The definition of ESP
4 ESP students are likely to be adults rather than children It is assumed that ESP students are not beginners but people
who have already learned EGP English for General Purposes before.
5 An ESP course consists of identical students All the students in a class come from the same kind of
work or specialist studies.
One characteristic of ESP program is the existence of needs analysis
to get
information about
the would-be-students.
Hutchinson and Waters state the urgency of conducting needs analysis by considering “necessities, lacks, and wants” 1987: 55-
58. a Necessities
It is what the learners need in order to ease their purpose. It can be the reasons why they need to learn the target language.
b Lacks It is the gap between the target proficiency and the existing
proficiency of the learners. c Wants
It is what the learners want to learn.
The table of Necessities, lacks and wants below illustrates the relation between necessities, lacks and lacks.
OBJECTIVE i.e.
as perceived by course design
SUBJECTIVE i.e. as perceived
by learners
NECESSTIES The
English needed
for success in Aglicultural or
Veterinary Studies To
reluctantly cope
with a
‘second-best’ situation
LACKS Presumably
areas of
English needed
for Aglicultural
or Veterinary
Studies Means of doing
Medical Studies
WANTS To succeed in Aglicultural or
Veterinary Studies To
undertake Medical Studies
Table 1: Necessities, lacks and wants Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 58
There are a number of ways to gather information about needs. Robinson 1991: 12-15 mentions the use of:
a Questionnaires Richterich and Chancerel as quoted by Robinson state
that the aims to use questionnaires are to find out whether the questions are comprehensible and the answers can be easily
analyzed and compared Robinson, 1991: 12. Meanwhile, Lonnfors as cited by Robinson states that questionnaires should
be easily understood by common people. She adds that “questionnaires can be used at short notice for certain types of
course and easily modified for others” Robinson, 1991: 12. Questionnaires provide information about “Target
Situation Analysis TSA” and “Present Situation Analysis PSA”. It can also be easily distributed to a large number of
people. However, questionnaire also has some disadvantages. Not many people will be happy to fill and return it.