献上自己的一篇writing sample,应用语言学相关,希望有用
下面是一篇关于应用语言学(英语教学)的writing sample, 献给大家,希望有帮助, 下午又看了一遍, 应该没什么错误了.reference没有附上, 请大家见谅了. reference是采用Harvard system.
文后可以下载WORD版本.
Needs Analysis: An Innovation in the Language Classroom in China
1. INTRODUCTION
Teaching primary students in an EFL context, the differential language proficiency levels of students has been one of the obstacles I came across when planning teaching. This essay opens with an introduction of needs analysis as an innovative solution to tackle the difficulty in syllabus designing as well as lesson planning in my own context. The following part presents how to exploit needs analysis. The procedures of implementation then lead to the investigation of the rationale of needs analysis. The final part outlines the implication as well as suggestions of exploiting needs analysis in the pedagogical field in my teaching context.
2. OUTLINE OF THE USE OF NEEDS ANALYSIS
In this section, explanation of why needs analysis might be an appropriate solution to the difficulties I encountered in course designing will be specified. How to exploit and implement needs analysis will then be illustrated as well.
As mentioned, teaching primary students English as a foreign language, one of the major difficulties I encountered is how to manage the various discrepant proficiency levels of students within one class and meanwhile, remaining teaching within the scope of the assigned textbooks. In addition to issues related to language proficiency and learning objectives, how to maintain motivation of young learners’ in the learning process is also my concern when planning teaching. Searching for solutions to these wonders, I realize the answer to the neutral balance among national curriculum, proficiency level and motivation of learners may very likely lie in the learners themselves. Therefore, I resort to needs analysis as a way to elicit the individual opinions about English learning from my students in order to make adjustment to the teaching as well as learning pattern we currently have. As Stern (1992) suggests, needs analysis of language enables the language course to meet ‘the needs of groups of students working in various countries at different levels of proficiency and with a variety of objectives in mind’ (p.43), and this is the reason I would like to introduce needs analysis to my students and also what I expect to bring in to the course design.
To outline suitable procedures of implementing needs analysis in my teaching context, here, I make reference to Tarone and Yule (1989), Linse (1993,cited in Richards 2001), Richards (2001) ,Nunan and Lamb (2001) as well as my own teaching experience to specify how needs analysis might work to provide information to the course design process.
As can be seen in Chart 1(please refer to Appendix A), the starting point of needs analysis is to decide the purpose of the analysis (e.g. to compile the profile of language groups in class; to find out the students’ language use in daily life; to discover students’ interests in topics). Then the consequential important step is to identify the potential needs from students. In this essay, I adopt Brindley’s (1984, cited in Nunan 1988) viewpoint of ‘subjective needs’ and ‘objective needs’ to categorize learners’ needs, which defines ‘subjective needs’ as ‘wants, desires, expectations or other psychological manifestation’ of learners while ‘objective needs’ as ‘those can be diagnosed by teachers on the basis of the analysis of personal data about the learners along with information about their language proficiency and patterns of language use’ (p.44). After these two sources of needs are identified, the instruments used to elicit learners’ opinions of their needs can be chosen. The following pilot study of the instrument is crucial, because of the age factor of my students (most of them aged from eight to ten), this step could be very influential to whether students can comprehend as well as express their opinions in the elicitation process successfully. Once the data is collected, the teacher needs to interpret the data based on considerations of elicited information, the national curriculum, and the teaching objectives on the core textbooks…etc. Then the more neutral teaching objectives, which reflect the needs of learners and the needs of language knowledge or skills that are crucial for their learning, can be reached. What goes on next is the adjustments made to teaching materials (especially when designing the whole-term syllabus) and the arrangement and analysis of specific tasks. By using the general analysis model from Tarone and Yule (1989), teachers can be oriented in designing the specific knowledge, skills or function of target language features; meanwhile they can examine whether the task reflects the needs from learners as well. If it does, then the teachers can move on to the instruction phase. The last step in the analysis is the assessment phase, which would not only give feedback to both learners and teachers but may also become the new starting point of another needs analysis potentially.
3. RATIONALE OF NEEDS ANALYSIS: FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF LEARNING TO DIFFERENT APPROACHES AND FOCI
In this section, the main concepts that bolster needs analysis will be unfolded with reference to literature and my own teaching context.
