A Needs Analysis Approach to ESP Design in Iranian Context

ESP courses are usually designed to serve stakeholders with different learning goals, and aim to train students to use English in a specific discipline or context. Yet, in practice, due to participants’ dissatisfaction with their abilities, these courses are often criticized for not fully serving their purposes. To this end, the present study investigated the needs and views of architecture students and graduates, and the effectiveness of their ESP courses. A total of 48 students and 72 graduates responded a researcher-made questionnaire. The results demonstrated that reading comprehension skill, followed by writing, speaking, and listening were respectively the important skills identified by the participants. Moreover, the participants’ dissatisfaction with the textbooks, the pertinent topics, and length of the courses were also reported, maintaining that the courses did not fully meet the participants’ needs. According to the results obtained from this study, it can be concluded that revisions of the current programs seem to be necessary to offer more effective ESP courses for architecture students in Iranian universities.