MODULE 5

ESP Course and Syllabus design

After studying this module, students should be able to:

• Explain the differences between curriculum and syllabus design
• State different steps when designing a syllabus in an ESP course
• Apply the steps in designing a syllabus for an ESP course

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5.1. KEY CONCEPTS
Every day you hear about curriculum, courses, syllabus and course/syllabus design. Have you ever
stopped to wonder what differentiates one from the other?

The terms "syllabus", "syllabus design" and "curriculum" have given rise to confusion in terms of
their definitions and use. According to Stern (1983), the field of curriculum studies is part of the
discipline of educational studies. In its broadest sense, it refers to the study of goals, content,
implementation and evaluation of an educational system. In its restricted sense, curriculum refers
to a course of study or the content of a particular course or programme. It is in this narrower sense
of curriculum that the term "syllabus" is employed. According to Stern, "syllabus design" is just one
phase in a system of interrelated curriculum development activities.

5.1.1. Syllabus

The syllabus is defined as the documents that consist of topics or portion covered in a particular
subject. There are three strong beliefs associated with a course syllabus. First, the syllabus is the
key tangible evidence of planning from instructor to the world. Second, the planning manifested
through the syllabus can reduce, before a class even meets, about half the work for teaching a
course. And the last, the syllabus serves as a communication device and contract to shift the
responsibility for learning to the students.

In accordance with the main purpose of syllabus that is to break down the mass of knowledge to be
learnt into manageable units, the role of syllabus varies from different points of the teaching
material which inspires the production of texts and exercise and the basis on which proficiency will
be evaluated. It is the determiner of entire course (Hutchinson and Water in Lolita,2001:14).

Another source explains syllabus as the representative of both an end and a beginning, a final
product of the course planning and a valuable way to introduce the course to the students. The
syllabus is one of the few formal, tangible links between teachers and the students since it will be
referred to throughout the semester.

Rodgers (in Savitri 2009:31) states that syllabus prescribes the content to be covered by a given
course. It forms only a small part of the total of school program. Nunan (in Savitri 2009:30) states
that syllabus defines the goals and objectives, the linguistic and experiential content, instructional
materials can put flesh on the bones of these specifications.

From the definition of syllabus stated above it can be concluded that syllabus is not the same with
curriculum. It is smaller part of curriculum that contain the description of what is going to be taught,
what goals and objectives are going to be reached, what exercises have to be given and what
proficiency is going to be gained. Instructional material is the instrument to fulfill the goals of the
syllabus.

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The principal purpose of a syllabus is to inform students in a formal and timely way of the nature
and content of the course, policies and procedures that will apply, and equipment involved in
participating in classes. In addition to being informative, however, a syllabus is also a promise of
teachers or lectures that is both explicit in what it states will be part of the course, and implicit in
what it infers -by not including- will not be part of the course. The syllabus needs to be consistent
with the latest approved curriculum action, and everything done or required in the class at any time
throughout the term should be in agreement with what the syllabus states or does not state.

Syllabus has 17 possible functions that will be stated in the following:

1. Describing course content scope

2. Communicating course focus
3. Suggesting prerequisites
4. Detailing logistics
5. Identifying course goals
6. Sequencing/scheduling instruction
7. Identifying performance objectives
8. Constituting a contract
9. Identifying reference material
10. Providing modifications base
11. Motivating students
12. Permitting self-monitoring
13. Facilitating optional learning activities
14. Establishing evaluation system
15. Advertising/promoting/recruiting clientele
16. Serving as an articulation tool
17. Meeting accreditation requirements

5.1.2. Curriculum

Curriculum as defined by Allen (1984) is a very general concept. It involves consideration of

philosophical, social and administrative factors which contribute to the planning of an educational
programme. It is the totality of what happens in an educational setting:

In a theoretical sense, curriculum refers to what is offered by the school or college. However,
practically it has a wider scope which covers the knowledge, attitude, behaviour, manner,
performance and skills that are imparted or inculcated in a student. It contains the teaching
methods, lessons, assignments, physical and mental exercises, activities, projects, study material,
tutorials, presentations, assessments, test series, learning objectives, and so on.

The curriculum is well planned, guided and designed by the government or the educational
institution. It is aimed at both physical and mental development of a student. It is the overall
learning experience that a student goes through during the particular course of study.

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Curriculum refers to the totality of the content to be taught. It includes everything about the learner
(who), contents to be taught (what), methodology (how), aims (why), context/setting (where), time
(when) and evaluation (how much was achieved). Curriculum is wider term as compared with
syllabus. Curriculum covers all the activities and arrangements made by the institution throughout
the academic year to facilitate the learners and the instructors; whereas Syllabus is limited to
particular subject of a particular class. ESP curriculum is rather different than the one in General
English. In ESP curriculum, the objective or goal is more to the practical aspect: applying the
language in a job-specific related- situation. Corresponding to this goal, ESP requires a curriculum
which facilitates the use of English language in a job-related-situation. This curriculum contains the
following aspects (beside the other core aspects of curriculum such as goal and syllabus):

• specific task, vocabulary, and language in context,

• the starting point based on the learners’ background knowledge,
• operational, communicative, and notional syllabus, and
• learner centered.

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5.2. COURSE, SYLLABUS, CURRICULUM
A course might be taken to mean a real series of lessons (the particular course delivered last year
to such and such a group of students and to be repeated again this year), while a “syllabus” can be
taken to be something rather more abstract, with fewer details of the blow by blow conduct of
individual lessons. Thus you and I might quite properly write rather different courses, with different
materials, but based on the same syllabus. This happens a lot in publishing. For example, when
notions and functions became popular as basis for course design, each major ELT publisher
published a course based on what became known as a “notional/functional” syllabus.

