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Nee d s asses s m e n t in ESP, as well as in other
language teaching programs, plays a central role in
c u r r i c u l um development. P riorities in goals and
o b j ec t i v es of a language teaching program are
det e r m i n e d on the basis of needs
assessment-The principle purpose of this study is to identify the cu r r e n t s t u de n t - p e r c e i v e d academic needs in the ESP
courses in the Erciyes Unive r s i t y Medical Faculty. The
study is cross-sectional in its nature, surveying each
group of the students in the program in order to get an
overall picture of their needs and to see how each of
the four groups differ from the other
three-Two types of research have been conducted to do
needs assessment. First, literature on c u r r iculum
t erminology and three models of course design were
reviewed. Second, a d es c r i p t i v e study was done by
colle c t i n g data from the medical students of Erciyes
U n i v e r si t y concerning their academic needs for their
ESP courses. The data were collected using
q ue s t io n n a ir e s which included items about the language
skills and language teaching materials, which the
stude n t s were asked to rank in order of importance,
difficulty, and/or a p p r o p r i a t e n e s s .
There were 76 student subjects in this study who
were all enrolled in the Medical Faculty of Erciyes
that class.
In a nalyzing the data, average scores for each
item were calcu l a t e d in order to put the items in
order. The overall ranking and the group ranking of the items have been presented in tables. In some cases, the
results of the a n alysis have been presented in
percen t a g e .
The results of the data analysis revealed three
important points: 1. The medical students in Erciyes
U n i versity feel a need for specialized English. 2. The
students c o nsider the receptive language skills,
reading and listening, more important than the
productive skills, speaking and writing. 3. The
students' d i f f i c u l ti es in English are due primarily to
insufficient knowledge of English sentence structure
and technical vocabulary. To ove r c o m e their
d i ff i cu l t i e s in English, the students believe that they need more practice in reading, vocabulary and grammar.
This study should be of interest to ESP
p r a c t itioners in Turkish uni v e r s i t i e s who are engaged
in needs a s s e s s m e n t and other aspects of c urriculum
AT E R CIYES U N I V E R S I T Y
S U B M I T TE D TO THE INSTITUTE OF ECON O M I C S AND SOCIAL S C I EN C E S OF BILKENT U NI VE R S I T Y IN P A RTIAL F U L F I L LM EN T
OF THE R E Q U I RE M E N TS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE TEACHING OF E N GLISH AS A F O R E I G N LANGUAGE
BY
M U STAFA AKGUL JULY 1991
^ Ai. pr.\
, 1 ' ¿
BILKENT U NIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF E C O NOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES MA THESIS EX A M I N A T I O N RESULT FORM
July 31, 1991
The examining c om m i t t e e appointed by the Institute of Economics and Social S c ience for the
thesis examination of the MA TEFL student
Mustafa Akguil
has read the thesis of the student- The committee has decided that the thesis
of the student is
satisfactory-Thesis title
Thesis Adv i s o r
C o m mi t t e e Members
Needs asses s m e n t of the medical students in ESP courses at
Ereiyes U n i versity Mr- W i lliam Ancker
Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program
Dr. Lionel Kaufman
Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program
Dr- James C- Stalker
Bilkent U n i v e r s i t y MA TEFL Program
We cer t i f y that we have read this thesis and that in our combined opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and
in quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of
Arts. i o U a >y\ William Ancker (A d v i s o r ) James C. Stalker (C o m m ittee M e m b e r ) Lionel Kaufnrvan (C o m m ittee M e m b e r )
Approved for the
Institute of Ec o n o m i c s and Social Sciences
Ali Kara o s m a n o g l u Director
TABLE OF C O NTENTS
PAGE
L IST OF T A B L E S ... vii
LIST OF F I GURES ... viii
1.0 I N T R O D U C T I O N ... 1
1.1 B A C KGROUND TO THE STUDY ... 1
1.2 P R OBLEM ... 4 1.3 PURPOSE ... 5 1.4 SCOPE ... 5 1.5 M E T H O D O L O G Y ... 6 1.6 PLAN OF O RG AN I Z A T I O N ... 7 2.0 RE V I E W OF L I T E R A TU R E ... B 2.1 D E F I N I T I O N S ... 8 2.1.1 What is E S P ? ... 8 2.1.2 C u r r i c u l u m ... 10 2.1.3 G o a l s ... 11 2.1.4 A i m s ... 12 2.1.5 O b j e c t i v e s ... 13 2.2 NEEDS A S S E S S M E N T ... 15 2.3 COURSE D E S I G N ... 20 2.3.1 L a n g u a g e- c en tr e d Course Design.. 21
