The needs analysis

As English teachers we always face different groups and different children’ ages and interests. In
my opinion one of the most challenging groups to teach are children. Why do I think so? Because
they demand a lot of energy from you, because their attention span is short and because they are
quick to learn and give you lots of love.

In my experience as an English teacher I have noticed that the courses for children are always
given to the less experienced teachers or those with lower English level. I personally think this is a
big mistake because as I stated above children are quick to learn and teaching them is very
rewarding. Choosing unexperienced teachers can make children motivation diminish and teachers
with a low level can lead them to learn mistakes. Having this in mind I decided to write this book
which might be of help for those teachers willing to work with kids and who have an intrinsic
motivation in doing so.

As I think teaching children is a very serious matter I consider we need to have in mind what is
the best way to teach them, what their interests are, how they learn. The only way to know this is
by carrying out a needs analysis or needs assessment. I will describe how to carry out a needs
assessment so you can carry out one adapting it to the ages of the children you are working with.

What is a needs analysis?

According to Iwai et al. (1999) as cited in Long (2005), the term needs analysis generally refers to
the activities that are involved in collecting information that will serve as the basis for developing a
curriculum that will meet the needs of a particular group of children.

Pardo et al.(2009) affirm that NA is “an ongoing process that is influenced by a series of aspects
such as the teachers’ views of what the course is about, the institutional constraints, children’
perceptions of what is being asked / expected from them and the teachers’ views/perceptions of
their children as a result of prior contact with their children (pre-course needs assessment).” (p.
28).

To sum up needs analysis or needs assessment as some authors call it, is an ongoing process to
find out what learners know and do, what they need to learn or do. By doing so, we can make
informed decisions based on a real understanding of children’ needs.

How do we carry out a NA?

A needs analysis can be carried out in different forms depending on the context and the teachers’
view of the process. It can be conducted following basically three steps:

1. Making decisions: refers to planning who will be involved in the NA, what kind of
information we want to obtain and how we are going to collect it, the objectives of the NA
and its relationship with the philosophy of the institution where the NA is being
conducted.
2. Gathering information: This step consists of collecting information. Here we can use
different type of instruments such as: Observations, transcriptions from audiotapes, bio-
data, surveys and questionnaires, diaries, interviews, sample of written materials such as
textbooks, manuals handbooks, etc, tests and interviews.

3. Choosing and approach or method and design: Here you decide the approach that best
fits the children’ needs. Taking into account that you are working with Young Learners
(YLs) you can think of Activity Based Approach, Project Work, Task Based Approach,
Theme-Based Teaching, which are more appropriate for children. Once you have decided
the approach or method you can design your course by writing the objectives,
organization and content, syllabus, tasks and activities and the assessment and evaluation.

4. Teaching: Once you have design your course objectives, contents and evaluation you can
teach the course and during the implementation of it or after the process you end up:

5. Evaluation: You decide what needs improvement or change and you check the whole
process.

What do we need to take into account when carrying out a NA?

It is important to take into account that for the purpose of retrieving information from our
children we need to take into account the different types of needs as conceptualized by
Richterich (1980) and Brindley (1989). They state that teachers should be able to tell the
difference between objective and subjective needs. The former refer to information about
children’ background (country, culture, education, family, age, among others.). Their abilities
to speak, read, write and listen in the foreign language and their needs regarding their use of
English outside the classroom. The latter refers to the children’ attitudes toward the target
language and culture, expectations of the course, purposes or lack of in studying English and
their learning styles.

Another important distinction should be made between learning and target needs. Learning
needs are basically connected to what needs to be done for children to learn and target needs
refer to what they need to learn about the target language depending on the stage they are
at. In appendix the blog http://www.coursedesignforprimary.tk/ I provide some models of NA
which might give an idea of how to write your own. For its systematic structure and the results
you can find NA might be the starting point for research.

It is also important that we are working with children, therefore we cannot write or design a
very complex NA. For this reason, involving children in planning through a needs analysis can
be made in a very simple way. Susan Halliwell (1992), suggests that working out the
programme with the children you are going to teach, would be better done in their mother
tongue and before they start the course. She also suggests that teachers can make young
learners discover a great deal about how language and communication work. Finally, she adds
that involving children in planning, they will have an investment in what the teacher is doing
and of course more commitment. In what comes next I include a description of how a NA can
be carried out taking into account Halliwel ideas.

-Use mother tongue.

-Tell the children that all of you are going to think about what they need to learn in the foreign
language and that you are going to start by doing a survey together of what kinds of things
they talk about in the mother tongue. Ask them if there is any difference between the written
and spoken language. Ask them if all of us use the mother tongue in the same way. The
purpose of this is to make them realize the differences of register.

-In order to shape and record you can use a spider chart to find out which topics are of most
concern for a child of your pupils’ age. The purpose of this activity is introducing children to a
way of exploring and collating their own ideas.

-Finally, you can ask children what they know about these topics in the foreign language. What
can be included about these topics and what can be left out. This activity can be carried out in
pairs or groups by the children themselves.

Wrap up

In this part I included a description of what a needs analysis is and what it should include. I
have also provided some models that can give you an idea of how to work out yours. I have
also listed the main types of needs teachers need to distinguish so they can reach a better
understanding of their children needs. NA is also a departing point of research when it is done
systematically.

Food for thought

1. What is a needs analysis and what do you need to take into account in order to carry out
a good one?

2. Analyze the NA provided in Annex XXX which questions were written to discover:
objective, subjective, learning and target needs.

3. Choose a primary course and design your NA taking into account the children’ age.
Include questions that provide answers to objective, subjective, learning and target
needs.

4. Apply your needs analysis and find out its strengths and weakness.

5. Write your final version and present it to your classmates.

References:

Brindley, G. (1989) Assessing Achievement in the Learner-centred Curriculum.

Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research,
Macquarie University.

Halliwel, S. (1992). Teaching English in the Primary School. London: Longman.

Long, M (2005). Second Language Needs Analysis. Cambridge: CUP. Editor

Nuñez, A. (2009). A Practical Materials Development Guide for EFL Pre-service, Novice, and In-
service teachers. Learning is Fun. Bogotá: Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Richterich, R. (1980 (1973)) “Definition of language needs and types of adults”.

Systems Development in Adult Language Learning. Eds. J.R. Trim, J. R. Van
Ek, y D. Wilkins. Strasbourg/Oxford: Council of Europe/Pergamon Press. 29-
88.

Richterich, R. (ed.) (1983) Case Studies in Identifying Language Needs. Oxford:

Pergamon/Council of Europe.