• What do you use English for now?
• What will/might you use English for in the future?
• What is your current level of English?
• What do you particularly want to study?

For this final question, you could provide possible answers with a list of areas of English. You could try:

• business, literature, media, general conversation
• types of activities e.g. listening, speaking, reading,
  exam-taking technique etc.

It's an easy mistake to assume the requirements of students and an even easier to ignore them and do what you think is best for the student. Even if they appear off the mark with their requirements, or plain unreasonable, the first lesson, which is where you should always be conducting a needs analysis, is not the place to time to make an issue of it.

Try to make sure that the Needs Analysis doesn't allow for too ambitious a program in the first place!

The most student-friendly way to do this is by class surveying. In the first of any new class, this is the ideal way to get students up and talking to each other, getting to know each other. You might want to throw in a random question just to break the ice, in your Needs Analysis (e.g. What? your favourite restaurant or movie star?). It? a student-centred activity and it is fun. Set a time limit and get students to answer about each other.

A simple questionnaire or guided essay to be completed before the first lesson or after a model lesson describing what the students want or don't want in their class, is also possible. Just a quick chat and heading straight into a textbook is not advisable!