ESP

The study of lexical bundles, among types of text analysis, is gaining importance over the others in the last century. The present study employed a frequency-based analysis approach to the use of lexical bundles. The discussion section of 60 political science articles, with corpora around 253,063 words were investigated in three aspects of structure, form, and function of lexical bundles. The present study selected its data pool out of scholarly articles from qualified journals in the field of political sciences. One part of the data pool was made up of 30 articles written by American native speakers. The second half of the data comprised the 30 articles written by Iranian scholars in political sciences. The findings showed that native and Persian-speaking writers employed the same forms of lexical bundles, and there were significant differences concerning the nativeness and functions. Bearing in mind the findings of the present study, material developers would think of the possibility of the addition of lexical clusters into the materials. It can similarly be valuable for the development of the second language writing strategies, for those who need to write in academic contexts especially political contexts.

To direct m-game to be a possible didactic option for Iranian TVT (Technical Vocational Training) trainees, in this study m-game-mediated (Mobile Game-Mediated) materials delivery was incorporated into the conventional teaching method in the blended ESP reading skill platform. So, 52 male trainees fromTechnical and Vocational College of Isfahan were selected by convenience sampling. Afterwards, 48 trainees were defined as homogeneous using Englishtag Test to learn ESP in 16 triads under two different blended learning scenarios in 18 sessions in the academic year 2014-2015. While the first group of the trainees practiced in the blended learning situation with ready-made displaying device and materials, the second-group trainees practiced the same content through the medium of their own self-made PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and materials; in this way, their learning performance assessed continuously in and outside the classroom. To employ tree-prong approach, interest survey and focus-group interview were embraced, as well. Overall, descriptive and inferential analyses of the collected data disclosed that trainees who were involved in the process of materials development were more excited and learned more than their counterparts who practiced via prefabricated devices and materials. Consequently, self-made (vs. prefabricated) m-game-mediated blended platform was found to be more liable to teaching and learning ESP reading skill.

The status of teaching ESP has been studied both internationally and locally. However, it seems that the challenges of teaching ESP in medical universities of Iran have not been studied appropriately. The main objective of the present study was to explore the main challenges of teaching ESP in medical universities of Iran. Due to the nature of the study, a qualitative res earch design (Phenomenological) was used. The data were gathered through interviewing 25 ESP stakeholders from two universities of medical sciences in Tehran. The data were analyzed through content analysis techniques. The results showed that the challenges are classified into three main themes: institution challenges, learner related challenges, and teacher related challenges. Institution related challenges consisted of undetermined aims, structure of the curricula, and content of syllabus, evaluation, time limitation and classroom size. The learner related challenges included lack of motivation, poor GEL background, and learners’ focus on test, and learners’ inappropriate needs’ analysis. ESP teachers’ related challenges included teacher’s language proficiency, teachers’ content knowledge, teachers’ perception of ESP, teachers’ teaching method, teachers’ familiarity with material development, and testing skills. The findings of the study can be used to promote the status of teaching ESP in medical universities.

This study investigated the impact of visual-kinesthetic tasks on ESP university students’ vocabulary learning. Two intact classes of university students were selected as control (23 students) and experimental (36 students) group. A proficiency test, a pretest and a posttest were administered and the students were exposed to a set of treatments. Also a questionnaire administered to students, recognized each student’s learning style. The posttest mean score of experimental group was significantly different from control group’s posttest proved significant effect of visual and kinesthetic activities on ESP students’ vocabulary learning. Also this significant effect was repeated regarding student’ related learning style.

To produce an adequate translation, language students are required to learn varieties of language features including syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Considering the curriculum language learners are face with, one can claim that almost all language students in Iran are taught these features in their academic settings including linguistic courses. Yet, there are some aspects of language which are disregarded in course books and syllabi and ignored by language teachers. Thus, language learners find it a formidable task to deal with these shrugged off aspects of their curricula. Genre of language is among these invisible features which have challenged translation students in translating specific texts. News reports is one of these genres that Iranian media translators, in spite of enjoying technical competence in language, are not familiar with knowledge and rhetorical conventions of it. So, the current is conducted to investigate the familiarity of these translators with genre features of news discourse and examine the effect of raising genre awareness on developing the quality of translation. To this aim, fourteen translation students studying translation for media purpose were selected through convenient sampling who were given some news reports to translate. Using Baker’s taxonomy (1992) and House’s quality assessment model (1997), the quality of their translations were assessed before genre awareness raising session and after it. The findings showed that the quality of translation ameliorated meaningfully after the instruction, indicating the importance of genre knowledge in linguistic competence. These findings have implications for syllabus designers and EAP and ESP teachers and students. 

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify specialized language needs of MA students in University of Mazandaran. Method: This study was mix method instruments which would deeply explore the perspectives of English for specific purpose teachers and students about task–based language needs of teaching ESP. Semi-structured interview was carried out with a number of teachers and students in the field of sport management. The statistical population of the stage includes some teachers and students in the field of sport management. The sampling method was Purposive sampling and Sampling continue until theoretical saturation. Three ESP teachers who have been teaching ESP to the students for at least four years participated in this study. They were all selected through purposive sampling. Also, MA and Ph.D. (twelve persons) students who had passed this course were selected in qualitative stage. In quantitative stage and based on the results of the first stage, the questionnaire was designed. This questionnaire was broadly distributed amongst students and teachers (33 persons) in the field of sport management. Descriptive and Inferential statistics, were used to analyze the demographic information of the participants and their responses. Results: The results of the study showed that the main real tasks which were most frequently used in the English sport management classes include Participating in daily conversations, giving lectures at conferences, Conversation with foreign experts, Understanding daily conversations. The method of working with and using English to English dictionary to take advantage of all the capabilities contained in it. Conclusions: The information obtained about the target tasks and their frequency can be employed when taking decisions about which tasks should be part of a curriculum.

