A Needs Assessment of Argumentative Writing of Tertiary Level Students: A Forward-Thinking Approach to Curriculum Development using ESP

ESP curricula emphasizes on real-life relevance, focusing on equipping learners with the linguistic competencies required to excel in their chosen fields.The background literature stresses the importance of writing for the audience by tertiary students who lack the ability to propose credible thesis statements and construct coherent arguments, underscoring a gap in critical and analytical thinking.Thus, this study integrates needs assessment to identify the difficulties students face in writing argumentative essays to outline a written English course.A mixed method approach was used in this study where the quantitative design was employed to have an overall understanding of the students' perceptions on their argumentative writing abilities whereas the qualitative approach was used on the writing samples of students in order to get a gist of the students' proficiency level.The samples of this study were 30 students of English for Academic Writing (EAW) from different faculties of a public government university in Malaysia.The data was collected by using 5 sample papers of the students' second draft of their writing in order to examine the students' overall proficiency level.A questionnaire using Rosettes' question types was constructed which consisted of 40 close-ended statements.Also, to differentiate between what the students perceive and what the teachers observed, a set of questions were set for the semi-structured interview that were used for the teachers based on key concepts.The data collected was edited, coded, classified, and tabulated using SPSS for analysis.The problems and the reasons of the teachers for students' proficiency on argumentative writing were highlighted.This paper explored the importance and need for a forward-thinking approach to curriculum development in ESP, addressing the needs of real world industry demands, technological advancements, and learner needs and outlining a 14 week course to meet the learner needs.The findings aim to inform educators, policymakers, and course designers in crafting adaptable and impactful English programs using ESP that cater to diverse and ever-changing learner requirements.