Language Needs Assessment for Academic Staff Development at Federal Universities in the South East Zone

Academic staff at Nigerian federal universities are expected to communicate at internationally competitive levels in research writing, conference presentation, grant writing, and postgraduate supervision, yet the English for Academic Purposes support available to non-native English speaking academics in South East Nigerian universities is limited and poorly mapped to actual professional language needs. This study conducts a professional language needs assessment for academic staff development purposes at four federal universities in the South East geopolitical zone, covering institutions in Anambra, Imo, Abia, and Ebonyi states. A multi-instrument needs assessment combined an academic language use and proficiency self-assessment questionnaire administered to three hundred and twenty academic staff across faculties, analysis of forty sample research articles and grant applications produced by university staff, and focus group discussions with twenty senior academics and four postgraduate coordination officers. Self-assessment data reveal that research article writing for international journals and grant proposal writing in international competition formats are perceived as the highest-need professional language development areas by the majority of respondents. Document analysis confirms significant genre convention problems in international journal manuscript submissions, particularly in abstract structure, literature review positioning, and discussion-conclusion distinction. The study proposes a Professional Academic Writing Development Programme tailored to the South East federal university context, with module specifications, delivery model, and an accompanying institutional support structure. Keywords: language needs assessment, academic staff development, research writing, South East Nigeria, federal universities.