Having learnt about courses and syllabuses, what does it entail to design a course or a syllabus?

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course design has grown to become one of the most prominent
areas of EFL teaching since the early 1960's. Hutchinson and Water states that ESP is not a planned
and coherent movement, but rather a phenomenon that grew out of a number of covering trends.
Course design is a series of activities to design course or learning activities. Hutchinson and Water
define course design is the process of interpreting the raw needs analysis data to produce "an
integrated series of learning experiences to lead learners to a particular state of knowledge. While
According to Munby, “ESP courses are determined in all essentials by the prior analysis of the
communication needs of the learners”.

Course design is a series process—need analysis, interpreting need analysis data, creating syllabus,
material writing, classroom teaching, and evaluation. Dudley-Evans and St John suggest some
parameters to be considered in designing course as follows:

a. Should the course be intensive or extensive?

b. Should the learner's performance be assessed or non-assessed?
c. Should the course deal with immediate needs or with delayed needs?
d. Should the role of the teacher be that of the provide of knowledge and activities, or of a
facilitator of activities arising from learners' expressed wants?
e. Should the course have a broad or narrow focus?
f. Should the course be pre-study or pre-experience or non parallel with that study or
experience?
g. Should the material be common-core or specific to learners' study or work?
h. Should the group taking the course be homogeneous or heterogeneous?
i. Should the course design be worked out by the language teacher after consultation with
the learners and the institution, or should it be subject to a process of negotiation with
the learners?

Robinson states the characteristics of ESP courses as follows:

a. First, ESP is goal directed - the learners are not learning the English language for the sake
of it, but because they need, or will need, to use English in their professional or academic

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 lives. EAP learners are usually current higher education students or members of staff or
they are hoping to go on to higher education after their EAP course. They need to learn
English in order to succeed in their academic careers.
b. Second, ESP courses are based on an analysis of needs, which aims to specify as closely
as possible exactly what it is that the learners have to do through the medium of English.
This means taking into account the opinions of all the various stakeholders. For an
undergraduate student, this could mean the learner, his or her parents, and sponsors,
present and future lecturers, examiners, administrators, materials writers etc. EAP,
therefore, involves an attitude to learning and teaching that it is possible and useful to
specify what language and practices are required in a particular academic context and
that it is worthwhile to focus teaching on this. For that reason, one important feature of
EAP courses is the close attention that is paid to the learners’ aims and what they are
working on, studying or planning to study. The first stage in any EAP, and ESP, course,
therefore, is to find out exactly why the learners are learning English and what language
and practices they will need to pay attention to.
c. Often there is a very clearly specified period for the ESP course. Most EAP students are
undertaking fixed term courses in preparation for a particular task – such as an essay,
dissertation or conference presentation - or an academic course or they are studying
English for a short time every week along with their academic courses or jobs.
d. ESP learners tend to be adults rather than children. Most EAP students are over 18 and
they will either have made a difficult decision to study in an English medium university
or, for example, researching, publishing or teaching in English may be a requirement.
e. Learners may need specialist language, but this is not necessarily so. It is the linguistic
tasks – including language and practices - that the students will need to engage in that
define the course. As with all ESP, an EAP lecturer would not take a text and ask, "What
can I do with this text?" The starting point is always, "What do my learners have to do?
What texts will they need to read? What will my students need to do with this text and
how can we help them to do it?"
f. In some cases, a very high level of proficiency is not necessarily required, as long as the
learners can succeed in their aims. Students, for example, need to be able to understand
their lectures, fellow students and textbooks and obtain good marks for assignments
and examinations. The role of the EAP lecturer is to find ways to enable them to do this
- getting their present tenses correct may not be as important as understanding the
overall structure of the report they have to write.

Based on the citation above it shows that Robinson’s criteria to ESP course is goal oriented.
According to him the learners are not learning the English language for the sake of it, but because
they need, or will need, to use English in their professional or academic lives. EAP learners are
usually current higher education students or members of staff or they are hoping to go on to higher
education after their ESP course. They need to learn English in order to succeed in their academic
careers.

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While according Widdowson, ESP course design must be process oriented. A process oriented
approach in designing ESP course based on the principle to satisfy the cognitive need of the learners,
guarantee the eventual attainment of desired terminal behavior. A process oriented approach
based on subject methodologies contains because these needs converge in learning process itself.

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5.3. FACTORS AFFECTING ESP COURSE DESIGN
In relation to the factors affecting course design, Hutchinson and Water outline the basic questions
that we need to know before designing course, as follows:

a. Why does the students need to learn?

b. Who is going to be involved in the process? This will need to cover not just the students,
but all the people who may affect the process: teachers, sponsors, inspectors, etc.
c. Where is the learning to take place? What potential does the place provide? What
limitation does it impose?
d. When does the learning take place? How much time is available? How will it be
distributed?
e. What does the student need to learn? What aspect of language will be needed and how
will they be described? What level of proficiency must be achieved? What topic areas
will need to be covered?
f. How will the learning be achieved? What learning theory will underlie the course? What
kind of methodology will be employed?

Based on the question, Hutchinson and Water identified factors affecting to ESP course design
namely language description, theories of learning and need analysis, as can be seen in the following
figure:

Figure 5.1. Factors affecting ESP course design (Hutchinson & Walters, 1987, p.22)

The above figure shows that there are three main points affecting ESP course design. The first is
language descriptions, the answer of question of what. Language description shows the language
knowledge needed by the learners that put at the syllabus. The second factor is how the learner
learn a language, and the third factor is the nature of particular target and learning situation.

