Needs analysis

Being able to collect information about learners’ needs wasn’t an easy task to do because needs analysis is a detailed procedure that took me a little more time I had expected. In order to carry out the needs analysis I first, identified the purpose of it. I my case my purpose was to find which students from different groups of the high school were the most needed in training for a particular language course, I also find interesting to collect information about the problems the students are currently facing or if the course book addresses the needs of the learners.  Secondly, I identify the target population in this case the potential language learners, the school staff including teachers and administrators, parents and I also include the community members.

This needs analysis was conducted in a private institution by other language teachers, the coordinator and me. The survey instruments for the needs analysis were questionnaires and interviews using cards. The fist pack of cards was of “general lesson content” the second pack was of “classroom activities”. I also complemented it by using pictures that allowed the students discuss the reasons why they will need English in the future. My first fear about collecting the needs analysis was about how serious the learners were going to take the questionnaires and interviews using the set of cards, how much true information I was going to collect because sometimes students seems not know what they want or need, for that reason, I carefully introduced the needs analysis and I tried to gain confidence of the students to get true and useful information.

After having information taken from different students I was able to categorize the situations in where English is often used, the, the skills that they need to improve and the things they found enjoyable, easy, boring and difficult when they are studying English.

Until this moment, I have already followed the steps one to five. I feed glad about all the information I had obtained, and I feel thankful with my receiving institution, the fellow teachers and the coordinator and the students that were part of the needs analysis I know that there is still a long way to finish. The next step is to analyze the data with the following table.

	Curriculum		Instruction		Organization
	Strength	Need	Strength	Need	Strength	Need
Student	The students  are adapted with the course	To have training course in order to get a Cambridge ESOL examinations.	the students are please with the course	Students will find useful to have a training course that allow them practice before the examinations and discuss for general exam skills	The organization of the course is satisfactory because allows students to practice the different skills	Students need a certification that allows them to develop communication skills, to have an English recognition that will help them with their professional life
Staff	Teachers apply the curriculum effectively	Teachers will need to help students to answer their doubts, worries and concerns	The staff is often supervised by the coordinator	Help students to have a good exam preparation	Most of the teachers are well organized	Good exam-preparation teachers is need to familiarize  with the tests  the students are going to take
Parents/ Community		Parents are not fully involved	Until now parents are please with the school teachers	Parents are not involved	Parents are involved in the school events and celebrations	The acceptance of the parents will be needed
Facilities/ Materials	There are a number of school facilities that supports the English language course	An interactive whiteboard is need	the classroom is well equipped and also the technology is available for them	Both teacher and students need to ask with anticipation if they want for example the projector	The students can access to computer-based technologies and programs, CD-ROMs, projector, audio and video	Some facilities required a timetable