Needs Analysis in Material Development What to Do, and How
Issues in needs analysis
Needs analysis and material development are not new things in the field of education in general, and English teaching and learning in specific. One of the most popular needs analysis base references is written by Hutchinson, T., & Waters, A (1987). Despite their specific discussion in English for specific purposes, needs analysis is needed to be conducted to create appropriate curriculum in English for general purposes too.
For the case of ESP, the needs analysis is quite crucial because of the specific contexts, vocabularies, texts, and situations that the learners will deal with later in professional work.
Needs analysis in many fields in which English is used professionally is continuously developed, for example we can see articles, websites, blogs, or even books about English for business, English for secretary, English use in hotel, English in accounting and finance, English for fashion industry, English for motorcycle technician, and so on. Besides understanding the general English use, an ESP teacher is better to have relevant knowledge or experience in particular fields related to his/her ESP class.
In a chapter of a book titled Issues in Materials Development, Darici (2016) writes that needs analysis is one of the crucial of ELT and ESL. If we fail to gather the needs of teachers, students, parents, and administrators, we can never produce the right material, which has the desired impact on language learners. Despite the latest improvements, it is believed that there is still a big gap between the current materials and the real needs of partners. In fact, the two key partners, the teachers and learners, to some extent, are aware of their needs. Each group has different needs to be responded to in this case related to needs analysis.
For example, school administrators are more interested in results in excel forms which show the frequency of success, which, in fact, indirectly shapes the focus of teachers in the classroom and makes them more result-oriented instructors. The expectation of parents may vary depending on their level of education and experience of learning English. Some simply concern about to what extent their children communicate effectively in foreign language and others about the scores that their children obtain in their academic life.
Teachers often need more powerful materials, which are designed on second language acquisition and learning principles to match the basic learning needs and profiles of learners in different countries, cultures, attitudes, learning habits and styles. Learners need the best curriculum, syllabus design, approach, and the best material. The material should value their engagement, linguistic needs, motivation that matches their attitudes, aptitude, learning styles, learning strategies, learners’ expectations, age, culture, and local needs.
Kosimov’s research (2021) emphasizes that teachers should consider learners' needs and wants before creating a course syllabus and curriculum whether it is English or any subject.
Needs analysis is the best tool to find learners' wants, needs, and gaps. Students' linguistic capacity and their academic needs are also points to consider. It is the key to collecting
valuable information about our learners as the base to develop the material. The main goal of his research is to find his learners' explicit needs and enhance their English proficiency level.
His research is conducted within a general English class with 10 students. Most of their English knowledge is intermediate level, only two pupils are pre-intermediate level, self- motivated, interested in learning new languages. They have four English classes in a week. It is a mandatory subject in school, even so, some of them learn English out of the class, by attending extra courses. They try to improve their integrated skills through listening to BBC news, watching English movies and clips, or reading English books. One of the best students is also specifically chosen as the parameter related to his interest, learning style, and strategy.
Based on the analysis of his questionnaire, Kosimov finds that speaking skills are chosen by students as the most necessary skill in the English language. Listening was chosen as the second skill, but reading and writing were ranked the same respectively. It is shown that the learners tend to improve the skills on which much emphasis is given in the EFL classroom.
The recent study of Ziya, Nirwanto, and Qamariyah (2023) aims to analyze the impact of changes in needs analysis on the development of English language learning curriculum. In line with previous researchers, they write that needs analysis is an important process in designing a curriculum that is responsive to learners' needs. However, the needs of English language learners continue to evolve with changes in time, technology, and global demands.
Therefore, changes in needs analysis are necessary to ensure that the English language learning curriculum remains relevant and effective. In studying the impact of changes in needs analysis on curriculum development in English language learning, they conduct a comprehensive search of academic databases, educational journals, conference proceedings, and other reputable sources. The search is focused on finding relevant studies, theories, and models related to needs analysis, curriculum development, and English language learning.
The results of their study indicate that changes in needs analysis have a significant impact on the development of English language learning curriculum. Some of these impacts include emphasizing more authentic communication skills, increasing the use of technology in learning, the need for cross-cultural skills, and emphasizing professional skills relevant to the workplace. This study concludes that changes in needs analysis are an important step in developing a responsive and effective English language learning curriculum. By considering changes in learners' needs, the curriculum can be adjusted to provide a more relevant and beneficial learning experience. Therefore, curriculum developers and education policymakers need to continuously monitor changes in learners' needs and make necessary adjustments in the development of the English language learning curriculum.
R&D in Education
We may be questioning about what to do or how to start in developing the materials or even curriculum, what to conduct, and even there is a kind of research for this kind of purpose, what kind of research it is. The most possible research to do in developing materials based on needs analysis is research and development approach.
One of the most outstanding model designs is Research and Development (R&D) Method by Borg & Gall (1983). Not only for education, it is also adapted by business companies in innovating their business and offers. From Wongyai and Pathpol (2019), in education, Research and Development (R&D) is the research methodology that combines two approaches such as 1) research and 2) development for create some innovative curriculum and learning. The nature of R&D is systematic and relevance between research activities and development activities we call
“the cycle of R&D”. In many professions, R&D was used for developing some innovation. In general, the process of R&D composed of 4 steps, the 1st is context analyzing (R1), the 2ndis designing the innovation (D1), the 3rd is implementing the innovation (R2) and the 4th is evaluating the effectiveness of innovation (D2).