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Phillips (as citied in Wello and Dollah) considers factors contributing to the success and failure of
an ESP course as follows:

a. The subject content embodied in the learners’ purposes;

b. The duration for ESP course
c. The weekly intensity of the course
d. The composition of the students group according to their mother tongues
e. Age, academic background, degree of competence in second language (if any)
f. The staff- student ratio
g. The staff teaching load
h. The organizational structure of educational institution
i. The budgetary provision for the course and
j. The availability of educational technology.

Furthermore, Wello and Dollah classified factors affecting the ESP course into institutional – time
allotted for learning English, classroom and learning condition, and attitude of the head institution
and staff--, the teacher factor—the competence of the teacher, the confidence of the teachers in
using English, teaching strategies, the attitude of the teacher--, and the learner factor—internal and
external factors.

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5.4. APPROACHES IN ESP COURSE DESIGN
An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and
learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught. There
are many different approaches to ESP course design. Those approaches are explained as followed.

5.4.1. Language-centered approach

Hutchison and Waters states that language-centred course design approach is the simplest kind of
course design process and the most familiar to English teachers. It aims to draw or direct a
connection as possible between the analysis of the target situation and the content of the ESP
course. It proceeds as followed.

Figure 5.2. A language-centered approach to course design

The figure above shows that this approach starts at identifying learner’s target situation and then
select theoretical language to identify the linguistic features that the learners need. Based on the
identified data, syllabus created. The next step is designing material based on the syllabus, then
establishing evaluation to see the successfulness of the course.

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5.4.2. Skill-centered approach

Skills-centered course design is a reaction both to the idea of specific registers of English as a basis
for ESP and to the practical constraints on learning imposed by limited time and resources. Its aim
is not to provide a specified corpus of linguistic know ledge but to make the learners into better
processors of information. The process of the approach is as followed.

Figure 5.3. A skill-centered approach to course design

Skill-centered approach starts at identifying the target situation. Based on the data from target
situation analysis, it is determined theoretical views of language, skill required to cope target
situation, and theoretical view of learning. Based on all data, the syllabus is created. Based on the
syllabus, then material is developed and evaluation is conducted.

5.4.3. Learner-centered approach

It is based on the principle that learning is totally determined by the learner even though teachers
can influence what is taught but what the learners learn is determined by the learner alone.
Learning is seen as a process in which the learners have what knowledge or skill in order to make
sense of the flow of new information. Learning therefore, is an internal process, which is crucially
dependent upon the knowledge the learners already have and their ability and motivation to use
it. The following is the process in learner-centered model.

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 Figure 5.3. A learner-centered approach to course design

5.4.4. Learning-centered approach

The term learning-centered approach is introduced by Hutchison and Waters. It is seen as a process
in which the learners use what knowledge or skills they have to make sense of the flow of new
information. It is an internal process, which is crucially dependent upon the knowledge the learners
already have and their ability and motivation to use it. It is a process of negotiation between
individuals and the society. Society sets the target and the individuals must do their best to get as
close to that target as possible.

This approach has two implications. First, course design is a negotiated process. The ESP learning
situation and the target situation will both influence the nature of the syllabus, materials,
methodology, evaluation procedures. Second, course design is a dynamic process. It does not move
in a linear fashion. Needs and resources vary with time. The course design, therefore, needs to have
built in feedback channels to enable the course to respond to developments.

If we took a learning-centered approach, we would need to ask further questions and consider other
factors, before determining the content and methodology of the course:

a. What skills are necessary to be taught?

b. What are the implications for methodology of having a mono-skill focus?
c. How will the students react to doing tasks involving other skills?
d. Do the resources in the classroom allow the use of other skills?
e. How will the learners react to discussing things in the mother tongue?
f. How will the students’ attitudes vary through the course? Will they feel motivated?
g. How do students feel about reading as an activity?

The important point is that these questions must be asked and the results allow to influence the
course design. The learning-centered course design process is shown in this diagram.

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 Figure 5.4. A learning-centered approach to course design

5.4.5. Integrated approach

Integrated Approach is an approach that integrates teacher-centered learning, learner-centered

leaning and learning-centered approach. It is based on the principle that learners in learning process
must be guided by the teachers to learn optimally. Not all the learning source comes from the
learner, but the learning process can be processed optimally if all components of the learning
process function well.

Integrated approach in need analysis means integrating three components of need analysis, PSA,
TSA, and LSA, which are involved integrated source of data— stakeholder, learner, teacher, and
expert. The next step is creating a syllabus which integrates more than two kinds of syllabus. The
third step in course design is material development. In this step, the course designer integrates
content material and functional language.
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Teaching ESP must integrate students centred and teacher guided. In teaching process, the main
factors determining the failure or successfulness are learners and teachers. The teachers are nor
the only source of the material, but play a key role in facilitating learners to learn. Evaluation is the
final part in course design. In order to gather the maximum information, the method of collecting
data for evaluation must also be integrated.

