An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes

[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes

The Needs Assessment Process
A thorough organizational and instructional needs assessment lies at the heart of a welldesigned,
effective ESP course. By conducting an organizational and instructional
needs assessment, the ESP practitioner tries to discover information about the needs of
his/her learners and other stakeholders. The term stakeholder refers to all the people
who have an interest in the specific ESP course under development. Stakeholders are
the people who, perhaps for different reasons, want the training program to succeed.
Stakeholders include the client or sponsor who requests the course (a university
department, company/organization, or individual), the learners, the teachers, and
potentially others.
In the needs assessment process, the ESP practitioner does his/her best to find out
information about the needs of the sponsor organization, the needs and wants of the
learner, and the context in which the learning will take place. This will involve
conducting a Target Situation Analysis (what does the learner need to be able to do with
the language in the future), a Present Situation Analysis (what can the learner do with
the language now), and a Context Analysis (what is the environment in which the
learning will take place). In addition, the needs assessment process provides the
opportunity to collect sample written or oral texts relevant to the learner’s needs (e.g.
textbooks, manuals, videotapes/DVDs, business correspondence) to use in curriculum
and materials design for the target course. As a result of this process, the ESP
practitioner will be able to design a task-based course curriculum that meets the needs
of stakeholders and incorporates authentic materials and activities.

Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.

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[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

Target Situation Analysis (TSA): What do they need to be able to do in the target
language?
The Target Situation Analysis (TSA) answers the question: What do the learners need
to be able to do in the target language by the end of the course? This includes
understanding the needs and expectation of the sponsoring organization. By conducting
an effective TSA, the ESP practitioner is able to provide an initial listing of the target
goals of the course. The TSA seeks to answer the following questions:
• What tasks do the learners need to be able to do by the end of the course?
• Why is it important for them to perform these tasks in English?
• Why do learners want or need to learn these skills?

Effective ESP training providers “...take time to consult with as many stakeholders as
possible, including potential program participants, their supervisors, and upper level
management and executives. These providers recognize that inviting stakeholder
involvement in the planning stages creates a level of commitment on the part of all
stakeholders that is crucial to the later success of the training program.” (Friedenberg,
et al. 27) This is also important for ESP practitioners designing effective programs in
English for Academic Purposes. In this case, the stakeholders include not only the
current students, but also former students, content area faculty and administrators, and
representatives from the larger off-campus community who will ultimately employ the
program graduates.

Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.



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[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

Present Situation Analysis (PSA): What can they do now in the target language?

Through the Present Situation Analysis (PSA), the ESP practitioner describes the
people who are most likely to need and take the instructional program you will develop.
What are they able to do now in the target language? What are their strengths and
weaknesses in language and skills, and what are their past language learning
experiences that can affect how they learn? Questions to ask in this process include:

• What is their current level of English? What strengths and weaknesses do they
have in speaking, listening, reading, and writing?

• What do the learners who will use your curriculum already know about the content
area or about the job? What is their background in this area? Which key job skills
do they have or lack?

• What are their past language learning experiences and expectations? Why are they
attending the course and what are their personal goals?

As in the TSA, the effective ESP practitioner uses appropriate methods to gather
information from all stakeholders during the assessment process.


Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.



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[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

Gathering Information for the TSA and PSA

How you gather the information for the TSA and PSA will depend upon your specific
situation. The effective ESP practitioner will gather information from a variety of sources
to build a complete view of the learners’ current skills and training needs and gain
crucial support for the training program from key stakeholders.
Sources of information include:

• The current target learners
• Content experts (People working or studying in the field who are familiar with the tasks the learners need to perform)
• Former students who have knowledge of the skills needed
• Sample written or oral texts relevant to the field (e.g. textbooks, training manuals, DVDs, videotapes, business correspondence)
• Employers, supervisors
• Colleagues
• ESP research in the field

Data collection methods include:

• Questionnaires
• Examining samples of written or oral texts
• Discussions
• Structured interviews
• Observations (“shadowing” people in courses or on the job)

The following is a case study that highlights the process of collecting data for a TSA and
PSA in a nurses training program.