2.3.2 Ski 1 Is-centred Course Design.... 22
2.3.3 L e a r ni ng - ce nt r ed A p p r o a c h ... 23
2.4 C O N C L U S I O N S ... 27
3.0 M E T HO D O L O G Y ... 28
3.1 I N T R O D U C T I O N ... 28
3.4 P R O C E D U R E S ... 32 3.5 A N A LY T I C A L P R O C E D U R E S ... 32 4.0 DATA A N A L Y S I S ... 34 4.1 I N T R O D U C T I O N ... 34 4.2 A N A L Y S I S OF THE DATA ... 36 4.2.1 The four L a n gu a ge S k i l l s ... 36
4.2.2 Reading Subs k i l l s and Materials. 37 4.2.3 L istening S u b s k i l l s ... 40
4.2.4 Speaking S u b s k i l l s ... 42
4.2.5 Mote Taking and Writing Subsk i l l s ... 44 4.3. C O N C L U S I O N ... 50 5.0 C O N C L U SI O N AND D I S C U S S I O N ... 52 5.1 S U M M A R Y OF THE S T U D Y ... 52 5.2 P E D A G OG I C A L I M P L I C A T I O N S ... 54 5.3 AN A S S E S SM EN T OF THE S T U D Y ... 55
5.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR F U RTHER R E S E A R C H ... 56
B I B L I O G R A P H Y ... 58 APPENDIX A ... 60 APPENDIX B ... 64 APPENDIX C - 1 ... 68 APPENDIX C - 2 ... 71 APPENDIX C - 3 ... 74 APPENDIX C - 4 ... 77 APPENDIX C - 5 ... 80
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Mean scores of the four language
skills
Page 37
Table 4.2 Ranking of reading m a t e rials in
order of a pp r o p r i a t e n e s s 38
Table 4.3 Ranking of reading subskills in
order of i mportance 39
Table 4.4 Ranking of sources of d if fi cu l t i e s
in reading 40
Table 4.5 Ranking of listening subskills in
order of importance 41
Tab 1 e 4.6 Ranking of listening subskills in
order of diffi c u l t y 41
Table 4.7 Ranking of some speaking skills in
order of e ss e n t i a l i t y 43
Table 4.8 Ranking of the speaking s ubskills
in order of diffi c u l t y 43
Table 4.9 P e r ce n t a g e of s tudents who use the
specified languages in note taking 45
Table 4.10 P e c en t a g e s of students who are
satisfied with their notes 45
Table 4.11 Ranking of the items which might
be helpful in improving note taking 46
Table 4.12 Ranking of writing s ubskills in
order of dif f i c u l t y 47
Table 4.13 Ranking of writing tasks in order
of nece s s i t y in medicine 49
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2-1 A c o mparision of a p p roaches to
A C KN O WL ED G EM EN T S
I would like to express my dee p e s t g r a t itude to my thesis
advisor, W i lliam Ancker, without whose val u a b l e help and guidance this thesis would never have been completed.
I am e s p e c i a l l y indebted to the subjects in this study who
patiently answered the ques t i o n s on the questionnaires.
Finally, I owe my warm-h e a r t e d grat i t u d e and thanks to my
INTRODUCTION
1.1 B A C K G R O U N D TO THE STUDY
A f t e r the end of the Second World War in 1945, the
increased volume of scientific, technical and economic
a c t i v i t y on an i n t e r n a t i o n a 1 scale made English
impo r t a n t as the language of comm u n i c a t i o n in
techno l o g y and commerce. Therefore, some people began
to learn E n g li s h not for the pleasure or prestige of
knowing the language, but because they needed it to
gain acce s s to technology and comme r c e ( H utchinson &
Waters, 1989, p. 6). The late 1960's and early 1970's
evid e n c e d the g reatest expansion into the nature of
v a r ie t i e s of teaching English as a second or foreign
language. Most of the work at that time was in the area of E n g l i sh for Science and T ec h n o l o g y (EST).
EST cou r s e s are those having a syllabus based on
the g r a m m atical and lexical features of the registers
of a par t i c u l a r branch of science and technology.
Despite their differences, EST and ESP (English for
Specific Purpose) were used for a time interchangeably. Altho u g h EST is now only consi d e r e d a branch of ESP, it has played an important role in the d ev e l o p m e n t of ESP.
Swales (1985, ctd in Hutchinson and Waters, 1989) says
that with few exceptions, ESP has always set the trend
materials.
Some linguists do not see much d i f f e r en ce between
the language of general Engl i s h and special English:
"What we have is the same language employed for similar
and d i f f e r e n t usages" say Mackay and M ountford (1979,
p. 5). Strev e n s (undated, p. 146) also says it is
diff i c u l t to draw the line between general and special
purpose courses: "General courses are themselves really
'special purpose' courses." Yet, Williams (1980, p. 2)
e x plains the d i f f e r e nc e between EST and EFL as follows:
"Examination of an EST series shows little difference
as to rhetorical function and grammar between books in
the same series. The difference, of course, is in the
specia l i s t lexis."
