An assessment of teacher perceived needs of ESP students in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Erciyes University

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ABSTRACT

At the faculty of Economics and Administrative

Sciences at Erciyes University students are required to

take a ye.ar of preparatory English in order to prepare

them for English-medium instruction in their field of

study. Although they will study marketing and economics

in English, which can be considered as English for

Specific Purposes, the instruction they receive in the

prep school is general English. Because of this

discrepancy between the general English they are taught

in the prep school and the specific English they need

for the Faculty, it can be assumed that their academic

needs for English are not being met.

The focus of this study is to find out to what

extent there is a cooperation between faculty lecturers

and prep school teachers in determining students' needs

for English. A needs assessment was conducted with

these two groups of teachers in the form of a

structured interview in which they were asked about

their perceptions of students' needs. The data

collected from fifteen prep teachers and five faculty

lecturers were then compared to find out to what extent

the teachers agree on students' needs. A lack of

agreement would indicate a lack of cooperation on the

part of these teachers in determining what students

actually need to know in order to succeed in their

Sciences.

Results indicate a general lack of agreement as to

the importance of productive skills, types of learning

activities. and use of authentic materials. The two

groups of teachers also seem to disagree on the

necessity of certain subskills.

Due to this apparent lack of cooperation between

the two groups of teachers, suggestions are given for

improving communication between the prep school and the

faculty in the areas of determining needs and

formulating goals. Recommendations also are given for

initiating ESP instruction in the prep school in order

to improve students' performance in English-medium

AN- ASSESSMENT OF TEACHER PERCEIVED NEEDS

OF ESP STUDENTS

IN THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATIVE

SCIENCES AT ERCIYES UNIVERSITY

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OF BILKENT UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

BY

ABDULLAH GOKSIN

JULY 1991

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1 1

BILKENT UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

MA THESIS EXAMINATION RESULT FORM

July 31, 1991

The examining commitee appointed by the

Institute of Economics and Social Sciences for the thesis examination of the MA TEFL student

A b d u 11 ah Goks i n

has read the thesis of the student. The commitee has decided that the thesis

of the student is satisfactory.

Thesis title An Assessment of Teacher Perceived

Needs of ESP students in the Faculty

of Economics and Administrative

Sciences at Erciyes University.

Thesis Advisor Mr. William Ancker

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Committee Members Dr. Lionel Kaufman

Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program

Dr. James C. Stalker

I l l

We certify 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. X William Ancker (Advisor) Lionel Kaufman (Committee Member) (ùrVUx> James C. Stalker (Committee Member!

Approved for the

Institute of Economics and Social Sciences

All Karaosmanog1u Director

I V

To

V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page vi i i ix 1 LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES 1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 2

1.3 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTION 4

1.4 OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY 4

1.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 5

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 5

2.0 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 7

2.1 INTRODUCTION 7

2.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ESP 7

2.3 DEFINITIONS OF ESP 9

2.4 NEEDS ASSESSMENT 11

2.5 THE NEED FOR SYLLABUS DESIGN 14

2.6 SOME APPROACHES TO GENERAL SYLLABUS 17

DESIGN

2.6.1 The Structural Approach 17

2.6.2 The Situational Approach 19

2.6.3 The Communicative Approach 21

2.7 SOME MODELS OF COMMUNICATIVE SYLLABUS 22

DESIGN

2.7.1 Wilkins' Notional Syllabus Design 22

2.7.2 Functional-Notional Syllabus Design 23

V I 2.7.3 M u n b y '3 Communicative Syllabus Des ign 2.8 CONCLUSION 3.0 METHODOLOGY 3.1 INTRODUCTION 3.2 TYPES OF RESEARCH 3.3 SUBJECTS 3.4 MATERIALS 3.5 DATA COLLECTION 3.6 ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

4.0 ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

4.1 INTRODUCTION

4.2 LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY OF STUDENTS

4.3 TYPES OF ENGLISH COURSES

4.4 LANGUAGE SKILLS

4.5 SUBSKILLS OF THE LANGUAGE SKILLS

4.5.1 Subskills of Reading

4.5.2 Reading Materials

4.5.3 Forms of Writing

4.5.4 Subskills of Listening

4.5.5 Subskills of Speaking

4.6 STUDY SKILLS AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

4.6.1 Study Skills

4.6.2 Learning Activities

4.7 SUGGESTED TOPICS AND COMMENTS

4.8 CONCLUSIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS

20 27 28 28 28 29 29 31 32 33 * 33 34 36 37 38 38 39 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 47

V I 1

5.0 CONCLUSION

5.1 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY

5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

5.3 ASSESSMENT OF THE STUDY

5.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C 50 50 51 53 54 55 57 62 67

LIST OF TABLES

V I 1 1

4.1 LANGUAGE SKILLS

4.2 SUBSKILLS OF READING

4.3 ESSENTIAL READING MATERIALS

4.4 FORMS OF WRITING 4.5 SUBSKILLS OF LISTENING 4.6 SUBSKILLS OF SPEAKING 4.7 STUDY SKILLS 4.8 LEARNING ACTIVITIES Page 37 39 40 41 42 43 45 45

I X

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1 COMMUNICATION NEEDS PROCESSOR

Page

ACKNOWKLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my

thesis advisor Mr. William Ancker whose guidance has

made this thesis possible. I am indebted throughout my

studies to his knowledge and patience.

