A Needs Analysis of High School Students' English Speaking and Writing Skills

Abstract

English language teaching maintains its importance in Türkiye, as in other countries where English is taught as a foreign language. Although changes have been made to the K-12 curricula over the years, they are required either due to the need to educate individuals who are competent to adjust to the necessities of the current era or as a response to underachievement in national and international tests. In this regard, needs analysis is a pivotal step in developing courses and curricula as it provides insight into what learners need to learn. However, majority of needs analysis studies in the Turkish context are conducted at the university level, leaving the language needs of high school students in the dark. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore English speaking and writing needs of the ninth graders studying at different school types. Employing a quantitative design through survey methodology, a needs analysis form was developed based on the thoughts and evaluations of 12 English language teachers (Çakar et al., 2023) teaching at the schools where the student surveys would be administered. Having validated the survey form through expert opinions and pilot-tested, data were collected from the participants (N=543). The results revealed that the students prioritized speaking needs over their writing needs. Moreover, students felt that their teachers' instruction of English was ineffective, and class hours, and learning environment were inadequate. The students' primary motives for learning to speak and write English included traveling or finding a good job.

Keywords

• needs analysis
• language skills needs
• speaking skills
• writing skills
• language lacks
• language wants

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