Needs analysis: Planning a syllabus for a series of intensive workplace courses at a leading Japanese company Jeremy David Cowling * 103 Riberu Kuwabara, 3-12-26 Kuwabara, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-0911, Japan Abstract This paper gives a detailed description of the needs analysis (NA) stage in the development of a set of English language intensive courses at a large Japanese industrial ﬁrm. The case study highlights the NA practices of using multiple sources and multiple methods in the data gathering stage and uses triangulation in order to validate results. The perceived needs of diﬀerent informant groups, resource constraints, data gathering techniques and syllabus design are all discussed in light of current theory and research. It was found that great care and thought is required in the planning and execution stages as this area of course and syllabus design is often far more complex than described in the syllabus design literature. 2006 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper describes the needs analysis (NA) stage of developing a set of English language materials for an intensive course at a large Japanese company. The case study describes the diﬀerent methods which were employed in gathering data in order to compile a syllabus outline. 0889-4906/$30.00 2006 The American University. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2006.10.003 * Tel.: +81 89 977 9739. E-mail address: [email protected]. English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 www.elsevier.com/locate/esp ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES 2. Immediate context of the courses Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), based in Takasago, Japan contacted Nippon Information and Communications (NIC), a corporate language training provider, to set up an intensive course package for its year 1–3 employees. The requirement was for a business English communication course to run for three days, three times a year over a period of three years. Therefore, all new employees would complete a total of nine three-day intensive courses within their ﬁrst three years at the company. The courses were intended to give students practical English language training focusing on language used in business situations which they may encounter in their workplace. I was asked to create the course syllabus and co-ordinate material development. The ﬁrst stage, analyzing the needs of the students, is described in this paper. 3. A theoretical overview In many cases syllabus design is a greatly overlooked area of course planning with many EFL schools and institutions relying on a textbook as the sole syllabus. Such an outlook eliminates the need of a time consuming and often-expensive syllabus design process and is often adequate for many general English courses where a suitable textbook exists. However, such an approach ignores the speciﬁc learning needs of the target students, something that could be examined through a needs analysis (NA) process. Research has shown (Gardener & Winslow, 1983; Long, 2005; Richterich, 1983; West, 1994) that there is often a lack of awareness of the existence of NA as a tool in EFL course design, especially in General English courses where the speciﬁc needs of students are diﬃcult to determine. In fact, there are documented cases of teachers and course planners paying little or no regard to any concept of need (described by Abbott (1981) as TENOR – teaching English for no obvious reason). One area that has a higher regard for NA is ESP (English for speciﬁc purposes) (Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; West, 1994) as students’ needs are often clearer and of such a nature that a published textbook would not adequately fulﬁll their needs. The formal concept of NA was largely established during the 1970s by the Council of Europe in the ﬁeld of ESP (Richterich, 1973/1980) although the term ‘analysis of needs’ ﬁrst appeared in India in the 1920s (Howatt, 1984; White, 1988). Deﬁning NA is an oft argued point as ‘‘The very concept of language needs has never been clearly deﬁned and remains at best ambiguous’’ (Richterich, 1983, p. 2). However, in broad terms NA can be described as identifying ‘‘what learners will be required to do with the foreign language in the target situation, and how learners might best master the target language during the period of training’’ (West, 1994, p. 1). Before the 1970s NA was generally very informal and little research was done as language teachers based their teaching on ‘‘some kind of intuitive or informal analysis of students’ needs’’ (West, 1994, p. 1). The 1970s saw a much more detailed analysis of NA with Munby (1978) having a considerable inﬂuence with his instrument of proﬁling students needs by creating lists and ticking boxes. Munby’s performance-based approach had its merits but essentially excluded areas that have been broadened by others since – such as practicalities and constraints, teaching methods, learning strategies and materials selection. More recently, task-based NAs are gaining attention (Gilabert, 2005; Long, 2005; Long & Crookes, 1992, 1993; Long & Norris, 2000) using multiple sources and methods (Al-Khatib, 2005; Bosher & Smalkoski, 2002; Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; Li So-mui & Mead, 2000; Long, 2005; Sullivan & Girginer, J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 427 2002) to gather quality data. The diﬀerent sets of data from these sources/methods can then be triangulated to produce credible results (Bosher & Smalkoski, 2002; Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; Long, 2005). Focus is now moving away from outsiders’ views (such as pre-experience learners and applied linguists) which ‘‘focused on the notions and functions supposedly required to satisfy various occupational language’’ (Long, 2005, p. 21) to insiders’ views (such as experts of their domain who therefore have expert insider knowledge, for example, company employees in the target language situation), although the majority of NAs continue to rely the views of outsiders (Gilabert, 2005). 