The Potential Role of Needs Analysis in The Process of EAP Course Design for Arab Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to conduct needs analysis to determine the learners’ needs in order to facilitate designing EAP course for undergraduate Arab students who are enrolled to join a bachelor program of business marketing program at the Australian College of Kuwait. The aim of this needs analysis is to help in developing the suitable curriculum and the intended materials for the course. The analysis attempts to investigate the subjective needs and the requirements of the students. Therefore, it is intended to introduce the context and the learners. It tackles the definition of “Needs Analysisâ€, its importance and its approaches. It also provides an identification of the language demands of the learners in order to identify the learners’ needs in an EAP course. Moreover, this paper includes a description of the participants as well as the rationale for a needs analysis among the undergraduate students. It also shows the method used in conducting the needs analysis and provides the rationale beyond using it. Finally, it provides the limitations and suggests how we prevent them.