Includes bibliographies.

Preface

PART ONE Basic issues
Introduction
1. The learning part -- The learning process -- Learners' aims -- Learners' expectations -- The eclectic approach
2. The language part -- Linguistic analysis -- Rules and explanations -- Communicative competence
3. The analysis part -- The inevitable numbers -- The research question
Further reading

PART TWO What learners need to know
Introduction
Analysis in terms of communicative competence -- Analysis from the 'inside' perspective -- Analysis of needs at four level of generality
4. Global needs analysis -- A welfare case -- An agricultural case -- An engineering case -- Involving the learners
5. Grammatical-rhetorical needs analysis -- 5.1 Form and function in native speaker performance -- For special purposes: written language -- For special purposes: spoken language -- 5.2 Inherent variability in native speaker performance -- Eyewitness accounts -- Native speakers aren't perfect
6. Review of techniques Further reading

PART THREE What learners do and do not know
Introduction
7. Grammatical competence -- 7.1 Investigating grammatical competence -- Stating the rules -- Discrete-oint and integrative measures -- Grammaticality judgments and making corrections -- 7.2 Variability in learner language -- Degrees of accuracy -- The influence of cohesion and communicative pressure
8. Sociolinguistic competence -- 'What would you say if...' -- On teaching speech acts -- 8.1 Investigating learners' sociolinguistic skills -- Taking turns -- Have we got the right script? -- 8.2 An alternative approach -- Fostering interactive learning -- The four components -- Frameworks for reflection
9. Strategic competence -- 9.1 Using a task-based methodology -- 'The three legs' -- 'The arm of the chair is... when you use for to write' -- 9.2 Communication strategies -- 9.3 Fostering strategic competence -- Classroom activities -- Identifying the essential structure -- Maintaining a balance
10. Some methodological issues in investigating learner language -- The addressee -- The topic -- The task -- The data analysis
Further reading

PART FOUR Getting the learners' views
Introduction -- Questionnaires -- Diaries, observations, and interviews
11. The confidence factor -- Very confident wrong answering -- Individual self-monitoring ability -- Accuracy and self-monitoring
12. The perception of improvement -- Measuring change overtime -- What improves when accuracy doesn't? -- Conclusion and speculations
Further reading

Bibliography

Appendices
1 Information needs assessment
2 Supermarket story
3 Grammatically judgment exercise (relative clauses)
4 Tape-recording interaction by learners
5 Description tasks
6 Assembly tasks
7 Narrative tasks
8 Communication strategy classwork
9 Exercises used for self-monitoring study

Index

"The aim of this book is to put the learner firmly at the center of language teaching. It forms an invaluable resource for those practicing language teachers who want to identify the local needs of their learners more accurately, and work toward meeting those needs. After a discussion of the basic issues involved in identifying learner needs, the authors focus on what learners need to know, what they do and do not know, and how they view their own abilities. At the end of each section there are recommendations for further reading. The text itself, and the Appendices, include a range of ideas, techniques, and procedures which teachers can use with their own particular groups of learners." (Book Cover)