As mentioned in the previous section, to identify the needs from learners is the keystone in needs analysis. The two categories of needs –‘subjective needs’ and ‘objective needs’ arise from the two orientations of needs analysis, which is the ‘product-oriented’ and the ‘process-oriented’ implementation of needs analysis (Brindley, 1989). In ‘product-oriented’ analysis, to discover the discrepancy between the current and anticipated proficiency level of learners’ and to set the beginning and ending points of achievement are the target aims of the analysis. Therefore, the descriptions of learners’ needs are based on their future use of the target language. However, in the ‘process-oriented’ analysis, learners are viewed as individuals in the learning process. Hence, individual factors of learners such as motivation, expectations and learning styles are concerned. With different orientations of needs analysis, it results in the different approaches, which are the ‘language proficiency orientation’, the ‘psychological /humanistic orientation’ and the ‘specific orientation’ (Brindley, 1989). Table 1(please refer to Appendix B) outlines some salient characteristics in terms of the view of learners, needs, emphasis and educational rationale of these three approaches. In Table 1, it can be seen that the function of these three approaches is mainly to categorize or to group learners based on different perspectives of needs. Nunan and Lamb(2001) also indicate that needs analysis can be used to enhance teaching planning: ‘the grouping function (of needs analysis) facilitates the specification of content and learning procedures that are consonant with some aspect of the learner data that has been gathered’ (p.39).
With consideration to what kind of approach to exploit in my context, the issue links back to what sort of needs to be emphasized. In China, English teachers are required to use textbooks which are written according to the national curriculum guidelines. Hence, with the preordained structure of curriculum and with the attention to learners’ expectations, an eclectic way, which is close to what Brindley (1989) deposits, of conducting needs analysis in my own context would be using the objective needs as the basis and then modify the syllabus with subjective needs. In this way, in the course designing process, objective needs can be a start point to guide the teachers and also as a way to ensure the development of proficiency level will be catered. Then the individual factors related to learners can be draw into consideration as the criteria to adjust the textbook materials and language use.
Another underlying issue for implementing needs analysis is whether needs analysis can be suitable for general English classes. Despite needs analysis for language originated mainly from ESP (English for Specific Purpose) courses; several researchers (Tarone & Yule 1989; Seedhouse 1995; Richards 2001) do see the importance of exploiting needs analysis in general language classes. Because by using needs analysis, learners are involved in their learning actively. As Nunan (1988) indicates, the involvement of learners is their rights in the learning process. Regarded within my own context, primary students in China are neither learning English for specific purposes (English is a compulsory subject) nor are required to pass language tests like high school students do. But this does not mean they should be deprived of the right to participate cooperatively with the teachers in deciding what to learn. As Richards (1990) has pointed out ‘needs analysis is also fundamental to the planning of general English courses’ (p.2). I believe that the purpose of needs analysis of enabling the teacher to ‘translate these needs into linguistic and pedagogical terms in order to teach an effective course’ (Mackey 1978) in ESP courses would function as well in the general language class.
To sum up, by reviewing literature and reflecting on my own teaching, the rationale underpins needs analysis is the consideration and respect of differences within individuals as well as the teaching/learning processes. From this perspective, needs analysis brings flexibility to the teaching/learning process and might very well enhance the possibility of reaching a more neutral balance among learners, teachers, curriculum, and language.
4. IMPLICATION ON PEDAGOGY
In this section, the implication of exploiting needs analysis in my teaching context will be addressed in terms of the roles that learners and teachers play in the implementing process.
4.1 Pre-application phase
As mentioned in the previous section, needs analysis could have the potential to engage learners to participate learning more actively due to their involving in the process of deciding what to learn. In addition to course design, needs analysis also facilitates a channel for individual differences to be noticed and catered. However, in my context, students are encouraged to be homogeneous rather than heterogeneous, which is for the convenience of the long-used teacher-centered teaching. Up to the present time, most of the language classrooms in China remain in a teacher-fronted, textbook-dominant teaching. Regarding the roles that learners play in the needs analysis process, Graves (2001) urges for a considerate preparation for learners before implementing. Therefore, when introducing needs analysis to learners in my context, there should be a certain period of time to provide learners strategies to be autonomous in learning, which may enhance their awareness of the responsibility they need to take in the needs analysis process. To achieve this, as Hedge (2000) suggests, activities which can assist learners to ‘reflect on learning’ (e.g. self-evaluating or peer-evaluating tasks such as providing feedback); equip them ‘with strategies’ to take part in learning actively (e.g. training strategies needed in learning tasks, such as cognitive or metacognitive strategies); encourage them ‘to monitor and check their progress’ (e.g. self-assessment) need to be provided for facilitating learning autonomy. With these autonomy-facilitating tasks, scaffoldings can be furnished in order to reduce the potential sense of threat or insecurity resulted from the shift from the more teacher-centered approach to the more learner-centered one and can provide learners with the sufficient skills to participate and accomplish needs analysis.