I would also like to thank Dr. James C. Stalker

and Dr. Lionel Kaufman for their kind assistance

throughout my studies.

I owe special thanks to the administrators at

Erciyes University who encouraged me and gave me the

permission to attend the Bilkent MATEFL program and to

complete this thesis.

I am indepted to the members of the Faculty of

Economics and Administrative Sciences and the prep

school who answered my questions in the structured

interview and expressed their personal ideas in

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The end of the Second World War in 1945 serves

like a landmark for the rapid development in science,

technology, and international commerce (Hutchinson and

Waters, 1987). Especially the application of science

caused an incredible development in technology in some

countries. This development in technology not only

increased industrial production but also expanded

different scientific areas such as medicine, economics,

engineering, and physics.

Although the world started getting smaller and

smaller due to the technical developments, especially

in international communication, the areas of certain

scientific subjects got broader and broader due to the

research being done in these subjects. The development

of science and technology in the past decades has

brought on the need for learning a foreign language to

keep up with the growing amount of research. This

specific need for learning a language led to the

beginnings of a major shift of emphasis in teaching

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) around the world.

Beginning in the mid-1960's (McDonough, 1984), the

Purposes (ESP) began to develop. Since the need for

English for Specific Purposes courses was first

noticed, the essential characteristic of such courses

has been "the syllabus and the materials are determined

in all essentials by the prior analysis of the

communication needs of the learner" (Munby, 1985: p.

2) .

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

At Erciyes University in Kayseri, the

Department of Economics and the Department of

Marketing are part of the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences. Since

30%

is in English at these departments, students have to

attend English prep classes for two semesters unless

they pass the proficiency test given at the beginning

of the program. The purpose of this prep instruction is

to prepare students for the classes in the Faculty of

Economics and Administrative Sciences which are taught

in English. Students in the prep classes are exposed to

general English courses, whereas they need the specific

English necessary to cope with the subjects they will

study in their major. Studying economics or marketing

after having gone through a general English program

results in problems both on the part of the students

and of the teachers of the faculty.

seem to have different perceptions of the English their

students need. Lecturers at the Faculty of Economics

and Administrative Sciences complain about their

students not being able to follow their instruction in

English. Students are also dissatisfied because they

have difficulties in understanding the lectures in

English, as well as reading the assigned materials

which are written in English.

On the other hand, prep school teachers do not

have a clear idea about the language requirements of

the lecturers in the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences. That is why teachers at the

prep school try to teach the English they themselves

believe is most beneficial for their students. They are

not given a written syllabus or goals statement to help

them met the specific needs of their students. In the

absence of a clearly formulated goals statement, the

course-books are the only materials the teachers have

to determine course content and objectives. The main

reason for the absence of a written syllabus and goals

statement is probably a lack of communication and

cooperation between faculty lecturers and prep

teachers.

These problems of unmet expectations on the part

of faculty lecturers and no clearly defined goals on

perceptions of the students needs. The faculty

lecturers expect the students to possess a certain

degree of proficiency in English whereas the prep

teachers are expected to bring the students to that

level of proficiency.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION

The research question this study attempts to

answer is: to what extent is there cooperation and

coordination between faculty lecturers and prep

teachers in planning English language instruction for

students enrolled in the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences prep school? If there is

sufficient cooperation and coordination between the

above mentioned groups of teachers in planning prep

school instruction then it can be assumed any problem

with respect to students' language needs and expected

level of proficiency would be minimal.

1.4 OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY

The study was carried out in three stages. The

first of these was a review of the professional EFL and

ESP literature related to course and syllabus design

and needs assessment. The second stage included the

collection of the data through administering

prep teachers. The third and final stage consisted of

analysis of these data.

1.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to a needs assessment for

the English prep program of the Faculty of Economics

and Administrative Sciences. Subjects of the needs

assessment are English language teachers in the prep

school and lecturers from the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences who teach English medium-

courses .

Another limitation is that the data was collected

only by interviewing the groups of teachers. The

students in the prep school were not included as

research subjects. A final and very important

limitation of this study is t h a t .teachers are asked

their opinions in interviews, and the data collected

are not based on classroom observation. If classroom

observation had been done, the results of those

observations, that is. what the teachers actually do in

their classes, might differ from what the teachers said

(in the interviews) that they do in their classes.

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The first chapter of the study presents the reader

with background information, the problem, limitations,

covers the review of the literature. In Chapter III,

the methodology used to collect and analyze data is

discussed. This is followed with the data analysis in

Chapter IV. Chapter V includes the discussion of the

results of the analysis, and a summary of the study. In

the bibliography, the references of the works cited in

the study are given, and the instruments used for data

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

CHAPTER II

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In the first section of this chapter. a short

historical background of the emergence of English for

Specific Purposes (ESP) will be given. The second

section gives a brief explanation of what ESP is by-

putting emphasis on its most important components. A

selection of syllabus designs will be presented in the

third section, emphasizing the role of needs assessment

in well-planned syllabuses in all ESP teaching.

2.2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ESP

In the words of Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.6).

"The end of the Second World War in 1945 heralded an

age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in

scientific, technical and economic activity on an

international scale." Such a rapid development in

the above mentioned areas and the desire of people to

keep up with these developments generated a demand for

an international language.

Since English has been accepted as the

international language of the world, people want to

learn English in order to make use of the new

8

areas. The new generation of learners, being aware why

they need to learn a language. want to learn the

language within a limited time at a minimal cost. How

this can be achieved became a matter of ESP.

