To help you effectively Analyze your learners before you even begin the Design stage, here is a professional template. Using this ensures your lesson plan is perfectly “tailored” to the specific people in your room.
Learner Profile & Needs Analysis Template
| Category | Key Details to Identify | Example for your PCI Lesson |
| Demographics | Age, nationality, and professional/academic background. | Adult professionals, mixed nationalities, working in IT. |
| Current Level | What do they already know? (The “Prerequisites”) | Can use Past Simple correctly ($Subject + V2$). |
| The Learning Gap | What is the specific problem or “pain point”? | They use Past Simple for everything; they don’t know how to show “duration.” |
| Learning Styles | Do they prefer visuals, movement, or logic? | Highly visual (benefit from timelines) and social (prefer pair work). |
| Context/Setting | Time of day, platform (Zoom/In-person), and duration. | Evening class (low energy), taught via Zoom (needs interactive tools). |
| Motivation | Why are they learning? (Travel, Exams, Work?) | Improving fluency for storytelling in social business settings. |
How to apply this to your PCI Lesson Plan
By completing the Analyze stage above, you can now make informed decisions for your Design and Development stages:
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Selection of Context: Since your learners are “Adult Professionals,” you might change the Lead-in from a “broken vase/cat” to something more mature, like a “power outage during an important meeting.”
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Tool Choice: Since the analysis shows they are “Highly Visual,” you decide to use a color-coded timeline.
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Activity Choice: Because they are “social learners,” you prioritize the “Alibi” group game over a solo writing task.
The “Analysis” Checklist
Before you move to the Design stage, ask yourself:
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[ ] Have I identified what my students don’t know?
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[ ] Is the target language (Past Continuous Interrupted) at the right difficulty level?
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[ ] Do I have the right tools (Zoom Timer, Timelines) to support their learning style?