Institute of Postgraduate Studies Course: Materials Design (GENG111) FINAL SUBMISSION ID picture: Instructor: Nguyen Dang Nguyen, Ph.D Student’s name: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha Student code: 1841900039 Ho Chi Minh city, June 22nd, 2019 Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha (1841900039) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Dr Nguyen Dang Nguyen, my supervisor, who has firstly inspired and guided me He has always given me excellent insights and considerate, experienced guidance and motivation for completing this assignment Without his valuable knowledge, my research would be far from being completed With best regards Ho Chi Minh City, June 2019 Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha (1841900039) Question: How have you been aware of needs analysis as a basis for curriculum design? With completing the course, I was able to benefit from a variety of new things from the instructor, my classmates I am able to sharpen my knowledge so that I can become more professional in my teaching career Firstly, I would like to discuss about my way of teaching before I got some knowledge from this subject Being a teacher for more than years, I have been so confident and proud of my methods which always make my students feel interested in each period Properly speaking, I didn’t pay much attention to my students’ real needs However, thanks to discovering the principles and learners’ needs, I could realize the importance of designing and choosing the textbooks or tasks for my students It is no doubt that need analysis plays a vital part in curriculum and determines the outcomes of the course Understanding learners’ real needs helps me to choose the best textbooks or design the best tasks in order that students can keep meaningful and important lessons in their mind According to Lepetit & Cichocki (2005), need analysis enables educators shapes the learners’ communication needs, wants and interests It cannot be ignored the importance role of shaping learners’ needs Basing on learners’ needs, the educators will be more confident to instruct their students to gain knowledge easily After understanding the role of learners’ needs analysis, it requires me to pay much attention on them Moreover, I cannot rely on one material or one student to decide the whole needs of my students Different sources will provide me with different data and information to conduct the analysis Needs analysis will be conducted by different steps; however, it helps me to be successful in instructing knowledge to my students Honestly, I will meet many difficulties to conduct the analysis It will be a challenge for my teaching career Nevertheless, it is no doubt that I need to know how to assess each learners’ need so that I can gather enough essential information for my lessons In particular, I will become more successful in teaching career According to Brown (1995), needs assessments are activities involved in collecting information served as the basis for developing a curriculum It could be a Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha (1841900039) difficult job for me to analyze learners’ needs, but I can collect the data by talking to my students and observing them Thanks to these data, I could have specific and clear data to help my lessons more interesting and meaningful In term of conducting the lessons, I recognize some mistakes in my own experience With the useful lessons from my teachers, I realize that I must change my way of planning the lessons The problem is that I rarely pay attention to the elements like graphics, structures in each passage and also the title of lessons My whole experience is looking at the language focus, vocabulary and counting how many tasks are there to be finished by my students Only after did I finish this course, I recognize the importance of each element in the lessons Having a clear analysis of the lessons will help me to plan the lessons carefully and meaningfully According to Sudhakar, J (2017), an effective teaching period comes from both a good lesson plan and a view of each individual sections fit into the who lesson Thanks to my instructor’s guidance, I know that each element is always involved in the main focus of the lessons Therefore, planning lessons successfully depends on the accurate analysis on each task Each detail from the lesson will help me to define the real output Hardly ever I had paid much attention before I got some knowledge from my instructors and classmates Thanks to the instructor’s guidance and classmates’ presentation, I recognize my mistakes when planning a lesson Through my experience, I just focus on what the main content of lessons and I rarely connect the lessons with the real tasks which students must use in their own real life Last but not least, I would like to mention about the way of teaching grammar points It is a fact that I rarely focus on the communicative purpose of each grammar point My whole experience in my experience is that I teach grammar point by showing the structures and usages and then asking my students to finish each activity I ignore the communicative purposes of language focuses I haven’t had much experience how to instruct my students to use the grammar points into the real conversations It is no doubt that learners must be able to use communicative functions of each grammar points for truly communicative setting Many authors emphasize the need of including grammar teaching in the Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha (1841900039) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) (Lightbown & Spada, 1990; Nassaji, 2000; Spada and Lightbown, 1993) However, it is my fault when I always force my students to remember the form and then just apply into each task I haven’t helped my students to conclude the importance role of each grammar point into communication tasks Thanks to my teacher’s instructions, I realize not only the role of communicative purposes of grammar points but also the approach of each grammar in each section in a unit In fact, each section in the unit contains communicative tasks which help learners use in communication life It is always true that teachers must pay more attention to communicative purposes to help students to approach lessons more effectively It requires each teacher to analyze the specific needs of learners and each unit In addition, teachers must clearly identify and suitably combine needs in order that learners could improve their knowledge both theoretically and practically In conclusion, after a short time I take the course, I learn many useful things from my teacher and classmates Thanks to their instructions, sharing and advice, I accumulate much necessary knowledge for my teaching career I also recognize how to conduct the lesson well and explore the specific needs of lessons and learners in order that I can help my students acquire languages successfully and effectively PREFERENCES Brown, J D (1995) The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach to program development Boston: Heinle and Heinle Lepetit, & Cichocki (2005) Teaching languages to future health professionals: A need assessment In H M Long (Ed.), Second language need analysis Cambridge University Press, UK Lightbown, P M., & Spada, N (1990) Focus on form and corrective feedback in communicative language teaching: Effects on L2 Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 429–448 Nassaji, H (2000) Towards integrating form-focused instruction and communicative interaction in L2 classroom: Some pedagogical possibilities The Modern Language Journal, 84(2), 241–250 Spada, N., & Lightbown, P M (1993) Instruction and the development of questions in the L2 classroom Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 205–221 ... Minh City, June 2019 Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen Dinh Nhu Ha (1841900039) Question: How have you been aware of needs analysis as a basis for curriculum design? With completing the... communicative functions of each grammar points for truly communicative setting Many authors emphasize the need of including grammar teaching in the Course: Materials Design - Student: Nguyen... importance role of each grammar point into communication tasks Thanks to my teacher’s instructions, I realize not only the role of communicative purposes of grammar points but also the approach of each