Case Study: Provider Collects Oral and Written Data on Nurses for Program in Persian
Gulf Hospital
A new hospital was being built in one of the Persian Gulf states, and employees were
being recruited from a variety of nationalities and language backgrounds. The official
language of communication in the hospital among employees at all levels would be
English. The hospital wanted to hire some experienced nurses whose English was not
strong enough to assure that they would be able to communicate successfully in this
environment, so a workplace language training firm was brought in to design a program
for these nurses.
In the initial phase of the instructional needs assessment, the provider determined that
the nurses needed to be able to talk to other nurses and physicians in English about
patients and to read patient histories. In some cases, they also needed to be able to talk
to patients and their families in English. The provider needed to determine which of the
designated nurses already possessed the requisite English skills and which needed
English language training. For the latter group, the provider also needed to ascertain
whether differences in proficiency levels would warrant separate class groupings.
Because assessment would be conducted by an ESOL professional rather than a
medical professional, assessment tasks had to be accessible to a lay reader.
For the assessment instrument, the trainer developed a simple integrated skills task that
involved retelling a story. Relatively short narrative cases were taken from technically
accurate medical materials written for access by lay persons. Each potential participant
was given a fixed time to read the cases and process the content. Then the potential
participant returned the case to the examiner and retold the case orally. The retelling
was audiotaped.
Two forms of assessment were used. While listening to the retelling, the examiner rated it for overall intelligibility on a 5-point scale with simple descriptors, with 5 being the
highest. The second evaluation involved recall of idea units. Each case had been
analyzed for the number of idea units, which were listed on a form. Listening to each
potential participant’s audiotape, the examiner checked off the idea units on the form.
The provider administered this test to several nurses whose English the hospital
administrators considered satisfactorily fluent. This established the descriptors for Level
5 on the overall intelligibility rating scale and the number of idea units that made up a
score of “complete” on the idea unit scale. The provider was then able to develop
descriptors for the other levels on the two scales and to assess each potential
participant’s performance on the assessment task using these scores. (Friedenberg, et
al. 57)

Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.



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[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

Context Analysis: What is the environment in which learning will take place?

The Context Analysis (also often referred as a “Learning Situation Analysis” or a “Means
Analysis”) examines the environment in which the learners will be taught. By completing
a Context Analysis, the effective ESP practitioner gains information about the resources
and constraints that affect course design and learner outcomes. The Context Analysis
often provides a “splash of reality” when viewing the gap between the desired learner
outcomes for the course (TSA) and where the learners are at present in terms of
language proficiency and skills (PSA). This information can help the training provider
negotiate more realistic outcomes within a given time frame or gain additional resources
to achieve the desired goals.
Below is list of factors to consider when researching the context in which the ESP
course will be offered. Some of the information listed may be more relevant to certain
contexts than to others.

Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.



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[Md. Mostafa Rashel]

Factors to Consider When Defining the Context

People
• Who are the stakeholders in the proposed course? Why do they want this course to
be developed?

Physical setting of the course
• How will the training be delivered –traditional face-to-face instruction, online,
computer-based, or a combination?
• Where is the school/company located? Does this have an impact on the learners?
• Describe the room used for the course: size, furniture, light, noise.
• Will the course always be held in the same room?

Nature of course
• Is this a new course or one to be revised?
• Is learner attendance mandatory or optional?
• Will the course be open to all qualified applicants or will enrollment be restricted to a
certain group of people, e.g. a specific group of employees at a company; students
who have completed a certain series of classes at the university? How will
participants be recruited?
• Are tests required? How will the information be used, for example, to determine
promotions, readiness to participate in subsequent training opportunities, or future
career assignments?

Westerfield, K. “An Overview of Needs Assessment in English for Specific Purposes.” Best Practices in ESP E-Teacher Course. University of Oregon. 2010.



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