Needs Analysis and Language Teaching.

Needs analysis is one of the major topics in the field of language acquisition research. Analysis of language learners' needs is seen as the first step towards preparation of language course. Hakuta and Cancino (1977: 294) stressed that "language provides one of the most readily accessible windows into the nature of the human mind. How children acquire this complex system with such apparent ease continues to fascinate the student of human language." Needs analysis is seen as a device for gathering information about learners and about their needs in language teaching. This paper attempts to describe the use of needs analysis in language teaching and points out the distinction between objective needs analysis and subjective needs analysis. Richards and Rodgers (1986:156) argued that "need analysis is concerned with identifying general and specific language needs that can be addressed in developing goals, objectives, and content in a language program". Hutchinson and Waters (1987) mentioned that learners' needs should be considered in the process of planning the content of a language program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]