The evaluation of students' and teachers' perceptions on the EFL curriculum of vocational high schools: A needs analysis

Rapid developments in the world has brought about the necessity to equip the individuals with all required skills for daily life and the labour market. For this reason, The Ministry of National Education has decided to develop and reorganize vocational education in Turkey (Turkey's Educational Vision 2023, 2018). Curricula development and redesign has been one of the central reorganizations in the reform of Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools (VTAHS) as they play a crucial role in the country's economic development. The purpose of this study, which has a mixed-method research design to collect data, is to evaluate the current English curriculum of 11th graders studying in VTAHS and to identify the students' English language needs. The data was collected from 11th grade students of VTAHS in the city centre of Adıyaman and English teachers teaching in different vocational areas of the 11th graders in the city centre and eight districts of Adıyaman through the Students' Perceptions Questionnaire (SPQ), the Teachers' Perceptions Questionnaire (TPQ) and Focus group interviews with teachers and students. The data gathered from the questionnaires was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Studies (SPSS) 23.0 and descreptive statistics, and the the data obtained from the focus group interviews was analyzed using descriptive analysis. The results gathered from the TPQ, the SPQ and the data obtained from the focus group interviews show that students studying in 11th grades of VTAHS and teachers teaching in different vocational areas of the 11th grades find the current English curriculum of 11th grade ineffective to meet the language needs of the learners. Furthermore, English books are seen inappropriate for the level of the learners and the teaching hours, which are two in a week, are seen insufficient to cover all the units effectively. Keywords: Curriculum, curriculum evaluation, needs analysis, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Vocational Purposes (EVP), Vocational Education (VE)