Chapter 4 Reaction Paper

Situation Analysis

                John Richards stated that “the goal of needs analysis is to collect information that can be used to develop a profile of the language needs of a group of learners in order to be able to make decisions about the goals and content of a language course (90).” To create a profile for particular students requires data and input from people who have the ability to observe and be able to provide feedback regarding the student’s ability to speak, write, and read in the English language.  To collect data is timely and costly and will require resources to be used to attain the needed data for a situation analysis.

                A situation analysis is important to ensure the proper program will be used. All situations vary depending on external factors, resources, teachers and most importantly the students. Situation Analysis is the “analysis of factors in the context of a planned or present curriculum project that is made in order to assess their potential impact on the project (91).” Here on Guam, most of our resources are federally and locally funded with majority of the teachers teaching with English as their second language. Because Guam is a United States territory and therefore has exposed itself to become a westernized institution of learning, English has become predominantly the first language in today’s society. Although Guam is also the elite location for people of the outer islands to migrate to, the education system poses many challenges.

                “Second or foreign language teaching is a fact of life in almost every country in the world. Yet countries differ greatly in terms of the role of foreign languages in the community, their status in the curriculum, educational traditions and experience in language teaching, and the expectations that members of the community have for language teaching and learning (93).” The societal factors that play a large role in Guam’s educational situation analysis are that many of the people rely on government assistance for living. The community at large is an important factor in ensuring that programs placed in the educational system work but because many parents already face a difficult challenge of speaking English, their socioeconomic ability to support their children in school in terms of actively participating with the teachers and the administration is limited. As a teacher, I see many parents who are unsupportive and do not provide the assistance needed for their children to succeed in the classroom. Many students take for granted the importance of learning to speak and write proper English and divert their attention elsewhere. Many of the traditions and customs of the people play a large role in their attitude and behavior towards their education.

                The institutional factors are different. Many institutions vary in terms of how they establish and execute their programs. “In some institutions, textbooks are the core of the curriculum and all teachers must use the prescribed textbooks. In other institutions, teachers work from course guidelines and supplement them as they see fit (97).” On Guam, we follow guidelines, standards and benchmarks but slowly shifting into using the common core standards to help students with their literacy. This is a great way to close the gap between what are students can do and what we expect them to do.