Figure 5.5. Integrated approach to course design

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5.5. FACTORS AFFECTING ESP COURSE DESIGN
Course design in ESP involves syllabus design, material writing, classroom teaching and evaluation.
According to Robinson (1991, p. 41), course design involves putting theoretical decisions about
objectives and syllabus into context.” Strevens (1977) is of the opinion that ESP course design
should be based on “restriction”, that is, “selection of items and features from the corpus of the
language that are relevant to the designer’s intention and students’ needs” (p. 25). This is termed
language description; that is the designer’s ability to find answers to issues concerning the nature
of language.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) list the questions that need the attention of the teacher in designing
a course to include:

• Why does the student need to learn?

• Who is going to be involved in the process? – the teacher, sponsor, inspector, etc.
• Where is the learning to take place?
• What potentials does the place provide and what limitations?
• When is the learning to take place?
• How much time is available?
• How will it be distributed?
• What does the student need to learn?
• What aspect of language will be needed?
• How will they be described?
• What level of proficiency must be achieved?
• What topic area will be covered?
• How will the learning be achieved? and
• What learning theory will underlie the course? (pp. 21-22).

Now look at the diagram below to see the systemic relationship existing between the three key
factors.

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 Figure 5.6. Factors affecting ESP Course Design (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p. 22)

5.5.1. Language description

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), the language description involves questions like “What
topic areas will need to be covered?” ‘What does the student need to learn?’ “What aspects of
language will be needed and how will they be described?” You can only find the right answers to
these questions if you have been able to set exact goals and objectives of the course. Designing a
syllabus analyses ‘what’ the course is going to be about. Setting goals and objectives of the course
in advance is inevitable. The aim of language description is to understand the features of the
development stages and incorporated the ideas in the course design. There are six main stages in
the development of language. They include:

a. Classical or Traditional Grammar

b. Structural linguistics
c. Transformational Generative Grammar
d. Language Variation and Register analysis
e. Functional/Notional Grammar
f. Discourse (Rhetorical) Analysis

Classical Grammar: It’s influence on ESP is negligible apart from the fact that it provides a kind of
indirect source of guidance to a teacher.

Structural Linguistics: In a structural description the grammar of the language is described in terms
of syntagmatic structures and notions. This led to the structural syllabus where items are graded so
that simple structures precede the complex ones. This kind of syllabus provides the learners with a
systematic description of the generative core of language. However it fails to provide the learners
with an understanding of the communicative use of the structures.

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Transformational Generative Grammar : In 1975, Chomsky came out with syntactic structures
arguing that the structural description was superficial. It cannot provide the deep level meaning.
ESP drew an important lesson from Chomsky’s work i.e., the distinction between ‘performance’ and
‘competence’. A simple way of seeking the distinction between performance and competence is in
one’s capacity to understand the meanings of words one has never met before. For example, the
word ‘multiangular tower’ is new to somebody. But if he knows the prefix ‘multi’ and the word
‘angle’ and the basic word formation rules of English, he can make out that a multiangular tower is
a many sided tower. This will not be possible unless there is an underlying competence, separate
from the performance features of language. In the early stages of its development, ESP put more
emphasis on describing the performance needed for communication in the target language. In the
later stage, it leads to the three stages of development : language variation and register analysis,
language as function, discourse analysis.

Language variation and register analysis: The concept of language variation gave birth to the ESP
based on register analysis, which came with an argument that if language varies as per the context,
it should be possible to identify the language associated with a specific context. With the result
much ESP work was focused on determining the formal characteristics of various registers to
establish a basis for the selection of syllabus items. The work of Ewer and Latore (1969) and Swales
(1971) is significant in this direction. However, register analysis has ultimately proved to be an
insubstantial basis for the selection of syllabus items. As Coffey (1984) puts it : “Research and
experiment continue, but in general the results have not been encouraging, hi short, register cannot
be used as main basis for selection, because there is no significant way in which the language of
science differs from any other kind of language”. The classic example of this is the use of passive in
scientific English. Tarone et al. (1981) found in their analysis of two Astrophysics journal papers that
the active accounted for over 80% of the verbs used. Therefore, the assumption that language
variation implies the existence of identifiable varieties of language related to specific contexts of
use, has in effect, proved to be unfounded.

Functional Grammar: ESP has also been influenced by the functional/notional concept of language
description. Taking function as a sum of structure + context many ESP courses have opted for
functional syllabuses. Brumfit (1981) proposes a similar approach with his ‘snakes and ladders’
syllabus. A core ladder of structure is interwined with a spiraling snake of related function. The
drawback with this kind of functional syllabus is that it lacks a systematic conceptual framework
and does not help the learners to organize their knowledge of the language.

Discourse analysis: This development has a profound effect on ESP, particularly through the
influence of Henry Widdowson and the Washington School of American Linguists. In two key ways
the results of studies into the nature of discourse have been used in ESP teaching materials.

• Learners are made aware of the stages in certain set-piece transactions associated with
particular specialist fields. One of the most influential projects of this kind has been the
analysis of doctor-patient communication by Candlin, Bruton and Leather (1976).
• The second use of discourse analysis in ESP has been through materials which aim to explain

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 how meaning is created by the relative positions of the sentences in a written text. This has
become the central feature of a large number of ESP textbooks aimed at developing a
knowledge of how sentences are combined in texts in order to produce a particular meaning
(Allen and Widdowson, 1974). This approach has led to the text diagramming type of
exercise found in many ESP materials.

However, the ESP teacher has to understand that all communication has a structural level, a
functional level and a discoursal level. They are not mutually exclusive, but complementary and
each can have its place in the ESP course. One should also keep in mind that describing a language
for the purposes of linguistic analysis does not necessarily carry any implication for language
learning. Stem (1983) sounds a note of caution for ESP practitioners: ‘"Whether techniques of
linguistic analysis - however well they may lend themselves to linguistic research - are equally
applicable to language teaching is of course open to question”. One must make a distinction
between what a person does (performance) and what enables him to do it (competence).

