Introduction

With the advent of the communicative approach, views on language teaching started to
incorporate communicative features into syllabus design. Accordingly, a central question has
been raised: what does the learner need/want to do with the target language? Rather than, what
are the linguistic elements the learner needs to master? This movement has led in part to the
development o English for Specific Purpose. Thus, the focus has no more been only on language
function but also on experiential content. In order to cater for the learners specific purpose, it
has become urgent to collect information about the learners: their needs and wants. For so doing,
relevant techniques as well as procedures have been developed by needs analysts. These
techniques have been borrowed and adopted from other areas of training, particularly, those
associated with industry and technology.
Needs analysis is the most important part of an ESP course. In fact, one of the main
absolute characteristics of ESP, with which some of the most important authors such as Strevens
or Dudley-Evans agree, is that " ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner." However,
Esp teachers do not always pay the deserved attention to this feature. Many students usually
expect a needs analysis in a class of ESP such as English for tourism. However, not many
teachers feel that such a test is necessary for the course that is going to be taught. Teachers very
often rely on already prepared materials to teach the course so they leave aside the students'
needs and the fact that, maybe, those students have some specific wants. If teachers conduct their
courses with textbooks, which do not always have the specific contents to achieve the desired
goals, the course will end up being a general English class
Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) has a vital role in the process of
designing and carrying out any language course, whether it be English for Specific Purposes
(ESP) or general English course, and its centrality has been acknowledged by several scholars
and authors (Munby, 1978; Richterich and Chancerel, 1987; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987;
Berwick, 1989; Brindley, 1989; Tarone and Yule, 1989; Robinson, 1991; Johns, 1991; West,
1994; Allison et al. (1994); Seedhouse, 1995; Jordan, 1997; Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998;
Iwai et al. 1999; Hamp- Lyons, 2001; Finney, 2002). Also, the importance of carrying out a
needs analysis for developing EAP tests is emphasized by Fulcher (1999), McDonough (1984),

and Carrol (1980, cited in Fulcher, 1999) According to Iwai et al. (1999), the term needs analysis
generally refers to the activities that are involved in collecting information that will serve as the
basis for developing a curriculum that will meet the needs of a particular group of students.

Brindley (1989) and Berwick (1989) offer definitions of different types of needs and
accounts of various problems and limitations in making use of this concept, including ways in
which we might usefully distinguish between needs identified by analysts and those expressed or
experienced by learners. In his state-of-the-art article, West (1994) gives a thorough overview of
needs analysis in language teaching, including its history, theoretical basis, approaches to needs
analysis, etc. According to Iwai et al. (1999), formal needs analysis is relatively new to the field
of language teaching. However, informal needs analyses have been conducted by teachers in
order to assess what language points their students needed to master. In fact, the reason why
different approaches were born and then replaced by others is that teachers have intended to meet
the needs of their students during their learning.

Needs analysis was firmly established in the mid-1970s (West, 1998). In the earlier
periods needs analysis was mainly concerned with linguistic and register analysis, and as
Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) suggest, needs were seen as discrete language items of
grammar and vocabulary. With the publication of Munbys Communicative Syllabus Design
(1978) needs analysis moved towards placing the learners purposes in the central position
within the framework of needs analysis. Consequently, the notion of target needs became
paramount and research proved that function and situation were also fundamental.

Types of needs
Berwick (1989: 55) views perceived needs as those that the educators make judgments
about in other peoples experience, while felt needs are viewed as the ones that the learners
have. Brookfield (1988: 221) defines felt needs as wants, desires and wishes of the learner.
Brindley (1989) and Robinson (1991) consider all factual information about the learner
(language proficiency, language difficulties, use of language in real life) as means to collect
data about objective needs; whereas cognitive and affective needs of the learner in language
learning (such as confidence, attitudes, expectations) are considered as data about subjective

needs. Hutchinson and Waters (1993: 54) define target needs as the ones the learner needs to
do in the target situation, these are necessities, lacks, and wants. What the learner needs to do
in order to learn is referred to learning needs. Peck (1991) categorizes the concept in terms of
academic, social, and emotional needs.

