A Critical Study of the Principles and Approaches to Needs Analysis

English language materials and courses are developed to cover the skills that learners require to master. In the domain of English language teaching, Needs Analysis (NA), also known as Need Assessment, is a process that aims to investigate the present level of English language learners and identify what they need to know. The NA process is unanimously accounted for as a crucial feature of English language learning, especially for teaching materials, learning activities, testing, and developing assessment programs. Due to its vital role, a great deal of research has been conducted on this process, and several approaches have been suggested for it in the literature. This paper aims to provide an overview of the needs analysis as well as its fundamentals and concepts. This paper also presents a review of previous research methods developed for NA and their strengths and limitations.