Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 58 NEED ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING (ELL) CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTS Dedi Aprianto (1) (Dido_Antock@rocketmail.com (1) ) STIKES HAMZAR Lombok Timur ABSTRACT Lately, the arguable consensus of curriculum has many of cavities, the experts, academicians, and stake-holders, take position, in purpose of settling the curriculum problems. The globalizing aspects of life must have had the curriculum makers do the revisions as well as developments toward the present curriculum. Developing curriculum should be setting out needs of students hence it must be related to the contexts. So, competitiveness as the keystone to develop the students’ needs. The development of the language learning curriculum should be paid attention in terms of constructed curriculum design having based on the theoretically-constituted frameworks. In the context of curriculum development, the basic assumption which should be considered in the educational programs, that is, the analysis of students’ needs. Need analysis as part of system approach to curriculum developments in the scope of educational programs. This procedure let most of linguists to employ needs analysis as the basis to language learning curriculum. The usage of such procedure is underlain upon the learners’ needs toward competitive world. In addition, the development and implementation of English Language Learning programs must be approached to the three aspects of English learning programs. These have different implications to the curriculum development, that is, each of them differs in relation to the input, process, and output. Thus, the general part of English language program curriculum design can be divided to forward design; concerning to the syllabus design, center design; the methodology of learning , and backward design; the assessment is based on the learners’ outcomes. In turn, the three designs of language learning program must be in accordance with philosophical purposes of curriculum. Keywords: Curriculum Development, Needs Analysis, Curriculum Approaches of Language Learning INTRODUCTION The curriculum improvements has put its own position as the salient ways for designing the materials appropriate towards school learners. At several decades, it has taken the types of curricula for granted, in purpose of improving the effectiveness of learning outcomes. The well-established curricula’s frameworks which would have been approved are always responded in contradictory perspectives. The presence of arguable conceptions mailto:Dido_Antock@rocketmail.com Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 59 pertaining to the design of curriculum requires the effective conception, in order to reach what is intended in a real curriculum. Thus, it said that each circle must pay attentions in terms of designing the curriculum regarding to problems and requirements of the societies. In general, curriculum development must be taken what is planned and unplanned toward a curriculum for granted. These imply that the planned curriculum embraces and categorize into the particular schools of subjects. It appears the formal and acknowledged concepts realized in the form of formal subject fields. In the other hand, unplanned curriculum is tended to the informal and hidden one. It suggests that the whole experiences and engagements possessed by learners at school areas are sometimes the most memorable one at the school terms. So, the experiences must be taken for granted, in curriculum development (Doll,1996). The turn of working curriculum definition, as Doll (1996) argues that as constituting the formal and informal contents and process as well which are planned in order to catch knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, and values is oriented to reach the minimum criterion of planned curricula. Such definition should be workable towards what is planned by adjusting to the conditional properties under societal requirements. This attempted to suggest both formal aspect describing on what is learnt and informal aspect pertaining to how is learnt. Thus, the two aspects of learning must be well- integrated, in purpose of gaining the learning outcomes, such as knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, appreciations, and values. These curriculums must be in existence under the school’s sponsorship in terms of applying such curriculums. The curriculum is viewed as the improvable aspect which can be evaluated as well as improved. The curriculum change can be adapted towards some particular underpinnings, such as in U.S early curriculum for instance, the basic curriculum developed by England colonists between 1607 and 1733. They transplanted three major sorts of education; the church-state education, parochial education, and the private and charity education under the both education types. All types of education were brought transferred from Europe, having the well- established mission to propagate the religious paradigm. Thus, the religion dominates all the three types. As the example suggests that determining or making consideration to the curriculum, it should read upon the specific underpinnings firstly- founding the curriculum development. Contextually, there are many factors letting the curriculum needs developing, political, economic, social factors occurring quite rapidly to bring into the potential Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 60 development of the curriculum being used. the transformations and developments of era become quite flourishingly where the school learners were not prepared before. This condition may occur if the curriculum development will not be paid