There is probably no facet of language teaching

around the world today that is growing faster than ESP.

During the last two or three decades there has been a

pronounced shift away from general English as a Foreign

Language (EFL) courses into more specialized ESP-

courses. primarily in countries where English is not

the native language. As evidence of this, numerous

texts are now regularly appearing on the international

market covering a number of different professional

areas that English language teaching is now involved

with. It is well within the realm of possibility that

in the near future the majority of international

English programs will be involved with some type of

ESP. There will always be colleges and universities

that will want to teach English as a Foreign Language

(EFL), much like French, German, and Spanish are taught

as part of a general humanities curriculum. However,

because of the tremendous proliferation of science and

technology in English during the post-World War II

years, the need for ESP programs will be paramount in

2.3. DEFINITIONS OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Having stated that the ESP programs will be

paramount in the field of language teaching in the

future. it necessary to ask the questions "What is

ESP?" and "What makes it so important?" According to

Strevens (1977, p. 90). "Broadly defined. ESP courses

are those in which the aims and the content are

determined, principally or wholly, not by criteria of

general education (as when "English" is a foreign

language subject in school), but by functional and

practical English language requirements of the

learner." Harvey offers a different definition: "the

purpose of ESP is to increase and develop, in a short

period of time, the linguistic potentialities of either

s

tertiary students who need the language to acquire or

update knowledge in their specialities (English for

Academic Purposes) or adults who need the language for

job-related activities (English for Vocational

Purposes)" (1984, p. 24).

So in general, it is possible to distinguish ESP

courses as occupational or educational courses.

Occupational ESP courses are job-related and can either

be highly technical or specific in nature; for

example, English for airline stewardesses, businessmen,

laboratory technicians, etc., are all occupational ESP.

10

aims of the institution in which these courses are

offered. The educational ESP programs, also known as

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) are generally

related to the study of a particular discipline such as

chemistry, computer engineering, or economics. Since

both types of the courses mentioned above are ESP in

nature and the purpose of ESP programs is to satisfy

the needs of the learners, the content of these

courses will have to be determined through an analysis

of the activities the learners will be performing in

the foreign language they learn (Harvey, 1984). That is

why the needs assessment procedure in ESP has great

importance and is regarded as the first step to be

taken in ESP course design.

ESP course designers have to be very careful in

setting up procedures for determining learners'

communicative needs. The fact that many ESP learners

are adults, working or seeking a specific kind of

employment and aware of their needs, makes it easier

for the ESP course designer to obtain reliable data in

needs analysis (Lombardo. 1988). However, it is not

enough for an ESP course designer to determine only the

learners' needs. It is often of equal importance to

analysize the characteristics of the target situation

in which English will be used.

An ESP course designer has to consider what makes

11

would entail only determining learners' target language

needs and/or the characteristics of the target

situation. Hutchinson and Waters argue that course

designers must also consider effective and engaging

instruction: "The main criterion for incorporating any

content or activity into the ESP course should not be

whether it duplicates what the student will do in the

target situation, but whether and to what extent it

increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the ESP

learning situation" (1987, p. 108).

2.4 NEEDS ASSESSMENT

According to Schleppegrel1 and Brown (1986). the

process of needs assessment requires interviews and

interactions with three sources of information from the

institution where it is conducted: the administrators,

the content area and ESP instructors, and the students

themselves.

The first source of information, the

administrators, provide the syllabus designer with

information about the expectations of the institution,

criteria for learner proficiency (e.g. proficiency

tests or standard examinations), facilities and

equipment which are available in the teaching

situation, and funds available for acquiring materials

1 2

administrators fulfill is to introduce the course

designer to the content area and ESP instructors who

are also valuable resource people for the ESP course

d e s igner.

The content area instructor may provide the

ESP course designer, who is often also the ESP teacher,

with a great number of helpful teaching ideas. The

content area instructor can also save the materials

writers a lot of work and time by providing them with

English language materials used in subject matter

teaching such as textbooks, research articles, specific

diagrams, and if possible, class handouts and sample

exercises (Wiriyachitra, 1989). For instance, if the

ESP course is going to be English for Accounting, the

instructors in the accounting department of the

institution should become close working partners with

the ESP course designer and instructor to share

information about students' needs for the English of

accounting.

The third source of information the designer has

to take into account while designing a course is the

learner. The data which will be collected through

learner interviews will give the course designer

information about the learner perceived needs for

Engl i s h .

After having gone through the needs assessment

13

designer can proceed to specify subject matter

materials which will be used by the students. After or

during materials development. methodology can be

selected and then implementation of the course is

possible.

How to go about a needs assessment study is open

to different interpretations. Some authors believe that

the needs assessment should focus on the future needs

of students while others believe the focus should be on

the needs of students while studying the target

language. As Brindley says;

Over recent years, there has been a good deal of disagreement in ELT circles over the meaning of '"needs' and what "needs analysis' should entail. This disagreement has resulted

in the emergence of two orientations to needs assessment. (1984,., p. 63)

The first of these is based on the "product-

oriented' interpretation of needs, whereby the

learners' needs are seen solely in terms of the

language they will have to use in a particular

situation once their language instruction is completed.

That is why this kind of orientation regards needs

analysis as a process of finding out as much as

possible about the learners' current and future

language use before instruction begins.

