The needs analysis is the basis for tailoring (maßschneidern) an English course to, obviously, your needs. But, it’s more complicated than it appears at first glance (auf den ersten Blick), so let’s break it down.
Let’s say you were interested in organising a business English course with me. The next step would be organising a 15 to 20 minute video conference so you can tell me what you want from the course.
What happens in a needs analysis interview?
So today's the day, and here we are in our meeting. But I know you’re probably nervous, so before I bombard you with questions, I’d briefly introduce myself and tell you a bit about my background. After all, you need to get to know me too!
Once you know a little about me, I’d ask you questions like:
Finishing Up
From this discussion, I now know a lot about your requirements and I know your English level as well. This is particularly important if we are creating several groups from your company. A group with too wide a range of learners, advanced and pre-intermediate, for example, is frustrating for everyone.
I can also see if you may need more of a focus on fluency (your speaking is slow or broken) or accuracy (you make a lot of mistakes). Usually, a course balances both aspects, but sometimes a learner may need more work on one or the other.
We can also then talk about what the language lesson or course might look like.
After our chat, I then develop a course plan which we can discuss and agree on in or before the first lesson.
Learner-Centredness
So, that’s how it works. The needs analysis interview doesn’t just focus on needs, although it does that in detail. Your wishes, motivations, preferences, personality, and learner type also play a role in developing the right course for you. It’s also a chance for us to get to know each other and you to get rid of some those English butterflies (Nervösität).
An English teaching buzzword (Schlagwort) is learner-centredness (Lernerzentriertheit), and the needs analysis is the foundation for a solid course, constructed around what you need, what you want, and what makes you tick (was Sie motiviert)!
It’s a common question, and the whole process is deceptively (trügerisch) easy. Download a colourful app that gamifies language learning. Fun. Easy. Has funny owls. All in five minutes a day. Do it on the train to work. Efficient. Good use of my time!
Too good to be true?
Well, let me be a bit pedantic (pinibel) here and make two questions out of one.
Yeah, you can learn vocabulary, phrases, grammar, even improve your reading and listening, but will anything meaningful come out of your mouth at the right time in the right place. Highly unlikely!
Je ne comprends pas - me and my French.
Take me, for example. After two years of using Babbel (paid app) and Duolingo (free version) for learning French, I couldn’t say anything more than ‘l’addition, sil vous plais’, and I’d known that phrase before anyway.
So one day, after one too many embarrassments in Alsace and Lorraine, I bit the bullet and invested in some online group classes. To start with, it was a brutal shock. While I could spit out a few words, I couldn’t string together a meaningful sentence, at least without my fellow learners ageing five years.
And listening? Well, what my teachers were saying was a stream of complete gibberish (Kauderwelsch).
Then, with regular structured lessons with real people, the listening and speaking began to improve. Things began to click.
The decisive factors are having to listen and being made to speak! In a real class, running away is not an option. It's not media to consume. You can't just kick back and relax - you have to be involved. You have to work. And that's what makes it work.
In around six months, I moved from beginner classes to the pre-intermediate classes, and although I still find listening difficult, I understand a lot more. It’s as if the stream of language has slowed and is now mostly identifiable as words and phrases. What was impossible became achievable.
Now, not all of my app time was wasted, and some of the grammar work I’d done on the apps is paying off. At the same time, I can see that I could have focussed more on vocabulary, but there again, it is hard to retain vocabulary if you’re not actively using a language. You can recognise a word in context, but it's usually not available in working memory when your language needs to, um, work.
What was your question?
So, the question is: do you want to learn a language, or speak a language?
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