Needs Analysis

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Needs Analysis and Curriculum
Development in EAP An Example
of a Critical Approach Sarah Benesch
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• Traditional Needs Analysis
• Descriptive
• Ideological preconceptions not made explicit
• Unequal discourse relationships not taken into
  account
• - merely reproduces dominant discourses
• Social context ignored (political economic
  forces)

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• Critical Needs Analysis
• Transformative versus descriptive
• Takes into account the hierarchical nature of
  social institutions
• Takes into account political and economic forces
  and conflict
• between competing discourses

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• Example of Descriptive Needs Analysis
• - McKennas (1987) study of undergrad
• students in class questions
• Looking at how NSs get the floor during lectures
• without alienating other students.
• Concludes that ESL students should not request
  repetition
• of content since NSs dont.
• So ESL students should be taught questions that
  dont
• challenge or interrupt lecture.
• Vs. Critical approach, which would have looked at
  ways to
• alter the situation to solve linguistic and
  social problems.
• -Work with faculty, small peer groups to give
  students
• chance to discuss questions.

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• Additional Sample of Descriptive Needs Analysis
• - Prior (1995) looked at a graduate sociology
• Seminar in which 7 students worked as research
  assistants
• for their professor.
• One ESL student new to study was told to do the
  statistical analysis, etc. (busy work) instead of
  writing and more participating in the more
  central work of the study.
• Problem The study simply provides an account of
  the
• Status quo without taking into account the
  institutional and social issues involved and
  without attempting to alter
• the status quo.
• Solution seen as adjusting current conditions
  versus effecting fundamental change.

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• Example of Critical Needs Analysis
• Author (teaching ESL) collaborates with
  psychology instructor
• (teaching a survey class)
• Issues
• Multiple contradictory demands existed at each
  level of
• hierarchy.
• - huge volume of material
• - budget cuts (so big psych class)
• - multiple choice tests, little writing practice
• - university-mandated writing exam
• These are regarded as conditions (what exist
• within the current institutional structure and
  discourses)
• versus learner needs.

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• Dealing with the Issues
• Dealing with limitations.
• Challenging the requirements
• Creating possibilities

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• Dealing with limitations
• Response to student need to process textbook
  material
• - peer teaching
• - small group discussions
• - let students create own test

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• 2. Challenging the requirements
• Role reversal Psych. teacher went to ESL class
• ESL students came up with questions and asked
  them
• at beginning of class on 3 occasions
• - shift control to students
• - more comfortable forum for discussion

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• 3. Creating possibilities
• Series of research and writing articles on
  anorexia
• - integrated psych content into ESL class
• - topic of social significance
• Dealt with election of new governor who cut off
• educational funds
• - writing letters
• - protests

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• Concerns when implementing a critical needs
  analysis
• One can expect some allies from among colleagues
  who
• seek more equality and better working
  conditions.
• BUT, any attack on the status quo is sure to
  around
• opposition by those unwilling to jettison the
  former
• institutional structure and approaches.

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• Critical Needs Analysis and the Integration of
  Technology
• Into the Classroom
• Technology should not be blindly fitted into the
  current
• Educational paradigm. We should consider change
  in institutions
• and pedagogical approaches as a possible means of
  making
• technology more effective.
• Collaboration is the key to enlisting support for
  change.
• Technology should be integrated responsibly so
  as to realize
• positive social changes and bridge the gap
  between those
• separated by the technology divide. Technology
  should not be
• Implemented in ways that merely reinforce current
  inequities.