English Language Needs Research Articles

Assessing the English Language Needs and Challenges of Chinese Undergraduates in Thai Universities

Background and Aim: Studying undergraduate in Thai universities is a popular option for Chinese students. International programs covering popular fields not only meet the goals of Chinese students but are also seen by Chinese students as the best way to harvest specialized knowledge and English ability because of the all-English teaching course. However, since the English language is the only communication medium for Chinese students, there are some difficulties and problems encountered by these students who are not English native speakers. Therefore, this study aims to explore the specific English language skills Chinese undergraduates need and the challenges they face in academic and everyday contexts in Thai universities. Materials and Methods: Participants involved 80 Chinese undergraduates studying four-year international programs in Thai public universities with an IELTS overall score of 5. Employing a mixed-methods approach, we distributed a questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale to all participants and conducted focus group interviews with 12 participants. Results: Findings indicate a critical need to enhance writing and speaking for academic success, with an emphasis on specific-field terminology, and to improve listening and speaking skills for daily life communication. Besides, the lack of academic writing strategies and English communication in official institutions are the problems that undergraduates encounter in academic and daily contexts respectively. Conclusion: The study underscores the urgent need for tailored EAP courses that address both academic and everyday English use, with a particular focus on writing with academic vocabularies and enhancing communicative competence in key scenarios like immigration processing.

The English Language Needs of Health Sciences Students in Turkey

With English established as the lingua franca for science and technology, and considering the growing number of international patients in Turkey, the English education of health science students is now recognized as a significant factor in health education. To our knowledge, no study has investigated the English language education needs of health sciences students in the Turkish context. In an effort to address this gap, this study explored (1) the opinions of Turkish health sciences students about English language education, (2) their needs regarding reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, (3) their perceived problems in learning English, and (4) their opinions and suggestions about the English language education they receive. Six hundred and thirty-one students enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences at a foundation university participated in this study. Data were collected through a questionnaire comprising fifty-nine five-point Likert scale items and two open-ended questions. Findings revealed that health sciences students consider both general and academic English significant. They prefer course materials in English lessons to be related to health education fields and express a desire for more interactive lessons with a special emphasis on speaking. According to the study results, students always need all four language skills for their profession; however, speaking and reading were identified as the most essential skills. Concerning perceived challenges in learning English, students face more difficulties in using English for academic purposes than for general purposes, highlighting the necessity for an effective language program tailored to their specific needs.

Assessing the English Language Needs of Nursing Students: A Systematic Review

Previous studies that conducted needs analyses on English for nursing students only concentrated on the target needs at a particular university. This study investigated nursing students' English language needs through a systematic review in order to improve methods of teaching and curriculum development. 14 studies published between 2015 and 2024 were reviewed to highlight the critical role of English proficiency in nursing education and professional practice. This review identified some themes, such as the importance of English for academic and career purposes, the need for developing core language skills, a preference for interactive and practical learning methods, and the requirement for support in online learning environments. The findings suggest the necessity of designing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Nursing Purposes (ENP) courses tailored to the needs of nursing students. To increase professional and healthcare quality, evidence-based recommendations for curriculum developers, educators, and policymakers are nedded to improve the English language training of nursing students.

Investigation of English Language Needs for Oil and Gas Workers

Investigation of English Language Needs for Oil and Gas Workers

Towards Technical Fluency: Assessing the English Language Needs of Mechanical Engineering Students in a University ESP Context

This study investigates the English language needs of Mechanical Engineering students in a university ESP class. Through a questionnaire distributed to 21 students, the findings reveal that 81% recognize the crucial role of English proficiency in their academic and professional pursuits. Specific language skills such as vocabulary and grammar practice are considered important, emphasizing the overall significance of language proficiency. The research underscores the importance of reading tasks, with technical documents, textbooks, and instructions deemed essential. However, a lack of emphasis on oral communication skills is evident, as tasks related to speaking are generally considered non-essential by the majority of students. While specific listening skills in certain contexts are valued, the study also points to a need for curriculum development in oral communication. Writing tasks, particularly SOPs and technical reports, are highly valued, but other forms of writing receive less emphasis. The study provides valuable insights into the linguistic needs of Mechanical Engineering students, offering guidance for curriculum development and instructional strategies to enhance their language skills for academic and professional success.