attention. In the new globalization, people commence to grow in many types of enterprise, as the frontier to become the urban growth, in purpose of gaining the flourishing lives. Thus, these responsibilities must be anticipated in order to avoid the coming problems (Doll, 1996). In this regard, in 1920- 1970, several curriculum specialists had made the movements to focus on the problems and the requirements belong to the societies and base on the societal culture, that is, the curriculum improvement merely tends to asking about the needs of learners by identifying the relevant problems in temporary life (Doll, 1996). It is intended to prepare the school pupils for professional engagements in the next professions. In addition, needs analysis is considered as the professional program launched towards many fields of subjects. Thus in this paper, it will be focused on the analysis of learners’ needs in English Language Learning Programs. Needs analysis (NA) as the theoretical proposition used and/or developed, in purpose of applying the English learning program and/or setting as the basis for reconstructing the curriculum. The process of curriculum development produces the most dynamic impacts towards the educational system which can enhance the quality of education. In line with the innovation toward the curriculum development, it requires the analysis of needs. It is considered as the basic assumption of curriculum development in educational system, by collecting the information of the learners’ needs (Richards, 2001). The needs analysis lays the foundations of the curricular decision-making. This is based on the manifold scientific researches viewing the needs, beliefs, and attitudes to English Language Learning have significantly increased and it become the flourishing body of knowledge (Soruc, 2012). Needs assessment to English Language Learning is employed to make innovation the existing curricular, by collecting the information as the guidelines for making the decisions. Moreover, there are three vital things which must also be considered, that is, input, process, and output. The three curriculum designs are called as forward design, that is, a strategic curriculum design referring to focusing on the syllabus design (contents), central design refers to how the teaching is carried out as well as the content is delivered, and the last, backward design, concerning to the language learning target. Thus, an understanding towards the three components of curriculum design above, may provide a big picture of a successful language curriculum Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 61 design by understanding the past and the present trends and Language Learning Curriculum (Richards, 2013). Needs Analysis Approach Needs Analysis as the strategic ways of Language curriculum development. It emerges in 1960s as the effective ways to reflect the content of curriculum towards learners’ targets, as well as has been considered as distinct and necessary phase in planning the educational programs which is set out as the systemic approach to Language curriculum innovation (Richards, 2001). It is introduced and practiced to emphasize the specialized language teaching which is normally called as English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The program of ESP is based on the specialized demands for language programs, in purpose to achieve the language target pertaining to the needs, by focusing on gathering the information of language use, as the base for administrating the vocational and specialized language programs (Martin, in Chegeni & Chegeni, 2013). Periodically, the specialized language program began to grow in developing language curriculum, most of linguists attempted to focus and employ it as the procedures in administrating the language syllabus then using as the way to language teaching (Richards, 2001). This program took a position as a strategic language approach in language teaching. By 1980s this developed to many parts of the world as the language teaching approach relating to the ESP and vocationally language program design (Brindley, in Richards, 2001). Taking the evaluation as well as the revision towards Language program may provide the valuable inputs within the ongoing program being administrated, in purpose of developing the curriculum effectively. Language needs analysis is the process of determining the learner of learners needs requiring the special linguistic priorities and the attempt to prepare and administrate the given learners’ need (Richards, 2001). In one hand, the procedures of needs analysis procedures must be in accordance to Phan that during 1970s, the programs of need assessment procedures in administrating the language syllabus by making the their appearances in program planning and then become widespread in language practices / language teaching (in Chegeni & Chegeni, 2013). In line to the administrating the curriculum that such procedures are used as the initial process of determining the specification of the learners. Then the administrator attempts to explore the different syllabus elements, such as functions, notions, and lexis in more detailed manners. Need analysis would be done before the syllabus is prepared for language programs. In this line, the concepts of need analysis which is based on the needs- based philosophy will suggest some Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 62 important points, in accordance with administrating the needs-based curriculum. The typical aspects in developing such curriculum must make the plans for determining the specialized needs of learners. The well-established plans are considered as the initial phase to set out the systematic frameworks, the users of needs