Teacher and need analysis of their students: example of French for specific purposes

Abstract

Since Communicative approach, the concern of foreign language teachers is focused on the learners, their aims and needs. The teachers analyze the needs of their learners, adjust their teaching according to the learners’ aims, needs and learning strategies. Taking learners’ needs into consideration is important also in the post-method era because it corresponds perfectly to the parameters of particularity and practicality. This adjustment based on research is typical for teaching languages for specific purposes. In the article, an example of needs analysis of Czech and Slovak university students, learners of French of specific purposes, who go to France for a two-months internship will be presented. The data analysis of the pilot research, collected following the Grounded Theory Method, enabled to identify different work tasks the students had to perform, problematic situations and issues that the students described after the completion of the internships. The data represents an important source of information that teachers of French for specific purposes can make use of when adjusting their teaching.