4. The needs analysis at MHI 4.1. Course requirements Initial discussions between MHI (the client) and NIC (the language training provider) envisaged a communicative business English course. The objective (set by the client) was ‘to give students the opportunity to adapt their current general English skills to business situations they will come across during their working lives’. ‘Current general English skills’ refers to the general English courses that all 1st to 3rd year employees attend at MHI on a weekly basis. The client’s ‘perceived needs’ (Berwick, 1989) were that their junior employees needed to practice their English in business situations which would help them when meeting foreign business people. Finally, it was stipulated by the client that each course should deal with one ‘area’ of business English, ‘‘such as meetings, business telephoning and business presentations’’. With these requirements and information, a three-week deadline was established for the production of a basic syllabus of topic areas to be approved by the client. 4.2. Sources and methods The client’s initial brief appeared to be relatively general with only a few examples of the kind of content they wanted to see in the syllabus (meetings, telephoning and presentations) and was based on their intuitions and the perceived needs of the learners, which may have been at odds with the learners’ actual needs. It is important to point out here that our ‘‘English speaking Western TESOL ideas of innovation’’ (Holliday, 2005) such as the key role of needs analysis in course design, may be in conﬂict with the learners’ expectations of how an English language course should be developed. It was decided early on to take a multiple sources/methods approach and to triangulate the ﬁndings in order to increase the credibility of the data (2005). Multiple sources, such as published or unpublished literature (e.g. job descriptions), learners, teachers and domain experts (Long, 2005) ensure that a wide variety of data can be gathered and compared, and that the methods of doing this (such as through gathering informants’ intuitions, interviews, surveys, language audits, observations, journals, tests and so on) (Long, 2005) allow for diﬀerent kinds of data to be collected. As Long states, ‘‘It is difﬁcult to overemphasize the likelihood that use of multiple measures, as well as multiple sources, will increase the quality of information gathered’’ (2005, p. 32) and this has been concurred with by some important NA studies (e.g. Chaudron et al., 2005; Cumaranatunge, 1988; Gilabert, 2005; Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; Sullivan & Girginer, 2002). It transpired that this method was particularly useful as identifying the speciﬁc needs of the 428 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 students was not always clear, and by casting a large net to cover many sources allowed for more opportunities to identify needs and also to ﬁlter out any inaccurate perceived needs through the use of triangulation. For the NA at MHI the following sources were identiﬁed: (a) The sales director at NIC who is responsible for language training contracts at MHI: as MHI’s primary English language training provider NIC has had years of contact and experience setting up and running courses at MHI and therefore has a good knowledge of the company and the employees that take part in English language programs. (b) The staﬀ of MHI’s training section who requested the intensive course (the client). (c) The English language instructors at MHI. MHI employs four full-time and a number of part-time language teachers. (d) The learners who would be required to take the intensive courses. I started background research with the sales director at NIC: the director had a great deal of knowledge and was keen to help with background information about the company and employees. Our discussions were via informal meetings at the NIC oﬃce from which I took notes which were written up later in a research journal. The target group (the students taking the course) was 1st to 3rd year employees with the following characteristics: (i) they are trainee employees for plant design and construction; (ii) they graduated from engineering universities with Master’s qualiﬁcations, aged 24–28; (iii) they are the product of the Japanese English education system: particularly adapt at reading and writing and ﬁnding grammar errors in exam questions. However, they have had little experience in spoken English, which causes conﬁdence problems when interacting with native speakers of English; (iv) as trainees they often worked in diﬀerent departments to gain on-the-job experience. Their chosen ﬁeld/department would not be decided until their 4th year; (v) the company had many overseas plant building and maintenance contracts in addition to its domestic operations. English was therefore clearly important for engineers who needed to converse with foreign clients and suppliers, as well as those who had to travel or live abroad; (vi) the company required most employees to take the TOEIC test but rarely used scores as a pre-requisite to working on international projects. It was clear that producing a speciﬁcally designed course directed at the clearly deﬁned needs of the target audience would be impossible. At this stage the students did not hold actual positions within their company, nor did they know what their future positions would be. All of the students (over 60 in total) would be working in various sections in the future and play diﬀerent roles within the company. Some may use English extensively and some very little. However, conducting a needs analysis could still prove beneﬁcial as many employees could potentially work on project teams with international clients and therefore require some degree of English language skill. Therefore, if these particular needs were identiﬁed and included in a syllabus, the needs of the students who would in the future require a degree of English language proﬁciency would be met. This appears to be what the client had in mind with their initial brief – some of the new employees may need to use English in their working lives and this course would help prepare them for this. Methods of carrying out the NA were also discussed with the director. It was decided that an open-ended humanistic NA approach in which target students could express their ‘‘own needs and anxieties in their own words’’ (Mackey & Bosquet, 1981) would be J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 429 adopted. It was also recognized that this may be a culturally diﬃcult thing for the students to do. In deciding how to go about the NA the ‘opportunity cost’ (Swales, 1989) of weighing resources against NA research had