Assessing Task-based Language Needs of the Students of International Law

Needs analysis is regarded as an essential step for developing a curriculum for English for specific purpose courses. Assessing learners’ present and real-life language needs can contribute to learners’ active participation in learning processes. This study aimed to assess English geared law learners’ needs and to analyze the pedagogical tasks in international law ESP textbooks. To this end, pedagogical tasks practiced in ESP courses for international law students at universities in Iran were identified. Furthermore, the participants’ wants and needs were asked through interviews. The participants were selected using a convenience method of sampling. The results were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicated that law discourse community members need to read the cases, brief the cases, articulate the cases, interpret the cases, preset the cases orally, interact with the other discourse community members, argue, express themselves, and take notes while listening to and reading the cases. The results of this study showed there was no agreement between what the learners wanted and felt to need and what the authors of such books selected as the relevant tasks; some of the pedagogical tasks were not aligned with the real-life tasks. Such incongruences can be found in different perspectives like mode, channel, and degree of interaction. The results can be used to help book designers and material developers in the field.