The second type of interpretation. which is

called "process-oriented', sees needs primarily in

14

the learning situation. Taking this view of needs into

consideration. need analysis means much more than the

definition of target situation behaviour. Needs

analysis means trying to identify and take into account

a multiplicity of affective and cognitive variables

which affect learning, such as learners' attitudes,

motivation. awareness, personality, wants,

expectations, and learning styles.

The first interpretation aims at collecting

factual information for the purpose of setting goals

related to language content and the second aims at

gathering information about learners which can be used

to guide the learning process once it is under way. The

differences between these two approaches to ESP needs

assessment is considerable. The nêcessity of finding a

balance between these two opposing approaches to needs

assessment is obvious.

2.5 THE NEED FOR SYLLABUS DESIGN

What is a syllabus? Is it worthwhile to design

a syllabus? Do we really need a syllabus in language

teaching? The answer to these or similar questions

indicate the importance of planning a syllabus. Allen

(1984) explains the need for syllabus planning by

saying that successful teaching requires a selection of

15

objectives. desired proficiency levels, and duration

of the course. He adds that this selection takes place

at the syllabus planning stage. After having selected

the materials to be taught, determined the proficiency

level of students upon completing the course, and

arranged the duration of the course, the next step is

to decide on an appropriate strategy of presentation.

This decision requires the course material to

constitute a coherent body of knowledge which is

capable of being analyzed in terms of its own internal

logic (Allen, 1984). The material must also be of such

a nature that it can be broken down into a set of

individual learning items which will be presented in a

certain order. The need for a certain order in

presenting the material to be taught results in the

inevitability of syllabus planning both in teaching and

learning.

A good syllabus must meet several criteria.

According to Dubin and Olshtain, it must have "a well

specified goal towards which all are moving; it should

organize the materials so that learners can constantly

progress in their acquisition by using generalizations

as stepping stones" (1986, p. 92).

Yalden (1987) defines the syllabus as an

instrument which is used to coordinate all necessary

aspects of a language teaching situation. She suggests

16

closed, but open-ended; and not static, but subject to

constant revision as a result of feedback from the

classroom" (Yalden, 1987, p. 77). She also refers to

two kinds of efficiency a syllabus is required to

produce. The first of these is pragmatic efficiency

which is related to the economy of time and money, and

the second is pedagogical efficiency which covers

economy in the management of the learning process

(Yalden, 1984).

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) the role

of a syllabus is rather complex for it satisfies many

needs. It provides both the teacher and the learner

with information about what has been done so far in

relation to the learning objectives stated at the

beginning of the course, where they are now, and what

direction they will be going. Thus a syllabus serves

like a map which prevents teachers and learners from

getting lost in the course.

Widdowson (1990) defines the function of a

syllabus as a set of bearings for teacher action and

not a set of teacher instructions for learning

activities. According to him, a syllabus is an

idealized schematic construct which serves as a

reference for teaching. He also adds that the process

of deciding what to teach is based on considerations of

communicate in the foreign language.

This implication by Widdowson points out the

importance of needs assessment in designing a language

syllabus. What is going to be taught? What are the

institutional needs? What are the learners needs? In

which sequence should the syllabus be organized? These

and similar quêtions need to be answered before

deciding on a language syllabus.

2.6 SOME APPROACHES TO GENERAL SYLLABUS DESIGN

17

In the following sections three common approaches

to syllabus design are presented. Similarities and

differences in these approaches can be seen, especially

in the way needs assessment is done within each

approach.

2.6.1 The Structural Approach

The main focus of the structural approach in

language teaching is the acquisition and mastery of the

grammatical system of a language. Since it is a complex

task to learn the target language as a whole, it is

broken down into an inventory of grammatical structures

and into a limited list of lexical items.

The language that is mastered in one unit of

learning is added to that which has been acquired in

the preceding units. That is why the learner is exposed

to a deliberately limited sample of language at any one

18

language separately step-by-step goes on until the

whole structure has been built up. The most important

aspect of this approach to teaching is that it is based

on the principle of working from the familiar to the

unfamiliar. The learners' task is to re-synthesize the

language that has been broken down into a number of

smaller pieces into a complete system.

Since the main purpose of a structural syllabus is

to teach the whole grammatical system of a language, it

is of great importance to decide which grammatical

structures will have to be taught at a certain stage

and how they will be sequenced in relation to one

another within each stage. The linguistic criteria used

for sequencing the grammatical content of teaching are

s

simplicity, regularity. frequency, and contrastive

difficulty. Grammatical forms will have higher or lower

priority according to their degree of pedagogic

utility, their appropriateness to the classroom

context. and their teachability. The criteria that

have been used in establishing the relative usefulness

of words are frequency. range, availability,

familiarity, and coverage. Only a small proportion of

the total lexicon of the language is included in the

vocabulary of the general course.

As can be seen, needs assessment within the

19

simple process. Grammar and vocabulary are selected and

sequenced without taking into consideration the

functional use of language or communicative needs of

the students. Of all ways to conduct a needs assessment

that of the structural approach is probably least

applicable to ESP.

The structural syllabus can be regarded as the

conventional approach to language teaching since the

majority of syllabuses and published courses have as

their core an ordered list of grammatical structures.

Vocabulary content in such syllabuses is given

secondary importance (Wilkins, 1976).

