ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEEDS ANALYSIS OF GARMENT STUDENTS AT HOSANNA AND SHONE TVET COLLEGES

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess the English language needs of garment students at Hosanna and Shone TVET Colleges. To attain the objective, descriptive survey design was employed, and in attempting to address the theme, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. In the study, questionnaires were distributed for 72 trainees who were selected by simple random sampling techniques over stratified sampling by Yamane’s n=𝑁1+𝑁 (𝑒)2⁄ formula, and 14 trainers who were taken by employing convenience sampling at Hosanna and Shone TVET Colleges and they filled out necessary data. Also, questionnaires were filled out by 28 TVET garment employees who were selected by systematic sampling technique from Hawassa Industrial Park shed 33. Later on, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 trainees, 2 English instructors, 2 subject area instructors, 2 academic deans and 2 supervisors. Additionally, the quantitative data were categorized thematically and fed into Excel 2013 tables manually. Then, to output mean scores, frequency and percentage, data analysis has bee run, and qualitative data have been analyzed to substantiate quantitative data analysis. Finally, the study result revealed that listening and speaking skills are the most important in academic and occupational context. Moreover, trainees had very poor competence in speaking sub-activities of questioning and answering, participating in classroom discussions and explaining ideas in classroom as well as in work domain. As well, trainees need Garment field related contents, topics and vocabularies to be incorporated based on work scenarios. Apart from this, they need to learn work place communication by having sufficient allocated time with English experts or well trained technical teachers. In conclusion, to meet desirable Garment trainees’ English language needs, workplace communication course should be designed with collaboration of Ethiopian TVET Agency subject area experts, Ministry of Education and English language experts incorporating chiefly speaking and listening activities, then it should be implemented by English language instructors or technical instructors who have taken adequate ESP training