ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 2, June 2013 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN NEEDS ANALYSIS AND COURSE EVALUATION INSIGHTS Rubina Khan Department of English, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: rkhan@agni.com Tazin Aziz Chaudhury Department of English, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: tazinchaudhury@yahoo.com APA Citation: Khan, R. & Chaudhury, T. A. . (2013). Bridging the gap between needs analysis and course evaluation insights. English Review: Journal of English Education, 1(2),191-199 Received: 09-04-2013 Accepted: 22-04-2013 Published: 01-06-2013 Abstract: The “Advancing English Skills”, textbook was compiled and introduced about a decade ago, at the Faculty of Humanities, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, to teach the foundation English courses, to freshmen students from thirteen departments, including English. Today the course is still being taught at some departments. The department of English scrapped the foundation course, but the textbook is still being used for another compulsory course. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted to determine the English language needs of students (60) and teachers (30) at the Humanities Faculty of Dhaka University. Additionally a two prong evaluation of the course and materials from the viewpoints of both students and teachers of the Humanities faculty was carried out, in order to shed light on the nature, effectiveness, and objectives of the course. Strengths and shortcomings of the present course, and areas of mismatch between the students’ needs and the course, were identified. Suggestions have been made, to improve the English language courses based on these findings, and implications for pedagogy have been highlighted. Keywords: needs analysis, course evaluation, perceptions, ability, mismatch INTRODUCTION English is a part of Bangladesh’s colonial heritage; the language of the educated elite and not commonly used in daily interaction. Post-independence English was de-emphasized in education and replaced by Bangla in all official domains, as a result English standards fell to abysmal depths in public schools and universities (Choudhury, 2001). However, almost 95% of the texts and reference books are in English, this resulted in the necessity of giving time, attention and energy to the learning of English (Alam, 2001). Bangladesh is a monolingual nation with no need for a second language for internal communication, yet the contemporary labor market needs a work force competent in English as participation in the global economy has opened up job opportunities where English competency is a prerequisite for employment (Tsui & Tollefson, 2007). Public universities had to fulfill the demands of industry in order to make their graduates employable. Thus compulsory English for Academic purposes (EAP) courses were implemented in the freshman year in all