Female EFL Learners' Needs of an Advanced Communication Course in an Arab University

Abstract

This needs analysis is conducted to examine the EFL communication skills needs of female EFL undergraduate students at a female Arab university located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from their own perspectives.  The significance of this study is to help the administrators and educators at this university to identify and accommodate the students’ current needs and lacks which are required for the advanced course, i.e. English 102 (ENGL 102). The participants were 52 female undergraduate students from diverse majors enrolled in English 101 (ENGL 101) course. A questionnaire adapted from (Gravatt, Richards, & Lewis, 1997) was used to examine what the students believe they need and lack in an EFL communication skills. The questionnaire findings showed that some of the needs of EFL learners match with their weaknesses in listening and speaking skills. The results have also showed that in spite of the main focus of ENGL 102, which is to enhance the listening and speaking skills, students have expressed that they need more writing and reading skills practice implementations besides listening and speaking. This illustrates that the four-language skills reading, writing, speaking and listening are central and need to be integrated in the teachers’ pedagogies Nevertheless, when comparing the result of the questionnaire and the objectives of ENGL 102, it has been found that there is no discrepancy between them.  Finally, the students prefer more practice, activities and vocabulary learning to improve their listening and speaking skills.