to be taken into account. A language audit (Coleman, 1988; Reeves & Wright, 1996; Watts, 1994), for example, would have been impossible given the time and budget constraints of the project. In addition, as all MHI junior employees regularly took the TOEIC test, it would be possible to identify (to some degree of accuracy) the range of English proﬁciency throughout the target group (testing being a major stage of a language audit – Vandermeeren, 2005). Class observations (Yalden, 1987) was another area of NA that could have been pursued, however scheduling and time constraints factored against this approach and it is arguable whether this would reveal any useful details about the actual needs of the students. It transpired that the use of ‘informants’ would have to play a major role in the NA research process. Through interviews and questionnaires relevant data would be gathered from diﬀering sources and compared. The use of questionnaires (Al-Khatib, 2005; Bosher & Smalkoski, 2002; Jordan & Mackay, 1973; Li So-mui & Mead, 2000; Mackey & Bosquet, 1981; Richterich & Chancerel, 1977) would allow for informant input, a process that is ‘‘the most common method of needs analysis’’ (West, 1994), as would ﬁrstly unstructured interviews (e.g. Chaudron et al., 2005; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Long, 2005) and then structured interviews (Fixman, 1990; Gilabert, 2005). 5. Data gathering The data gathering process required a number of steps (as discussed by Schutz & Derwing, 1983) in which the eﬀective use of informants was to be the key to producing a syllabus that fulﬁlled the needs of all the parties involved. Step 1: Discussion with the client (MHI). This envisioned ‘informal’ interview set out to examine the reasons behind the client’s instructions and course needs as well as to gather more information about the nature of the target group’s working situation in an attempt to understand what their English needs were. By conducting an unstructured, or openended, interview, it was hoped that the interviewees would openly give more detailed accounts instead of being ‘‘constrained by a set of pre-planned questions’’ (Long, 2005, p. 36). Unfortunately, little information was gathered at this stage as the staﬀ in the training section appeared to show little interest in the needs analysis and had little idea of the kind of course syllabus that would be required. The client seemed to feel that it had relayed all that it wanted for the course and had little time or interest in being involved in the NA process. Again, this may be explained culturally, as our expectations are based on Western ideas rather than what is expected in a Japanese based NA (see Barmada, 1994; Holliday, 2005). In eﬀect, the client had passed all responsibility of the course over to the ‘course design specialists’ and only wanted to be involved when approval of the syllabus was necessary: they were busy preparing other in-house training programs and had little time or resources to spend on the program they had brought in outside specialists to do. However, they were able to conﬁrm the points brought out in the meeting with NIC’s sales director (above). Step 2: Semi-structured interviews with the target group teachers. These informers are essentially ‘outsiders’ or ‘‘non-experts’’ (Long, 2005, p. 35) as although they may be experienced language teachers within the target domain they do not have the required insider 430 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 knowledge of the job content and therefore may have NA views which may be inaccurate, especially compared with domain experts. However, interviewing these teachers would hopefully provide useful insights (Chaudron et al., 2005) into their students’ language ability and some of the company’s operations, especially as the teachers were based at MHI ﬁve days a week and had constant contact with employees. Fortunately this group proved very receptive and willing to cooperate and provided useful feedback. A meeting was arranged with the four full-time teachers and the NA objectives were explained and some pre-planned questions were asked, however, much of the interview was kept open-ended. The meeting was recorded on tape and notes were taken which were later written up in the research journal. The data gathered is as follows: (a) The target group make-up: the students’ working situations diﬀered greatly as they would all work in diﬀerent sections of MHI. (b) The target group’s English ability: ranged from lower intermediate level to lower advanced. This was conﬁrmed by their TOEIC scores (between 450 and 750). The current general English classes concentrated on speaking skills as students had had little practice in this area (school and university English courses concentrated on reading and grammar). The students often suﬀered from conﬁdence problems when speaking and relied too heavily on accuracy, rather than ﬂuency and communication. All the teachers felt that a communicative course that centered on basic business situations would be most beneﬁcial for students (echoing the perceived needs stated by the client). (c) The target group’s experience in using English in their working situations. All 1st to 3rd year employees are trainee employees. Most of their training is on-the-job at the MHI factory and employees move between two or three diﬀerent sections during their training period. As such it was rare that they had much contact with foreign clients/customers. Students had very little need for using English during this training stage and it was not until later that they would be required to host foreign visitors or go on foreign business trips. (d) The target group’s future English needs. These were diﬃcult to assess. Many employees had opportunities to go on business trips when their project required. Diﬀerent project groups had diﬀerent projects in diﬀerent countries (for example, one section had a factory construction contract in Malaysia and another was updating the air conditioning system at a factory in Germany). This would mean a speciﬁc culturally deﬁned English course would be impossible. Also, as stated above, the nature of the employees’ jobs meant diﬀerent genres of English skills were necessary. Step 3: Interviews with the target group students. Using target students as informers seems an obvious choice, and are often the ‘‘primary, sometimes the only, respondents’’ (Long, 2005, p. 