Abstract
Need analysis is an essential element in the process of designing any language course as it seeks to cater for what learners need in their lessons. This study proposes a framework to analyse learners’ needs for exam preparation courses. The proposed framework adopts the works of Macalister, Nation, and Brindley to address different linguistic and non-linguistic needs. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no framework has ever been provided for teachers to carry out need analysis in the context of preparing for international exams. In this study, therefore, the framework was applied to find learners’ needs in an exam preparation course for an A2 English level international exam. The participants were 10 learners aged 10-12 enrolled on a course in a private language centre. The data were collected through a combination of quantitative and qualitative tools, that is to say, by questionnaires, tests, and classroom observations. Results revealed that the framework herein proposed gives a detailed understanding of the learners’ needs prior to the course showing that learners from this study have difficulties in the skills of reading, writing, and listening. Findings also revealed learners’ preference for a variety of classroom activities, online games, and art-crafts. 
Highlights
Need Analysis (NA) is a key element in the design of a language course and its effectiveness results in students’ linguistic and non-linguistic needs being met
The framework proposed to carry out NA during exam preparation courses derives from the works of Macalister and Nation (2010), and Brindley (1989), and is set out in Table 2 above
This article reported the results of a small-scale study of NA conducted with only 10 learners
Summary
Need Analysis (NA) is a key element in the design of a language course and its effectiveness results in students’ linguistic and non-linguistic needs being met. Over the last 20 years, the focus of NA has been mainly on English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes (Eshtehardi, 2017; Hutchinson and Waters, 1997; Nimasari, 2018; Sukarni, 2019) with scarce research on designing NA for exam preparation courses. This results in teachers having no guidelines or frameworks on how to carry out NA for exam preparation courses and they might tend to believe that for such courses, following a coursebook is the only way to deliver lessons. This research seeks to close this gap by proving a comprehensive way of carrying out NA and proposing a framework for the teachers’ use
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