Identifying Students’ English Language Needs: Digital Business Students' Perspectives

This study examined the English language needs of students studying digital business, aiming to clarify their difficulties and provide recommendations for educators and policymakers. English is essential for communication between multinational corporations, start-ups, and freelancers in the digital business sector, making collaboration, communication, and information sharing easier. Students from various linguistic backgrounds may struggle to assimilate to English language requirements for their academic and professional tasks. The lack of knowledge on the specific English language requirements of students studying digital business was the cause of the current research gap. This study reveals that digital business students prioritize speaking skills, particularly in phone conversations and meeting discussions, as they are crucial for real-time interactions in the digital business environment. Writing skills are deemed less important, with 15% deemed very important. This suggests a shift towards skills better suited for immediate, interpersonal exchanges. The students also rank the functions of English language proficiency most frequently employed in their daily tasks, such as answering meeting questions, participating in discussions, speaking to foreigners by phone, answering working interview questions, scheduling appointments, writing CVs and application letters, writing reports, and responding to emails. The most prominent issues identified were presenting project/term papers orally, executing simulation tasks, attending group talks, and accurately speaking words. Listening skills were also identified as significant, with 55% of respondents stating their difficulty in capturing lecture notes via listening. Reading and analytical skills were identified as the most challenging, with 55% identifying key parts in texts and 35% predicting new vocabulary interpretations from context. Writing skills were identified as the most challenging, with 40% stating their difficulty. These findings emphasized the need for tailored approaches to enhance academic success and prepare students for the dynamic communication demands of the digital business world.

The English Language Needs of a Technical Vocational Institution

The English Language Needs of a Technical Vocational Institution

A Pilot Study: English Language Needs of the International Trade Salesmen

A Pilot Study: English Language Needs of the International Trade Salesmen

Analysis of the English Language Needs of Grade 12 Learners in Lebanon

This research investigates the language needs of Grade 12 English Second Language Learners (ESL) in Lebanese public schools, aiming to identify gaps between the curriculum and student requirements. Employing a qualitative case study approach, using document analysis, interviews, and questionnaires, the study reveals critical shortcomings within the Lebanese English curriculum. Findings indicate widespread dissatisfaction among both teachers and students with the curriculum, highlighting significant gaps and inconsistencies between ministry objectives and practical implementation. The curriculum fails to resonate with students' real-life experiences, resulting in disinterest and boredom. Outdated teaching methodologies, a disparity between public and private schools, and an emphasis on exam-oriented learning limit students' exposure to effective learning techniques. Recommendations include increasing English lesson frequency, assessing students' reading levels, incorporating diverse reading strategies, providing more reading materials, and integrating technology into teaching. Suggestions also advocate for authentic materials exposure to enhance language skills. Both teachers and students emphasize the urgent need for an updated curriculum emphasizing real-world application, critical thinking, and interactive learning. Addressing these concerns is crucial to delivering a more effective English language education aligning with students' contemporary needs and preparing them for future academic and practical endeavors.

Proficiency Preparedness in Defence Workforce: A Survey of Cadet Officers’ English Language Needs

Identifying learners' perceived needs can assist ESL practitioners in designing instructional materials more effectively, addressing gaps in language learning. This study aims to investigate the perceived English language skill requirements of cadet officers for their future workplaces and to assess the perceived importance of English in job performance, promotion prospects, and personal life. To achieve this, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 104 cadet officers from a defence university. Then the quantitative data were analysed descriptively, using SPSS Version 26. The findings indicate that cadets perceive all four English language skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—as being essential for their future workplaces. However, when these skills are ranked in terms of priority, reading skills take precedence, followed by speaking and writing skills, which are seen as being equally important. Listening skills are perceived to be less important for cadets’ future workplaces. Additionally, cadets consider English language skills to be crucial for job performance and personal life but less important for promotion. These findings offer significant implications for the improvement of future English syllabus designs, with the goal of successfully teaching all English language skills.

English for Islamic Boarding House (Pesantren)–Based College Students: Revealing the English Language Needs

This study aimed to investigate the learners’ perspective of perceived needs on the English language course at pesantren - based college that is considered as English for Specific Purposes. The needs are categorized as target needs and learning needs. The subject of the study were 26 students of Islamic Education department and 19 Quranic Sciences department students, as well as the 2 lecturers from each department. The data were collected through two techniques; the survey questionnaires which were addressed to students and interview to the lecturers. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics by computing the percentage of the responses. Research findings revealed the target needs by identifying the goal of the English course that is to facilitate learners to communicate in English both spoken and written; while the learning needs by identifying the inputs of practicing the four skills should be both authentic and not authentic in nature as well as should contain subjects related to religious materials and every day used texts. The presented texts should be learnt through various procedures and arranged from guided to free guided tasks.

