Needs Analysis Review of Related Theories

18

5. Needs Analysis

Nunan 1988:75 defines needs analysis is a group of procedures to collect information about students and about communication task used in syllabus design. Thornbury and Harmer 2005:113 furthermore suggest that by conducting needs analysis, we can determine the best balance between accuracy and fluency. They also explained that needs analysis can be conducted informally. On the other hand, Richards 2001:52 states that the needs analysis itself is conducted based on several purposes below:  To find out what language skills a learner needs in order to perform a particular role, such as sales manager, tour guide, or university student.  To help to determine if an existing course adequately addresses the needs of potential students.  To determine which students from a group are most in need of training in particular language skills.  To identify a change of direction that people in reference group feel is important  To identify a gap between what students are able to do and what they need to be able to do.  To collect information about a particular problem learners are experiencing. Hutchinson and Waters 1987:54 also explain that in needs analysis there are two kinds of need namely target needs what the learners need to do in the target situation and learning needs what the learners need to do in order to learn. Target situations analysis is related to language use which can be a compass to give direction to the target language. This analysis, however, cannot be reliable indicator of what is needed and useful in learning www.eprints.undip.ac.id © Master Program in Linguistics, Diponegoro University 19 situation because it only tells us what people do with language. On the other hand, learning needs analysis does not tell us about what people do with language, but it tells us about how people learn to do what they do with language. It is not only about what people need to know in order to function English, but it is also about how people learn English. This analysis serves as a vehicle to the target language, and it is called a learning-centered approach to needs analysis ibid, 1987:61-63. Hutchinson and Waters 1987:92-93 explains that syllabus outlines the topics and language features of target situation, but it allows material writers teachers to consider factors appearing from the learning situation. Syllabus and material therefore evolve together in which syllabus becomes a generator of good and relevant learning activities and serves the needs of students as both language users and language learners.

6. Situation Analysis