ENGLISH FOR RAILWAY’S STUDENTS: NEEDS ANALYSIS FOR DESIGNING A SYLLABUS IN ESP CONTEXT

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the importance of needs assessment in designing a syllabus for specific group of learners namely railway’s students. This study also uses some methods for investigating learners’ needs, lacks and wants through questionnaires, diary writing, in-class observation forms. Notably, an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) practitioner could design a syllabus by taking into account all relevant factors after analyzing the learners' present and target situations and identifying their needs, wants, and lacks, such as a desire to improve their communication skills for their profession and a lack of terminology specific to the desired field. Moreover, ESP practitioners can select subjects, themes, and authentic materials that are pertinent and engaging by being aware of the needs and interests of their students. The balance between language skills (such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing) and the specific railway terminology is also determined by needs analysis.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В данной статье исследуется важность оценки потребностей при разработке учебной программы для конкретной группы учащихся, а именно для студентов железнодорожных вузов. В исследовании также используются некоторые методы для изучения потребностей, недочетов и пожеланий учащихся с помощью анкет, ведения дневника, листов записи наблюдений в классе. Примечательно, что специалист, обучающий английскому языку для специальных целей, мог бы разработать учебную программу с учетом всех соответствующих факторов после анализа текущей и целевой ситуаций учащихся и выявления их потребностей, пожеланий и недостатков, таких как желание улучшить свои коммуникативные навыки необходимые для своей профессии и усовершенствовать знание терминологии, специфичной для нужной профессиональной сферы. Более того, специалисты, обучающие английскому языку для специальных целей, могут выбирать предметы, темы и аутентичные материалы, которые являются профильными и интересными, осознавая потребности и интересы своих студентов. Баланс между языковыми навыками (такими как разговорная речь, аудирование, чтение и письмо) и специфической железнодорожной терминологией также определяется анализом потребностей.

Keywords: railway, syllabus, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) practitioner, needs analysis, TSA (Target Situation Analysis), PSA (Present Situation Analysis), EGP (English for General Purposes).

Ключевые слова: железная дорога, учебная программа, специалист ESP (английский для специальных целей), анализ потребностей, TSA (анализ целевой ситуации), PSA (анализ текущей ситуации), EGP (английский для общих целей).

Introduction

The design of a syllabus, not just for language acquisition but for any subject, must include a thorough needs analysis. Moreover, in ESP settings, needs analysis is very important in identifying the needs, wants, and weaknesses of students in order to provide them with more detailed, goal-oriented language instruction. Instructors can modify their instruction to address particular language skills and vocabulary relevant to the students' professional or academic goals by completing a thorough needs analysis. The practicality of the language training and its relevance to the students’ future pursuits are ensured by this method. A thorough explanation of the analysis of needs is given by Hyland (2006): The processes for acquiring and analyzing information related to course design are described in needs analysis, which is used to define the what and how of a course. The process is continuous as we make changes to our instructions based on new details. The process of learning more about our students and determining how good a course is really blurred by evaluation. A needs analysis is essential to ensuring that the course's content and structure meet the objectives and demands of each individual student. Instructors can make well-informed judgments to modify their lessons by continuously acquiring and analyzing data. Additionally, assessment enables teachers to evaluate the success of their curriculum and make the necessary adjustments to enhance students' learning.

In the following sections, I look at some methods of doing needs analysis and informed results based on these methods so that to understand the importance of needs analysis on syllabus designing and how these findings could influence on the syllabus design for railway’s students.

Learners’ Background

We should consider the learning environments of the students we teach in terms of their intended state to gather needed data for needs analysis. They study at the Railway Technical School, where they are expected to learn professional skills in order to get a job or to be promoted, notably in the area of "Wagon Observer". Furthermore, they are in their second year of study at this school and have only lately started taking English classes.  Students must use English as a conversational language in their classes. Their language abilities will be strengthened as a result of this technique, which will also get them ready for their future academic and professional goals. Their objectives and levels are different from one another. They are multi-level learners of English who communicate at the pre-intermediate and elementary levels.  Elementary school students may understand and use pretty basic phrases and common concepts to meet their immediate needs. Additionally, they can introduce people and ask and respond to private questions about someone's home, possessions, and social circle. Students in the pre-intermediate level are able to understand the fundamentals of employment, shopping, travel, and family. They can converse while performing routine tasks that only require brief, straightforward information exchanges on common subjects. However, they could struggle with vocabulary and more complex grammatical patterns.

Needs, wants and lacks analysis

The target students are railway students, and because of this, their needs, wants, and lacks are different from those of other EGP (English for General Purposes) learners, making them ESP learners. It is important to examine learners’ both present situation and target situation since this analysis demonstrates what this target group actually needs.

