A Need Analysis in Instructional Material Development: The Quest for a Better English for Economics Students

Abstract

Need analysis is a very significant factor that differentiate English for Specific Purposes from General English. So, when a course of ESP is conducted, a need analysis should come at the beginning to identify what learners need and want from that course. This study investigates the need of English for Specific Purposes for the students of Economics and Business College in the town of Cilacap, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The data of this study was collected from different sources: questionnaire for students and semi-structured interview for certain stakeholders like ESP lecturer, heads of department and a graduate as practitioner in business. Result of the study shows that there was a big gap between the students’ English proficiency at the present which they admitted to be at the level of beginners (80% of the respondents) and the level of advanced English proficiency as what they wished to gain through the subject of English (71%), with speaking as their priority vision of English proficiency, and the expectation that the material has to be fun, exciting and contains many pictures with only short texts and simple discussion. It was also reported from the head of departments that for studying they need to be given academic writing and reading. For working, the graduate recommended speaking to be the priority of ESP. Finally, a quest of challenge came up for both ESP and subject lecturers to design a more qualified and effective ESP material based on the result of this need analysis study.