2026 Volume 46 Issue 1 Pages 33-43
In order to improve a course, one tool that can be used is a needs analysis. Due to a fall in popularity of literature students in my MA program, I was prompted to do a needs analysis for students taking English literature classes in a Japanese university. A qualitative study was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire for n=7 Japanese university students. Results showed that the majority of the classes were taught in the Grammar-translation method. Key needs of students were, oratory skills of the instructor, teaching of history and culture around the novel, and more student-centered classes. Since the context and time frame of the literature can be foreign to students in Japan, instructors may need to spend more time to connect the past to the present and skillfully guide students in order to understand the beauty and the significance of the text that they are teaching.
