Curriculum Development (CD)

Unit 4: Assessing Needs

STUDENT TASK

Student’s name
Julia Rufino Ramirez
GENERAL INFORMATION
 This document includes the task you are required to do for unit 4.
 Read the instructions for the task carefully before you do it.
 When you have finished it, save the task-document in the portfolio. Then, submit it by
the due date following the instructions given in the Academic Guide.

Task: Assessing Needs

Part 1: Planning the Needs Assessment

Taking into consideration:

- the course context that you wrote in the task of unit 2,

- the POSSIBLE content of the course you are designing (task 3),

And:

- reading the unit contents,

- posting in this unit forum, and

- analyzing the needs assessment samples, please fill in the chart with the
relevant information:

Type of needs For example: Pre-course Assessment (or Target Situation Needs Analysis);
assessment: Ongoing Needs Analysis; or Initial Needs Analysis

I’d like to do Initial Needs Analysis: I work for a private English club where
students are required to do a diagnostic assessment so, all of them surly
will have the same level but, what I really want to know is my students
previous learning language experience and their expectations of this
course.
Objective needs: learners’ background information: age, nationality, mother tongue,
language abilities

most students share the same age, mother tongue, nationality although
they never share the same language abilities and experiences, so finding
out this information really helps myself as a teacher to have a clear
language skill to be addressed and what learners need to do in English in
order to success.

Target needs: (keep in mind the purpose of the course; level and age of students)

Students get prepare to present one of the ESOL Cambridge assessments

so, to explore students’ necessities, lacks and wants will make my job
more efficient , discover why language is needed, when and where the
language will be use, what will the content areas will be and how will the
language be use is essential .
Subjective needs: learners’ views, thoughts, motivation, expectations, etc.

here, we can get information about students’ attitudes toward the L2

and culture, their expectations they have of themselves and of the
course purpose and the specific language skills that students wish to
focus on as well as students’ preferences styles and strategies
When/how: Pre-course needs assessment, At the beginning of the course, Ongoing
needs assessment, Initial needs assessment / questionnaire, Interviews,
Writing activities, Ranking activities.
Assessment Questionnaires, Interviews, Grids, charts, or lists, Writing activities,
Activity/activities: Group discussions, Ranking activities

Part 2: Designing a ‘Needs Assessment Activity’:

- Now that you have decided on all of the information included in the forum
of this unit and in the part 1 of this task, design the activity/tool you will use
to assess the needs of the learners of the course you are designing. Have at
hand the Figure 6.5: A framework for Designing Needs Assessment
Activities that you can find either in the unit contents or in Grave’s chapter
6 pg. 114, so you can follow this author’s criteria for designing the
assessment activity (tool)
- Include the following information:

Situation (context): This needs assessment will be done for a private English
club, most of the students takes extra classes here after
school or Saturday classes, there are 12 or less students in

Type of course:
Learners (age/level):
Reasons for carrying out this
needs’ assessment:
each group, most of them answer a diagnostic assessment
before joining us, students also answer a needs assessment to
find out student’s purpose for join an English club, this means
why Do students want to Learn English ? the most popular
answers are, to get the a FOELF / Cambridge certification, to
pass the final exams and get a degree, to find a well pay job, to
study / live abroad are the most popular answers.
Semi-intensive English course
Lower-intermediate
This questionnaire will give me a chance to find out about
students' previous language learning experience, and the
expectations they have of the course, It will also give me a
chance to explain to them something about the kinds of
things I as a teacher hope them to do on the course and to
give them some kind of rationale for activities that they
find unfamiliar or strange.

collecting in the completed questionnaires at the end of

the session will help me build up a profile of the group.
Date (when you will carry out August, Saturday 17th 2019
the needs assessment):
(if you consider that you need to include more information, feel free to do it)
Please include here the needs assessment activity/tool:
Build up a profile of the group, finding out about students' previous language learning
experience, and the expectations they have of the course.
Students’ needs assessment Questionnaire
Name: ______________________________________________ Age: __________________
No. of years learning English: ____ Probable Future Occupation: ______________________
If you could live and work in an English-speaking county, which one would you choose?
__________________________________________

Think about your previous experience of learning a language. Tick ( ) the sentences that
are true for you:

1 Learning a language

involves hard work is interesting is difficult

is frustrating is painful is confusing

is boring can be a lot of fun is easy

 comes naturally requires a lot of memorization

2 When I am speaking a foreign language I:

feel shy feel frustrated feel stupid

feel confident feel challenged feel happy

feel embarrassed feel tongue-tied feel as if I

am a different person

3 Learning a language in class involves:

translating a passage reading literature

writing grammar exercises doing a project

learning about British culture learning grammar rules

dictation reading aloud

listening to the teacher acting a play or a dialogue

memorizing passages frequent tests

role play, mime, and drama following a textbook

making a newspaper letter writing

games repeating in chorus

practicing pronunciation class discussion and debates

songs writing stories or essays

making a TV or radio programmed learning lists of vocabulary

reading a passage and answering questions

practicing speaking in pairs or groups

listening to a tape and answering questions

Now go back to the beginning of the questionnaire. Mark with a cross (x) the sentences that
you expect will be true of the language course you are about to follow.

4 Aspects of language

What aspects of language do you feel you need most help or practicing with? Number them
in order: 1= need to practice most – 7 = need to practice less.

Grammar vocabulary reading

Listening speaking writing

Pronunciation

Assessment of the activity: this part will be done once you have carried out the needs
assessment.

I have analyzed the students answers from the questionnaire and I got all the information I
had planned although, now I would like to interview students to find out a little bit more
about the aspects of language they feel they need most help or practicing with. This will really
help me to plan my lessons and help my students to reach their personal goal. some skills are
easier but others are a great challenge for them, for example I can see from their answers
that listening and speaking are the most popular among the skills that are more complicated
for them, and reading is one of the easiest as they can go over the message as many time as
they want or they can use their dictionaries.

All my students take English classes at their College or high school, so they already have some
experience with the language, I want to be able to improve their experience and make them
fall in love with the language so that I can keep them motivated and make them become self-
learners which is one of my personal goals.

- You need to consider and plan the administration of this activity as you
will be asked to submit results (and evidence) by unit 8.
- You have two weeks for submitting this task.
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