English Language Needs for Hotel Service and ESP Program: The Case of Hospitality Vocational Secondary School

English Language Needs for Hotel Service and ESP Program: The Case of Hospitality Vocational Secondary School

Investigation of English Language Needs of Trainers of Garment and Apparel Fashion Technology

In Ethiopia, English is given as a course starting from elementary school to higher education. Besides, it is the medium of instruction starting from secondary education. Even after receiving more than ten years of formal English language education in school, the students still remain inadequate in their ability to use the language and to comprehend its use in interaction both in verbal and written mode. The graduates of Ethiopian Technical University who become trainers in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) Colleges are expected to prepare teaching learning materials, provide training, conduct researches in their field of study, present project works and so on. In addition to field area knowledge, these tasks demand English language ability in order to execute their jobs successfully. Thus, this study was conducted to analyze the English occupational needs of garment and apparel fashion technology trainers. The findings reveal that the important English language macro-skills in workplace setting are writing, speaking, listening, and reading in descending order. The trainers have more gaps on speaking, and writing skills than the other two skills. The sub-skills are also identified and prioritized in relation to the four macro language skills; therefore, the most important sub-skills from each of the four macro-skills presented here. The three most important speaking sub-skills are giving lectures, giving oral presentation, and participating in pair/group discussions. From the writing skills writing operation sheet, writing project proposals, and writing information sheet are the first three most important sub-skills. Based on the findings, it is recommended to design an English course considering the relative importance and difficulty of English macro-skills and sub-skills. In addition, it is necessary to consider the trainees’ learning preferences when designing an English course in order to improve trainers’ language ability which makes them more effective on their job.

The English Language Needs of Hospitality and Hotel Management Students at a Saudi University: Integrating Agile Philosophy into ESP

The English language plays a vital role in tourism, particularly in hospitality and hotel management. As a result, there is a need to investigate the English language requirements of this industry and train employees who can perform well both professionally and competently. This prompted us to investigate one of the Hospitality and Hotel Management (HHM) programs at King Abdulaziz University's (KAU) College of Tourism. This program is responsible for training graduate students who will work in the HHM sector. As a result, the researcher's aims in this study are to investigate the English language needs of Hospitality and Hotel Management program, and to introduce Agile English for Specific Purposes (AESP) as a new approach to teaching English in the field of English for Specific purposes. This research used a mixed-method approach to gather quantitative and qualitative data through a questionnaire, interviews and book evaluation. The study sample consisted of fifteen graduate and undergraduate students, five teachers from the HHM program at the same faculty, and six employees from different HHM sectors. According to the findings of this study, speaking was the most needed skill, as well as the way the current HHM program did not meet the English needs of the students. Moreover, this study presented AESP as a solution that combined all of the required needs into one.

English Language Needs among Services Sector Employees in Malaysia’s New Norm

English proficiency is necessary for workplace communication. Working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic means employees require more than good technical skills. They also require language skills for effective communication. The level of English proficiency may not meet the benchmarks established by the employers to be considered sufficient for effective workplace communication, thus, the objective of this paper is to explore English language needs among employees working in the services sector in Malaysia. To obtain this data, participants working in 12 areas of the services sector filled in a needs analysis questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (SPSS version 26) analysed the language skills that were most important to employees which were categorized under three main constructs namely, ‘necessities’, ‘lacks’ and ‘wants.’ Overall findings revealed that the two major language skills employees perceived they needed to improve on the most were speaking and reading. From the results, it is proposed that future researches sample a larger number of participants and apply a mixed method approach for a more in-depth study. Furthermore, the findings have implications for curriculum developers, subject specialists, educators and the services sector.

Analysis of the English Language Needs of the Saudi Tourism Workforce: A First Step into Designing ESP Teaching Materials

Communication skills are extremely important for the tourism industry; they form an integral part of most tourism activities. Using English, as the international lingua franca, is an essential part of these skills, especially for international tourism. Saudi Vision 2030 places a high importance on international tourism as a driving force for economic growth. Since the inception of the Saudi Vision 2030, the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia, along with its workforce, has been growing substantially. Therefore, designing English language teaching materials for the tourism industry workforce in Saudi Arabia is a necessity. The current study firstly aimed to analyze the English language communicative needs of the Saudi tourism workforce, and then propose an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) model for teaching English based on their needs. A nation-wide survey was designed and distributed to sixty-two male and fifteen female workers serving in the Saudi tourism industry to determine their English language communicative needs. Listening and speaking were found to be highly important to their profession, in particular understanding instructions and requirements and providing details about touristic attractions. Reading and vocabulary were found more important than writing and grammatical accuracy. The study concludes with a proposal of an ESP teaching model to meet the English language communicative needs of the tourism workforce in Saudi Arabia.