H u t chinson and Waters (1989) define ESP as an
appro a c h to language teaching in which all d e c i sions as to cont e n t and method are based on the learners' reason
for learning. ESP learners want to learn English for
their own educational or professional reasons, i.e.
their motiv a t i o n is instrumental. The process of
identifying students' reasons for studying E n glish is
called needs assessment.
Needs a s s e s s m e n t is a fundamental part of
developing a curriculum. No matter whet h e r general
objectives, the cont e n t of the course must be selected,
the course must be taught, and the outcome of student
learning along with the e ff e c t i v e n e s s of the co u r s e
must be evaluated in order to provide feedback on the
course for course d es i g n e r s and a d m i n i s t r a t o r s .
Evaluation in any language teaching program, e sp e c i a l l y ESP programs, is an in d i s p e n s i b l e part of the co u r s e to
see whether or not the course goals and o b j ec t iv es are
being met.
Needs assessment, as Bellon and Handler (1982)
define it, is simply a process of determining needs
that may exist. It may also include the d e t e r m in at io n
of the relative importance of identified needs. In
designing courses, needs ass e s s m e n t is the first thing
to do in order to set the goals for the program based
on the most accur a t e and u p - t o - da te information about
existing educational needs. Needs a ssessment will be of
great help to the ESP course designer in d et e r m i n i n g
the goals and p r i o rities as well as to the teachers
involved in the
program-Knowing the learners' reason for learning a
language is helpful, even essential, in identifying the
situation in which they intend to use the language,
which is called the 'target situation'. In designing
called 'target situation analysis' (Hutchinson and W a t e r s , 1989).
1.2 P R O B L E M
Teaching E n glish for Specific Pu r p o s e s in Erciyes
U n i v e r si t y Medical Faculty has been a problem for
course designers, teachers and others involved in the
educational system. Several years of formal education
prior to entering the univer s i t y is far from s ufficient
in enabling the EFL students from Turkish high schools
to cope with the language required in medicine and
therefore, they are given one year of preparatory
English language instruction. Even after this
instruction, the medical students in Erciyes
U n iv e r s i t y often have dif f i c u l t y in using the language
in spoken and written communication. This is the point
where ESP comes into play in their education- Upon
compl e t i n g the prep school and entering the medical
faculty the students at Erciyes Uni v e r s i t y have to take
the ESP courses, even if they are not aware of the
a i m s .
It is still a matter of c on t r o v e r s y as to how much
emphasis should be given to teaching preparaptory
English (henceforth general English) and how much
empha s i s should be given to teaching of ESP- Despite a
U n i v e r s i t y have d i f f i c u l t i e s in their E n glish medium c ourses?
1.3 PUR P O S E
This thesis aims at investigating the medical
students' educational needs for ESP as perceived by
themselves during their academic career. Such a needs
assessment, alt h o u g h used mainly for curriculum
development, is necessary for improving the ESP
c u r r i c u l um according to the needs of the medical
students and the ESP teachers at Erciyes University. In
this thesis, the target situation a n alysis has been
conducted mainly with a view to obtaining information
about the target academic needs of the students, i.e.
the skills and com p e t e n c e which the students are
expected to possess when they start studying medicine
in English.
This needs ass e s s m e n t study has been conducted to
answer the following question: what are the students'
current learning needs in ESP courses in the Erciyes
Uni v e r s i t y Medical Faculty. The data ne c e s s a r y for such
a needs ass e s s m e n t have been collected from the
students using q u e s t i o n n a i r e s
-1.4 SCOPE
This needs a ssessment study is limited to
been narrowed down to s tu de n t - p e r c e i v e d academic needs.
Content area teachers, ESP teachers and a d m i n i s t r a tors
are not included in this study.
For these reasons, no c on c l u s i o n s about the needs
of the ESP s tudents in other language teaching programs
in Turkey can be drawn on the basis of this study.
However, it can be used as a model for local needs
assessmen t s t u d i e s . 1.5. M E T H O D O L O G Y
This research has been conducted in four steps.
1- L i t e r a t u r e has been reviewed related to EFL versus
ESP, c onducting a needs assessment, and specifying
goals and objectives. The importance of needs
assessment in the e f fe c t i v e manag e m e n t of educational
programs and e f f ec t i v e m e thods of c u r r iculum
d e v e l opment for problem solving purposes are also dealt with in the review of literature.
