Rights analysis power relations among EAP stakeholders
Needs analysis and related concepts (learner needs, needs assessment) have been discussed and presented in the context of ESP/EAP in a number of prominent works throughout the decades. Notwithstanding, Benesch (2001a) sees needs analysis in ESP as merely descriptive; it does not address questions...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/74457/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/74457/1/74457_Rights%20analysi%20power%20relations%20among_conf.%20complete.pdf |
| Summary: | Needs analysis and related concepts (learner needs, needs assessment) have been discussed and presented in the context
of ESP/EAP in a number of prominent works throughout the decades. Notwithstanding, Benesch (2001a) sees needs
analysis in ESP as merely descriptive; it does not address questions about unequal power in academia, sociopolitical
issues and their effects on curriculum, and social issues affecting students’ current academic lives. Hence, she argues
for a critical approach to target situations in needs analysis, and uses the term ‘rights analysis’ to express how power
relations are practiced in educational decision-making. In a rights analysis carried out on the findings of a needs
analysis in an EAP course at a public university in Malaysia, the interview data revealed the emergence of power
struggles and power relationships among the stakeholders of the course. This paper discusses these two themes in the
context of challenges faced by EAP stakeholders. The themes are one part of the findings of a larger study to investigate
academic writing needs in an EAP course. They emerged during the analysis of interviews with EAP lecturers,
engineering and human sciences lecturers, and engineering and human sciences students who were taking the EAP
course. |
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