19) (see, e.g., Alalou, 2001; Lepetit & Cichocki, 2002). The success of the results from this source depends on how well informed the students are and whether they are ‘‘pre-experience’’, ‘‘pre-service’’ or ‘‘in-service’’ learners (Long, 2005, p. 20). Many advocate the use of students as informers (see, e.g., Edwards, 2000; stating their input is ‘‘crucial’’) and others, such as Long (2005); take a more cautious stance depending on the expertise of the learner in their domain. Therefore, much thought was put into this stage and it was also important to consider the sensitivity issue of directly questioning students: students could feel uncomfortable being questioned by an unknown foreigner, or J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 431 even their teachers. Cultural aspects play an important role as well: the teacher is often expected to know the best way to teach and set up a course, not the student (Long, 2005). With these issues in mind it was decided that an ‘open-ended’ questionnaire would be devised that would be lead in class by the MHI English teachers. Students would be given the questionnaire to discuss in small groups as a task, and then report their ﬁndings in a ﬁnal group discussion with their teacher (such in-class task approaches to NA are discussed by Nunan, 1988; Graves, 1996). The questionnaire centered on the working lives of the students and hoped to identify areas of the students’ English needs. The full questionnaire can be found in Appendix A. The feedback from the teachers regarding the questionnaire task was limited, although this was generally expected. Students explained that they had had few opportunities to use English at work and they did not seem to know what their business English needs would be in the future (pre-experience learners). Also, students were unaware of what kind of areas could be included in a business English course. However, there were a few useful areas raised: students had openly described how they felt in instances of contact with foreigners, which was almost unanimously negative: students explained they felt very uncomfortable and wanted to close such encounters as quickly as possible. They put this down to their lack of English skill and conﬁdence. Most students had used English in two situations at work (a) telephoning: many students had had the unfortunate experience of answering a call in their oﬃce only to be confronted by an English speaker. The necessary actions of transferring the call or taking a message were explained as diﬃcult and training in this area would be useful and relevant to their present working situations; (b) business greetings: some students reported that even though this should be an obviously easy area of business English, they felt uncomfortable when doing so in English and were not quite sure how to handle the cultural aspects of greetings and introductions. Due to the disappointing outcome of this stage of the NA a fourth stage was implemented in order to gain more of an insight to the target group and its English needs. Step 4: Open-ended, structured questionnaires for students to complete with their senior employees. At this point I was looking for a new perspective from a source that had experience in the target situation as well as in previous English language courses at MHI. These informants, known as ‘domain experts’, can provide quality information about the tasks they undertake, especially in the case of when English is required. Some researchers (e.g., Drobnic, Trimble, & Trimble, 1978; Marriot, 1991) warn against asking this source for linguistic features and discourse events as they often prove unreliable. However, by using task as the unit of analysis they can provide quality data (see, e.g., Gilabert, 2005; Lett, 2005). The most obvious point of access was employees at MHI who had successfully graduated through the three year trainee stage and were now working on projects that involved the use of English. Such informants fell under the umbrella of former students (Allen & Spada, 1983) andthose already working in the target situation (Richterich, 1973/1980; Tarantino, 1988) and could hopefully provide useful insights for the NA research, as was the case of Gilabert who found employee informants ‘‘to be the most useful sources’’ in his NA research (2005, p. 191). Direct interviews were ruled out as it may have disrupted working routines, not to mention the time constraints and organizational problems it would cause. It was therefore decided an open-ended but structured questionnaire would be compiled for the students of the general English courses to complete with a senior 432 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 employee from their department. The questionnaire was set up as a homework task for the students of the general English course: they would need to interview one of their seniors and then report their results in the form of a short report. In compiling the questionnaire I was conscious that it should not be too time consuming to complete and should seek to directly assess the language needs in terms of tasks that the seniors perceived to be necessary for working in the target situation but avoiding directly asking about linguistic features such as structures, notions and functions. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix B. The response to this task was good with approximately 60% of questionnaires returned. The feedback was very useful and provided some interesting and at times unexpected results. Many of the informants described cultural diﬀerences as a high priority as they have had to overcome problems in situations such as meetings and negotiations that were put down to cultural diﬀerences (one example being the decision making process speed in a negotiation being much faster than the respondent had experienced in Japan). The respondents outlined areas which they believed would be useful in a business English course, some of which were predictable (negotiations, meetings, placing orders, telephone conversations) and others which were not as expected (describing business trends: some respondents reported that this was something they often had to describe in reports or presentations and even in general business discussions and was a particularly troublesome area). Finally, a lot of emphasis was placed on areas that would be useful for ﬁrst time business contacts with foreign business people: introductions