Identifying, measuring and addressing language learners’ needs
Abstract
Most university students are confronted with the feeling of loneliness and face with a number of other personal psychological and social needs during their first years at university. Depending on the students’ age, gender, faculty, socioeconomic status or emotional intelligence, these needs may change considerably and affect their academic success. As a consequence, objective and frequent assessment of the needs of university students (especially in their first years) is essential to provide more sustainable, effective and meaningful educational programs. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore psychological and social needs of foreign language preparatory schools’ students in Turkey and to determine whether those needs differ according to a number of independent variables. The sample of the study consists of 1526 undergraduate students studying at 5 different state-universities’ language schools in Ankara, Eskişehir and İzmir during 2018-2019 academic years. SNAS (Students’ Needs Analysis Survey), a Turkish adapted version of the original scale the Survey of Student Needs (SSN) was used for data collection. Finally, the results of this study revealed that freshmen language learners primarily have psychological, social, academic and financial needs and these needs differ significantly according to gender, language proficiency level and academic achievement.References
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