2. In the light of the reviewed literature, a data
collection instrument was designed to study the needs,
motives and purposes of the medical students who take
ESP c o urses at E r c i y e s University. The que s t i o n n a i r e s
were distri b u t e d to a sample of each of the four
classes taking the ESP courses.
3. The data were analyzed to see if there are any
frequencies, averages, and percentages- Three main
research q u e stions have been used as the basis for the
analysis of the data. The ques t i o n s are as follows:
a- Do the stude n t s perceive any need for
specialized English?
b. How do the s t udents rank the four language
skills in order of importance?
c- What s u bskills are most important for the
s t u dents?
4- Based on a comparison of the literature review and
the findings from the data, implications and
sugg e s t i o n s are offered for the d ev el op m en t/ i mp ro v em en t
of the opera t i o n s of the ESP courses at the Erciyes
Uni v e r s i t y Medical Faculty- 1.6. PLAN OF O R G A N I Z A T I O N
C h apter I is the introduction to the study and
ex p l a i n s the problem. Chapter II presents the review of
literature relevant to ESP, needs assessment, and
course design- Chapter III desc r i b e s how the researcher
collected and analyzed the data. Chapter IV presents
the analy s i s of the data. Chapter V offers a summary of the study and then c on cl u s i o n s and general implications
for addressing learner needs as they relate to the
operational concerns of the ESP program at the Erciyes
Faculty-REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This cha p t e r is divided into three major sections.
First, the key terms are defined. Second, a discussion
of needs ass e s s m e n t is given, and finally a p p roaches
to course design are reviewed.
2.1 DE F I N I T I O N S
In this section, the c oncepts of ESP, curriculum,
goals, aims, and o b j e ctives are defined to provide
background information for the original research
conducted in this study.
2.1.1 WHAT IS ESP?
As Bloor and Bloor (1986, p.7) suggest, the major
diffe r e n c e between ESP and EFL lies in the learners and
their purposes for learning English. In ESP, learners
have instrumental m otivation because they learn English
in order to learn something else. On the other hand,
EFL learners may have a variety of motives for learning
English, which include instrumental and/or integrative
motivation. There may even be times when they have to
study E n g l i s h only because English is in the school
curriculum. Bloor and Bloor (1986) make an additional
distinction between EFL and ESP:
EFL and ESP d i ffer not only in the nature of
the learner, but also in the scope of the
goals of instruction. Whereas in EFL all four
language skills; listening, reading,
speaking, and writing, are stressed equally,
in ESP a needs a ssessment determines which
accordingly, (p. 7)
Widdowson (1983, p. 5) offers an opposing view that
general English is no less specific than ESP. What
d i st i n g u i s h e s them is the way in which purpose is
defined and the manner of implementation. He also adds
that in ESP, "purpose" refers to the eventual use to
which the language will be put in achieving
occupational and academic aims.
ESP integrates subject matter and Engl i s h language
instruction. Such a c o m bination is highly motivating
because students are able to apply what they learn in
their E n glish classes to their major field of study.
Being able to use the vocabu l a r y and s t r u ctures they
learn in a meaningful context reinforces what they have learned and increases their motivation.
Bloor and Bloor (1986, p. 7) state that the
students' abilities in their s u b j e c t - m a t t e r fields
enhance their ability to acquire English. S u bject-
matter knowledge gives them the context they need to
understand the English of the classroom. The teacher
can exploit the students' knowledge of the subject
matter in helping them learn English faster.
Since adult learners are c o g n i tively more
developed and have more learning e xperience than
c l asses to learn faster and more e ff ic i e n t l y than chi 1d r e n .
We can s u m m a r i z e at this point and say, ESP
com b i n e s purpose, subject matter, motivation, context
and relevant
skills-2.1.2 C U R RICULUM
Posner and Rud n i s k y (1978) say that there are many
d e fi n i t i o n s of c u r ri c u l u m and they avoid claiming any
definition is the best one. But curriculum d ef in i t i o n s
make important d i s t i n c ti on s such as those between
process and products and planning, and between
c u r r i c u l a r and instructional matters. While
distin g u i s h i n g between the c u r riculum and instruction
theory, Posner and Ru d n i s k y (1978) see c ur r i c u l u m as
what is to be taught while the goals indicate what
content is to be learned.
Dubin and Olshtain (1986, p. 3) use c u r r i c u l u m to
d e s c r i b e the broadest c o ntext in which planning for
language instruction takes place, either on the
national level or on the local level. In this sense
they use it as s y n onymous to course design. They
further explain that a syllabus is a more circumscribed
document, usually one which has been prepared for a
particular group of learners.
R i chards (1984) says that although in both British
c u rr i cu l u m includes goals, content, implementation, and
e v a luation of an educational system, in its narrower
sense, it refers to a course of study.