and greetings, hosting business visitors and general small talk situations (small talk being a particularly important socio-pragmatic skill (Holmes, 2005)). It seemed many respondents were delving into their past and describing diﬃcult and embarrassing ﬁrst time associations with foreign guests. This seemed to tie up with the concerns of the students in their survey: they wanted a grounding in initial contacts that would give them more conﬁdence in a culturally demanding situation. It was also stated by the senior employees that past English courses, especially those with a business slant, had been unhelpful in preparing them for certain business situations as the language they studied was unrepresentative of what actually took place, as in business meetings, for example (such a comparative research project was carried out by Williams, 1988 in which her research bore out that textbook models did not satisfactorily relate to language used in real meetings). Respondents were indicating that authenticity would make for a better business course. 6. The results and ﬁnal syllabus Through comparison of the sources and methods and triangulating the results it transpired that the MHI intensive syllabus was required to do four things: (a) Provide nine areas of study (one area for each intensive course) that would be helpful to the students in their working lives. (b) Provide a communicative course where students could adapt their current general English knowledge into business situations. (c) Provide a course that took into consideration cultural issues when communicating with foreign businesspeople. (d) Provide realistic (authentic) examples of language. J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 433 Such considerations called for a content-based (Graves, 1996; Mohan, 1986) and notional–functional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976). See Appendix C for the full syllabus. The fact that there are two syllabus types reﬂects the diﬀering needs of the target group. The notional–functional syllabus would take into account of the following modules: (i) business introductions; (ii) hosting business visitors; (iii) business telephoning; (iv) placing business orders; (v) describing business trends. This set up would allow for a topic (such as ‘Business Telephoning’) under which more than one communicative function could be grouped (‘Answering a call’, ‘Transferring a call’, ‘Taking messages’). The materials would strive to reﬂect realistic language by the collocation of authentic materials, transcripts and so on. From these materials useful language could be highlighted and taught with practice activities for students to build on (as in a PPP approach). The content-based syllabus would cover the following modules: (i) describing products and services; (ii) business presentations; (iii) business meetings; (iv) business negotiations. Again, authentic materials would be the basis of these modules, but instead of a rigid PPP approach the lessons would be based on content instruction and meaningful tasks (such as those listed by Willis, 1997). Although the NA sources had not explicitly suggested a task-based activities it was clear from the senior employees interviews that authenticity should play a major role in the course and as such instigating lessons which incorporated realistic tasks should provide for some authenticity. This would allow for the ‘‘stimulation of the learners’ language’’ (Willis, 1997) and give the students the chance to see how the language skills they already have could be adapted to diﬀerent business situations. For example, the Business Meetings module would involve students completing a task in a meeting format and then the meeting would be evaluated and compared to transcripts/recordings of actual meetings of native English speakers tackling the same task. The syllabus (Appendix C) shows areas (possibly functions) of learning, however, these points would not be taught directly, rather brought out in the task evaluation. The areas of the notional–functional syllabus would come ﬁrst in the overall course package followed by the content-based syllabus areas. This would allow for more structured lessons in the ﬁrst half of the course (an approach which the students are used to) and move onto a more challenging content/task-based lesson format for the ﬁnal half of the course. Cultural aspects would be discussed during each lesson as the opportunity arose (with pointers included in the teacher’s manual). Finally, the syllabus itself (as shown in Appendix C) only contains the bare bones of the course speciﬁcations (a ‘conservative syllabus’ as advocated by Brumﬁt, 1984; Widdowson, 1990) as this would not overly constrain the materials writers/teachers. 7. Conclusion and summary The syllabus that resulted from this NA research was accepted by the client. Materials, textbooks and teacher’s manuals were produced with emphasis on authenticity. Teachers were encouraged to incorporate cultural aspects within their lessons and their manuals included pointers and guidelines on cultural aspects of each lesson. Each course was split into three proﬁciency levels based on students’ TOIEC scores: elementary, lower intermediate and upper intermediate. The courses proved to be successful with post course student and teacher questionnaires giving positive feedback, 434 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 especially in the areas of course content and language taught. The questionnaires also provided very useful feedback in which areas of the course to update and/or retain. The syllabus topic areas were considered to cover areas of future needs and the inclusion of cultural aspects was highlighted as a useful and important part of the course. Many of the elementary level students commented that the task-based sections of the syllabus were often too diﬃcult as their language skills were not competent enough to deal with realistic tasks. Also, many students asked for a TOEIC element to be included as they were all required to take the TOEIC test regularly. These points were taken into account and revisions were made: the elementary level syllabus removed many of the more demanding tasks and replaced them with more traditional activities (such as role plays, info-gap exercises and plays and skits) and simpliﬁed other tasks so that low-level speakers could cope better; and a TOEIC element was included on day 3 of