Investigating the Perceived English Language Need of Information Technology Students of Technical and Vocational Education Training Colleges:The Case of Oromiya, Ethiopia

In Information Technology education, specific English language skills are needed to enable Information students to succeed in academic settings. To determine what students need to achieve through the medium of English accurately, it is crucial to carry out a Need Analysis (NA). With such views, this study was conducted to investigate the English language needs of Information Technology trainees at  Adama and Bishoftu TVET Colleges in (indicate year of study). To achieve this, 159 student respondents (aged 16-20 years old), 40 instructor respondents (aged 25 to 58 years old and teaching experience of 3 to 38 years), 12 ICT respondent instructors (for focus group discussions) and 4 respondent officials (for interview) which have the total number of 203 in the academic year 2004 E.C. were data sources for the study and were identified and approached for the process of NA. A 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire (for both student and instructor respondents), Semi-Structured interview (for officials) and focus group discussion (for ICT instructors who are currently teaching in the mentioned two colleges) instruments were used for data collection. The data gathered via different instruments were analyzed at the end using percentage. The results stressed the significance of English for Information Technology students and identified the students’ lacks, wants and necessities with regard to English language skills. The paper concludes with pedagogical recommendations that may help improve the current English language course based on the students’ needs.