4.2 Application phase
When applying needs analysis into the syllabus designing or lesson planning in the classroom, teachers need to be alert constantly in the process, in particular when making decisions about changing the current teaching/learning patterns. One reason is because the potential problem lies in needs analysis is the remaining controversy of the definition of ‘needs’ (Brindley 1989, Richards 2001). As Young (2000) has mentioned the ‘there remains considerable ambiguity and potential conflict in the identification and definition of these needs’ (p.73). This may lead to another issue of how to interpret the information collected from learners. Richards (2001) recommends using ‘triangulation approach’ to keep a more neutral perspective on the interpretation of the data.
Another issue related to the implementation of needs analysis is the negotiation of between the roles of teachers and students. Both Brindley (1989) and Finney (2002) have specified the process of needs analysis as a process of negotiation between teachers and students in order to reach the ‘teacher-learner negotiated learning objectives’. As a teacher who is accustomed to the teacher-fronted teaching, I do see the importance of teacher-training with regard to the more learner-centered approach.
Last but not least, considering the materials and actual tasks being taught after needs analysis is done, I think the instruction process is as crucial as the forming process of ‘teacher-learner negotiated learning objectives’. When applying innovations into the language classroom, what teachers need to bare in mind is that before catering needs at higher levels of performance, those basic ones should be catered first (Waters and Vilches 2001). If the basic skills can be performed by the learners (e.g. learners can use language to express their own opinions), then it is more likely to encourage them to move on to the higher level (e.g. they can express their needs).
5. CONCLUSION
In this essay, needs analysis is introduced as a way to tackle the difficulty I encountered when managing course design for learners with different proficiency levels. By the implementation of needs analysis, the curriculum structure and teaching/learning patterns can have greater flexibility which allows both teachers’ and learners’ voices to be included in the process. It is this flexibility needs analysis brings to the language curriculum that propels me to adopt it in my teaching context. With careful implementation, I do expect needs analysis to have the potential to facilitate a more effective language course as Richards (1984) suggests.
In this writing sample, needs analysis is considered to be exploited at two levels of teaching designing: syllabus design and lesson planning. In the macro level, syllabus design refers to ‘the selected and organized content (areas of knowledge and particular skills and abilities) appropriate to the particular aims of a course’ (Cater & Nunan 2001) whereas lesson planning refers to the specific task designing to implement the syllabus in the micro level. ‘Course designing’ will be used to include the both levels in teaching designing.
Although Brindley uses the terms as ‘language proficiency orientation’, the ‘psychological /humanistic orientation’ and the ‘specific orientation’, in his article (Brindley, 1989), the three categories are summarized as the teachers’ approaches to needs analysis. In addition, for the title of a comparison table of the approaches in the same article, Brindley names the title as ‘comparison of approaches to need analysis’ (ibid.:67). Therefore, I would use these three categories as ‘approaches’ instead of ‘orientations’. 这个强的，一定要顶！:handshake
这篇论文有发表过，还是毕业论文，或是用来申请的？:confused:
沙发:) 是一篇硕士课程论文,没有发表. 没决定是否作为WRITING SAMPLE.SAMPLE想用自己写的测试相关的. 弱弱问一下 为啥自己的ID下面既有普通会员又有寄托新兵啊?
ding
哈哈，豆子的签名是比较奇怪的说 感谢分享 想问下LZ这个字数够学校要求的WS的要求吗？ 高亮rp呀!赞一下先! 原帖由 kk8605 于 2007-4-23 05:02 发表弱弱问一下 为啥自己的ID下面既有普通会员又有寄托新兵啊?
我也有这个问题！都高级会员了还这样。。。
回复 #7 jiyuanben 的帖子
这取决于学校的要求了, 可以满足部分学校 豆豆，我也学这个得。 看了一下， 不是很符合论文或者PROPOSAL格式，是不是随堂课堂写着玩得？ 这确实不是proposal 但是是符合论文形式的 属于一种对现实的反思writing sample可以写任何一篇关于学术的文章啊 我的理解是这样 如果不是 我可以删除这篇帖子的 呵呵 哦， 没啥， 我就随便问问， 来来来都是同行，联系一下
msn: zhangou888@hotmail.com 很實用的帖子，相信正在寫writing sample的gter一定也跟我ㄧ樣受用，謝謝LZ的分享。:) anyway 谢谢！