English-language needs in the probable work situations of the students of the Radio, Television, and Film Department at Ankara Üniversity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Title: English- language needs in the probable work situations of the students of the Radio, Television, and Film Department at Ankara university Author: Z. Zeynep Sahin Thesis Chairperson: Dr. Arlene Clachar, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Thesis Committee Members: Dr. Phyllis Lim, Ms. Patricia J. Brenner, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program This study was designed to investigate the future work-related English language needs of the students of the Radio, Television, and Film Department (RTFD) at the Faculty of Communication (FC) at Ankara University (AU). With this purpose, a needs analysis was conducted at Turkish Radio Television Corporation (TRT) which is the major probable future work place of this specific group of students. Although it is accepted by many professionals such as Clark (1987), Hutchinson (1986), and Richards (1990) that in language teaching, needs assessment is a very important basis for determining the objectives of the curriculum and organizing the content of the programs especially in English For Specific Purposes (ESP), this kind of analysis had not yet been conducted at the FC at AU. Two types of instruments were used in data collection: a questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire was distributed to 47 employees from different units at TRT where English is widely used, and the interviews were conducted with 3 managers at TRT. In the questionnaire, employees were asked about the level of proficiency required and the frequency of the use of five major skills (reading, writing, speaking,listening, and translation) and their subskills in various situations and with various materials. The categories of frequency levels that subjects responded to were never, rarely, often, always ? There were two open- ended questions. In one, subjects were asked to indicate additional uses of English not covered in earlier items, and in the other, they were asked to make suggestions that might be useful in reorganizing the English language instruction at the faculties related to their field. In the interviews, four open-ended questions were directed to 3 managers from different units at TRT. The interviewees were asked to talk about the tasks related to the use of English in their units, any deficiencies in the English skills of the current employees, and any future changes that were expected in the types of tasks that would be likely to affect the use of English in these units. The major findings were as follows: 1. An advanced level of English is needed at TRT. 2. Reading is the most frequently used skill, which is followed by translation and writing. 3. Whereas speaking and listening skills are not as frequently needed, it is observed that these two skills are also considerably used. 4. A high level of proficiency is required for whatever skill is. used in the workplace. 5. Correspondence and professional material are the most frequent among the different sub-skills and materials. 6. Some forms of specific English are used at TRT.