A Study On The Academic English Language Target Needs Of The Faculty Of Applied Science Undergraduates At Al-Aqsa University
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Date
2011-03
Authors
Mohamed Alastal, Abdelgawad Ahmed
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Identifying the students’ language needs is an essential first step to help
them cope with the language difficulties they face in their academic study. As little
attention has been given to needs analysis in Arabic context, the present study aims
to identify the academic English language target needs of the Faculty of Applied
Science (FAS) undergraduate students at Al-Aqsa University (AU). To accomplish
this aim, the conceptual framework of the study is based on Social Constructivism
Theory and Structuration Theory in addition to Hutchinson and Waters’ (1987)
framework of target needs analysis in which the learners’ target needs are divided
into three parts: ‘Necessity’, ‘Lacks’ and ‘Wants’. The study is based on both
quantitative data and qualitative data collected from three sources: the Undergraduate
Students, the FAS Staff Members, and the English Language Lecturers. The
quantitative data are collected through questionnaires, and the qualitative data are
obtained from semi-structured interviews and student journals. With the help of
SPSS, the quantitative data are analyzed in the form of frequency counts,
percentages, means, and standard deviations. The qualitative data are deductively
analyzed.
Description
Keywords
Academic English Language Target Needs , Al-Aqsa University