Acco r d i n g to Bellon and Handler (1982), cur r i c u l u m has four major areas: goals, o r g a n i z a t i o n s , operations, and outcomes. There is a close relationship among these areas, but there are important d is ti n c t i o n s among them,
too. Bellon and Handler (1982) state that goals deal
with the desired outcomes; or g a n i z a t i o n s with the
resources, structures, communi c a t i o n processes and
programs; o p e r a t i o n s with the daily functioning of the
program; and outco m e s with the intended or unintended
program results.
2.1.3 GOALS
We will c o nsider two d ef i n i t i o n s of goals, both of which can be a p p l i c a b l e to any given ESP situation. The
first defin i t i o n focuses on the results of an
educational program, and the second d efinition focuses
on the c o n ce r n s of the people served by an educational
p r o g r a m .
Bellon and Handler (1982, p. 25) define the term
'goals' as "timeless and n on me a s u r a b l e statements of
desired outcomes". They also add that goals statements
should reflect the values of those involved in, or
stress the importance of having a program with an
identified purpose or direction that can be easily
u n d e r s t o o d or c o m m u nicated to all interested
p a r t i c i p a n t s .
Dubin and Olshtain (1986, p. 3) state that goals
a d dress more general, societal, community, or
institutional conce r n s and that goals are determined by
c a r e f u l l y examining information about the patterns of
language use within the various domains of the society,
as well as by studying group and individual attitudes
toward the target language and all other languages in
the se c t i.ng ,
2.1.4 AIMS
As authors make subtle d i s t i n c t i o n s in seemingly
identical terminology, it can become difficult to
u nderstand these distinctions. This problem is
e s pe c i a l l y n o t i c e a b l e in discussing students' needs.
Students' needs can occur at various levels, the
n a r r o we s t may be successful completion of an English
course, and the broadest may be fluent interaction in
the E n g l i s h speaking professional community.
Widdowson (1983, p. 20) introduces the term "aims"
to refer to the highest level of needs. He says "aims"
are what the learner has to do with the language once
to the learner's need after language instruction is c o m p l e t e d .
2.1.5 OBJEC T I V E S
In this section, we will examine four diff e r e n t
d e f i n i t i o n s of objectives. Two of these have been
offered by Widdowson, a third one by Dubin and
V
Olshtain, and the last one by Davies.
Widdowson (1983) d e fines objec t i v e s as the
pedagogic intentions of a particular course of study to
be achieved within the period of that course and in
principle m e a s u r a b l e by some assessment device at the
end of the course. According to Widdowson (1933, p.
20), objec t i v e s are what the learner has to do in order
to learn the language. In this sense it refers to
pedagogic needs or learning needs.
As is understood from the last two definitions,
(of aims and objectives), language learners have two
kinds of needs: 1. Their n eeds to learn the language
and, 2. their pedagogic needs i.e what they have to do
in order to learn the language. Both kinds of needs
must be considered in d esigning courses.
Dubin and Olshtain (1986, p. 3) define object i v e s
as "specific outcomes or products of courses which are
outlined in a syllabus" and they also point to the
importance of o b j e c t i v e s in helping learners understand
the following c o mment on the proper time of preparing obj e c t i v e s :
Since they change and shift during the period
of a course, needs are best addressed at the
level of classroom... From the course
des i g n e r ' s point of view, however, the
crucial factors are those that must be
determined before the learners arrive. Since
a c u r r i c u l u m and a s yllabus are documents
which are produced to guide teachers and
learners, they must be in place and ready to
be used before learners and teachers meet
together on the first day of the program. (p. 6)
Moreover, Miller (1987) uses Davies' metaphors to
clarify the d i s tinction among aims, objectives and
goals. Davies pictures an aim as the starting point
and direction, obj ec tives as a series of signposts or
m i l e stones of achievement, and the goal as the final
d e s t i n a t i o n .
In the d i s c u s s i o n s about goals and goal setting
processes, the term educational needs are often used.
Bel Ion and Handler (1982), say that educational needs
are seen as an important source of data for
es t a b l i s h m e n t of goals. They present the following
points to provide a frame of reference before
establishing and assessing goals:
- Goal state m e n t s should represent the values of
all ap p r o p r i a t e client groups.
- The process of generating and agreeing upon
educational goals should be designed to help schools become renewing and future oriented organi z a t i o n s .
- Priority levels of educational goals should be used as a basis for decision making.
- Educational goals should be written, made public, and evaluated on a regular basis, (pp. 26-28)
To sum up what has been said up this point, goals are the intended behavioral changes in the learners, in
terms of language performance. Aims are what learners
want to do with the language after they have learned
it, and therefore an aim is the same as learning
purpose- Object i v e s are the routes to be followed to
attain the specified goals.
