Abstract

Needs analysis is fundamental to determine what students need to achieve through the medium of English accurately analysis. In this regard, the present study seeks to evaluate the ESP course book entitled “The ESP Course of Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition” taught at some universities in Iran. More specifically, the study aims to identify the students’ perceptions of their needs and their attitudes towards the course book. To this end, a researcher-made questionnaire was used and accordingly an interview was run. Sample of this study consisted of 80 junior students majoring in Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition and 6 teachers teaching them. Results of the study revealed that the course book is appropriate for the students of the Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition course in general sense. However, the book did not get high evaluation in some issues. The findings of this study would enable the ESP instructors to pay more attention to the students’ needs in designing the Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition textbook. The paper concludes with suggestions that may help improve the current English language course based on the students’ attitudes and needs.

Highlights

  • Teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been as a separate activity within English language teaching (ELT) and has been regarded as an approach which is widely used over the past three decades

  • A group of 80 MA Qur’anic Sciences and Tradition students and 6 male and female teachers doing an ESP course formed the sample of this study

  • The lack of needs analysis is the main reason for unsuitability of many ESP textbooks

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Summary

Introduction

Teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been as a separate activity within English language teaching (ELT) and has been regarded as an approach which is widely used over the past three decades. There are numerous definitions for ESP but all of them emphasize how teaching of ESP develops appropriate procedures to learners whose main goal is learning language and learning English for a specific purpose. 19) as stated in Karimi (2006) defined ESP as an approach to language teaching in which all decisions concerning content and method are based on the learners’ needs. They claim that the basic principle of ESP is to find learners need English for what, and teach them the English that they need. Teaching ESP is a challenging and time consuming task

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