Analyzing Language Learning Needs of Heavy Duty Equipment Engineering Students

Abstract

English is an international language which is used in almost all over the world. The development of the knowledge mostly use English as the instructional language. Moreover, English becomes a tool for understanding the knowledge because many books are writen in English. However, there is no book that can fulfill all of the readers’ needs. The readers or the students in this case want to learn English in order to have English skills and abilities for their future job. English Langauge Teaching (ELT) has three parts, those are English as Mother Tongue (EMT), English as Second Language (ESL) and Englsih as Foreign Language (EFL). English for Foreign Language (EFL) is divided into two categories those are General English (GE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). While GE learns about materials for exam purposes, on the other hand ESP has purposes to meet the students certain needs based on their major in English. Learning materials for vocational high school must be different from the learning materials for senior high school in general because vocational high school students do not only do the national examination but also the expertise test based on the major. The area of this research was SMKN 2 Jember. This school was chosen because the researcher found that this school did not use ESP material effectively. This research used Hutchinson & Waters (1987) approach. There are two important things that should be known about students’ needs: Target Needs and Learning Needs. Target needs are divided into three categories, those are neccessities, wants, and lacks. On the other hand, learning needs covers some points, i.e: subject knowledge, skills, strategies, and language items. The research design of this research was descriptive study. To get the data, the researcher used questionnaires to know the students target needs based on the students perception. Semi-structured interview were also used to know the students’ learning materials based on English teacher and vocational high school perception. The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods for analyzing the data. The quantitative method was applied through questionnaire, while the qualitative method was done through semi-structured interview. The result of this research showed the students’ needs based on the target needs and learning needs. The result of the target needs showed that the Heavy Duty Equipment students required more materials about reading to help them improve their vocabularies and speaking skills to help them understand more about English related to their major. Moreover, the result of the learning needs also showed that there were a gap between the materials that must be learnt and the materials that have been learnt by the students. The heavy duty equipment students need more ESP materials to increase students’ ability in reading and speaking, they needs materials such as knowing part of the machine and how to communicate with the customer. The materials provided were limited, the students also had low motivation to learn English independently. The result of this study is expected to be an important input for the stakeholders and the government in determining the materials used for students. The government needs to develop the specific materials for vocational high school based on their major. The result of this study is also addressed for English teacher to be a guide to find the appropriate materials based on the result of the students’ need analysis, especially for Heavy Duty Equipment engineering students of vocational high school. Moreover, it is also suggested for the future researchers to use this research as a refference to conduct a further research dealing with design and development materials.