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Sources, Methods and
Triangulation in Needs Analysis:
A Critical Perspective in a Case
Study of Waikiki Hotel Maids
Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar
_______________________________________________
Did��ctica Especial II y
Observaci��n y Pr��ctica de la Ense?anza II

Arg��ello Pitt, Mat��as
Tisera, Melisa Gabriela

April 24th, 2012

The paper includes

? Comparison of methods and sources
in NA (case studies and corpora)

? Findings of research in NA carried out
in a hotel in Waikiki

What
Where

Why
How

Findings
Conclusion

What
? Needs analysis research for language
teaching through qualitative techniques:

? participant observation

? unstructured interviews

? questionnaires

Where
? A hotel from an important chain in Waikiki, a
neighbourhood in Honolulu, Hawai.

Why
? Growing emphasis on NA for occupation
specific ESP courses.

? Criticism to institutional ESP curriculum.

? To find out if participants were aware of
their language needs

NA for the workplace / institutional NA:
Criticism
? Institutions have clearly defined expectations of
what they want workers to do.

? Institutions provide outsiders with that info.

?Result:
a curriculum leading to marginalization, as it
socializes students into passive acceptance of
subservient roles. (Auerbach)

NA for the workplace / institutional NA:
Criticism

ESP channels immigrants into marginal
occupations that offer no opportunity to gain
additional language or job skills ensuring that
they will have enough English to perform
adequately in minimum-wage jobs (��) yet not
enough to move beyond this level of
employment.

NA for the workplace / institutional
NA: Criticism
Solution (Goldstein):

? NA beyond the workplace, so as to provide
language training that helps students function
not just as cheap labor force but as functional
members of English-speaking societies.

? What is important to employees should be
considered together with what is important to
employers.

Remember

An obvious yet important
goal of ESP
should be for
students to really benefit from
English.

How /
Solution to the problem of Institutional
NA

? Use of multiple sources

? Triangulation of sources and methods
(comparison & combination of sources,
methods, findings, etc)

Institutions Students

TRIANGULATION

Sources & Techniques
used by Long, Svendsen & Krebs, and Cumaranatunge
? Language teachers with prior experience.

? People now undergoing or who have completed the
education program.

? Those already employed in the occupation.

? Current or future subject area teachers or employers.

? Documents such as job descriptions and course
reading lists.

Sources & Techniques
used by Long, Svendsen & Krebs, and Cumaranatunge

? Published NA corpora.

? Interviews (structured & informal).

? Shadowing workers.

? Participant observation.

? Questionnaires.

The sources used in the case study
in Waikiki
? Three housekeepers (day and evening shifts)
? Various supervisors
? The executive housekeeper
? Human resources people
? Task force meetings
? Morning briefings
? Housekeeping room
? Documents (job decriptions, procedures)

Methods
? Participant observations (tape-recording
and note taking)

? Unstructured interviews

? Questionnaires (given to housekeepers
and coworkers)

Findings
? The language needed for the hotel tasks the
maids must perform is very limited

? The lack of English language skills does not
affect their performance

? Institutional representatives perceive a need for
housekeepers to develop better language skills

? Housekeepers identified a variety of language
needs

Conclusion
? The use of qualitative techniques, multiple
sources and triangulation allowed for the
inclusion of learners�� voices in expressing
their needs.

? Participant observation was crucial for
identifying reliable sources.

Conclusion
? The use of multiple sources shows that
different actors have different perceptions of
similar situations, which leads them to different
objectives and felt needs.

? This study helped prove the reliability of
insiders and the frequent unreliability of
outsiders.

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Presentation on Rebeca Gasso Aguilar's "Sources, Methods and Triangulation in Needs Analysis: A Critical Perspective in a Case Study of Waikiki Hotel Maids"

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Presentation on Rebeca Gasso Aguilar's "Sources, Methods and Triangulation in Needs Analysis: A Critical Perspective in a Case Study of Waikiki Hotel Maids"