Name: Chhay Kossapol

Lecturer: Song Panha

Assignment #1

Mastering English is rather a complicated task to achieve. The prevalence uses of English in various academic
literatures renders being proficient in it a mandatory for colleges and in professionals. With how miscellaneous
English can be within different contexts, identifying the right aspects of English drastically affects how the students
will be able to perform in their career and college, thus giving rise to the era of needs analysis. This type of research
provides educator the needs that are supposed to be provided. As a result, the instructors can select specific lessons for
student to master and function. Some critics believed that needs analysis has been used properly since it is often used
to cope for the demand of cheap labors.

While discussing the importance of needs analysis, target situation analysis is worth mentioning regarding its
importance. This type of analysis allows the course creators to discover valid aspects or needs that learns require in
order to function properly. Its aim and goal are rather straightforward and based upon the desired outcomes. Hence,
target situation analysis is a critical lens which assists course creator in deciding what to be included.

From the book “English for specific purposes”, there is a study under the title of “Nurses’narratives on
workplace English in Taiwan: Improving patient care and enhancing professionalism”. In Taiwan, English has become
a dominant language in medical literatures and works, either writing or speaking. The study wanted to investigate the
current use of English in nursing and the experiences of nurses using English in the workplace. The research wanted
explore the reasons people use English in Taiwan and how English is used in nursing for communicative purpose in
Taiwan. In collecting the data, the research chose graduate nursing students, whose level of English were at B1, at a
university in southern Taiwan who were enrolled in a comprehensive 3-year master’s program in nursing science. The
students were asked to write 3-one page assignment regarding the way English is used in their nursing workplaces.
The students wrote in detail about the regular and occasional tasks, whom they were communicating with, and
communication problems. In these endeavors, the data received showed a great deal of target situation analysis. In
these assignments, the nursing graduate wrote about the English writing they do and communicative purposes at work.

This study conducted under the qualitative method in search of rich information from the target sampling. In
conducting the data collection, the researcher used record keeping by instructing the students write multiple one page
assignment detailing their use or needs of English in nursing to write or speak. However, there are some limitations
within this research design. First of all, the sampling English proficiency is still limited to be conducting such method
of data collection. A student with B1 writing ability would have a very difficult time trying to express themselves in a
detail narrative. Therefore, the sampling chosen and the task provided for collecting date did not go hand in hand.
Secondly, conducting data collection through writing is a less explorable procedure. In writing, students are supposed
to follow the guided questions. Therefore, it is impossible to seek further explanation or detail in case any certain
points were underrepresented. Furthermore, it is unethical to assume or conclude the students ‘responses if there were
not well developed or elaborated. Lastly, this way of conducting data collection often produces horrible answer
quality. Writing can take time and be very tedious. Therefore, an independent variable may arise as students may rush
in answering their questions or not putting the effort or commitment.

As there are limitations to this research, there are areas I would tweak and would have done differently. First
of all, within the same amount of effort and time I would have done a semi-structured interview. I believed having a
semi-structured interview or adding a few more procedures would have been able to elicit more precise and reliable
information from the students. Furthermore, I would have broadened the samples by including some professionals
rather than just the students. With this, the responses can be clearer, more valid, and reliable. It is possible to
authenticate each other responses between the professionals and students. Lastly, since this is a needs analysis, it
would be a wise decision to conduct analysis of information or literature review for data collection. Secondary data
can also be relevant and useful to further support our claims. Furthermore, the field of medicine is a rich field, thus
information readily available across papers, journals, and articles.

To sum up, this assignment was a great learning experience in evaluating a needs analysis and further
improvising the analysis. With the information as rich as was collected in the study, there were still many loopholes
and contradictory within the procedures and methods. Thus, it is vital for all needs analysis practitioners to be mindful
when choosing certain procedures and samplings.