An Assessment of Language Needs Analysis Of Arabic Language Students in Nigerian Universities: Quantitative Paradigm Method

Abstract

An effective curriculum design for a second or foreign language teaching cannot be achieved unless a preliminary work is done on the learner’s need. In most cases, learners’ needsare seen as the fundamental aspect of curriculum development that cannot be ignored. This study attempts to investigate the perspectives of Arabic students so as to give necessary information for the development of an Arabic language curriculum in Nigerian universities. Two hundred and eighty- eight (288) students were randomly chosen as the sample size from the population number of 1,148 students that cut across all the selected universities of this study.The instrument of the study was adopted from the Munby (1978) Communication Needs Processor which has seven parameters of language needs analysis. But this questionnaire focuses on two parameters only; the purposive and the instrumentality domains. Respondents weighed each item ona Likert- type scale. Statistical software package SPSS for Windows (Version 20) was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics analyses of frequencies, means and standard deviation of each item were analysed to determine the students’ rate of their perceived Arabic language needs. The findings show that the main interest of students in learning Arabic because is for them to go to abroad for exchange program in Arab countries so as to have opportunity to work in Arab countries after graduation. They are of the opinion that Arabic- medium tertiary institutions course, vocational Arabic instruction, everyday Arabic and travel conversation, and Islamic Religious are their specific purposes of studying Arabic language. They also observed that speaking, reading, communicative language and written skills are needed to actualise their specific purposes. The research also gives the necessary suggestions on the effective development and implementation of Arabic language curriculum in other to meet up with needs of the students.