2.2 NEEDS ASS E S S M E N T
As has already been mentioned, ESP students learn
English in order to learn a set of professional skills
and to perform particular job related functions.
Because of these particular skills and functions of ESP
students, it has become relatively common practice to
conduct some form of needs analysis, where the student
population's current or likely future use of the
foreign language is identified. Munby (1978, p.32)
presents a highly detailed set of procedures for
d iscovering target situation needs. He calls this set
of procedures the Commu n i c a t i o n Needs P r o c essor (CNP). The CNP c o n s i s t s of a range of q ue s t i o n s about key
communication variables, including topic, participants
and medium. These vari a b l e s can be used to identify the target language needs of any group of
learners-According to Bloor and Bloor (1986, p- 14) Needs
identified through a series of interviews and o b s e r v a t i o n s :
1. the particular skills that the learner will need to perform in the target
1a n g u a g e
-2. the resources which will create
o p p o rtunities for the learner to engage in the activities that give them practice in
understanding and using language structures to perform those p articular skills, (p. 14)
Bloor and Bloor (1986) also say that needs
a s s essment enables course designers to select
activ i t i e s and materials which are a p propriate to the
learners' needs and level of proficiency.
ESP p r a c t i t i o n e r s , w h ether course designers,
material writers or c la ss r o o m teachers, begin with a
basic question: What does the language learner need to
know in order to function in the target s ituation?
Needs assessment is carried out to answer this
question. Responses to this question from all affected
groups can be expected to be different.
Ho l l i d a y and Cooke (1983, ctd. in Ad a m s - S m i t h
1989) suggest that for needs a ssessment we must find
answers from four different p e r s p e c t i v e s : 1. What the subject teacher thinks the
learner needs to know (subject teacher- perceived needs.)
2. What the institution thinks the learner needs to know (institution - p e r c e i v e d n e e d s ).
3. What the English language teacher thinks
the learner needs to know (ESP teacher-
4. What the learners think they need to know (learner-perceived needs), (p.66)
This ass e s s m e n t of needs, however, is not complete without taking the following into c o n s i d é r a t i o n .
5. What the learners want to know (wants).
6. What is c ompatible with specific local
features of the en v i r o n m e n t (means).
( p . 6 6 )
According to A d a ms-Smith (1989, p. 66), it is an
unfortunate, though widely held belief that needs
assessment operates only at the upper levels of
language planning and policy. Classroom teachers, too,
through the selection of s u pplementary materials and
ap p r o p r i a t e m a n agement techniques and methodology
(which is as s i g n i ficant as content in ESP) have some
freedom to operate on the basis of any assessment they
wish to conduct on their own initiative, and in cases
where the higher-level needs analysis has been
inadequate, this class r o o m - b a s e d a ssessment plays an
important role.
Bloor and Bloor (1986) suggest three reasons to
conduct needs a ssessment prior to deve l o p m e n t of an ESP course :
1. To become acquainted with the institution and its r e q u i r e m e n t s .
2. To identify how learners will use English
in their technical fields.
3- To assess the students' current level of
underst a n d i n g of spoken English, (p. 14)
They further explain the main questions which can
1- What are the purposes for which the students will use English?
2. Will it be mainly for oral communication, written communication, reading, or to do research?
3. What language skills will the students need to
perform these tasks?
4. Will the receptive skills of reading and
listening be most important, or the productive
skills of writing and speaking or some other
c o m bi n a t i o n ? (Bloor and Bloor, 1986, p. 7)
As mentioned earlier, needs ass e s s m e n t requires
interviews and other interaction with three sources of
information where the ESP program is to be developed or
put in operation. Bloor and Bloor (1986, pp. 15-16)
give these sources follows: program a d m i n i s t r a t o r s ,
content area instructors and students.
The input of English teachers to needs assessment,
which might be regarded as the most important, is
always likely to be decisive, because the various
inputs will be finally evaluated by the ESP
p r actitioners who conducted the course.
As has been mentioned earlier, the i n c o r p o r a tion
of the learners' ideas in the ESP course design will
increase the learners' motivation. Therefore, the
o r ganization of the materials should be flexible enough to keep the learners' motivation high. L e arner input is
also v a l ua b l e in the form of post-course assessment,
since there is the possibility that at the outset of a
The features of the local en v i r o n m e n t must be investigated before effe c t i v e planning can be made. The
tendency to d escribe these features negat i v e l y as
co n s t r a i n t s is unhelpful and often misleading, since
some of these elements are flexible or even expl o i t a b l e
and with ingenuity can be turned to advantage. In a
paper w hich should be required reading for everyone
going abroad for the first time to an EFL post,
Holliday and Cooke (1903) define ESP "ecosystem" as the relevant features of local institutional man a g e m e n t and
i n f r a s t r u e t u r e , together with the prevailing c l assroom
culture. By 'ecosystem', they mean the interaction
between the v ariables in an ESP situation.
