A Needs Assessment of ESP to Adult English Language Learners: Sandford International School Adults’ Evening EFL Classes in Focus

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2015-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the needs of ESP to adult EFL learners; in focusing the Sandford International School’s adult EFL evening program. Teaching EFL to adult learners in the evening class program has been started since three decades ago at Sandford School. Headway English course has been taught from Elementary to Upper-Intermediate levels to adult learners who joined the program to learn and use the language for different purposes. To achieve the objective, questionnaires, interview and evaluating the Headway English course book and dropout records were used as the main sources of the research. Adult learners’ questionnaire was distributed to eighty-five students of which thirty-six returned the paper. All the sixteen EFL teachers have also filled in and returned the questionnaire. Five adult learners participated in the interview. Among the many issues that were discussed in this research were the learners’ purpose of learning the language, their perceived importance of skills, their wants and lacks, the emphasized skills, etc,. In addition, the general course materials used and the skills focused were assessed to determine their suitability to the English needs of the adult EFL learners. Descriptive statistics (tables and bar charts) were employed in interpreting and analyzing the quantitative data while content analysis was applied to narrate the qualitative data. The results indicated that the perceived importance of English language skills by the learners is mismatched with what is being taught at Sandford EFL classes. Secondly, the English language skills the adult learners want to improve on and the skills that are given emphasis on actual teaching and learning practice are completely different. Moreover, the study identified the adult EFL learners were not satisfied enough in meeting their English language needs. As a result, the study reveals that there is a need for English courses with an ESP orientation in order to be able to meet the specific needs of the adult learners; (Intermediate and Upper- Intermediate levels) who believed their expectations were not met at all at Sandford International School evening class program.

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