Target situation analysis and Present situation analysis

While investigating needs analysis, it is essential to differentiate the target situation and present situation analyses. According to West (1994), the term "target situation analysis" (TSA) refers to describing what students are expected to achieve in their intended contexts using their second or foreign language.  The learners' present situation analysis (PSA), on the other hand, contains specific information about the variables that could affect how they learn, such as prior educational experiences, prior knowledge, reasons for enrolling in the course and expectations for it, and attitudes toward English. It is obvious that although TSA focuses more on needs analysis, PSA highlights the needs, wants, and deficiencies of learners. Consequently, for the target group of learners, both TSA and PSA are essential since to create a syllabus for them, the analysis what they have will direct to what they get from the ESP course.

Data Collection and Methods

The information on needs, wants, and lacks was gathered using a number of methods, including questionnaires with responses on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, in-class surveys, diary writing methods.

1. Questionnaires

Questionnaires were chosen as the instrument for this study because they may generate a lot of data regarding a variety of topics (Richards 2001). Ten questions regarding the preferences, skills, and weaknesses of the students were included in this questionnaire.

Answer the questions by indicating how much you agree or disagree with each statement. 

Table 1.

Form for Questionnaires

2. In-class observation. Describing briefly, classroom observations carefully track and document student progress in order to evaluate and record a teacher's efficacy as a teacher.

Classroom observations often fall into one of two categories:

• The school administration typically completes this yearly as part of a job-performance review.
• This kind of classroom observation is commonly done as part of a development effort, carried out by a teacher, instructional specialist, or coach, to provide the student with meaningful feedback based on their performance with students and their application of learning approaches.

Classroom observation might take place over a short or long length of time. Every observation is different and depends on what it is meant to accomplish. Every classroom observation, regardless of its duration or goals, attempts to: be performed with tact, decency, and professionalism; adhere to a predetermined routine; be impartial; and be private. Classroom observations have undergone significant change while being a long-standing practice. For example, instead of rating each class that is observed, greater attention is now paid to the long-term impacts of teaching.

Sample for Students’ Observation Form:

Table 2.

Students’ observation form

With the help of this table, teachers may know students' performance in class among classmates. It can be a simple and easy way to notice active and passive students in class. For instance, a student may be active and motivated and demonstrate this by interacting with others, asking questions, or even, on occasion, be inactive, by cheating on tests rather than working hard, which ultimately demonstrates his passivity toward learning. In this case, differentiated instruction or other forms of discipline may be used in this situation as a form of cheating punishment.

Results

To fully recognize and conduct an in-depth analysis of needs, we must examine the learner’s goals and current circumstances. Needs analysis was not a significant element of learning and teaching many years ago; it was primarily dependent on instructors’ intuition and considerations. Nowadays, we as teachers must understand what students are expected to achieve with their L2 and what they are capable of doing now and at the conclusion of the course.  

If we consider Present situation analysis, they are eager to improve their speaking and listening skills. As they are ESP learners, the ability to communicate with passengers is a perfect quality of candidates. In order to communicate in English, they need to learn specific terminology which are frequently used in their future or current workplace. Moreover, students have several lacks and wants, such as lack of railway terminology, effective communication skills and fundamental knowledge. We have observed their education setting and learning sphere in order to achieve detailed and longitudinal data collection (Brown, 2009). We have organized debates and discussion about some interesting topics related to their goals and aims. It has really helped us to gather exactly what they need from learning ESP and in what they feel uncomfortable and weaker. We asked learners to write diaries and journals about their daily routine in the workplace and college, writing about learning procedures, teachers’ approaches, home tasks, assessment process and their attitude toward them. The collection of diaries and journals assisted us in observing more quantitative data methods. The reason for diary writing and group discussion analysis is to find more factual data of our learners’ needs and wants. It is obvious that if learners are asked to write freely what they want, need and do, they write what comes to their mind first without any exaggeration. A greater concentration on the learner in needs analyses imposed on rise to the “agreed on” syllabus, which, as Brindley (1989) indicates out, may necessitate adaptations and work together in terms of not only what is to be acquired but also the students’ favorite methods of learning and behavioral preferences.

Conclusion

In conclusion, requirements analysis is crucial to the creation of a syllabus because it guarantees that the material is learner-centered, applicable, and efficient. Teachers can create a syllabus that maximizes learning outcomes and encourages learner engagement and success by having a thorough understanding of the needs, objectives, and characteristics of particular group of learners. Methods for gathering data are crucial for adapting the syllabus to the needs of the target audience. As such, the syllabus can concentrate on issues relating to railway communication skills and pertinent terminology because the learners need English for the railway industry.

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