A Case Study on Needs Analysis in English for Academic Environmental Purposes

Abstract

The present study sets out to detect if there are possible steps that can be taken in order to conduct an exhaustive target needs analysis for first-year students in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course (English for Environmental Science and Engineering). The research has been carried out during 2019–2020 academic year and provides useful insights into how the ESP instructors could balance the present needs analysis results with the target needs analysis objectives in order to obtain effectiveness in teaching specialized content. The uniqueness of this study resides in the fact that the needs analysis covers data collected throughout a pandemic. Thus, this study discusses methodological weaknesses imposed by such unfortunate circumstances and proposes future solutions and teaching alternatives. The results of this study depict the progress of the subjects but also highlight the challenges of the sudden shift from face-to-face to remote teaching. At the same time, possible ways to obtain effectiveness in correlating needs analysis, syllabi and methodology shall be addressed from the perspective of backward curriculum design in ESP.