5.5.2. Learning theories

Another important aspect of language teaching is how students learn a language because language
learning capacity is totally a process of human mind. It is essential to keep in view the language
learning theories. The major theories related to language teaching and how they influence ESP
learners are:

a. Behaviourism: learning as habit formation

This theory is primarily derived from the work of Pavlov and Skinner. Behaviourist's school of
language learning views that:

Language learning is a mechanical process of habit formation and proceeds by means of

frequent reinforcement of stimulus response sequence (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.40).

ESP practitioners also apply this theory for learning by developing the pattern practice exercises.

b. Mentalism: Thinking as rule governed

The behaviorist theory was criticized by Chomsky on the ground that:

There was a vague concept of generalization in behaviorist theory which is never

classified rightly (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.42).

He viewed that thinking is a "rule governed behavior" and learning comprises not of forming habits
but of acquiring rules. The mentalism theory says that mind does not respond to a stimulus, it uses
the individual stimuli in order to find the underlying pattern or system. The theory of mentalism is
very important because it gives rise to cognitive theory which plays an important role in ESP course
design.

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c. Cognitive code: learner as thinking being

The mentalist idea of mind as a governing body in the learning process gave rise to the cognitive
theory of learning. Cognitive view considers that the learner's mind is the actual source of
information (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987). According to this theory the learner is an active
participant in the learning process; he tries to make sense of the things presented to him, and learns
through solving the exercises. The cognitive theory learning has had a vital effect on ESP teaching
where language is taught through problem solving tasks.

d. The affective factor: learners as emotional being

Though human beings think rationally or practically, they also have feelings and emotions, they are
not just a thinking being but emotional in nature also. Thus the learning process is also influenced
by human emotions. The affective factor stresses the emotional cues as an important part in
language learning. The cognitive and emotional aspect if put together, lead to very important
aspects in ESP learning and that is motivation. Motivation of the student affects their learning the
most (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987).

5.5.3. Needs analysis

The next important factor that affects the ESP course design is Needs Analysis. It actually
determines the type of communication a learner requires to learn when they are put to perform in
a specific situation. The need can be of two types, the target centred needs and the learning centred
needs. The target need is that which focuses on the language use, i.e. what language or language
skills learners need to perform in their target situation, whereas learner centred needs is based on
analyzing what skills of strategies learners are going to apply in order to achieve the target language
(Hutchinson and Water, 1987).

a. Definition

Chambers (1980) states that needs analysis should be concerned with the establishment of
communicative needs and their realizations, resulting from an analysis of the communication in the
target situation – what I will refer to as target situation analysis. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998)
offer a ‘current concept of needs analysis’ (p. 125):

• Professional information about the learners: The tasks and activities learners are/will be
using English for – target situation analysis and objective needs.
• Personal information about the learners: Factors which may affect the way they learn such
as previous learning experiences, cultural information, reasons for attending the course and
expectations of it, attitude to English – wants, means and subjective needs.
• English language information about the learners: What their current skills and language use
are – present situation analysis – which allows us to assess (D).
• The learners’ lacks: The gap between (C) and (A) – lacks.

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 • Language learning information: Effective ways of learning the skills and language in (D) –
learning needs.
• Professional communication information about (A): Knowledge of how language and skills
are used in the target situation – linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, genre analysis.
• What is wanted from the course
• Information about how the course will be run – means analysis.

West (1997, pp. 70–1) reports on the expanding concept of needs analysis and uses the metaphor
of a journey to describe the elements involved. Needs analysis in ESP refers to a course
development process. In this process the language and skills that the learners will use in their target
professional or vocational workplace or in their study areas are identified and considered in relation
to the present state of knowledge of the learners, their perceptions of their needs and the practical
possibilities and constraints of the teaching context. The information obtained from this process is
used in determining and refining the content and method of the ESP course. The needs analysis
process involves:

• Target situation analysis: Identification of tasks, activities and skills learners are/will be using
English for; what the learners should ideally know and be able to do.
• Discourse analysis: Descriptions of the language used in the above.
• Present situation analysis: Identification of what the learners do and do not know and can
or cannot do in relation to the demands of the target situation.
• Learner factor analysis: Identification of learner factors such as their motivation, how they
learn and their perceptions of their needs.
• Teaching context analysis: Identification of factors related to the environment in which the
course will run. Consideration of what realistically the ESP course and teacher can offer.

Needs analysis should not be seen as an entirely objective procedure. Hyland (2008, p. 113) reminds
us, ‘Needs analysis is like any other classroom practice in that it involves decisions based on
teachers’ interests, values, and beliefs about teaching, learning and language.’ Richards (2001)
itemized the following as some of the reasons why needs analysis is conducted:

• To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform well at the target
situation
• To help determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs and potential
students
• To determine which student from a group are most in need of training in particular language
skills
• To identify a change of direction that people in a reference group feel is important.
• To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to
do
• To collect information about a particular problem learner are experiencing. The information
gathered distinguished ESP from General English instruction because it focused on an

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 awareness of need. A flexible and responsive curriculum determined by an instructor’s
assessment led to ESP as an attractive learning alternative.

