importance of learning the tasks of language and then rate themselves in each task under the four skills of language: speaking, listening, writing and reading.
They were to use a Likert-type scale in each column. The results of the importance of the tasks as perceived by the students and then their self ratings
are presented in the same table for each language skill.
The sub question on the learning needs was: how do you rate the importance of learning each of the following tasks of language skills? The questionnaire had a
Likert-type scale providing five choices unimportant, of little importance, moderately important, important and very important.
4.2.1 Speaking Tasks as Learning Needs
The means of the tasks ranges between 4.12 – 2.92 and the tasks with the
highest importance were asking questions 76.4, expressing yourself 76.2, answering questions 70.8 and making presentations 69.4. The tasks with
the lowest importance were solving problems 34.7, comparing and contrasting 33.4 and describing 29.2. The students rated themselves as
average and above average in most tasks except making presentations which was rated as below average. The table below shows the means of importance
given to speaking tasks as learning needs by the students.
Table 4.3 Means and Standard Deviation Scores of Speaking Tasks as Learning Needs
SPEAKING TASK
IMPORTANCE MEAN
SD SELF RATING
MEAN SD
Asking questions
4.12 1.05 3.13
.93 Answering
questions 4.03
1.03 3.08 .78
Expressing yourself
4.10 .97
3.19 .97
Summarizing 3.36
1.08 3.86 .92
Describing 3.01
1.11 3.75 1.04
Comparing and contrasting
3.04 1.18 3.90
.87 Solving
problems 2.94
1.17 3.78 1.02
Reasoning 3.25
1.01 3.79 1.01
Making presentations
3.87 1.15 2.97
.93 Criticizing
3.28 1.18 3.69
.988 Reacting
to speech
and lecture
3.61 1.16 3.39
1.10
Providing correct
pronunciation 3.13
1.17 3.63 .879
Wording quickly
2.92 1.20 3.86
1.01 Using
appropriate intonation and
stress 2.99
1.27 3.94 .82
The results in the table above show the importance attached by the students to
the tasks of speaking and their self ratings. The students showed need for the tasks of asking questions, answering questions, expressing yourself and
reacting to speech and lecture. On the contrary, the respondents did not show any need for all the other tasks because the mean of the importance attached to
the tasks was low compared to their self rating. Speaking is an important skill
to tour guides because they will need to speak English in order to communicate with foreign clients in their routine jobs. This clearly demonstrates why
students‟ learning needs should be unambiguously identified so that the attainment of the target needs is not compromised. This is closely related to
McDonough and Shaw 1993 who stated that speaking skills materials should start from the premise that a communicative purpose can be established in the
classroom by means of the information gap. The information gap in this case was established by comparing the importance attached to the learning tasks and
the learners‟ self ratings.
4.2.2 Listening Tasks as Learning Needs
