An evaluation of general English course from non-English major students’ learning needs analysis

Abstract

          The current research study aims to evaluate General English course (GEC) at The Southern Transport College (STC) in Can Tho City from analyzing learning needs of non-English major students to improve the quality of the course, meet students’ learning needs, and in accordance with the national criteria of curriculum design as well. The EFL students' learning needs are defined as encompassing students' reactions to GEC, language input, language skills, use of knowledge, teachers and teaching methods, testing and assessment, and learning outcome. Since the needs analysis and course evaluation were complex tasks with various possibilities of the needs, interviews of students and teachers were conducted to collect qualitative data purposing to strengthen the quantitative data from the two questionnaires. Two questionnaires of students learning needs and their evaluation of GEC were adapted from the original version of Stufflebeam’s CIPP evaluation model (1983) and Sarah Cook’s the ADDE model (2005) in Likert scales. The interview questions for students and teachers were adopted from interview questions in Mahmoud’s study (2014). The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed to answer the two research questions: (1) What are non-English major students learning needs? (2) To what extent does general English course satisfy students’ learning needs? One hundred forty-eight students and four teachers got involved in the study as participants. The findings of the research revealed that students at STC are most interested in knowledge and language input provided from GEC. It was also determined that the students preferred extracurricular activities, watching videos or small group discussions in the language learning process. From the students’ evaluation of GEC, it was seen that their learning needs were different from the actual course they received. They fairly agree with teachers and teaching methods, testing and assessment, but the actual course does not satisfy students’ learning needs completely. Implications for teachers and school administrators are explored that they should add extracurricular activities to GEC as compulsory periods, increase the amount of periods in GEC curriculum, and open revision English courses to strengthen their English skills and test taking skills before encouraging them to register for the national examination of level A2.