2.6.2 Situational Approach

The situational approach is the most commonly

proposed alternative to a structural or grammatical

N

syllabus. The starting point in designing a situational

syllabus are the situations in which the students are

likely to take part. The prediction of the situations

in which the learner is likely to need the language is

followed by teaching the language that is necessary to

perform linguistically in those situations. Units in

the syllabus will have situational instead of

grammatical labels (Wilkins. 1976).

Typically, a restricted range of language will be

covered, the emphasis being on getting things done

rather than learning the language system. Some

2 0

only to the extent that it is helpful in generating

further utterances of the type represented in the

model. Since there are no clear criteria for grading

situations. the syllabus designer may order them

according to a chronological sequence such as arriving,

staying and departing, or may group situations together

according to similarity. Alternatively, a structural

grading of the associated language might be used as a

guide to the sequencing of situations (White, 1988).

This type of syllabus might be suitable if the

situations in which the learner will operate are

restricted in number, but in most actual cases the

situations are not limited and the learner in the

future may be involved in different kinds of

•»I

situations. That's why Wilkins (1976) states that a

situational syllabus may be useful in certain

circumstances but not offer a general solution to

problems of syllabus design.

The needs assessment process in the situational

approach to syllabus design is somewhat similar to that

of the structural approach. Situations in which the

learner will most probably need the language are

predicted and generally sequenced according to a

chronological order without considering the

communication needs of the learner. Choice of lexical

2 1

functional use of language cannot be restricted within

particular situations, the needs assessment process of

the situational approach is not very applicable to ESP.

2.6.3 Communicative Approach

Unlike the structural and situational approachs

the communicative approach which includes the

functional and notional approachs, takes the desired

communicative capacity of learners as the starting-

point. The communicative approach focuses on what the

learners communicate through language rather than how.

when, and where they use the language. This is why the

linguistic content is planned according to the semantic

demands of the learners in which meaning is superior to

all other concepts.

As Wilkins (1976) ppints out, the

communicative syllabus is based on language functions

and speech acts rather than on units of grammar. It

springs from an attempt to classify what aspects of a

language should be mastered by a particular student.

Therefore the specification of communication

requirements or needs of the learner is prior to the

selection of speech functions or communicative acts to

be taught (Munby, 1985). The communicative syllabus has

been widely used in recent years since it is based on

the actual communication needs of the learners and sets

realistic learning tasks.

2 2

to syllabus design is a complex process, since the main

focus is on the learners' communication needs.

Unlike the structural approach and situational approach

to syllabus design. the communicative approach

emphasizes the target communicative competence of the

learner. Due to this particular focus on learner needs.

the needs assessment process of the communicative

approach is probably the most applicable one to ESP. As

stated by Hutchinson and Waters:

The aim of the ESP course should be to provide the learner with the capacity to handle communication in the target situation. Thus, course material should be chosen in terms of how well and how far it develops the competence of the learner, rather than on the basis of the extent to which it mirrors the performance data of the target situation.

(1984, p. 109)

2.7 SOME MODELS OF COMMUNICATIVE SYLLABUS DESIGN

2.7.1 Wilkins' Model of Notional Syllabus Design

Dobson (1979) argues that the notional syllabus

can be regarded as the backbone of a language course

based on language functions or speech acts rather than

on grammatical units or situations with a grammar

focus. Wilkins (1976) justifies this description by

saying that the notional syllabus takes the target

communicative ability of the learner as the starting

point. That is why the notional approach looks for what

23

language instead of asking how they express themselves

or when and where they use the language.

This starting point enables the notional syllabus

to take the communicative facts of language into

account from the beginning without losing sight of

grammatical or situational factors (Wilkins. 1976).

According to Wilkins "the process of deciding what to

teach is based on consideration of what the learners

should most usefully be able to communicate in the

foreign language" (1976, p.l9).

The linguistic content in the notional syllabus is

planned according to the semantic demands of the

learner. In order to express the semantic needs of the

learner an extreme variety of forms is needed. Although

there is the need to isodate particular forms from the

rich linguistic environment to ensure adequate learning

of the grammatical system, there is no ordered exposure

to the grammar of the language in the notional

s y 1labus.

2.7.2 Finocchiaro and Brumfit's Model Functional-

Notional Syllabus Design

As mentioned by Finocchiaro (1979), "the

funtional-notional syllabus has brought into sharp

focus the centrality of communicative purpose in

learning language and culture" According to her, the

functional-notional syllabus sets realistic learning

24

be utilized. The syllabus provides the learner from the

beginning with real-world language used in

sociocultural situations in which items are selected

and graded for the immediate communicative purposes of

the learner.

Similar to Wilkins notional syllabus, the primary

focus of the funtional-notional syllabus is the

communicative purpose of interlocutors. Finocchiaro

(1979) indicates that the syllabus recognizes the

social roles and the psychological attitudes of the

participants toward each other in a conversation, for

example, employer-employee, teacher-pupil, and doctor-

patient. It also recognizes the place and time of the

communication act and the activity being discussed

s

which determines the form, tone, and appropriateness of

any oral or written message.

The core of the functional-notional syllabus is

the function of language which are subsumed under five

broad catogories: personal, interpersonal, directive,

referential, and imaginative. Since the starting point

is always the communicative function and the social

situation in which the function or purpose is being

expressed, the grammar and vocabulary to be taught in

each unit result from the intergration of function and

situation (Finnochiaro and Brumfit, 1983).

