گلچین امانی

The ongoing increase in the population of Kurdish as Heritage Language (HL) learners encouraged the present study to explore the learners’ motivations as well as the influential factors on its development. Second Language Motivational Self-System (L2MSS) was adopted as the theoretical framework wherein, the subscales of the Ideal-self, Ought-to self and Motivational Intensity were explored. The study drew on a mixed-methods design in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with four undergraduate participants and a total number of 213 undergraduate Iranian learners of Kurdish participated in a survey. The qualitative results indicated that the interviewees had a positive experience of learning Kurdish in the classroom and were more enthusiastic to get engaged in the process of learning in the future . Furthermore, the quantitative results indicated that the participants more often pursued Kurdish in terms of the Ideal self and that learning Kurdish revealed to be an opportunity to fulfill the learners’ wishes. It was also found that the male participants were propelled by stronger motivational force which was more probably due to stronger sense of identity among male participants.

The present study aimed at addressing ESP instructors' perspectives towards ESP learners' needs at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences (KUMS). That is, we sought to investigate whether or not the learners’ needs in ESP classes are met satisfactorily. Using census rather than sampling, a total number of 10 ESP instructors were selected as the participants. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant individually. The results obtained from the interviews yielded 13 dominant themes. It was revealed that instructor-oriented themes were mainly concerned with perceived/felt needs, subject specialists/language instructors, a-priori/negotiated syllabus, team teaching/solitary teaching, instructors as suppressors of needs, receptive/productive skills, transmissive/transformative instructors, and positive/negative reinforcement. However, students' unheard voices in material selection, sense of belonging to the class, students' ratings of instruction and heterogenous/homogenous class groupings were mainly associated with student-oriented themes. Finally, content gradation was found to be associated with coursebook/material-oriented theme. Each of the recognized themes played either a facilitating or hindering role in making learners' needs met. Henceforth, delving into the role of such themes in ESP classes would open new insights into the instructors' viewpoints towards their leaners' needs. The frequency of the retrieved themes was a sign of commonality and generalizability among the majority of instructors; however, the indirect and unidimensional analysis of learners' needs could be remedied by inspecting the learners' actual needs through their own perspectives in future studies