analysis, the target population, and the procedures of needs analysis (Richards, 2001). Administrating the Purposes of Analysis According to Richards (2001), the analysis of learners’ needs is intended to show the their the number of particularly different purposes which can be made as the basic consideration to arrange the curriculum. There are (a) to find what specific language skills which learners require, in order to determine what is the role of learner will be planned (b) to determine which learners from a group are mostly needed to place them in a specialized training (c) to collect detailed information about the particular problem that learners experienced (d) to determine the cultural, political, and personal characteristics of students (Linse, in Richards, 2001). The purposes of doing the need analysis are oriented therefore to precisely decide the specialized purposes of the learners. These could be made as the basic consideration to plan what sort of the curriculum would be developed for the language program. The analysis of learners’ needs could mostly be easy to identify what language skills the learners required, for instance. The specialized need could be identified by giving the English tasks which was carried out showing the learners’ priority. So, the details obtained can then set out as the basic consideration for arranging the language program (Richards, 2001). According to Linse in Richards, needs are part of the learners’ rights, as Linse comments; It is the school’s responsibility to take into account the cultural, political, and personal characteristics of students as the curriculum is developed in order to plan activities and objectives that are realistic and purposeful. It is not the responsibility of the school to act on the political matters, but it is the school’s responsibility to provide the equal access to school’s opportunities and to validate the experiences of all students, regardless of their political and / or cultural backgrounds (Linse, in Richards, 2001). In this case, the curriculum developed is oriented to support the learners’ rights in terms of identifying, for instances, social, cultural, political characteristics, as the specialized primacy of the learners. Then, the purposes of learners must be executed in developing the curriculum in form of realistic and purposeful activities. Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 63 In other cases, many schools programmed the compulsory subject administrated in the present curriculum, but the learners did not perceive the immediate needs towards the planned subject. It is mostly planed by the curriculum planners by consulting with the employers, parents, teachers to find out what knowledge the learners expect. This way was not reflectively oriented to the learners because the learners as the subjects of curriculum. Thus, the needs analysis must be considered as the instrument to identify the learners’ perceived needs, present needs, and potential needs. In addition, focusing on the definition of needs are described as the linguistic deficiencies, that is, describing on the difference of what learners presently can do with what the learners should be able to do in the language program (Richards, 2001). This is shows that the needs must pursue the objective reality, in turn can be analyzed and identified the basis for determining the learners’ needs. The Users of Needs Analysis The needs analysis users have focused program priorities in developing the language curriculum to help, evaluate, revise the existing English curriculum at lower secondary or upper secondary schools. These are some users of needs analysis, as in: a. Ministry of Elementary and Secondary Educations and Culture to evaluate the adequacy of existing syllabus, curriculum, and materials b. Teachers who will teach from the new curriculum c. Testing personals; who are involved in developing the end of school assessment d. The staffs of tertiary institutions, interested in knowing what the expected level of learners at the existing school and the problems the learners face. e. Learners who will be taught from the curriculum f. Writers who prepares for writing the new textbooks. As the users of needs analysis program, it can be conducted in small-scale needs analysis and large- scale needs analysis. The small-scale may be conducted by a single teacher by having various types of audiences; other teachers and the program coordinators. Whereas, the large-scale consists of multiple audiences. The Target Population The target population refers to the people whom the information will be collected. According to Richards (2001), that the target population in needs analysis program may be the Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 64 language learners or the potential language learners, and the others can also be included to target population if populations depend on whether they can provide the information pertaining to the purposes of needs analysis. So, they are: (1) Policy Makers (2) Ministry of Education Officials (3) Teachers (4) Learners (5) Academics (6) Employers (7) Vocational Training Specialists (8) Parents (9) Influential Individuals and Pressure Groups (10) Academic Specialists (11) Community Agencies Manifold types of details obtained from various target populations. Each of them night provide different information towards the objects in needs analysis. The Systematic Procedures of Need Analysis Many types of procedure which can be used in applying the needs analysis towards existing curriculum, by collecting the information needed. The collection of details is dependent on the type of selected procedures in analysis. Using more than one sources being a basis for needs analysis