Approaches to Needs Analysis

A careful needs analysis should involve Present Situation Analysis (PSA) and Target
Situation Analysis (TSA). PSA aims at finding out the students English proficiency level and
their existing language requirements at the beginning of a language program, whereas learners
language requirements regarding the target situation are identified through TSA (Robinson,
1991: 8-9). Bloor (1984) defines the former type of analysis as a learner-centered needs analysis,
and the latter one as a target-centered analysis.
Bloor emphasizes that operation of both analyses during a term is certainly desirable.
Robinson (1991) also holds that TSA and PSA are complementary and form an efficient form of
needs analysis. Jordan (1997) proposes a tri-chotomy of needs analysis which comprises: 1)
deficiency analysis, 2) strategy analysis, 3) and means analysis. Deficiency analysis is concerned
with the necessities that the learner lacks; strategy analysis seeks to establish the learners
preferences in terms of learning styles and strategies, or teaching methods; means analysis
examines the constraints - local situation - to find out the ways of implementation of a language
course.
Furthermore, various analyses and approaches to needs assessment were put forward:
analytic view of needs analysis which examines expert opinion, and diagnostic approach which
examines the learners needs to be used in social services (Berwick, 1989); discrepancy analysis
which attempts to examine what people know and what they ought to know, and democratic
approach which is based on learner points of view (Stufflebeam et al, 1985, quoted in Berwick,
1989).
Yet, it is recommended that needs analysis should be carried out during the life of each
course (Richterich and Chancerel, 1987), because as students become more involved with the
course, their attitudes and approach may change (Robinson, 1991: 15). Therefore, identification
and analysis of needs should be a continuous process (Richterich and Chancerel, 1987; Knox,
1987). This can help both administrators and teachers to adapt necessary changes.

The importance of implementing a needs analysis

Learners and teachers may have different needs. This why needs analysts should be
cautious in collecting information from various sources due to the multiplicity and diversity of
the views on prerequisites for an ESP. Hutchinson and Waters (1993) hold that the relationship
between necessities as perceived by a sponsor or an ESP teacher, and what learners want or feel
can be at extreme poles. They suggest that learners perceived wants and wishes should be
considered carefully, and due to objective and subjective reality of needs, each learning situation
should be considered uniquely and systematically.
Bearing in mind a wide range of needs due to the influence of different social and cultural
factors on students learning (Peck, 1991), a needs analysis is considered as a prerequisite in any
course design (Richterich and Chancerel, 1987). According to Knox (1997: 56), needs
assessment enables researchers to justify their assumptions as to whether or not potential
educational needs are sound, to design a program in terms of topics, materials so as to be
responsive to the needs of participants. "The curriculum content and learning experiences should
be negotiated between learners, teacher, and coordinator at the beginning of the project and
renegotiated regularly during the project" (p. 20).
At the beginning of the program, needs assessment might be used to determine types of
appropriate program and course content. During the program, it assures that learner and program
goals are being met, and allows for necessary program changes. At the end of the program, it can
be used for assessing progress and planning future directions for learners and the program. This
can maximize the likelihood of students' participation. Finally such focus on satisfying learners
needs will help the learners to insist on learning and applying what has been learnt.

Conclusion
Assessment of needs from the individual learner's perspective is an important part of any
program design and it can benefit both teachers and students alike. The learner-centered
approach to language learning builds on the premise that teaching/learning programs should be
responsive to learners needs. ESP begins with the learner and the situation, learner needs

leading to a research area known as needs analysis. Hence, the needs analysis initiates and
guides ESP curriculum development, involving surveying the learners to collect data on their
background and goals, linguistic and behavioral demands, and preferred learning/teaching
strategies. Students' needs analysis remains fundamental to the unifying feature of any ESP
course is the definition of objectives and content of each course according to learners' functional
needs in the target language and how the students are expected to perform in conforming to the
norms and conventions of their academic disciplines. Needs analysis should be considered as an
on-going process designed to gather and analyze information about the target language needs of
learners in an existing or proposed setting and to find out whether the program's objectives and
the learners' requirements are being achieved and for planning the learners' and the program's
future directions and making informed decisions.

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