25

content and situational circumstances that make the

verbal behaviour of the speakers appropriate. They also

present the performance criteria learners are expected

to meet before they can move to the next unit.

The selection and grading of language items depend

on factors such as the functions and notions the

learners needs, the linguistic knowledge they already

have, the complexity of the grammatical structures, and

the lenhgt of the stretch of speech necessary for a

particular message (Finocchiaro and Brumfit, 1983).

2,7,3 Munby'3 Model of Communicative Syllabus Design

Munby's model of communicative syllabus design

(1985) is a theoretical study which aims at specifying

learners' needs. For this reason it is particularly

appropriate for ESP. It is a sociolinguistic model for

defining the content of purpose-specific language

programs. The profile of communication needs which is

translated into ESP specification indicates the target

communicative competence of the participant.

Munby (1985) tries to provide for a valid

description of the target level communicative

competence of a student. In his model he develops a

profile of students' needs and then translates these

needs into syllabus content. He uses four criteria:

'purposive domain' in which the type of ESP is

determined, 'setting' which deals with features of both

2 6

identifies with whom the participant has to communicate

in the target language, and 'instrumentality' which is

concerned with identifying contrains on the imput in

terms of communication.

Another set of criteria for needs specification

deals with linguistic data relating to dialect, target

level, communicative event, and communicative key (see

Figure 1) .

Figure 1.

Communicative Needs Processor. Munby, 1985.

Munby claims that syllabus specification in ESP

can only take place after the prior and necessary work

has been done on needs. That is. after having specified

designer can proceed to material production for the

realization of the syllabus. Munby's communicative

needs processor (CNP) is an idealized way for conduting

needs assessment. It is an ideal model because it has

so many variables that have to be taken into account

and controlled while conducting a needs assessment. If

we consider that all subjects of a language teaching

syllabus are human beings, it becomes obvious that one

cannot control such a variety of variables for each

individual. That is why Munby's CNP can be regarded as

idealistic, something to guide the course designer

rather than a set of rules that must be followed.

2.8 CONCLUSION

27

The essential characteristic of ESP which

distinguishes it from general EFL is the focus on

learners' needs. Different approaches to syllabus

design utilize different methods of needs assessment,

but they all provide for needs assessment before

determining course goals and syllabus content. In the

following chapters, the methodology and data of this

study of teacher-perceived ESP needs are presented and

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

As mentioned earlier, the main concern of this

study is to find out to what extent there is

cooperation and coordination between lecturers at the

Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences who

give English-medium courses and English teachers at the

prep school of this faculty in determining learners'

needs. Since the aim of this study is to find out the

amount of cooperation and coordination between the

above mentioned groups of teachers, a detailed needs

assessment which assesses the needs of students by all

parties including administrators and students was not

necessary. Only the two teacher groups are included.

Descriptive and library research were carried out to

collect data for this study.

3.2 TYPES OF RESEARCH

Two types of research were carried out in this

study. The first was library research which included

the investigation of books, articles, and periodicals

about ESP (English for Specific Purposes), needs

assessment, and syllabus design. The data gathered

through this research is discussed in Chapter II to

syllabus, and the role of needs assessment in syllabus

planning. Some models of communicative syllabus design

were also discussed to emphasize the importance of

having a planned syllabus based on a needs assessment

in all ESP teaching.

In the descriptive research, data about teacher

perceived needs were collected through administering

structured interviews to both faculty-lecturers and

prep-teachers. Both groups of teachers were asked to

indicate their opinions about the English language

needs of their students.

3.3 SUBJECTS

The subjects of this study were two groups of

teachers at Erciyes University in Turkey. The first

group consisted of the five lecturers of the Faculty of

Economics and Administrative Sciences who give English

medium-instruction. The other group consisted of the 15

English prep-teachers who prepare students in prep-

classes for their English medium-instruction. Although

the number of subjects is small, it represents the

entire population of these two groups, not merely a

representative sampling.

3.4 MATERIALS

2 9

The content of the items in both structured

30

the interview administered to the faculty-lecturers and

the one administered to the prep-teachers was the

grammatical form of the questions. The faculty-

lecturers were asked to indicate their perception about

what they thought to be important for their students

and the prep-teachers were asked to indicate what they

actually do in their classes with regard to the

interview items.

The items of the structured interviews were

prepared in the light of the criteria for needs

assessment presented by Hutchinson and Waters (1987).

The validity and reliability of these items were not

measured. However, a pilot study on both structured

interviews was done in which some of the researcher's

colleagues provided invaluable feedback for improving

these instruments.

The interviews administered to both groups of

teachers consisted of 15 items of which the first seven

were closely related to the language skills and

subskills required to meet the students’ needs (see

Appendices A & B ) . This section also included the items

related to the situations where English was needed most

and the reading areas regarded to be essential for the

success of students.

Items eight and nine were asked to find out which

faculty-lecturers considered to be most important for their

students and what the prep-teachers do in their prep-

classes as far as these items are concerned. The next

two items were related to the language proficiency of

students. Faculty-lecturers and prep-teachers were

requested to state their opinions as to whether they

thought their students had high enough proficiency in

English to follow English-medium courses in their

m a j o r .

Item 12 concerned the kind of English courses

faculty-lecturers thought would be most beneficial for

the success of their students and the kind of English

courses presently taught at the prep school. Item 13

asked about the reading materials the lecturers thought

should be included in--ESP courses and the reading

material used by prep-teachers in their present

teaching situation.