can be considered because the single source might provide the incomplete details. It is so-called as a Triangular approach to obtain the needed information (Richards, 2001). Here describes there are some particular procedures of obtaining the relevant information, by using (1) Questionnaire (2) Self-Ratings (3) Interviews (4) Meetings (5) Observations (6) Collecting Learners Language Samples (7) Task Analysis (8) Case Studies (9) Analysis of Available Information Curriculum Approaches in ELL The implementation of language program results the mismatching expectation towards what curriculum administrators planned before, because they focused only on one approach. The curriculum approaches meant, that is, forward, central, and backward designs. These three approaches could be developed in different ways and affect to the language curriculum in different implications too. The causes of poor impacts of language learning program that it is caused by different perspectives in focusing on the existing curriculum; some are focusing on syllabus design, some are focusing on the methodology or particular trends of language program, and some are focusing on the learning target. In purpose of developing a national syllabus, here are described in different ways which have different functions to develop the contents of curriculum (Richards, 2013) Forward, Central, and Backward Design of Curriculum In this case, the three terms might have been transformed as input, process, and product. Input refers to the linguistic contents in the subjects being programmed by the school. Logically, a teacher must Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 65 prepare what type of subject should be taught. The contents have been selected and organized as the teachable and learnable units as well as arranged in a rationale sequences. Once the input has been determined, the methodologies, the developments of Language learning, and the materials served must follow up into the process domain (Richards, 2010). A process tends to the implementation of language trends or methodologies which describe how the language learning is conducted. Learning methodology encompasses the types of learning activities, learning procedures, and techniques of learning, and the principles underlying the design of learning activities, learning resources, and exercises in the textbook. Such principles suggest on the nature of second language learning, the roles of teachers, students, instructional materials, and as the well-established ideas of language curriculum developments. The last, output refers to the outcomes of language learning. The learning product is achieved and experienced in a particular period. The target to reach the proficiency in language program, the ability to engage in specific uses of language at a certain level of skills, or the ability to participate effectively in certain communicative activities. Language teaching since the late nineteenth century has seen a change in the intended outputs of learning from knowledge-based to performance- based outputs. Hence while in Europe in the nineteenth century, foreign language learning was often promoted because of the mental discipline and intellectual development it was believed to develop in learners, in the twentieth century languages were taught for more practical goals. In simple form the dimension of curriculum and their relationship can be represented as follows: Figure 1: The Dimension of Language Curriculum Conventional practice tends to assume that decisions relating to input, process and output occur in sequence, each one dependent on what preceded it. Curriculum development from this perspective starts with a first stage focus on input, when decisions about content and Syllabus Process Outputs Input Methodology Outcomes Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 66 syllabus are made; moves on to a second stage focus on methodology, when the syllabus is enacted, and then leads to a final-stage of consideration of output, when means are used to measure how effectively what has been taught has been learned. However this view of the curriculum does not in fact reflect how language teaching has always been understood, theorized, and practiced in recent times. Much debate and discussion about effective approaches to language teaching can be better understood by recognizing how differences in the starting points of curriculum development have different implications and applications in language teaching. This leads to the distinction I wish to make between forward design, central design, and backward design. Forward design means developing a curriculum through moving from input, to process, and to output. Central design means starting with process and deriving input and output from classroom methodology. Backward design as the name implies, starts from output and then deals with issues relating to process and input. The three different processes of curriculum development can thus be represented in simple form as follows: Figure 2: The Forward Design Figure 3: The Central Design Figure 4: The Backward Design The Accordance of Backward Design to Needs Analysis In this case, the objective of learning or the backward design in language curriculum can properly be considered to make the decision making. It is supported by Tyler’s work had a considerable impact on Process Content Outcome Outcome Content Process Content Process Outcome Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 67 curriculum planning and helped establish the use of objectives as planning units in instructional design. An objectives-based approach reflects the essential assumptions of backward design (in Richards, 2013). As Tyler put it: “Educational objectives