Problems of English for Specific Purpose course for medical students in Iran

Abstract

English plays an eminent role in higher education all over the world. There has been a worldwide growth in demand for English for Academics courses (Jordan, 1997). English, the lingua franca of all sciences, has come out in non-English speaking countries as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (Ghanbari, 2010). ESP is a developing branch of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in Iran (Moslemi, Moinzadeh & Dabaghi, 2011). A significant aspect of language instruction on the higher educational level is learning English for a given purpose, with the specific aims of getting to know specialized vocabulary, increasing one’s knowledge about the subject matter by reading in English, and being able to use the language in the prospective profession or study area by becoming prepared for some common situations such as carrying out higher level studies, going for an interview or conducting professional communication (Varnosfardani, 2009). Many English language courses in academic settings are based on the principle that language should be related to the purpose for which students are expected to use language after their studies. An ESP course for medical students intends to help them study their subject matter and in their career in the future. It seems that English plays a very vital role in medical studies because the students have to read medical textbooks and professional journals which are mostly written in English (Bensoussan, Collado, Viton & Delarque, 2009).