Learning Needs Analysis of English Language Students in a Languages Graduation Course

Abstract

This study shows the results of a research study developed in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It aims at investigating the learning needs of students of an English language course from an undergraduate program with a major in English and Portuguese in a private university located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The theoretical framework is composed of the ESP approach (Hutchinson &Waters, 1987 and Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). In order to obtain the data needed to accomplish the research, questionnaires were administered to 119 students of the above-mentioned English language course. The data resulting from the questionnaires enabled me to identify: the students’ profi le, which corresponds to their social, economic and cultural characteristics; the students’ learning needs, which correspond to their interests, lacks, pedagogical preferences and expectations in relation to the use of the English language at the end of the course. The study presented here hopes to have made an original contribution to the English language teaching and learning in the perspective of the ESP approach, showing results that may aid the preparation of material concerning English courses, directing it to the needs of undergraduate students with a major in English and Portuguese.