Running head: NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 1

Needs Analysis Approaches for Immigration Officers

Nguyn Cng Minh
Hanoi University
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 2
Abstract
Understanding the need of learners in general and ESP learner in particular is a very
important stage. Most linguistic researchers agree that needs-analysis should be seen as an
indispensable aspect of ESP syllabus design in order to link the present students' academic
needs with their needs in their prospective employment. Needs-analysis involves not only the
students but also all parties in the educational system and relevant user institutions that
ultimately employ students. In this study, the author tries to work out the appropriate
approaches to collect the needs of cadets in Border Guard Academy where English for
Immigration Procedure Officers at the border gates is becoming an urgent need. He also
touch upon essential aspect of needs analysis such as definition, types of needs including
target needs and learning need, and approaches to needs analysis.
Key words: needs, needs analysis, target needs, learning needs


NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 3
Introduction
It is an undeniable fact that needs analysis plays a crucial role in the process of
designing and carrying out any language course, whether it is English for Specific Purposes
(ESP) or general English course, and its centrality has been acknowledged by several scholars
and authors (Munby, 1978; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Robinson, 1991; Dudley-Evans
and St. John, 1998 etc). According to (1)Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p54) the
irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course design would be needs analysis, since
it is the awareness of a target situation a definable need to communicate in English that
distinguishes the ESP learner from the learner of General English. Belcher (2006) also
attaches importance to the stage of needs-analysis:
ESP specialists, therefore, are often needs assessors rst and foremost, then designers and
implementers of specialized curricula in response to identied needs. It is probably no
exaggeration to say that needs assessment is seen in ESP as the foundation on which all other
decisions are, or should be, made. Because of this emphasis on needs, the dividing lines in
ESP between researchers and teachers, or curriculum designers, materials developers, and
teachers, are frequently blurred."
Understanding the importance of carrying out needs-analysis, the author tries to
analyze and adapt suitable approaches to work out the needs of cadets in Border Guard
Academy where English for Immigration Procedure Officers at the border gates is becoming
an urgent need before progressing to other steps in designing a syllabus for the cadets. Due
to the limit of scope of a secondary research and time constrains, the author attempts to give
out an overview of need-analysis including various approaches to needs-analysis. Basing on
the real situation of the target learners, he will choose the appropriate approaches and then
make use of some existing model to carry out the needs-analysis stage.


NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 4
Brief description of the target ESP students
Border Guard Academy is a military training institution in which English is a non-
major subject. Due to the fact that after graduating most of the cadets do not meet the demand
of English when they work in the position of making entry-exit procedures for English
speaking foreigners, the Academy decided to add a new course of English for Immigration
procedures officers to their training curriculum. This course is designated for second-year
cadets who have finished a General English course using the textbook of New Headway
Elementary (Liz & John Soars) and some other supporting materials such as Listen Carefully,
Course and Effects. These cadets, whose ages are ranging from 19 to 25 years old, are
divided in to groups of forty-five to fifty. According to the information given by the Faculty
of Basic Science, in the General English course, students have chances to practice all the four
skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. In 10 weeks (140 periods) students are
provided with structures and tenses, reading and listening texts and speaking activities
through everyday conversations relating to personal information (name, age, job,
nationality), hobbies, leisure activities, describing people, comparisons, a working day,
past events, and future plans. From the results of the final examination of this course, it can
be assumed that the cadets have good demand of grammar and reading, however, are not very
good at (even very bad at) listening and speaking skills, and pronunciation. After this course,
the cadets continue to study the ESP course which lasts for five weeks (70 periods). However,
they have no chances to communicate with foreigners while studying and lack knowledge of
culture, customs and habits of foreign people especially those from western countries.
The information collected from questionnaires (answered by the cadets) shows that
these cadets will work as border officers at the international border gates or sea ports after
graduation. At these places, they usually communicate mainly through listening and speaking
with foreign passengers (tourists, businessmen, journalist) who are both English native
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 5
speakers and non-native ones from many different countries all over the world. The topics of
the conversations relate to the procedures of entry and exit as well as the procedures of
checking passport and involving papers, checking passengers and luggage at border gates.
Sometime the topics relate to explaining Vietnamese laws, especially those on Immigration
and National Border Sovereignty and Security. The writing skill is also used but very rarely,
it is only when someone violates the Laws and the Immigration officers have to handle and
make the minutes.
Overview of different approaches to need analysis
Definitions of needs
Concerning meanings of needs, there are different views of needs which have been
paired such as objective versus subjective needs (Richterich, 1980), perceived versus felt
needs (Berwick, 1989), goal-oriented and process-oriented (Robinson, 1991). In his book,
Robinson (1991) refers to different meanings of needs mentioned by Berwick (1989),
Mountford (1981), and Widdowson (1981). According to Berwick (1989), needs are perhaps
more appropriately described as objectives (p.57). Widdowson (1981) defines needs as
students study or job requirements which refer to what they can do after finishing the
language course. Mountford (1981) views that needs may be what the user-institution or
society at large regards as necessary or desirable to be learnt from a programme of language
instruction (p.27). Meanwhile, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) considered needs as the
ability to comprehend and/or produce the linguistic features of the target situation (p.54).
They also make a basic distinction between target needs (i.e. what the learners need to do in
their target situation) and learning needs (what the learners need to do in order to learn).
- Target needs
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), target needs is something of an
umbrella term, which in practice hides a number of important distinctions (p55). They also
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 6
suggest looking at the target situation in term of necessity, lacks and wants. Necessities is a
kind of need decided by the requirements of the target situation, that is, the knowledge of
language the learners have to know to deal with the target situation. Lacks are the necessities
the learners do not have, and wants relate to the students ideas of necessities and their own
lacks which may be different from the course designers, sponsors and teachers point of view.
(Hutchinson and Waters, 1987)
- Learning needs
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) regarded lacks as the starting point, necessities as the
destination, and the learning needs as the route of a journey (ESP course). It meant that
learning needs referred to what the students have to do during the course in order to learn. All
of these factors must be considered in order to have a useful analysis of learner needs.
Approaches to needs analysis
In general, the term of needs analysis refers to the activities involved in collecting
information that will serve as the basis for developing a curriculum so that such curriculum
will meet the needs of a particular group of students.
So far, several approaches to needs analysis have been proposed. Benesch (1996)
develops a "critical approach" to needs analysis in the area of writing skill for ESL students
in which students are trained to develop their skills to evaluate topics through writing
assignments. Her writing course was paired with a psychology class and she considered this
class as the target situation because it was the students' major. The assignments for the
students were taken from topics discussed in the psychology lectures. Among others, students
were assigned either individually or in small groups to review lecture notes, write questions
about the psychology lectures for class discussions, rewrite questions for meaning and
revision, write research papers on a particular topic discussed in the psychology class.
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 7
Cunningsworh (1983) uses Van Ek's "Threshold Level" as bases for needs analysis.
The specifications of learners' target needs are designed to equip learners to "maintain
themselves in most everyday situations, including situations for which they have not been
specifically trained" (in Van Ek, 1975). Although specifications of needs cover those
situations that adequately serve learner needs at this level, Cunningsworth (1983) comments
that they are based on intuition and subjective judgment and that this subjectivity would, in
turn, influence the syllabus designer to rely on his subjective judgment.
Holec (1980) proposes "self-directed learning" approach to learner needs. This
approach is based on the principle that "to teach the learner to learn is to enable him to carry
out the various steps which make up the learning process. This "autonomy" of the learner
enables appropriate solutions to be found for the problems of differences in the needs... thus,
narrowing considerably the gap between what the learner wants to learn and what he does in
fact learn" (p.31). Under this approach the learner has the "autonomy" to determine the level
of knowledge he wants to achieve, the communicative behavior he believes he will need, the
level of competence he wishes to reach, or the objectives he wants to accomplish.
Holliday (1995) proposes an ethnographic approach to needs analysis. It involves
institutional factors in the process of needs analysis. As a basis of curriculum design, needs
analysis will be realistic if there are means for implementing it. In this case, the institution
where the analysis is carried out, and the administration staff need to provide supports, access,
and resources that are necessary for implementation, such as access to study documents,
interviews or visits to offices.
The Munby needs analysis approach is adequately summarized in Hawkey (1980).
Munby's analysis is a tool for syllabus design which provides a detailed profile of learners
and what they need to be able to do after the course or what they need to study during the
course. In addition, the analysis also provides a specification of language skills, functions and
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 8
forms that are required in order to carry out communication types as described in the needs
profile.
Altman (1980) proposes "learner-centered approach" to analyze the learner needs in
language teaching. He recognizes that learners have individual characteristics and differences
and that the differences should be ad-dressed accordingly through appropriate instructions. In
the learning process, the instruction is designed in such a way to meet individual needs and to
allow each individual to develop his or her potentials. This learner-centered language
teaching is based on the premise that every learner is uniquely different and that all learners
do not learn a foreign language equally well with the same pace. Therefore, learning
materials, mode of learning and time allocations are adapted to suit different individual
preferences. Altman (1980) provides a table which accommodates learners' differences with
eight different patterns of learning arrangements and modifications to meet individual
learning needs.
The differences in needs analysis approaches are also reconfirmed in the books
by Hutchinson & Waters (1987) and Robinson (1991). In his book, Robinson (1991)
mentions the two approaches of needs analysis; they are target situation analysis (TSA)
and present situation analysis (PSA). According to him, TSA is a kind of needs
analysis which put great emphasis on students needs after the language course
finished. He also described PSA as a type of needs analysis which pay attention to the
students strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of the language course. A
combination of TSA and PSA called the language audit was also mentioned by
Robinson (1991).
Besides the definitions of different approaches to needs analysis stated by
Robinson (1991), Hutchinson and Waters (1987) also mentioned the framework of
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 9
these analyses. According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987) a target situation analysis
framework answered the questions of why the language was needed (for study, for
work, for training, for a combination of these, or for some other purposes); of how the
language would be used in terms of medium, channel, and types of text or discourse;
of what the content areas would be in terms of subjects and level; of who the learners
would use the language with in terms of native speakers or non-native, level of
knowledge of receiver, and relationship. A target situation analysis framework also
related to the places where the language would be used in terms of physical setting,
human context and linguistic context, and to the time when the language would be
used (concurrently with the ESP course or subsequently, frequently, seldom, in small
or large amounts).
A framework for analysis learning needs was also introduced by Hutchinson
and Waters (1987). This framework answered the questions of why the learners were
taking the course (compulsory or optional, status, money, promotion involved?, their
attitude towards the ESP course); of how the learners learned in terms of their learning
background, their concept of teaching and learning, methodology and techniques
appealing to them. This framework also referred to available resources such as attitude
of teachers to ESP, teachers knowledge of and attitude to the subject content,
materials, aids, and chances for out-of-class activities. Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
also mentioned the question of who the learners were in terms of age, sex, nationality,
English knowledge, subject knowledge, their interests, their socio-cultural background,
and their attitude to English or to the cultures of the English speaking world. The
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 10
learning needs analysis framework included the places where and the time when the
ESP course took place.
Chosen Approaches
After analyzing the approaches to needs analysis approaches with thorough
connection with the target students, the author decides to choose a combination of
TSA (target situation analysis) and PSA (present situation analysis) to collect
information about the needs of his target students. In this part, the author tries to give
out some reasons that convince him to choose such approaches.
First, using both TSA and PSA will help the author to gather as much as
possible the information about the learners and the course. Second, the learners have
just finished a general English course; therefore, PSA should be used to collect the
information about learners learning background, their strengths and weaknesses as
well as their attitude toward the ESP course, methodology in order to adjust the
content of the ESP course. Third, TSA should be used to investigate the necessities
(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, p.55) that the border officers at border gate areas are
generally aware of in order to function effectively at their locations, which include the
situations where they need to function (communicating events), the linguistic features
identified in these situations, the language skills required in these situations, and other
areas of knowledge (if any) needed to fulfill their duties. Besides, TSA also help to
elicit the learners views on and experience associated with these necessities.
In conclusion, needs analysis is considered the first step and it plays an
important role in designing an ESP course. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the
needs of the learners before starting to design an ESP course.
NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 11
Samples of Questionnaire to carry out needs analysis
QUESTIONNAIRE
The purpose of carrying out this questionnaire is to collect the information
about the cadets language background after a GE course and border officers needs in
language and communication skills at work. The findings of the questionnaire will be
used only for research and educational purposes, so please be as truthful as possible. It
will take you no more than 15 minutes to finish. Thanks for your time and support!

