How to Assess the Vocabulary Needs of Your ESL Students

When English language students enter a classroom or begin to work on one-on-one with an English tutor, they have goals for their learning in mind. These goals revolve around what they want to learn from the teacher or tutor, how they want to learn, what time frame they want to learn in, etc. Students may not have nailed down exactly what they want from their English studies, but they can tell you, as a teacher or tutor, what they want if you ask specific questions pertaining to these areas. This is where a needs assessment comes in.

When students are actively engaged in planning their learning, they are more apt to stay engaged and involved than if they are randomly assigned a textbook and chapter to begin studying. Participatory planning is crucial in keeping students involved and excited about their learning. They are more likely to feel that they are actively taking a role in determining what they want to and are going to learn.

Ways to gauge what students want to learn usually involve conversations one-on-one with students, utilizing some sort of level-appropriate form or interview format that will allow the student to provide closed-ended and open-ended responses to questions regarding what they want to learn and how they want to proceed. It is not always possible to design a course for each individual student, especially in a multi-level classroom, but going through the process of talking with students individually can give the teacher or tutor a better idea of how to structure the class. A certain theme might arise that is of particular interest to several students, for example, or maybe students will let the teacher know that they want to use their English to look for a job more than they do at the grocery store.

General group discussion about what the class may want to learn can also open the doors of communication between students and teachers. In a group setting, students can let the teacher know what they want to learn and how they want to accomplish their goals.

Taking the time to listen to students' needs from the beginning can foster a more positive, open, and professional relationship than if the teacher just assumes the learning direction from which the class would most benefit. The teacher or tutor should also couple the responses from students with observations he or she makes of individuals in the class, as well as the class as a whole. This can identify particular areas that need to be improved. The teacher can also use the initial discussion/interviews to decide how to best go about teaching those specific components of the English language. Games or written exercises? Group or individual work? Close observation of how the class has responded in the past to these various exercises can also help the teacher or tutor to plan class/student-appropriate lessons.

Some good assessment tools for various ESL levels can be found here, and an informative blog about how one teacher deals with her private, individual students needs can be found here. Whether you choose to keep your needs assessment more informal, or you have a definite form you use with every student, make sure your students know they can come to you at any time and that you are flexible enough to change your approach when the time and circumstances call for it.