PROFICIENCY, NECESSITY, LACK, AND WANT: AN ESP NEEDS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS AMONG FINAL-YEAR DPT STUDENTS AT GOVERNMENT COLLEGE UNIVERSITY FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study is a quantitative ESP needs analysis of 58 final year Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students at Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF), Pakistan. It is based on Hutchinson and Waters' (1987) three-part classification of necessities, lacks, and learning wants, and used a 25-item Likert-scale questionnaire that was divided into four analytical sections: self-assessed English proficiency, ESP necessities, perceived lacks, and learning wants. SPSS was used to analyse the data with descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation analysis. The findings show that DPT students consider the ESP necessary at a high level (M = 3.85) but their self-assessment of the proficiency level is still moderate (M = 3.72) except for the lack of proficiency in clinical writing (M = 3.39) and spoken comprehension (M = 3.39). The Wants section had the highest mean score (M = 4.01) and the item ‘speaking for professional communication’ and ‘clinical English scenarios’ for both had ceiling scores (M = 5.00). There was a statistically significant difference between scores for Lacks (t = 2.14, p = .037) and prior medium of instruction (F = 4.46, p = .016) was found to predict Self-Assessment scores. Pearson correlations were used to establish significant relationship between Necessities and Wants (r = .455) and the relationship was found to be significant at p < .001. There was a correlation between the factors of Self-Assessment and Necessities, R² = .260, with the factors together accounting for 26% of the variance in Wants. In overwhelming numbers (92.9%) the respondents agreed to a dedicated DPT specific ESP course. The results of this study offer empirical data and the compelling need to redesign ESP provision in DPT programmes of the public universities of Pakistan.