The last two items of the interviews were open-

ended questions of which the first required the

teachers to list topics for materials selection in ESP

courses and the second requested them to make any

additional comments related to English language

teaching specific to the needs of their students.

3.5 DATA COLLECTION

31

Both groups of teachers were informed about the

3 2

to participate in. They all generously volunteered and

displayed great interest. All of the interviews were

conducted in February 1991.

The first part of the data collection included the

administration of the structured interview to the

faculty-lecturers. The interview was conducted with the

five faculty lecturers as a group interview in order to

use time most efficiently. The researcher gave

instructions to the entire group and each subject

completed his or her questionnaire separately. This

group interview was completed in approximately an hour.

The second part covered the administration of the

structured interview to the prep-teachers in groups of

three to five. The above mentioned procedures were used

in the same order for this part as well.

3.6 ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

The teachers who participated in the structured

interviews were asked to indicate emphasis or

importance on a rating scale from 1 to

4,

the lowest value and 4 being the highest. The mean

scores for each interview item were calculated by

putting all the answers through a computer program

designed for this purpose (see Appendix C ) . In the

following chapter the mean scores of both groups of

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter the data, which were collected by

administering the interviews described in Chapter III,

will be analyzed. As stated in chapter I. the

analysis of the data will show us if there is a lack

of cooperation between faculty lecturers and prep

school teachers in determining the needs of students

at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences

as far as English language instruction is concerned.

The analysis of the data will present what the

expectations of the faculty lecturers are and what

the prep school teachers actually do in their classes

while preparing their students for English-medium

instruction in economics and marketing.

In order to avoid frequent repetition of long

phrases like "Subject area lecturers from the Faculty

of Economics and Administrative Sciences' and "Teachers

from the Prep School of the Faculty of Economics and

Administrative Sciences', the terms "faculty-lecturers"

and "prep-teachers" will be used instead throughout

the analysis of the data.

Since our purpose is to conduct a needs assessment

performance of another, we will first refer to those

items regarded to be most important by faculty-

lecturers and then see what prep-teachers say they do

in their classes in comparison with those expectations.

In the following 8 tables, mean scores of teacher

ratings are given. In each table the means are listed

in order from highest to lowest rating on a scale of 1

to 4, 1 being the lowest value and 4 being the highest.

Each table includes the number of faculty-lecturers and

prep-teachers interviewed. Because the two groups of

teachers do not always agree in their ratings, the mean

scores are listed in order from highest to lowest

according to the ratings given by the faculty-

lecturers .

Comparisons of the mean scores of the two groups

of teachers will be made. therefore. we need to

establish what difference in mean scores will indicate

disagreement. On the scale of 1 to 4, a difference of

1.0 or more will be considered large enough to indicate

disagreement between the prep teachers and the faculty

lecturers. Differences of less than 1.0 can be seen in

the data, but will not be considered large enough to

conclude that the teachers disagree.

4.2 LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY OF STUDENTS

34

It would be suitable to start the analysis with

35

students. The answers of the five faculty-lecturers and

fifteen prep-teachers to this question revealed that

80% of the faculty-lecturers and 86.7% of the prep-

teachers think that their students do not have high

enough proficiency in English to follow their English-

medium courses. There are a variety of reasons why

both group of teachers think that their students do not

have high enough proficiency. Both groups of teachers

report that their students generally request them to

repeat lectures or parts of lectures in Turkish. Sixty

percent of the faculty lecturers and 53% of the prep

teachers reported that their students are not well

motivated. While one faculty-lecturer and one prep-

teacher complain that students at the prep-school are

not exposed to advanced English. two other prep-

teachers complain that the intelligence level of their

students is low. Another reason for this lack of

proficiency stated by one of the faculty-lecturers is

that the number of courses in English given at the

faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences is too

low.

Several teachers from both groups indicate that

the students' proficiency problems stem from prep-

school classes. One of the faculty-lecturers regards

prep classes as inefficient in teaching English. Two

lack of proficiency is due to the limited time allotted to prep-school instruction.

Two other comments made by two different faculty-

lecturers were related to administrative matters, in

that one of the teachers reported that their education

system in general is not efficient, and the other one

reported that "the atmosphere of the university is not

adequate".

4.3 TYPES OF ENGLISH COURSES

36

The interview question which required faculty-

lecturers to choose whether ESP (English for Specific

Purposes) courses or EFL (general English as a Foreign

Language) courses should be taught at prep-school

indicates that all of the faculty-lecturers agree that

teaching ESP at prep-school would be more beneficial

for their students.

Answers of the prep-teachers in response to a

question whether to teach ESP or EFL reveal that all of

them teach EFL and none teach ESP. The perceived need

for ESP by faculty lecturers is not reflected in the

prep school curriculum. This discrepancy between the

expectations of faculty lecturers and the instruction

in the prep school suggests a lack of coordination

4.4 LANGUAGE SKILLS

In this section the degree of emphasis on the four

basic language skills, reading, writing, listening, and

speaking, required by the faculty-lecturers and the

emphasis given by prep-teachers to those skills will be

analyzed. Table 4.1 presents to what extent faculty-

lecturers require those skills and to what extent those

skills are actually emphasized by prep-teachers in

their English classes.

