Biniam Teka Gelan¹, Adinew Tadesse Degago^2,, Deepika Nelson³

The purpose of the study was to assess the English language needs of university students in a context, where English is used as the medium of instruction and general English courses are taught across all disciplines. To achieve this purpose, based on Hutchinson & Water’s target needs analysis approach, a 5-Point Likert Scale needs analysis questionnaires were designed and distributed to 152 medical science students at Haramaya university to determine the students’ frequency of English language use, their perceived importance of English for academic studies, their English language lacks, and areas of English they want training in. In addition, the general course materials taught to the students were evaluated to determine their suitability to the English need of the students. Descriptive statistics were employed in analyzing the quantitative data while content analysis was applied in analyzing the qualitative data. The results indicated the perceived importance of English for the students’ academic studies, their English language lacks and area in which they want training in. In addition, the study identified the inadequacy of the general English courses to meet the students’ English language needs. The study suggests that there is a need for English courses with an ESP orientation to meet the specific needs of students in their academic studies.

Needs Analysis (NA), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Target Needs (TN), General English (GE)