Article info.

ABSTRACT

Received 09 Jun 2017
Revised 06 Oct 2017

Accepted 30 Mar 2018

This paper is aimed to evaluate general English course (GEC) at the Southern Transport College (STC) from analyzing learning needs of non-English major students to improve the quality of the course, meet students’ learning needs, and the national criteria of curriculum design. The non-English major 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 two questionnaires. The two questionnaires on students learning needs and their evaluation of GEC were adapted from the original version of Stufflebeam’s (1983) CIPP evaluation model or Context, Input, Process, Product approach and Sarah Cook’s (2005) ADDE model - Analysis, Design, Delivery, Evaluation model - in Likert scales. The questions for interviewing students and teachers were adopted from interview questions in Mahmoud’s (2014) study. The 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 revealed that students at STC were most interested in knowledge and language input provided from GEC. It also revealed 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. The students fairly agreed with teachers and teaching methods, testing and assessment, but the actual course did not entirely satisfy students’ learning needs. Implications for teachers and school administrators are provided.

Keywords

Evaluation, General English course, learning needs, non-English major students, Southern Transport College (STC)

Cited as: Loan, D.T. and Dan, T.C., 2018. An evaluation of general English course from non-English major students’ learning needs analysis. Can Tho University Journal of Science. 54(2): 56-66.