Needs Analysis

Needs Analysis #1: Getting to Know Your Community

As you consider starting a program, you'll want to know as much as you can about the internationals in your community to know how to advertise, types of curriculum to consider, and find out if there is interest in ESOL classes.

Here are some suggestions of people with whom you should speak:

• Leaders of ethnic churches and community organizations

• ESOL teachers in public schools, churches, private programs, and other public programs (check with your library)

• Refugee resettlement office staff

• Staff and residents at apartment complexes close to your church, if they have many internationals

• International student offices at local colleges/universities

• Any other local stakeholders who work with internationals

Questions to ask:

• What international communities live in our area (specifically around our church)?

• What are the strengths of these communities? What are needs of these communities?

• For what reason do you think they need to study English?

• Where do these internationals work? Where do their children go to school?

  • Consider work and school schedules in asking: when might classes be offered?

• Do these internationals need transportation for class? Is childcare necessary?

• How should we advertise for the classes?

• Is there anyone else with whom I should speak about these questions?

The results are in...what do I do now?

Don't get overwhelmed by all of these results! You may choose to enter all of them into a table so that you can compare the answers to each question side-by-side.

First, reflect:

• What needs and strengths did you hear often?

• What ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups do you think you'll be serving?

Now, take steps:

• What do you need to research further? (For example, basic information about cultural groups and why they have come here, if immigrants or refugees)

• What needs can you meet? (For example, childcare and transportation for class)

• What strengths can you integrate into the program? (For example, if there are a few restaurants owned by the ethnic community, can you pay for them to cater some dinners, or ask your students to contribute food for a shared meal?)

• With whom in the community can we partner to offer this class or connect students to other needed services?

Needs Analysis #2: Getting to Know Your Students

In beginning the registration process, you will want to find out as much as you can about your students. If students would not like to share information, don't push them - they may need time to build trust with you. See the forms at the bottom of the page for two types of forms - one for all levels and one for upper-level students.

At Registration:

You can collect a lot of information when students are registering for classes. For beginning students, interpreters to help fill out forms are greatly useful; ask some of the community resource people (listed above) to find interpreters. Bilingual forms may also be helpful, as long as you have someone who can translate the results later.

Suggested information to gather:

• General demographics: name, age, address, phone number, email, home country, native language, family members, length of time in US

  • Be sure to find out the best way to contact your student. For example, they may prefer texting apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, or Facebook Messenger instead of sending normal text messages, which can be more expensive on certain phone plans.

• Educational background: previous study of English, educational experience in native or other languages, literacy ability in English, native, and other languages

• Reasons for studying English: academic, work, church, make friends, survival language in community, help kids with homework...

• Daily life needs: For what purposes do they need to use English? Work, school, neighborhood, grocery store, landlord relationship...

• Other goals that may be met through English: career advancement, GED, driver's license, citizenship exam...

On the first day of class...

• You often won't want to immediately start into a textbook series on the first day of class; rather, you'll want to use that time to build rapport in your classroom and further get to know your students. In intermediate and advanced classes, you may want to dig a little deeper into some of the above questions (or in a beginning class with an interpreter, but this probably won't work so well if you have 2 or more home languages):

  • • Why do you want to learn English?

    • What are your daily life needs in English AND future goals for English?

    • What are your expectations for this class?

    • What was your previous education like? (If any)

    • What are your interests?

    • How do you like to work in class?

    • See the sample interest assessment below, but remember that you will probably need to adapt this for your own class's context.

Informing Your Teaching With Results

Ideally, it's best to match your curriculum with the needs of your students, but this doesn't always happen, especially when a class is just getting started. However, you can do your best to plan your curriculum to include topics, functions, and areas of interest that relate to your students. For adult learners, especially, relevance is key!

Ways to incorporate students' needs in your classroom:

• Make sure students have "survival language": words and phrases they'll need to understand and say in daily life (the bus, the grocery store, school, work) - you may even follow around a student and see what English is required for some activities!

• Shadow students at work to see what language is required.

• Consider taking a field trip to a location students might go to, such as the hardware store, grocery store, or public library. Identify vocabulary and language that are necessary for those locations and help students connect the language to the activity.

• Consider educational backgrounds:

  • If students have had little or no formal education, you may need to more explicitly demonstrate your expectations and take time to practice tasks such as holding a pencil, organizing papers in a folder, or finding a page in a textbook. Take your time - these, too, are important learning tasks.

  • If students are used to more formalized teaching (e.g., lectures instead of small group activities), don't try to thrust them into lots of games at once; ease into it with just one or two games and activities at first, until they feel more comfortable.

• Be aware of cultural and religious backgrounds. If students are from more conservative Muslim backgrounds, for example, you might want to avoid pairing men and women together for activities.

• Incorporate students' interests into lessons. Can your students cook, sew, or make things with wood? Have them create something and explain the steps in the process.