Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction
English language teaching has become very important because of the global status of English and people all over the world are learning this language. English language programs worldwide have become increasingly aware of the needs for curriculum review due to both demographic and situational changes taking place. As students’ populations, societal views, and institutional factors are constantly changing, English language programs need to be implemented routinely to make the changes necessary to facilitate the desired outcome of the program.
Determining the needs of students is seen as a direct way to inform the teachers of the possible goals and objectives necessary to create a teaching and learning environment suited to the needs of the students. According to Nunan, 1989, the effectiveness of a language program will be dictated as much by the attitudes and expectations of the learners by the specifications of the official curriculum. It is important to understand how students’ perceived language needs because this will give the language teachers the idea on what to teach to the learners. The needs of a learner represent the gap between what the learner wants to get out of the learning experience and his or her current state of knowledge, skill, and enthusiasm (Noessel, 2003).
Each learner is unique, and brings to the learning situation his or her own different learning style, knowledge set, pool of past experiences, and motivation. In learner-centered instruction, it is important for instructors to consider the level of knowledge and skill development attained by the learners prior to instruction (Dick et.al, 2004). The best way to get this information is by asking the learners themselves. To determine the readiness of participants for learning, the instructor/facilitator should decide, prior to the