SECTION A (For PSA)
A1. What do you think about your English skills at the end of the GE
course?
PLEASE TICK
Excellent Good
Not
very
good
Bad
(a) grammar and vocabulary?
(b) reading?
(c) listening?
(d) speaking and pronunciation?
A2. How do you know about the following things?
PLEASE TICK
Much
Not
much
Very
little
Nothing
(a) some general features of culture of Western
countries?

(b) some general features of culture of Eastern
countries?

(c) major differences of customs and habits between
Western people and Eastern ones?


NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 12
SECTION B (For TSA)
B1. At work, how often do you have chances to communicate with
foreigners including:
PLEASE TICK
Always Often Sometimes Never

(a) English native speakers?

(b) non-native speakers from Western
countries ?

(c) non-native speakers from Eastern
countries ?


B2. How often do you use the following English skills at work?
PLEASE TICK
Always Often Sometimes Never
(a) listening?
(b) speaking?
(c) reading?
(d) writing?

B3. How often do you use English to undertake the following tasks?
PLEASE TICK
Always Often Sometimes Never
(a) checking foreigners passport
(b) checking foreigners luggage
(c) controlling procedures of entry and exit
of foreigners





NEEDS ANALYSIS APPROACHES FOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS 1
References
Altman, H. B. (1980), Foreign Language Teaching: Focus on The Learner. In H.B. Altman &
C.V. James (eds.), Foreign Language Teaching: Meeting Individual Needs, pp. 1-16.
New York: Pergamon Press.
Benesch, S (1996), Needs Analysis and Curriculum Development in EAP: An example of a
critical approach. TESOL Quarterly, 30, 4, 723-738.
Cunningsworth, A. (1983), Needs Analysis - A Review of The State of The Art, System, II, 2.
149-154.
Hawkey, R. (1980), Syllabus Design for Specific Purposes. ELT Documents Special. Projects
in Materials Design. London: The British Council.
Holliday, A. (1995), Assessing Language Needs within An Institutional Context: An
Ethnographic Approach. English for Specific Purposes, 14. 2, 115-126.
Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A. (1987). English for Specific Purposes:A learning-
centred approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, P.C. (1991). ESP Today: A Practitioners Guide. Hertfordshire: Prentice
Hall International (UK) Ltd.