Conducting needs analysis requires knowing the sources of learners’ needs and methods/steps to
be used. Brindly (1989) states that teachers’ approaches to needs are influenced by their personal
philosophy and conception of their role. The teachers’ views of students’ needs were identified as

• Language proficiency view

• The psychological-humanistic view
• The specific purposes view

Needs analysis from the specific purposes point of view is the ‘instrumental’ needs of the learners
which arise from their stated purposes for learning English. That is, what a learner needs to do with
the language once he has learnt it. Their responses will necessitate aligning course content with the
learner’s occupational or academic goals.

Jordan (1997, p. 23) sees needs analysis as a systematic thing and identified the steps a needs
analyst must follow in conducting needs analysis. The steps are as represented below:

10. Evaluate procedure and results; implement decision

9. Syllabus, content, material, methods, etc.

8. Determine objectives

7. Analyze and interpret results

6. Collect data

5. Select methods of collecting data

4. Acknowledge constraints/limitations

3. Decide upon the approach(es)

2. Delimit student population

1. Purpose of analysis

Figure 5.7. Steps in needs analysis (Jordan, R.R, 1997, p.23)

Below are questions you may ask a learner to ascertain the learner’s language needs.

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 STUDENT NEEDS ANALYSIS
1. Why are you studying English?
2. Where do you expect to use English in the future (e.g. what context or situation)?
3. Order the following language skills from 1 (important) to 6 (unimportant):

Reading ____

Listening ____

Vocabulary ____

writing ____

speaking ____

grammar ____

4. What percentage (%) of class time do you think should be spent on each skill?
5. What do you expect to learn from this class?
6. What are your language strengths and weaknesses?
7. Do you have a preferred learning style? If so, what is it?
8. Do you prefer to learn individually, in pairs or in a group?
9. Would you prefer to learn American or British English? or both?
10. Do you like using a textbook? Why or why not?

b. Hypothetical scenarios

In this section a number of hypothetical scenarios are presented. Each shows an ESP course that set
out to address language needs but despite all good intentions failed to do so in some respects. After
reading each scenario, consider what went wrong and suggest reasons why the ESP course failed to
meet expectations.

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 The English for general academic purposes discussion skills course
The Department of English Language Studies in a university decides to offer a discussion skills
course to complement the existing English for General Academic Purposes program for
undergraduate students. The program currently has courses on academic writing and listening.
Students on the program have mentioned that they are struggling to communicate orally and
participate in their subject classes. The teachers in the English Language Unit meet to discuss
what the content of the discussion skills course should be. They recall their own student days.
Most of them had studied arts subjects such as history, foreign languages and literature and could
remember the heated seminar discussions they participated in and the lively discussions they had
enjoyed. They decide to develop the discussion skills course around a set of general interest topics
and issues, such as whether the government should continue to fund student fees. When the
teachers tell the students in their writing and listening classes about the discussion skills course
that will soon be offered, the students appear enthusiastic.
The next year the course and materials are ready. In the first semester relatively few students
enroll for the course and most of those who do already have very good speaking skills. In the
second semester even fewer students enroll and these seem to have even better speaking skills.

• What seems to have gone wrong?

• What was missing from the investigation of needs?

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 The writing course for overseas-trained dentists
A number of overseas-trained dentists have immigrated to an English-speaking country. They are
preparing to sit the registration exams which, if they pass, will allow them to work as dentists. A
government-sponsored bridging programme has been established to help them prepare for the
exams. The course is run at a university. The programme provides courses on medical and dental
topics, ethical issues and the law surrounding medical practices in the country.
The English-language-teaching unit at the university has been approached by the organizers of
the bridging programme and asked to provide an English writing course. It has been noted that
the writing of some of the overseas trained dentists who sat the registration exams to date was
poorly organized and expressed. The English-language unit appoints a teacher. The teacher, who
is given very little time to develop the course, devises a syllabus focusing on paragraph and essay
organization and based on topics related to dentistry, such as, the addition of fluoride to tap
water and the relationship between smoking and diseases of the mouth (topics that the teacher
has discovered from reading recent issues of the regional dental journal).
In teaching the course, the teacher devotes a good deal of time to responding to the students’
writing. She provides feedback and corrections on the students’ writing in terms of organization
and breakdowns in meaning. Often she reformulates the students’ sentences.
Half way through the course the teacher conducts a course evaluation. The class members are
very positive about the efforts of the teacher on their behalf and they have clearly appreciated
the very detailed feedback on their writing the teacher has supplied. The teacher is surprised to
find that although they feel the writing course has been useful for developing their ability to write
in English generally, they think it will have limited impact on their actual performance in the
registration exams and would prefer to spend the remaining time before the exams preparing by
self-study rather than continuing with the writing classes.

• What seems to have gone wrong?

• What was missing from the investigation of needs?

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 The language for care-home workers course

Anna has been asked to provide language support for a small group of care home workers. They
have come from an East Asian country to work in a rest home and hospital facility for the elderly
in an English-speaking country. Most of the care workers were formerly nurses in their home
countries. Their role as care workers involves looking after the physical and emotional needs of
the elderly residents. The facility’s nursing and medical staff members are pleased with the work
the new care workers do. However, there have been some complaints from the residents about
difficulties communicating with the new group of care workers. The nursing manager reports that
when she questioned the residents about the problem they mentioned poor pronunciation and
not being able to understand the care workers’ accents.
Anna, a relative of one of the facility’s medical officers, has just finished a MA programme in
English Language Teaching and before that she taught English in a small language school in
Thailand for a year. On the MA programme she took courses in a range of subjects such as second-
language acquisition, descriptions of modern English language and language testing. There was
no ESP course on offer. Anna is employed by the rest care facility to provide a weekly two-hour
session to help the care workers improve their pronunciation and speaking. Anna works with the
care workers to help achieve clear enunciation.
She finds out from the care workers which language expressions, conversational routines and
vocabulary they use regularly with the residents. Anna uses role plays in her teaching and
encourages the care workers to use ‘clear enunciation’ in them. She introduces them to a number
of self-study techniques for working on pronunciation and speaking.
Anna is surprised to find that even in her first teaching session with the care workers she had
almost no difficulty understanding the care workers’ accents or pronunciation herself. The
language sessions prove to be a lot of fun and the care workers take their self-studies seriously.
The care workers enjoy their time out from caring for the elderly residents. Everyone is happy,
except that is for the residents who continue to complain.