become the criteria by which materials are selected, content is outlined, instructional procedures are developed, and tests and examinations are prepared. The purpose of a statement of objectives is to indicate the kinds of changes in the student to be brought about so that instructional activities can be planned and developed in a way likely to attain these objectives” (1949: 45) From the 1950s, educating teachers in how to describe learning outcomes in the form of objectives became a minor industry, and since then generations of teachers have been taught to write objectives that fulfilled criteria such as (1) They describe the aims of a course in terms of smaller units of learning. (2) They provide the basis for the organization of teaching activities. (3) They describe learning in terms of observable behavior or performance. Critics of the use of objectives in curriculum planning argued that they are linked to an efficiency view of education, that is, one based on the assumption that the most efficient means to an end is justified, that they run the danger of turning teaching into a technical and almost mechanical exercise of converting statement of needs into objectives, and that in the process the broader goals of teaching and learning to provide meaningful and worthwhile learning experiences are forgotten. As we noted above, teachers tend not to start planning instruction around outcomes but often focus their planning on classroom activities, i.e. central design. However, the use of classroom activities and processes as the starting point in instructional planning is strongly criticized by Wiggins and Mc Tighe in Richards (2013), who argue for starting with a clear description of learning outcomes as the basis for curriculum planning. In backward design they recommend that three steps are required: (1) Identify desired results. (2) Determine acceptable evidence of learning. (3) Plan learning experiences and instruction. The planning process begins with a clear understanding of the ends in mind. It explicitly rejects as a starting point the process or activity- oriented curriculum in which participation in activities and processes is primary. It does not imply any particular pedagogical approach or instructional theory or philosophy. A variety of teaching strategies can be employed to achieve the desired goals but teaching methods cannot be chosen until the desired outcomes have been specified. From this perspective many of the central design methods or activity-oriented approaches Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 68 discussed above fail to meet the criterion of good instructional design. In language teaching a number of curriculum approaches and procedures have been advocated that reflect the principles of backward design, that is, needs analysis. It identifies the learning outcomes or objectives is often seen to depend upon a systematic analysis of the learners’ communicative needs, and emerged in the 1960s as part of the systems approach to curriculum development an aspect of the prevalent philosophy of educational accountability from which the use of objectives was also derived (Stufflebeam et al., in Richards, 2013). The need for convincing precision in educational needs assessment was also reinforced during this period by the behavioral objectives movement in educational planning which insisted on specifying in measurable form all goals of importance in an educational system. The emphasis on precision and accountability clearly influenced the appearance of needs assessment as a form of educational technology and its diversification into a collection of educational research methodologies (Berwick, in Richards, 2013). Needs analysis is part of the process by which aims and objectives are determined, by identifying learner’s communicative needs, developing statements of learning objectives, identifying linguistic content and skills needed to attain the objectives, preparing course plans, selecting materials and teaching methods CONCLUSION The development and implementation of language curriculum must be in accordance with learners’ needs. The strategic way to develop as well as innovate the schools’ curriculum, that is, needs analysis. It is developed in order to orient the learners to what they expect in their welfare. Fortunately, this curriculum approach can be utilized as way to give the solutions towards national design curriculum problems. Taking the evaluation as well as innovation to the existing curriculum might yield the valuable impacts in curriculum development. In addition, the development of needs-based curriculum must be associated with the other aspects of curriculum developments. There are three aspects of curriculum developments, that is, forward aspect, central aspect, and backward aspect. In turn, the three curriculum designs must interconnect one other, so that they may have the targeted outcome planned at the beginning. Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 69 REFERENCES Doll, Ronald C. (1996). Curriculum Improvement (Ninth Edi). New York: Allyn and Bacon. Chegeni, Nastaran., & Chegeni, Nasrin. (2013). Language Curriculum Development and Importance of Needs Analysis. Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Iran. ELT Voices-India. 3 (4), 1-13. Richards, Jack C. (2013). Curriculum Approaches in Language Teachin ; Forward, Central, and Backward Design. The University of Sydney, Australia. RELC Journal. 44 (1), 5-33 Richards, Jack C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Pres Soruc, Adem. (2012). The Role of Needs Analysis in Language Program Renewal Process. Faculty of Education, Yeditepe University, Istambul, Turkey. Mevlana International Journal of Education (MIJE).