind of needs analysis requires
a holistic approach which will consider the person of the whole learner as that person appears
in the context of his or her social group(s) (see Jaatinen 2001 on holism in foreign language
education). In a holistic approach, dichotomies such as subjective and objective needs are no
longer adequate because from the outset, the design and implementation of the ESP course
need to accommodate the interplay of social, cognitive, emotional and volitional dimensions
of learning. Again, what is of interest to us here is discussed by the Council of Europe in the
CEFR as well as in the European Language Portfolio (ELP) (Kohonen 2001, 2005).
A holistic needs analysis, then, is one which takes account not just of the individual,
but also of how that individual interacts in the contexts and situations of his or her field of
action. The question to which we must now turn is: what types of data collection will be most
appropriate to research in second generation needs analysis? The answer to this question is
explored more fully in Section 1.3 below, but it should already be apparent from the foregoing
that a second generation needs analysis will necessarily favour qualitative research methods
over quantitative ones. Quantitative methods apply fixed categories to the research context
and typically involve testing for gaps, looking for discrepancies or taking measurements of
specific elements within the situation. We feel that to use only quantitative methods in needs
analysis would be too blunt a tool to do real justice to the subtle complexities of stakeholder
needs.
Second generation needs analysis is evaluative and therefore is fundamentally a quali-
tative approach. Personal narratives and/or biographical accounts are considered to be valid
sources of data here, and the snapshot of routine tasks produced in the CEF Professional
Profiles is an example of just such a method in action. In fact, in our view, qualitative inquiry
(of the sort described in, e.g., Patton 1990) should be more widely accepted as a research

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16 Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

method in needs analysis, and not only in the context of language education in workplace or
vocational training contexts, but also more widely in the development of human resources
in general (see Johnson 2006 and Luoma 2000 for a more general account of development in
the area of human resources).
In Section 1.2, we present a typology of nine different research methods which are at
the disposal of the needs analyst of ESP courses. After discussing the relative merits of each
method, we finally look at how some of these methods have been applied in practice when
carrying out needs analysis in three different areas of LSP (Language for Specific Purposes):
business management, electronics and electrical engineering, and the military.

1.2 Needs analysis: a typology of research methods in

needs analysis
Long (2005: 24) notes that there is a ‘paucity of information and of research on methodo-
logical options in [needs analysis]’. And indeed, needs analyses in professional contexts are
quite often conducted somewhat casually, involving little more than the teacher setting a
placement test for the learners and/or asking the professional client or vocational course
administrator to provide a list of desired outcomes for the course. While it is true that these
types of informal inquiries are quick and cost-effective, such investigations may reflect only
a single perspective of only one group of stakeholders, for example that of the employers or
learners. For that reason, they may lead to no more than a partial sketch of the professional
context.
The first step to creating a more complete picture through needs analysis requires a
more informed consideration of the research methods available to the teacher or course
designer. This section presents a brief overview of nine of the most common methods used
in needs analysis research, and then discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each.
A summary of the main points is given in Table 1.1, below. We then go on to look at three
case studies, each of which has used a so-called mixed methodology approach. This is an
approach to needs analysis, which may also be referred to as a triangulation of data, in
which the researcher has used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to
identify the learning needs of the stakeholders. Finally, we consider the value of using mixed
research methods in needs analysis for ESP, as this provides a useful background for present-
ing the methodology adopted in our own project, the CEF Professional Profiles. We argue
that needs analysis for ESP should be evidence-based where the evidence is supported by a
thick description of the professional workplace or training institute. A thick description is
one which attempts to unpack the multiple factors that collectively determine a more accur-
ate understanding of the context for each of the activities contributing to the professional
discourse. As thick description acknowledges the importance of social agency, it is therefore
an ideal complement to the view of language and action taken by the Council of Europe in
its CEFR (2001).

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Table 1.1: Overview of research methods in needs analysis (adapted from Long 2005: 23–45) More information

Method Advantages Disadvantages Examples from the

literature
Cambridge University Press

Non-expert intuitions • low-cost • unreliable Not used in systematic

• low-effort • not evidence-based approaches to research
Expert practitioner • low-cost • unreliable Not used in systematic
intuitions • low-effort • not evidence-based approaches to research
• access to domain-specific (informed by a single professional’s

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language intuitions)
Unstructured interviews • exploratory character means that • time-consuming Holme & Chalauisaeng
interviews may include aspects • (usually) only a few interview subjects (2006)
the interviewer had not previously possible Jasso-Aguilar (1999)
considered • risk of researcher influencing informant’s
views (interviewer bias)
• narrative data can be difficult to analyse
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and it may be difficult to draw

comparisons between informants
• limited generalisability
Structured interviews • relatively low-cost • important aspects may be neglected as a Matthes &
• relatively low-effort result of standardisation Wordelmann (1995)
• potential for a large number of • do not allow informants room to express Hecker (2000)
informants to be approached own ideas and own answers Hall (2007)
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• yield standardised data

• low risk of interviewer bias
• comparisons can be drawn
between informants
• results may be generalisable
1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional Profiles in ESP
17

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 Method Advantages Disadvantages Examples from the Excerpt
literature More information

Surveys and • relatively low-cost • standardised Weiß (1992)

questionnaires • relatively low-effort • may neglect important aspects Schöpper-Grabe &
Cambridge University Press

• potential for a large number of • response rates tend to be low, ESP Weiß (1998)
informants to be approached especially with questionnaires mailed to
• yield standardised data subjects
• low risk of interviewer bias • range of responses limited
• sizeable amounts of data can
increase the reliability and validity

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of findings
• comparisons can be drawn
between informants
18 Needs Analysis for Language Course Design

• results may be generalisable

• option of informant anonymity

Language audits • can produce deeper insights into • potential difficulty to access data Glowacz (2004)
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the situation (confidentiality policy of institution)

• institution is the unit of analysis, • publication of results may be restricted
so potential to yield a complete (confidential to the participating
picture (see Koster 2004c) institution)
• results are tailor-made to • results specific to a single institution limit
institution under review – provides generalisability
a good overview of an institution’s • time-consuming and requires effort
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language needs • potentially expensive to conduct

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Method Advantages Disadvantages Examples from the

literature
Observation • allows direct, in-depth, • time-consuming Schröder (1984)
contextualised study of • only case studies possible Louhiala-Salminen

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participants’ actions: valuable • potentially difficult to access data (2002)
source of data

Text-based analysis • might yield important insights • is restricted to text, does not take into Basturkmen (1999)
into potential materials for the account the contextual and situational Mauranen (2003)
classroom, i.e. relevant text-types, factors
discourse-types • neglects the task to be accomplished
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• tends to result in decontextualised

structural items

Diaries, journals and logs • personalised insights into learner • may be restricted to only one type of Sešek (2007)
and teacher needs informant
• provide access to insider • time-consuming to write and analyse
knowledge • potentially yield impressionistic and
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idiosyncratic data
1 Needs analysis and the CEF Professional Profiles in ESP 19

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