37

Table 4.1

Teachers'Emphasis on Language Skills

(given in mean scores, 4=high emphasis, l=low emphasis)

Reading Listening Writing Speaking

Faculty-L 4.0 3.0 1.8 1.2

(n=5)

Prep-T 3.0 2.5 1.3 3.3

(n=15)

As shown in Table 4.1, the answers to the question

related to the language skills indicate that the

receptive skill 'reading' is given a different

emphasis. As explained in section 4.1 a difference of

1.0 indicates disagreement. The faculty lecturers'

ranking >of 'reading' (4.0) is higher than the prep

teachers' (3.0). The other receptive skill.

'listening', is given similar emphasis by the teachers

(a difference of only 0.5 in mean scores). The table

38

similar emphasis by both faculty-lecturers and prep-

teachers, whereas the other productive skill,

'speaking', is given low emphasis (1.2) by faculty-

lecturers but given high emphasis (3.3) by prep-

teachers. We can conclude the two groups of teachers

disagree in the emphasis they give to 'reading' and

'speaking'.

This may indicate that students are given more

instruction in speaking at the prep-school than they

need in the opinion of the faculty-lecturers. Due to

this extra emphasis on speaking by prep-teachers, the

other skills may not get the emphasis necessary to

prepare students to meet the expectations of the

faculty lecturers, and this could result in students’

weakness in the more important receptive skills.

4.5 SUBSKILLS OF THE LANGUAGE SKILLS

In this section the answers of the faculty-

lecturers will be compared with the answers of the

prep-teachers in the analysi.s of the required sub­

skills of the four language skills.

4.5.1 Subskills of Reading

The mean scores of emphasis given to the subskills

of reading by both group of teachers are displayed in

39

Table 4.2

Subskills of Reading

(given in mean scores, 4=high emphasis, l=low emphasis)

Faculty-Teachers Prep-Teachers

Subski 1 Is (n=5) (n=15)

Reading and note­ taking for exams

3.6 1.9

Reading for specific information

2.8 3.1

Reading for general knowledge

1.8 3.8

Reading for writing a report

1.8 1.3

As seen in the table, 'reading for writing a

report' is given low emphasis by both faculty and

prep-teachers. 'Reading for specific information' is

emphasized by both group of teachers. The subskill

'reading for general knowledge' is given a low emphasis^

by faculty-lecturers (1.8) whereas the same skill is

highly emphasized by prep-teachers (3.8). Another

interesting result is that the subskill 'reading and

note-taking for examinations' is highly emphasized by

faculty-lecturers and de-emphasized by prep-teachers.

The different degrees of emphasis given to the last two

subskills mentioned suggests that the reading

proficiency requirements of the materials assigned by

the faculty-lecturers are not being met by the prep-

teachers .

4.5.2 Reading Materials

40

materials considered to be essential for the success of

students are given in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3

Essential Reading Materials (given in percentages/frequency) F a c u 1ty-1ecturers Prep-teachers Reading Areas (n=5) (n=15) Textbooks related to field of study 100/5 33.3/5 Books in general social sciences — 53.3/8 Articles in economics journals — 13.3/2

The analysis of the question related to the

essential reading materials reveals that all of the

faculty-lecturers regard reading "textbooks related to

the field.of study' to be essential for the success of

their students, whereas only one third of the prep-

teachers deal with this kind of material.

Another interesting result is that 53.3% of the

prep-teachers base their instruction on reading "books

in general social sciences' and 13.3% teach reading

"articles in economics journals' although these areas

of reading are not regarded to be essential by the

faculty-lecturers.

The answers of prep-teachers to another question

about which kind of reading materials they actually use

in class indicates that all of the prep-teachers deal

4 1

whereas all of the faculty-lecturers agree that

"passages taken from economics, business

administration, marketing, and law' should be chosen as

the basic reading materials in prep-classes. In a

separate question in the interview the teachers were

asked when they think their students need English most.

Of five possible answers, all the faculty lecturers and

66.7% of the prep-teachers indicated that their

students need English most when they are reading and

comprehending their assigned textbooks. Twenty percent

of the prep teachers reported that their students need

English most when taking written examinations.

4.5.3 Forms of Writing

The forms of writing faculty-lecturers want their

students to be able to produce and the forms of writing

prep-teachers teach are shown in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4

Teachers' Emphasis on Forms of Writing (given in percentages/frequency) Forms of Writing Faculty-Lecturers (n=5) Prep-Teachers (n=15) Definitions 60/3 — Analysis 40/2 — Descriptions — 60/9 Generalizations — 40/6

The analysis of the question related to the

faculty-lecturers want their students be able to write

"definitions' and the other

4096

students be able to write "analysis'. It is

interesting to see in the answers of the prep-teachers

that none of them emphasize or teach these forms of

writing. This may indicate that although prep school

students are given instruction in writing, they are not

learning to write the types of discourse and rhetorical

patterns that they will have to produce in their

faculty classes.

4.5.4 Subskills of Listening

In this section the emphasis given by faculty-

lecturers and prep-teachers to the subskills of

listening will be analyzed. The mean scores of

emphasis given by both group of teachers to each

subskill are displayed in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5

Subskills of Listening

(given mean scores. 4=high emphasis, l=low emphasis)

42

Understanding subject matter and taking relevant notes

3.8 3.4

Understanding specific vocabulary while listening

3.2 2.7 Understanding foreign lecturers 1.6 2.4 Understanding complex grammatical structures 1.4 1.5