Needs Analysis and Syllabus Design in Moroccan Tertiary Education: A Mixed Methods Study

The purpose of the present study is to reconsider the perceived English language needs of Moroccan students in a general English language program, known as ‘the common core program' (CCP). The researcher deployed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design to re-examine this obligatory four-credit course offered to all English majors, for which English for General Purposes (EGP) syllabus is proposed by the Ministry of Education. The sample included 120 students and 12 teachers, conveniently chosen, with a multilevel sampling relationship. The research tools consisted of a questionnaire and two types of interviews [e-mail and one-on-one interviews]. The questionnaire's internal consistency subscales were measured via Krippendorff's alpha and demonstrated a good level of internal consistency. Structured interviews provided in-depth details about the courses students appreciated the most, appreciated the least, and pointers on how to modify the syllabus design. The results revealed that the students considered speaking as the most important component of the language which the most needed practice, whereas they cited grammar as the component that they mostly abhorred and had the least expertise in. Besides, they perceived reading comprehension courses as the least useful, while they considered writing courses as the most problematic ones. The students also showed great concerns over the time allotted to the coverage of the common core program courses. The findings from the present study will guide Moroccan university teachers and syllabus designers in re-designing the current language program to address the present gap and generate a “negotiated syllabus”.