NEED ANALYSIS FOR ENGLISH READING AND WRITING MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The merit of needs analysis for material development has been widely incorporated in the field of language teaching and learning. This research aimed at identifying students’ needs for the English reading and writing skills as the solid foundation in order to develop supplementary workbooks for the students’ further reading and writing practice. The participants of the study embraced 264 the first-year English majors and non-majors at the School of Foreign Languages – Thai Nguyen University. Questionnaire was employed to capture the students’ target and learning needs in the study. Data was analyzed quantitatively with the use of SPSS for descriptive statistics. The results unfolded that the students strongly wished to further practise a variety of reading and writing tasks/activities. Additionally, they expressed their desire for vocabulary and grammar tasks in each of the unit; and topics concerning daily life and culture. Also, the respondents wanted their teachers to take on the roles as a facilitator and a guide in the teaching. The implication of the findings served as the strong base in designing the English reading and writing workbooks appropriate for the first-year students majoring in English and other languages.