• What seems to have gone wrong?

• What was missing from the investigation of needs?

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c. Needs analysis as a course design process

The above scenarios show how important it is to explore and consider needs before setting up a
course of instruction. It the first scenario, a more considered analysis of needs and the situation
may have deterred the teachers from setting up an academic discussion skills course. In the second
case, the information gleaned from needs analysis could have helped the teacher focus instruction
on key written genres important for the registration exam. The focus of the course may then have
been sufficiently narrowed down to appeal to the class. In the third case, findings from observations
may have led to the development of a course with a very different focus such as interaction skills.

Needs analysis also plays a role in refining and evaluating ongoing ESP courses. For example, in the
second scenario, in coming years the dental registration exam may change and different types of
writing may be required. Clearly, the ESP teacher will need this information to revise her course.
Or, the teacher becomes increasing familiar with the medical staff on the bridging course and this
allows her to examine past exam papers to see what strengths and weaknesses are evident in
candidates’ writing. She may be able to interview those who mark the exams to find out what they
see as strengths and weaknesses in sample papers. She could then include a focus on these precise
areas in her teaching.

Pre-course needs analysis Initial course design

Ongoing needs analysis Revision of course design

Teachers working on ESP courses often find that their understanding of the target situation or
learners’ needs develop as they work on the ESP course and that they use this developing
understanding to modify the course. If the teachers work within the target situation such as the
teacher on the bridging course, they are often able to gain increased access over time to
information such as the end users’ perspectives. All of this provides valuable information that can
be used to refine the existing ESP course.

In its simplest form, needs analysis is a pre-course design process in which information is gathered
to help the teacher or course developer decide what the course should focus on, what content in
terms of language or skills to include and what teaching/learning methods to employ. Over time
needs can change and teachers also gain increased understanding of the situation and the learners’
needs in relation to it. Thus needs analysis also plays a role in refining the ESP course once it is set
up and running.

d. Types of information to collect

In needs analysis the quality of the data collected depends in large part on selecting appropriate
data collection techniques. Unless the course developers or teachers conducting the needs analysis
have large quantities of time to devote to the project, they will need to be selective about what
type of data to collect. Needs analysis can take a number of forms including questionnaires,
interviews, observations of interactions and analysis of language use in the target situation, tests of

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performance and observations of ESP learners carrying out tasks replicating those in the target
situation. Below is the questionnaire Bacha and Bahous (2008) developed for an investigation into
the English language needs of business students at the Lebanese American University. Item 1 in the
questionnaire inquiries into the students’ perceptions of the relative importance of different
language skills. Item 2 inquiries into how they perceive their abilities in the various skills. The
remaining items focus on the writing skill in particular.

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 Student questionnaire

(A parallel questionnaire was used for the Faculty as it relates to their students)
Dear Student: Fill out this questionnaire as accurately as you can by circling the appropriate number
according to the following scale with 4 being the most.
Please do not write your name. The purpose of this questionnaire is to find your opinions of your writing in
the major.
Major: ______________________________________
1. Rank choices 1–4 which skill is most important to your major.
a. Reading 4 3 2 1
b. Writing 4 3 2 1
c. Speaking 4 3 2 1
d. Listening 4 3 2 1
2. Circle the number that best indicates your perception of your language ability in the major.
a. Listening 4 3 2 1
b. Speaking 4 3 2 1
c. Reading 4 3 2 1
d. Writing 4 3 2 1
3. Circle the number that best indicates your writing ability of the below in the major.
a. Sentence structure and vocabulary 4 3 2 1
b. Ideas 4 3 2 1
c. Organization of ideas 4 3 2 1
4. What kind of writing do you do in the major ? (4 a lot, 3 sometimes, 2 rarely, 1 never)
a. Essay assignments 4 3 2 1
b. Essay tests 4 3 2 1
c. Letters 4 3 2 1
d. Lab and reports 4 3 2 1
e. Research papers 4 3 2 1
f. Summary of lectures 4 3 2 1
g. Note-taking in class 4 3 2 1
h. Note-taking/internet 4 3 2 1
i. Other: Specify ______ 4 3 2 1
5. To what extent do you improve in the writing needed for the major over the semester _
a. A great deal
b. A sufficient amount to deal with the course work
c. Not enough
d. None at all
e. Already have a satisfactory level
6. The teaching of writing should be the responsibility of (check all that apply).
a. The English teacher
b. The content-area teacher in the major
c. Both the English and content-area teacher in the major
Other: specify ______________
Faculty interview questions
Do your students have language problems? _
Do you use languages other than English in the class to explain the material? _
What types of language problems do they have? _
How do you deal with these problems? _
Do you find that students improve by the end of the semester? _
Do you think they are improving due to English? _

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Most needs analyses include the use of either questionnaires or interviews. Works on research
methodology often include discussions on how to construct and administer a questionnaire or
interview. See, for example, Kumar (1996), Mackey and Gass (2005) and Nunan (1992). It is not
uncommon for needs analysis projects to include both questionnaires and interviews, often
interviewing a subset of respondents who completed a questionnaire, or developing a set of
questionnaire items from information collected in interviews.

