A Needs Analysis of High School Students on English Language Course

1. Purpose
The purpose of this report is to identify the group whose courses I took during the
practicum, to be aware of their lacks and to determine what needs to be done to eliminate the
lacks.
2. Participants
There are 10th grade 15-16 years old students in Tevfik Serdar Anatolian Highschool.
I can observe that they are highly successful students in terms of all the lessons in general. I
can see that they have a tendency to participate in courses when they are interested. For
example if the topic is related to their daily lives they would be more willing to participate
and talk about it.
3. Data Collection Tools
In this report observation and interview are used to collect the data. The researcher
made the observation during the practicum. Also some interview questions are prepared to
collect the data. The observation criteria checklist and interview questions samples are
gathered from another study and developed on these. Interview was made with the teacher
who is responsible for the classroom.
4. Findings
4.1. Finding through observation

Criteria Descriptive notes Reflective Notes

Instruction The teacher provides the Students do not

instructions first in
English then Turkish to
make students understand
the activity more. The
instructions are also on
their smartboard and
coursebook. Thus,
sometimes the teacher
does not need to give the
instructions.
understand if the
instructions are made in
English. In this sense,
they expect to hear it in
Turkish because they are
used to it. To me,
instruction should be
given in English more
often because even if they
study for only exams, in
the exams, they need to
understand and complete
questions on their own.

Implementation of Students follow the lesson It is nice to follow the

Technology from the smartboard. On
the smartboard, the
coursebook is reflected on
the smartboard and
activities are done through
the smartboard. Also,
videos and audios can be
followed by smartboard.
coursebook on the
smartboard because
everyone can see clearly
and the whole class can
join because the
smartboard provides
interactive practice. In my
opinion, also other
technology tools could

Classroom management Students tend to talk with
& discipline each other. In general,
they need to have an
authority figure in the
classroom.
Materials The only material is the
coursebook students are
provided. They follow the
course through the
coursebook. There is no
variety and any other
extra materials such as
videos or activities from
another source.
Planning ( Time Because the classroom is
management) too crowded, it is often
hard to implement all the
activities and topics to be
completed at the end of
the lesson. In this sense,
students are expected to
complete activities at
home by giving them
assignments.
have been used to
implement a more
engaging classroom. For
instance web 2.0 tools
such as word wall or
kahoot should be used
more often.
In my opinion, students
should know that the
course they are taking is a
necessity for them. They
should take their
responsibility on their
own in terms of learning
development. They should
be more aware of the fact
that they should learn
without any pressure. This
can lead them to be more
motivated and responsible
about their own teaching.
It is insufficient to use
only the coursebook
because students are so
used to the coursebook
that they would be excited
if other materials are used
and easily distracted.
They should be more used
to gamification, or other
sources which means
variety because if they are
used to them they can be
more focused on the goals
and objectives of these
materials.
Time management is
weak because only 40
minutes are given for one
session. So time should be
used wisely. Interruptions
or any other technical
problems can happen
often. Teachers should be
more competent about on
the spot decisions because
students are easily

Classroom interaction Interaction between
(Student-student students is almost absent.
interaction) They only interact with
(Teacher-student each other about out of
ınteraction) classroom issues.
Interaction between the
teacher and students is
weak again because
students never prefer to
communicate in English
about the taught topic.
They prefer not to discuss
and express opinions; they
tend to listen to the lecture
and only talk about the
instructions and activities
they do.
Language Skills They are good at writing
and reading because the
coursebooks they follow
are more focused on these
skills. They are weak at
listening and speaking.
Especially speaking, they
have only the ability to
answer questions as short
answers like “Yes” or
“No”. When they
encounter questions
requiring to talk about
themselves or their
opinions they prefer not to
participate. They can
complete activities
required to fill the gaps
etc. but if any question is
directed towards
themselves to anwer like
open-ended questions
such as “What do you
think about this?”, they
would not prefer to talk.
distracted and talk with
each other immediately
during any interruption.
According to me, students
should be given a chance
to discuss and express
their opinion on anything.
They are not used to
expressing their opinions
and talking about
themselves. They should
be aware of the fact that
they are as much a part of
the learning environment
as the teacher. In this
sense, teachers should act
like they are the team
member instead of an
authority figure.
To me, students are weak
in terms of speaking
competence because they
are afraid of making
mistakes in front of their
friends and also their
teacher. To be able to
overcome this problem,
the teacher should
encourage them and boost
motivation towards
speaking by creating an
anxiety-free atmosphere.
Other language skills
should also be
implemented but instead
of giving them directly,
they should use them
implicitly. All language
skills should be together
in one task, for instance.
Because they are used to
completing all of these
activities by reading and
writing it is
understandable that they
are not good at speaking
and listening. As we
 mentioned before, all the
language skills should
actually be integrated
together because they are
inseparable.

4.2. Finding through interview

1. Can you describe a successful class that you have had with 10th graders?
A successful class should be open to innovation and interaction.A good class
can be defined by the fact that students take their own responsibilities and are fully
prepared.Students should express themselves well. They should do their homework in
full and come to the lesson prepared. They should listen well to the teacher during the
lesson.Everyone should not hesitate to participate in the lesson, be afraid to make
mistakes.
2. What are some of your weaknesses when you conduct English lessons at high
school level?
Sometimes I don't have time to improve myself for innovations. I realize that I
have to prepare myself as well as prepare my students. Of course, I study and prepare
in advance, but I can't follow the innovations much in terms of professional
development. And because our classrooms are very crowded, I can't teach according
to everyone's characteristics and their learning styles.
3. What kind of weaknesses are there in this classroom?
From what I have followed and observed, I have come to the following
conclusion: our students know English, their grammar is good, but they have speaking
problems. In the research conducted, it has been revealed that this is a common
problem in the Middle East and Asian cultures, because we are afraid of it. You can
graduate very comfortably at school without speaking at all. An untapped talent also
does not develop naturally. Also, I think that they are more burdened by this lesson
because English is the direct equivalent in everyday life. They say that we have been
studying English for 12 years but we can't speak it. There are some who haven't
studied mathematics for 12 years and don't know multiplication tables, and they can't
write Turkish in accordance with spelling rules.
4. What are some of your concerns or challenges regarding teaching English at
high school level?
The biggest problem I have is that students are more afraid to make mistakes
than to talk. Because of their age group, they care a lot about what their friends say.
They're afraid to make fun of their friends. This condition prevents the development
of speech skills. In addition, students have problems with why they learn English.
Seeing English only as a lesson for passing exams makes learning short-term.
5. Which activities do you prefer most in this classroom?
There are many ways for this. In fact, as in other courses, it is necessary to
accept that each student has different tendencies, abilities and interests. If we know
 our students well, we can guide them correctly. Some are exposed to English through
movies, some through songs, some through books. They took a 2-3 hour lesson at
school and English cannot be learned this way. We need to make it a part of our lives
and somehow communicate with it every day.
5. Conclusion
In general, it was stated that the most common problem experienced by the students
was their speaking skills. Students study only from textbooks. No other materials are used. In
addition, the time given to teaching English is very short. In this case, students need to
integrate English into their own lives. In addition, they use the technology only in one way.
They should use Web 2.0 tools more and realize the limitlessness of the technology at their
disposal. They also always need him to be an authority figure in the classroom. Students
should take responsibility for their own learning.
Zahidenur OKTAR
366430