The needs-analysis section is judged on how explicitly the principles of needs analysis and testing (practicality, reliability, validity) shaped your tools, and on a traceable chain: tool → finding → course priority.
2013 DELTA format
Written as a candidate in 2013. Word counts, task numbers and handbook page references have changed since. Keep the method and check the details in the current Cambridge handbook.
What to do
- Profile the group precisely: these learners, on whom the analysis was done.
- Justify each tool (questionnaire, interview, diagnostic test): why this one and not another.
- Before designing a tool, ask: what do I need to find out, and how will the answer change the course?
- Pilot the tools on a colleague.
- Cross-reference with short bracketed labels, e.g. (A1.vi) for appendix items.
- Evaluate each tool’s pros and cons; argue it’s the best compromise for your context.
Sources named
Hughes, Testing for Language Teachers (the post says “Andrew”; the author is Arthur Hughes); Graves (2000) Designing Language Courses; Nunan (1997); Cotterall (2000); Davies (2006); Seedhouse (1995); Perrin (2009); Scrivener, Learning Teaching.
Apply in my context (Claude)
- RS Insight is in effect a diagnostic needs-analysis tool. If your Module 3 specialism is exam classes or YL, its data could be your needs analysis, provided the tool’s validity is argued explicitly.
Connections
DELTA Module 3 reading list - exam classes specialism · DELTA Module 1 Paper 2 - task-by-task technique (testing concepts)