Kumar (1996) discusses the advantages and drawbacks of questionnaires and interviews.
Questionnaires do not take long to administer and it is often possible to get information from a
large number of respondents. The responses are anonymous and thus respondents will hopefully
offer their opinions and ideas frankly. Interviews are time consuming and because of this the
investigator can often only interview a few people. However, in an interview the investigator can
probe responses and thus gain an in-depth understanding of the opinions and information offered.
Additionally, unclear questions or answers can be clarified during an interview.

Both types of data collection potentially have drawbacks. For example, people tend to think
carefully about questionnaire items before responding. This may lead respondents to try to provide
idealized responses (responses they see as socially desirable). Good interviewing skills do not come
naturally to everyone and some interviewers may let their own opinions come across too strongly
and lead to bias in the interview. See Figure 3.3.

Questionnaires and interviews allow the needs analyst to explore people’s opinions of needs,
difficulties and the importance of language skills and areas. However, needs analysts also
investigate actual samples of language use or learners’ performance in events in the target
situation. Direct means can be used to investigate these areas. To investigate language use in the
target environment, examples of the types of texts used in them can be collected and analysed. For
example, if the care workers in Anna’s rest home facility were required as part of their work to write
reports on their clients and were understood to have difficulties with this, Anna could collect
samples of the reports written by a number of different care workers and could adopt a genre-
based approach to analysis by identifying the kind of information the reports typically include, how
it is organized sequentially and any features of language use associated with it.

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 Questionnaires

Advantages Disadvantages

Less time and energy consuming to Self-selecting bias. Not everyone who

administer receives the questionnaire returns it and

those who do may have different attitudes

than those who do not

Offer greater anonymity to respondents Lack of opportunity to clarify issues

Do not allow for spontaneous responses

Respondents may consult with one another

before answering

Interviews

Advantages Disadvantages

More useful for collecting in-depth information More time consuming

Opportunity for questions to be explained Quality of the data obtained depends on

and responses clarified the skills of the interviewer

The interviewer may introduce his or her bias

Less standardized. For example, the quality

of the data may vary when different

interviewers are used.

Figure 5.8. Advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires and interviews (Based on

discussion in Kumar (1996)

To investigate learners’ performance in events in the target situation, learners can be observed
while performing tasks in the target situation (or tasks replicating events from the target situation
can be used in a classroom situation). For example, if the care workers in Anna’s rest home facility
are understood to have difficulties making small talk with clients, Anna could observe some of the
workers engaged in episodes of small talk with the clients (and possibly compare their performance
with that of workers seen as having good language/ communication skills in this area). Anna could
develop a protocol to structure her observations. Possible items for inclusion in the observation
protocol are:

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 • When and where does small talk take place?
• How is it initiated? (Note some samples of language use.)
• What topics are included?
• What kinds of questions do the care workers or clients use? (Note samples of language use.)
• What kinds of responses do the care workers or clients provide? (Note samples of language
use.)
• Are any difficulties apparent? (If so, what are they?)
• What appears to keep the episodes going or to lead to an abrupt end?
• How long do the episodes generally last?
• How are episodes closed down? (Note examples of actual language use.)

Questionnaires, interviews and observations are often the main data sources used in needs analysis.
However, sometimes additional information enhances the needs analysis project. Ethnographic
methods were used to collect information in an investigation of academic writing needs by Molle
and Prior (2008).

These methods included in-depth interviews with faculty and students, genre analysis of students’
texts, class observations and collection of course materials such as syllabuses and handouts (p. 545).
Types of information in needs analysis listed in Johns and Price-Machada (2001) include interviews
with experts (for example, with supervisors in the target situation in which the learners will work)
as well as the workers or learners themselves, job-shadowing (the everyday language experiences
of workers in a typical day at work), analysis of the learning style of the learners, analysis of modes
of working (for example, team work or individual work) and spoken or written reflections (for
example, learners could be asked to reflect on what they have experienced on an ESP programme
as a basis for planning a new programme or revising the current programme).

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5.6. CONCLUSION
As shown in this unit, needs analysis is a key component in ESP course design and development.
Johns and Price-Machada (2001, p. 49) argue that it is an obligatory step: ‘In every genuine ESP
course, needs assessment is obligatory, and in many programs, an ongoing needs assessment is
integral to curriculum design and evaluation.’ Over the years, needs analysis has become
increasingly sophisticated and has come to encompass not only analysis of language use and skills
in the target situation but analysis of learner factors and teaching context factors as well. Various
types of information can be collected in a needs analysis and ESP teachers and course developers
decide what type of information to collect on a case-by-case basis. If they wish to investigate
learners’ difficulties in speaking, they might decide to observe the learners’ performance in
speaking situations.

If they wish to investigate writing needs and difficulties, they may collect samples of their learners’
writing and writing tasks from the target situation. If they wish to investigate the comprehension
needs of their learners they are likely to use either questionnaire or interview items to elicit the
learners’ perceptions of difficulties as comprehension difficulties cannot generally be directly
observed.

It has been argued in the chapter that one useful point of departure for a needs analysis project is
to locate published reports of ESP-oriented needs analyses in roughly comparable situations. These
reports often provide examples of how others have conceptualized the area or set about identifying
needs in it.

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