NEEDS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH PHYSICS EDUCATION STUDENTS

Abstract

This study presents a needs analysis of for Physics Education students at UIN Alauddin Makassar. English proficiency has become increasingly important for Physics Education students due to the dominance of English in scientific literature, academic journals, and global communication in science education. This study aims to identify students' target needs, learning needs, current English proficiency, and existing gaps in English learning in order to support the development of relevant and contextualized English for STEM instructional materials. The study employed a quantitative descriptive approach using a survey. The participants were Physics Education students from the 2023 cohort [[18 or 20; see Method]], Faculty of Science and Technology, UIN Alauddin Makassar, who completed a 41-item Likert-scale questionnaire developed based on the needs analysis framework proposed by Hutchinson and Waters. The data were analyzed using percentages and mean scores. Students strongly recognized the need for English to read academic texts (80% agreement), to master field-specific vocabulary (75%) and to write formal documents (75%). Their self-assessment of their own skills was moderate: about half considered their reading and listening comprehension adequate, but fewer were confident in their speaking, academic writing and pronunciation, and 75% reported difficulty with technical vocabulary and 65% with speaking fluently in academic contexts. Students preferred hands-on activities and simulations (80%), real examples (75%), digital media (75%) and interactive teaching (70%). The study concludes that English for STEM instruction should prioritize discipline-specific vocabulary, academic speaking and writing, and interactive, practice-oriented learning with authentic physics-related materials.