Needs Analysis of Reading and Writing Skills for Tour guide Students in Kenya

Abstract

A course designed on the premise of needs analysis contributes, to some extent, to the threshold for curriculum development and syllabus design. This article presents an argument that needs analysis is an integral part of course design by focusing on the skills of reading and writing both as learning and target needs for tour guide diploma students in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design and the data is extracted from Orang’i (2013) MA study. It emerged that reading tasks of scanning, skimming, reading for note taking, and summarizing revealed needs as learnings for both learners and teachers. In addition, the writing skills tasks that revealed learning needs for both learners and teachers were developing ideas, grouping ideas, and spelling correctly. Further, reading tasks that revealed target needs are business letters, e-mail messages, fax messages, instruction booklets, minutes of a meeting, tickets, and invoices. On the other hand, writing tasks that revealed target needs were writing: business letters, e-mail messages, reports, itineraries, tour commentaries, legal documents, and brochures. Based on the findings of this study, it can be summed up that learners’ needs are revealed whenever a needs analysis is conducted and should, therefore, be a must-do in any course design.