Research and Development is the research methodology for creating innovation, this methodology integrates the research methods and development techniques we call “the cycle of R&D”. The cycle of R&D can device by two types, one is starting from research (R1 D1 R2 D2) and the other one is starting from developing (D1 R1 D2 R2). By the time, these two steps are not the only steps in R&D, but these two are the less complex ones in the form of chart, and those are practical to conduct in educational field.
Design of ADDIE
ADDIE, as the name suggests, is a model that involves model development stages with five development steps/phases including: Analysis, Design, Development or Production, Implementation or Delivery and Evaluations). The ADDIE model was developed by Dick and Carry in 1996 to design learning systems (Mulyanitiningsih, 2016).
In product development steps, the ADDIE research and development model is considered more rational and more complete. Mulyatiningsih (2016) stated that this model can be used for various forms of product development in learning activities such as models, learning strategies, learning methods, media and teaching materials.
1. Analysis
In the ADDIE development research model, the first stage is to analyze the need to develop new products (models, methods, media, teaching materials) and analyze the feasibility and requirements for product development. The development of a product can be initiated by a problem in an existing/implemented product.
2. Design
Design activities in the ADDIE research and development model are a systematic process that starts from designing the concept and content in the product. Plans are written for each product content. Instructions for implementing product design or manufacture are sought to be written clearly and in detail. At this stage the product design is still conceptual and will underlie the development process at the next stage.
3. Development
Development in the ADDIE research and development model contains activities to realize product designs that have previously been created. In the previous stage, a conceptual framework for implementing the new product was prepared. The conceptual framework is
then realized into a product that is ready to be implemented. At this stage it is also necessary to create an instrument to measure product performance.
4. Implementation
The application of products in the ADDIE research and development model is intended to obtain feedback on the products created/developed. Initial feedback (initial evaluation) can be obtained by asking questions related to product development goals. Application is carried out referring to the product design that has been created.
5. Evaluation
The evaluation stage in the ADDIE model development research is carried out to provide feedback to product users, so that revisions are made according to the evaluation results or needs that cannot be met by the product. The final goal of evaluation is to measure the achievement of development goals.
How to do needs analysis & material development
This discussion will be delivered through an example to make it more practical, the study of Hidayat & Setiawan (2020). The objective of this study is to develop a supporting reading material for junior high school of grade seven based on Curriculum 2013 in Indonesia. The product of this research was a supporting reading material in the form of software and CD to support the main course-book. The instructional design was used the research and development (R&D) model proposed by Branch which was popular as ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate). It consisted of five steps; (1) analyzing, (2) designing, (3) developing (4) implementing, (5) and evaluating. The participants of product try-out were 30 students and 3 teachers of an Islamic junior high school in Gresik. The steps are written as below:
1st step: finding the aspects of material development
The method that was used by the researchers to select the material was distributing the questionnaires to the English teachers and the students to find out their difficulties and interest in teaching and learning English. The first aspect that researchers did was gave questionnaires to students and English teachers to obtain information about students' and teachers' needs. The results of them were presented in table 1. From table 1 can be confirmed the students' and teacher's needs consisted of four aspects; media, materials, games, and dictionary. From the analysis, the researchers created supporting reading materials that covered those needs.
2nd step: constructing & designing the material
Second, the researchers designed the product. In designing the product, the researchers took the English syllabus as the foundation of material content. The English syllabus was based on the curriculum 2013 that has been distributed by the Indonesian government. In this step, the researchers classified into two parts; constructing and designing materials. In constructing the materials, the researchers combined English reading materials from many resources based on the syllabus and the English teacher suggestion. It composed of English video, reading texts, English dictionary, activities, vocabulary list with the meaning, test items and feedback, and games. In designing materials the researchers used some programs such as; AutoPlay Media Studio, Button
Shop, Wondershared Quiz Maker, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Cambridge Advanced Learners' Dictionary-3rd Edition. The material design can be seen on the slide, as shown on appendix 1.
3rd step: first trial, scoring by the expert teachers, and revision
After the material design is ready, the researcher does the first trial or implementation. The material is given to students in teaching and learning English activities. After that, a questionnaire is given to the expert teachers for scoring or measuring the effectiveness of the material. The measurement is included the content of the material, the operating system, the design (whether it is attractive and encourages the students’ motivation), and the practicality to keep emphasizing that the best material development should be practical enough to operate or use. From the first scoring, there are some points of suggestion given by the expert teachers. The table 2 shows the scoring by the expert teachers, while the table 3 consists of the suggestions from the expert teachers. From this review, the material design is then revised for improvement.
4th step: second trial, scoring by the expert teachers and students, and final revision
After the product is improved in some parts, the material design is delivered again for the second trial. From the second trial, the researchers again score the product through questionnaires. Not only from the expert teachers, this second trial is scored by the students as well. For your information if you wonder how the product from first trial and second trial is delivered in the classroom, here I show you the trial or implementation procedure as shown in table 5. This research takes 6 meetings in total from the first trial, second trial, until the final revision and evaluation. The response can be seen from table 6 and 7. Table 6 is the response from the expert teachers, while table 7 is the response from the students.
5th step: evaluation
Table 8 shows the suggestions from the expert teachers and students after the second trial. The final revision of the product is done according to the questionnaire data and suggestions. This product was in the form of software and CD interactive, so it involved a computer to operate it. It meant that the use of this product included in blended learning. The result showed that the use of the product gave positive effects to the students. The students agreed that the product motivated them and improve their achievement. It was shown from the students' responses to the product. The English teacher also concurred that the product attracted students' attention, increased students' enthusiasm in learning English and develop their reading skill.