Holli d a y and Cooke (1983) further say that this
knowledge of the system can be acquired in various
ways. First, good relations with individuals in
relevant d e p a r tments must be established by the ESP
teacher so that it is possible to observe a few
classes. Secondly, the ESP teacher must get on friendly terms with teaching colle a g u e s outside the ESP program,
and ask their permission to attend lectures, lab
sessions and seminars. Thirdly, getting to know the
students, chatting with them between classes, joining
in their e x t r a - c u r r i cu la r activities, and offering them
hospitality are very important ways of acquiring
be i nvaluable sources of information. Much can be
learned by observing their successes and failures in
particular ESP situations.
2.3 COURSE DESIGN
According to Hutch i n s o n and Waters (19S9, p. 65),
course design is the process by which the raw data
about the target situation and those involved in ESP is
interpreted to produce an integrated series of
teaching-learning experiences. The ultimate aim of this
process is to lead the learners to a particular state
of knowledge. This requires the use of theoretical and
empirical information collected to produce a syllabus,
to select, adapt or write m aterials appr o p r i a t e for the
syllabus, to develop a m e t h o dology for teaching those
materials, and to e st a b l i s h evaluation procedures by
which progress towards the specified goal will be
m e a s u r e d .
The i n t er p r ê t a tion of the collected data may
invite another series of questions in designing the
course- The data from needs analysis can help to answer these questions. There may not be a o n e -to-one transfer from needs analysis to course design since answers from
one area (what learners need) and another (what
learners want) may conflict. There are also external
co n s t r a i n t s (for example, c lassroom facilities, time,
There are many diff e r e n t approaches to course
design. However, three main types will be mentioned
here: language-centred, s k i 11s - c e n t r e d , and
learning-cen tred .
2.3.1 L A N G U A G E -C E N T RE D COURSE DESIGN
This is probably the most familiar design to
English teachers. It is p a r t i cularly prevalent in ESP.
It aims to draw a direct connection between the
analysis of the target situation and the content of the
ESP course. Hutchinson and Waters (1989) say that
1a nguage-centred a p proach c o nsists of five stages.
First, the learners' target situation is identified and
theoretical views of language are selected- Second,
linguistic features of the target situation are
identified. Third, a s y llabus is designed on the basis
of the features of the target situation. Fourth,
materials are designed to e xemplify syllabus items.
Finally, evaluation p r o cedures to test acquisition of
syllabus items are established.
H utchinson and Waters (1989) make the following
comments on some of its weaknesses:
a) Even if it starts from the learners and
their needs and thus might be considered a
learner-centred approach, it is by no means
l e a r n e r - c e n t r e d - The learner has been
considered at the stage of identifying the
target situation whereas he should have been
considered at every stage of the process, b)
It lacks flexibility. If the initial analysis
is wrong, no compen s a t i o n seems to be
flexibility, feedback channels and error
tolerance built in so that it can respond to
u n e x p e c t ed l y developing influences- c) It
appears to be systematic- However, it is the
inter n a l l y - g e n e r a t e d system (the learners'
own system) not the externa l l y - i m p o s e d system
that makes learning meaningful i-e what
learners can bring to learning situation is
not considered and therefore, meaningful
learning does not take place- d) The
pedagogic aspect of the syllabus has been
neglected, which may cause the learner to get bored and thus lose motivation- e) It regards
learners not as people but inanimate beings-
(pp. 68-69)
2-3-2 S K I L L S - C EN T R E D COURSE DESIGN
The s k i 11s-centred approach in course design is a
widely used approach in ESP to meet the needs of the
students who have the specific aims of developing their
abilities to read and understand the subject texts
which are not a v a i lable in their mother tongues. This
approach is founded on two basic principles, one being
theoretical and the other
pragmatic-The basic theoretical hypothesis is that
underlying any language behavior are certain skills and
strategies, which the learner uses in order to produce
or comprehend discourse. A s k i 11s-centred approach
focuses not on the performance but rather on the
underlying compet e n c e
-The pragmatic basis for the ski 1 Is-centred
approach derives from a distinction made by Widdowson
(1981) between g o a 1-oriented courses and process-
language that they want to use when they have learned
it- In short, it is the pedagogic aspect of an ESP
program- A g o a 1-oriented course takes into
con s i d e r s t i o n students' needs- But it does not offer
the ways of learning the language- In other words,
students' pedagogic needs are not taken into account in
a s k i 11s-centred approach. Holmes (1982) points out
tha t :
In ESP, the main problem is usually one of
time available and student experience- First,
the aims may be defined in terms of what is
desirable, i.e. to be able to read in the
literature of the students' specialism, but
there may be nowhere near enough time to
reach this aim during the period of the
course. Secondly, the students may be in
their first year of studies with little
exp e r i e n c e of the
s p e c i a l i s m - .. Accc
factors-.- may be cor
from the start, the
during the course, (p. 69)
2.3.3 L E A RN I N G - C E N T R E D A P PROACH
H utchinson and Waters (1989, p. 72) say that in a
language-centred approach the ESP course is determined
by the nature of the target performance- In a
skills-centred approach it is the processes during the target
perfor m a n c e that determ i n e s the ESP course. A
learning-centred approach goes further and considers
the com p e t e n c e that enables someone to perform- A
learning-centred approach c o ncerns itself not only with
lite ra ture of their
ing 1y both these
rain ts which say right
ms c annot be achieved
the target competence, but also with how someone acquires that competence.
