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
The means of the tasks categorized as listening learning needs ranges between the mean of 4.12
– 2.92 and the tasks with the highest importance were listening for taking notes 79.4, obtaining gist 72.2 and obtaining specific
information 51.3. The tasks with the lowest importance were recognizing the speaker‟s attitude 18.1, listening for discriminating intonation and stress
patterns 16.7 and listening for translating 15.3. The students rated themselves as average in all the tasks of listening though their ratings were low
in some tasks compared to the importance they attached to them. The table below shows the means of importance given to listening tasks as learning needs
by the students.
Table 4.4 Means and Standard Deviation Scores of Listening Tasks as Learning Needs
LISTENING TASKS
N IMPORTANCE
MEAN SD
SELF RATING MEAN
SD
Obtaining gist 72
4.07 1.06
3.47 .95
Obtaining specific
information 72
3.50 1.07
3.85 .93
Listening for
summarizing 72
3.10 1.04
3.83 .80
Listening for
taking notes 72
4.01 1.10
3.61 .89
Listening for
translating 72
2.24 1.16
3.65 .87
Recognizing language
structure 72
3.11 1.12
3.38 1.04
Understanding complex
sentences 72
2.97 1.13
3.69 1.01
Deducing the
meaning of
unfamiliar words 72
2.77 1.17
3.74 .97
Evaluating the
importance of
information 72
3.22 1.10
3.64 .89
Extracting information not
explicitly stated 72
2.96 1.08
3.86 .83
Recognizing the speaker‟s attitude
72 2.39
1.10 3.38
1.06 Listening
for discriminating
intonation and
stress patterns 72
2.42 1.12
3.79 .99
Recognizing speech
organization patterns
72 2.57
1.14 3.76
.85
The learners exhibited need for the listening tasks of obtaining gist, listening for taking notes and recognizing the speaker‟s attitude. This is based on the
importance attached to the tasks of listening and self ratings on the same. The
other tasks did not reveal any need as the learners rated themselves highly as opposed to the importance attached to the tasks. Students felt that listening to
obtain gist and take notes were important tasks that had to be internalized if at all they were to attain the target needs that needed this skill. Listening is an
important language skill and the listening tasks should be internalized well by the students because failure to listen and grasp what is being said can lead to
communication breakdown. Any communication that may not be clear between the teacher and the student may affect the internalization of the target needs
because learning needs are the means through which learners get to the target situation.
4.2.3 Reading Tasks as Learning Needs