Identifying English Language Needs of Religious Guides at The General Presidency of The Grand Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque

The aim of this study is to identify English language needs for religious guides at The General Presidency of The Grand Mosque and Prophet’s Mosque. This study adopted a quantitative approach methodology using needs analysis questionnaire. The quantitative data collection instrument was a questionnaire with (51) participants. SPSS was used as the quantitative data analysis method. Findings showed that listening and speaking were the most important skills, and reading was moderately important, while writing is not important at all. Also, English is greatly rated as a tool to effectively perform their tasks in term of preaching and advising guests and pilgrims. Difficulties are embodied in lacking English language, accents, and proper religious expressions and vocabulary. This study highlights an urgent need for English for Religious Purposes. The study proposes a general guideline for a course design framework based on participants’ needs.

The English Language Needs for Information Technology: A Comparison Case of Professionals and Students

English has established itself as a global lingua franca. The global growth in the usage of English has resulted in many reforms within educational institutions. The study aims to ascertain and examine English needs for information technology purposes among professionals and learners on a wide scale. A quantitative descriptive approach with a survey research design was employed in the study, and it applied to the Cross-Sectional survey design. Mailed questionnaires were collected from 243 students’ and 23 professionals. According to the questionnaires, the result found that professional purposes for learning English are to complete written-project reports or papers, while students must communicate with the global community. The English learning outcome implied different aims. The professionals want to complete language instructions for information technology processing, but students expect information access to the products. Professional speaking abilities are concerned with asking clarifications in the group or personal meetings, yet students concern more in taking and receiving the phone calls. In the same manner as writing, professionals and students have the same expectation that is to produce formal reports in academic or professional situations. Both participants perceive the responses by reading ability concerned to the summarizing detail information. This study affirmed an interrelation between the English standing in professional IT and students’ IT positions in communication experiences in their present circumstances.

English Language Needs for Medical Students: A Link and Match of Academic and Professional Career

The objective of this study was to link and match the needs for an academic and professional career for medical students. The rationale is what English skills and communicative needs are learned at university should meet their needs in accomplishing their study and in pursuing their professional career. It is strongly believed that this link and match makes learning English take place. To achieve the aim of this study, descriptive analysis was used to analyze questionnaire responses. The questionnaires were distributed to 156 medical students of Baiturrahmah university who enrolled at Bahasa Inggris 6 course and had already passed Bahasa Inggris 1 to 5 courses. The finding indicated that 94,8% of medical students viewed that English was undoubtedly required for both academic and professional careers with listening and speaking skills as a priority. For medical needs, students viewed listening (82,27%) and speaking (82,21%). For professional needs, they believed listening 95.99% and speaking (85.25%) were the priority. Interestingly, for academic needs, medical students needed communicative skills and strategies for reading English journal articles to finish their studies. For a professional career, participating in international seminars was in demand. By the study, it is strongly assumed that accommodating this link and match will make studying English more meaningful and beneficial.Keywords: English Language, Needs, Link, and Match.

An Analysis of the English Language Needs of Customer Contact and Secretarial Operation Coordination Trainees: Some Selected Technical and Vocational Colleges in Ethiopia

This study is mainly conducted to find out the English language needs of Customer Contact and Secretarial Operation Coordination Level IV trainees. To achieve this objective, purposive sampling technique was used to select content area teachers while comprehensive sampling technique was used to include trainees and English language teachers. A survey research was the design of this study. To this end, questionnaire and interview were employed to collect data. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were used in the study. The findings of the study showed that writing, speaking, reading and listening skills are prioritized by trainees according to their order. In the area of micro skills, listening to lectures to take notes and listening to class discussions were showed as highly needed micro-skills. With regard to speaking activities, asking and answering questions and participating in whole class discussion were highly needed speaking micro-skills. Reading reference books and reading lecture notes, writing different project works like term papers, assignments and sample personal and business letters were identified as the most important speaking and writing micro-skills. Vocabulary was found more important than grammar. Most trainees reported that they find asking and answering questions and writing different project works like term papers and assignments, sample personal and business letters difficult. The reason for this might be because the courses offered are inefficient to help them develop these skills. Disparity was also found between their language problems and the courses they take. Finally, based on these findings, recommendations were also forwarded.