Widdowson (1981, p. 5) draws attention to the
conflict between what the learner has to do while
learning, on the one hand, and on the other hand, what
the learner needs to have acquired after learning. The
latter refers to the 1 earning-centred approach.
Learning- c e n t r e d appro a c h presupposes that the language content is selected not because it is r e presentative of
what the learner will have to deal with after the
course is over, but because it is likely to activate
learning strategies while the course is in progress.
Therefore, it is possible to conceive of an ESP course
containing very little of the language associated with
the special purpose so long as the language it contains
is e f f ective in developing the ability to achieve the
special purpose after the teaching is over. Although
the language-centred app r o a c h focusses on the selection
of language by reference to the ends of learning, the
learning-centred app r o a c h focusses on the presentation
of language by r eference to the means of learning and
allows the ends to be achieved by the learners by
exercising the ability they have acquired.
Widdowson (1981) indicates the superiority of the
1e a r n ing-centred app r o a c h in ESP course design as
the completion o
is left for the
this ready mad
centred approach continue beyond
since the aim o
is to develop a
not itself real
provides the lea its realization·
f learning and that all that
student to do is to apply
e knowledge. The learning-
assumes that learning will
the completion of instruction
f such instruction precisely
c a pacity to learn. It does
ize any special purpose but
rner with the potential for
(p. 6)
Hutchinson and
1 earn ing-cen tred apprc
every stage of the course design
ters (1989) say that in a
h considering the 1 earner a t
has two implications!
1. Course design is a negotiated
process. There is no single factor
which has an outright influence on
the content of the course. The ESP
learning situation and the target
situation will both influence the
nature of the syllabus, materials,
m e t h o dology and evaluation
procedures. S imilarly each of these
components will influence and be
influenced by the others.
2. Course design is a dynamic
process. It does not move in a
linear fashion from initial
analysis to completed course. Needs
and resources vary with time. The
course design, therefore, needs to
have built-in feedback channels to
enable the course to respond to
F i gure 2.1 shows to what extent the three a p p roaches c onsider the learner
must consider the learner nt every stage.
Figure 2.1: A Comparison of A p p roaches to Course Design (From Hutchinson and Waters, 1989)
2.4 CON C L U S I O N
In this chapter, the diffe r e n c e s between ESP and
EFL learners have been presented and definitions, made
by d i f f erent researchers, of the key terms related to
c u r r i c u l u m have been given. The importance of needs
assessment in c u r r i c u l u m development, e s p ecially for
ESP programs, has also been dealt with. Although it is
not the main focus of this study, three main approaches to course design, 1a n g u a g e - c e n t r e d , s k i 11s - c e n t r e d , and
1e a r n i n g - c e n t r e d , have been reviewed in order to have
an idea of how the data obtained through needs
METHODOLOGY
This research is the first ESP needs assessment
study conducted at the Medical Faculty of Erciyes
University. The ESP program in the Erciyes Univer s i t y
Medical Faculty serves app r o x i m a t e l y 800 students.
These courses are given by four teachers, who are
assigned classes by the Foreign Languages Department,
and c o o r d inated by four subject specialists in the
medical
faculty-The main o b j e ctive of this study is to identify
and assess the basic academic needs of the medical
students as far as ESP is concerned. It is hoped that
it will contr i b u t e to ESP c urriculum designers at
Erciyes Unive r s i t y and help to increase the students'
awareness of the benefits of the ESP courses offered in the Medical Faculty.
This chapter is divided into four main sections.
Section 3.2 d escribes the subjects and how they were
chosen for the study. Section 3.3 describes the
instrument used in data collection. Section 3-4
presents the procedures followed while administering
the questionnaires, and section 3.5 describes the
analytical procedures in the analysis of