  This paper investigates the use of ‘lexical bundles’ in two broad corpora of journalistic writing. The aim of this study is to compare the use of lexical bundles in the two domains, one consisted of newspaper articles written in English and published in England and the other one comprised of newspaper articles written in Persian from Iranian publications. For this purpose, the frequency of occurrence and distribution of different functional taxonomies of lexical bundles across the subject matter were investigated. More than 2.5 million words of different English and Persian-produced online newspapers were collected and they were identified by the help of two computer programs, then their functionswere analyzed. Consistent with similar research on lexical bundles, the analysis indicates that most bundles perform a referential function in journalistic register. These findings may be particularly useful to translators and also EFL practitioners, as they seem to give new insights into the development of learner language.  

The present research was conducted to compare the efficiency of 3 groups of ESP instructors: content teachers, language teachers, and professional ESP teachers. The main question was aimed to investigate whether there was a significant difference between the 3 mentioned groups of ESP teachers and if there was, who was more qualified to teach ESP. To find the answer, a questionnaire was developed by the researchers, with an acceptable reliability and validity. The questionnaire was distributed to 135 students in several universities. The obtained results revealed that there was a significant difference between the 3 groups of teachers. Content teachers gained the least score, while language teachers and professional ESP teachers were located in the same subset and gained the highest score. It was concluded that language instructors and professional ESP teachers were more qualified to teach ESP.

The major role of self-directed learning (SDL) in a successful learning at distance education has been confirmed by various studies. Although learners pass General English courses before studying any ESP courses at distance education of Iran, they usually lack the preliminary skills for independent language learning. The current study aimed to explore the effect of self-directed training (SDT) on ESP learners’ self-directed learning readiness (SDLR). Eighty-six B.A students (19 male and 67 female) studying English for Economy and Management at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University participated in this study. A demographic questionnaire and Guglielmino’s (1978) self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) were implemented to select the participants of the control and experimental groups. The experimental group was provided with SDT in three different stages a) an introduction to SDL, b) SDT workshop, and c) SDT pamphlet. Then, a post-test of SDLRS was given to the two groups. ANCOVA was applied to analyze the data. The results revealed that SDT could enhance ESP learners’ SDLR. The findings imply that an appropriate training is needed to improve learners’ SDLR. Higher levels of SDLR can contribute to a successful ESP learning at Payam-e-Noor University in Iran.

Textbook evaluation serves as a useful tool at teachers‘ disposal to cope with uncertainty in opting for the proper material prior to embarking on their teaching career. This study aims at comparing two different ESP textbooks, one of them English for students of Mechanical Engineering, design of solids (SAMT publication), and the other one English in Mechanical Engineering (Oxford University Press). For the purpose of comparison and contrast, Textbook Evaluation Checklist (Miekley, 2005) was used against which the components of these two books were weighed to show what they have in common and where the point of departure from any commonality is. Although based on evaluative questions some inherent inefficiencies of these textbooks were revealed, it was generally concluded that both of them have tenable justification to be taught as an ESP course book.

The main goals of the study were to decipher the English language needs of dental students and to evaluate the effectiveness of the recent official English for specific purposes (ESP) book published for Iranian dental students by SAMT Publication. Accordingly, the study sought to determine whether this book has the potential to meet the specific needs of dental students. Needs analysis data were gathered by interviewing 34 ESP stakeholders from two universities of medical sciences in Iran. The interviews attempted to examine the students' language needs, lacks, and preferences. Following the needs analysis, six evaluators evaluated the coursebook based on a book evaluation form. The results obtained from the needs analysis highlighted the significance of practicing 4 language skills in addition to medical terminology.      In terms of students' language skill lacks, it was found that the majority of the students had problems in listening, speaking, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The participants also reported the learners' preferences and some drawbacks of current ESP courses with respect to learning styles and methodology. Following the book evaluation process, it was concluded that even though the book did not gain a fully satisfactory score, among a few ESP books published for Iranian dental students, this book was the most appropriate one to be used in ESP courses. However, considering some points can surely improve our future ESP books and give the material developers a better understanding of ESP materials.  

This research synthesized the methodological issues of studies published in English for Specific Purposes from its debut in 1980 up to 2020, from both an overall perspective and also periodically in four decades. To this aim, we examined 617 empirical articles with regard to two themes: (a) research methodology, and (b) data sources. More specifically, we probed into the methodological designs, how they were integrated and the points of departure in qualitative research. Our results brought to the fore that the majority of ESP articles were framed as combined methods studies, most frequently concurrent designs, dominated by qualitative data and data collection. As well, about half of qualitative studies did not specify their approach and the majority of quantitative works utilized descriptive statistics and combinations of different tests. Pertaining to data sources, text samples as well as an amalgamation of different data collection techniques were the most prominent ones. Based on these results and discussion, we provided empirically–grounded recommendations and suggestions for promoting methodological transparency and rigor for the prospective studies for the field of ESP and applied linguistics in general.