Professional English needs analysis of pre-experience business university students and job-experienced employees in the field of business

Abstract

Conducting a needs analysis is one of the first stages before designing a course. Aspects such as demands of the market when setting course goals and teaching objectives as well as learning outcomes is of paramount importance. The main objectives of this mixed methods research are to find out to what extent the expectations of students taking a Business English course, the administration of the university and the market are consistent with each other. It tries to find out the biggest obstacles to the students and job-experienced employees, career paths, what parts of Business English are considered to be most relevant in real work situations and the suggestions of the students and the market for the improvement of Business English curricula in Armenia. The proposed sample for the study includes university students from a master’s program on Business Communication in Armenia, the university administration and employees with a minimum of one-year experience in the target field. The data is collected from the students via questionnaires followed by two class observations. The data from the workers and the administration is collected through interviews. The analysis of the data from the questionnaire, observations and interviews follow an inductive approach. The results reveal that the expectations between the students and the employees are more consistent than that of the program administration. Students and the employees mostly face similar challenges and their suggestion for developing the current program curriculum coincide.