each intensive course (the client asked to extend day 3 by two hours to incorporate this). Overall, the NA set out to fulﬁll the conditions laid out by the client as well as provide English training for the students that would be useful for their business workings. The NA process was extremely revealing and useful in assessing the needs of the target group. There were some instances which required careful attention. Firstly, the speciﬁc needs of all the target students were not always clearly identiﬁable as they were yet to be in a position to use English in their working lives. However, it was possible to identify many needs of those who were working in positions in the company where English was required which would become the future needs of the target group. Secondly, the research needed careful planning and execution, taking into account various kinds of issues including time constraints, cultural diﬀerences, students’ experience in the target language and the use of informants other than the target students to provide essential feedback. The process of collecting NA data often appears reasonably straightforward as many documented NA research projects conducted in the occupational sector have the luxury of producing a course syllabus for a speciﬁc group of learners with clearly identiﬁable language needs (see, e.g., Edwards, 2000; Jasso-Aguilar, 2005; Long, 2005). However, it is often the case that the target students have varying needs or their needs are not clearly identiﬁable and as such requires a carefully administered NA which utilizes various sources of informants in order to attain useful insights into the needs of the target learners. Appendix A. Student questionnaire Discussion questions: 1. How many years have you been studying English? Have you ever studied any other languages? 2. Have you ever talked to a foreigner other than your teacher? If yes, how did you feel? Did you feel you could communicate eﬀectively? What problems did you encounter? What success do you feel you had in communicating? 3. Which section do you work in? What is your job? 4. Have you ever used English at work? If yes, give examples (even very short instances are ok). J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 435 5. Do you think you’ll need to use English in the future at work? Discuss the situations you think you’ll need to use English for. 6. Imagine you are English textbook writers. Your job is to write a Business English textbook for all 1st to 3rd year employees at MHI Takasago. What areas would you include in the textbook that you think would be useful for the students in their working lives at MHI. Appendix B. Student/senior employee questionnaire The following extract was translated into Japanese and given to each senior employee interviewee prior to the interview: I’m in the process of writing business English textbooks for an intensive course for 1st to 3rd year employees at MHI Takasago. I would very much appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to answer the questions asked by your colleague. Your answers would help me gain an understanding of how you conduct your business and would therefore greatly help me in my research. I would also like to hear your opinions of any English courses you have taken at MHI and how useful they were in preparing you for communicating with foreigners in your work situation. Thank you very much for your cooperation. The questionnaire: 1. Which section do you work in? What is your job? 2. Do you ever use English when working in Japan? In which situations do you need to use English (in Japan)? 3. Have you ever visited another country on business for MHI in which you needed to use English? Please describe your experiences. Which countries? What was the purpose of your trip? In which situations did you use English? In which situations did you feel you were able to communicate successfully in English? Which situations did you feel were diﬃcult for you when using English? 4. Have you ever taken an English course at MHI? How well do you feel it prepared you for your working situation? Are there any topics or language areas you feel were particularly useful for your work? Are there any areas you feel should have been included that would have been useful for you in your working situation? 5. If you were setting up a syllabus of topics areas for an intensive course for 1st to 3rd year employees, what areas would you feel would be useful for these students? Why? Appendix C. MHI Takasago Intensive Course Syllabus Course/unit Discourse/language Main activities Cultural Year 1: Spring, Business introductions Greetings and introductions – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Keys steps of an introduction – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussion – Gestures – Business cards – Names – Levels of formality 436 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 Appendix C (continued) Course/unit Discourse/language Main activities Cultural Small talk – Topics of conversation – Expressions of interest – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussions – Taboo topics – Sensitive topics Oﬀering drinks – Oﬀering, accepting, rejecting – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Listening tasks – Video tasks – Role plays – Discussion – Manners and etiquette Year 1: Summer, Hosting business visitors Introducing others – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Keys steps of introducing others – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussion – Gestures – Business cards – Names – Levels of formality Showing around – Sequencing vocabulary – Prepositions of location – Giving directions – Explaining rules – Video tasks – Role plays – Discussion – Workplace Diﬀerences Small talk – Topics of conversation – Expressions of interest – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussions – Taboo topics – Sensitive topics Entertaining – Inviting – Asking preferences – Explaining Japanese things – Listening tasks – Role plays – Presentations – Discussions – Dining culture – Diﬀerences in entertaining – Manners and etiquette Year 1: Winter, Business telephoning Answering and transferring a Call – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Hesitation tactics – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussions – Levels of formality and politeness Taking messages – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Numbers and spelling – Requests (repeating, spelling) – Pronunciation for spelling – Giving excuses – Apologizing – Conﬁrming details – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussions – Group tasks – Levels of formality and politeness – Acceptable excuses (continued on next page) J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 437 Appendix C (continued) Course/unit Discourse/language Main activities Cultural Year 2: Spring, Placing business orders Calling a client – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Telephone introductions – Asking to speak to someone – Leaving a message – Listening tasks – Role plays – Discussions – Levels of formality and politeness Giving/taking orders – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Conﬁrming details – Checking understanding – Filling in forms – Requesting information – Listening and writing tasks – Role plays – Discussions Year 2: Summer, Describing business trends Describing trends – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Reading and writing tasks – Group tasks – Variety of expressions used Presenting information – Presentation expressions – Sequencing – Summarizing and concluding – Conditional ‘‘if’’ clause – Presentation skills – Presenting to groups – Listening skills – Use of presentation equipment – Use of gestures – Directness – Voice (intonation) Asking about trends – Question formation – Conditional ‘‘if’’ clause – Asking for clariﬁcation – Pair and group tasks – Interrupting Year 2: Winter, Describing products and services Giving descriptions – Measures and weights – Adjectives and adverbs – Comparatives – Group task activities – Senior staﬀ interviews – Video tasks – Directness – Gestures Presenting selling points – Superlatives – Engaging the customer – Giving opinions – Group task activities – Role plays – Presentations – Directness – Gestures and voice 438 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 Appendix C (continued) Course/unit Discourse/language Main activities Cultural Year 3: Spring, Business presentations Stages of a presentation – Self introductions – Giving presentation outlines – Sequencing – Concluding and summarizing – Fielding questions – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Listening tasks – Video tasks – Group task activities – Presentations – Discussions – Presentation styles – Introduction and ending styles Presentation techniques – Video tasks – Group activities – Presentations – Using presentation equipment – Directness – Gestures and voice – Use of humor Year 3: Summer, Business meetings Participant roles – Participant vocabulary – Group activity tasks – Roles of participants – Formality Stages of a meeting – Opening a meeting – Controlling a meeting – Group activity tasks – Listening tasks – Meeting styles and diﬀerences Forming an argument – Explaining clearly – Checking understanding – Giving examples – Group activity tasks – Listening tasks – Persuading Reaching decisions – Agreeing and disagreeing – Giving suggestions – Giving opinions – Self-selecting – Group activity tasks – Listening tasks – Discussions – Diﬀerences in: – Interrupting and Supporting – Turn-taking Year 3: Winter, Business negotiations Stages of a negotiation – Opening and closing a negotiation – Conﬁrming – Useful expressions and vocabulary – Group activity tasks – Listening tasks – Discussions – Diﬀerences in negotiation styles Setting objectives – Types of negotiation Objectives – Possibility models – Group activity tasks (continued on next page) J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 439 Appendix C (continued) Course/unit Discourse/language Main activities Cultural Reaching compromises – Giving suggestions – ‘‘if’’ clauses – Politely disagreeing – Giving concessions – Summarizing – Group activity tasks – Listening tasks – Discussions – Emotional responses References Abbott, G. (1981). Encouraging communication in English: a paradox. ELT Journal, 35(3). Alalou, A. (2001). Reevaluating curricular objectives using students’ perceived needs: the case of three language programs. Foreign Language Annals, 34(5), 453–469. Al-Khatib, M. A. (2005). English in the workplace. An analysis of the communication needs of tourism and banking personnel. Asian EFL Journal, 7(2), 175–195 [Article 1]. Allen, W., & Spada, N. (1983). Designing a communicative syllabus in the People’s Republic of China. In R. Jordan (Ed.), Case studies in ELT. London: Collins ELT. Barmada, W. (1994). Developing an institutional self-evaluation scheme in an ESP centre in the Arab world: rationale, experimentation and evaluation. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Leeds. Berwick, R. (1989). Needs assessment in language programming: from theory to practice. In R. Johnson (Ed.), The second language curriculum (pp. 48–62). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bosher, S., & Smalkoski, K. (2002). From needs analysis to curriculum development: designing a course in healthcare communication for immigrant students in the USA. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 21(1), 59–79. Brumﬁt, C. (1984). Function and structure of a state school syllabus for learners of second or foreign languages with heterogeneous needs. In C. J. Brumﬁt (Ed.), General English syllabus design (British Council ELT Docs. 118). Pergamon/British Council. Chaudron, C., Doughty, Y. K., Kong, D., Lee, J., Lee, Y., Long, M. H., et al. (2005). A task-based needs analysis of a tertiary Korean as a foreign language program. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Coleman, H. (1988). Analyzing language needs in large organizations. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 7(3), 155–169. Cumaranatunge, L. K. (1988). An EOP case study: domestic aids in West Asia. In D. Chamberlain & R. J. Baumgardener (Eds.), ESP in the classroom: Practice and evaluation. ELT Document 129 (pp. 127–133). London: Modern English Publications/The British Council. Drobnic, K., Trimble, L., & Trimble, M. T. (Eds.) (1978). Mistakes and modiﬁcations in course design: an EST case history. In English for speciﬁc purposes: Science and technology (pp. 313–321). Corvallis, OR: English Language Institute, Oregon State University. Edwards, N. (2000). Language for business: eﬀective needs assessment, syllabus design and materials preparation in a practical ESP case study. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 19(3), 291–296. Fixman, C. S. (1990). The foreign language needs of US-based corporations. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 511, 25–46. Gardener, P., & Winslow, J. (1983). Present and proposed methods of determining the needs of students in public sector higher education. In Richterich (Ed.), Case studies in identifying language needs (pp. 69–79). Oxford: Pergamon. Gilabert, R. (2005). Evaluating the use of multiple sources and methods in needs analysis: a case study of journalists in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Spain). In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 182–199). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Graves, K. (1996). Teachers as course developers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 440 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 Holmes, J. (2005). When small talk is a big deal: sociolinguistic challenges in the workplace. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 344–372). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jasso-Aguilar, R. (2005). Sources, methods and triangulation in needs analysis: a critical perspective in a case study of Waikiki hotel maids. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, R., & Mackay, R. (1973). A survey of the spoken English problems of overseas postgraduate students at the universities of Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Journal of the Institute of Education of the Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Durham 25/125. Newcastle: University of Newcastle. Lepetit, D., & Cichocki, W. (2002). Teaching languages to future health professionals: a needs assessment study. Modern Language Journal, 86(3), 384–396. Lett, J. (2005). Foreign language needs assessment in the US military. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 105–124). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Li So-mui, F., & Mead, K. (2000). An analysis of English in the workplace: the communication needs of textile and clothing merchandisers. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 19(4), 351–368. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (Eds.). (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park: Sage. Long, M. H. (2005). Methodological issues in learner needs analysis. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 19–76). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Long, M. H., & Crookes, G. (1992). Three approaches to task-based language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 26(1), 27–56. Long, M. H., & Crookes, G. (1993). Units of analysis in syllabus design: the case for task. In G. Crookes & S. M. Gass (Eds.), Task in a pedagogical context. Integrating theory and practice (pp. 9–54). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Long, M. H., & Norris, J. (2000). Task-based language teaching and assessment. In M. Byram (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language teaching (pp. 597–603). London: Routledge. Mackey, R., & Bosquet, M. (1981). LSP curriculum development – from policy to practice. In R. Mackay & J. Parmer (Eds.), Languages for speciﬁc purposes. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Marriot, H. E. (1991). Language planning and language management for tourism shopping situations. In A. J. Liddicoat (Ed.), Language planning and language politics in Australia. Australian review of applied linguistics. Series S (No. 8, pp. 191–222). Melbourne: ALAA. Mohan, B. (1986). Language & content. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. Munby, J. (1978). Communicative syllabus design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1988). Syllabus design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reeves, N., & Wright, C. (1996). Linguistics auditing. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Richterich, R. (1973/1980). Deﬁnition of language needs and types of adults. In J. Trimm, R. Richterich, J. Van Ek, & D. Wilkins (Eds.), Systems development in adult language learning. Strasbourg: Council of Europe/ Oxford: Pergamon. Richterich, R. (Ed.). (1983). Case studies in identifying language needs. Oxford: Pergamon/Council of Europe. Richterich, R., & Chancerel, J.-L. (1977). Identifying the needs of adults learning a foreign language. Strasbourg: Council of Europe/Oxford: Pergamon. Schutz, N., & Derwing, B. (1983). The problem of need assessment in English for Speciﬁc Purposes: some theoretical and practical considerations. In R. Mackay & J. Parmer (Eds.), Languages for speciﬁc purposes (pp. 29–44). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Sullivan, P., & Girginer, H. (2002). The use of discourse to enhance ESP teacher knowledge: an example using aviation English. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 21(4), 397–404. Swales, J. (1989). Service English program design and opportunity cost. In R. Johnson (Ed.), The second language curriculum (pp. 79–90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tarantino, M. (1988). Italian in-ﬁeld EST users self-assess their macro- and micro-level needs: a case study. English for Speciﬁc Purposes, 7, 33–52. Vandermeeren, S. (2005). Foreign language needs of business ﬁrms. In M. H. Long (Ed.), Second language needs analysis (pp. 159–181). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Watts, N. (1994). The use of foreign languages in tourism: research needs. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 17(1), 73–84. West, R. (1994). Needs analysis in language teaching. Language Teaching, 27(1), 1–19. White, R. (1988). The ELT curriculum. Oxford: Blackwell. Widdowson, H. (1990). Aspects of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442 441 Wilkins, D. (1976). Notional syllabuses. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Williams, M. (1988). Language taught for meetings and language used in meetings: is there anything in common? Applied Linguistics, 9(1), 45–58. Willis, J. (1997). Task-based learning: designing and using tasks. In GRETA Revista para Profesores de Ingles (pp. 13–18). Spain: Granada [vol. 5 no. 2 Dec]. Yalden, J. (1987). Principles of course design for language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jeremy David Cowling holds an RSA/Cambridge TEFLA Cert. and an MSc in TESOL. He has been teaching ESL in Japan for over 10 years, and is currently teaching at Matsuyama Shinonome College, Japan. 442 J.D. Cowling / English for Speciﬁc Purposes 26 (2007) 426–442