ESP students

The present study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between ESP learners’ critical thinking abilities and their reading comprehension. For this purpose, from the population of students studying in different fields of engineering at Amol Islamic Azad University, a sample of 202 ESP participants were selected based on a purposive sampling method. A critical thinking questionnaire was then given whereby the targeted respondents answered the prompts underlying the critical thinking construct. Subsequently, a valid reading comprehension test with an acceptable reliability index was administered and the data were analyzed using the related descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that there was a robust and positive correlation between ESP learners’ levels of critical thinking ability and their reading comprehension. Moreover, it was found that ESP students regarded as high critical thinkers significantly outperformed those with lower levels of critical thinking on the reading comprehension test. Notably, the results may offer useful implications to both language teachers and English learners indicating that critical thinking strategies play a pivotal role in the reading comprehension process.

This study examined the challenges, perceptions and expectations of students and instructors involving ESP courses which are seen to be significant in determining the effectiveness of ESP programs in Iran setting. It was conducted with 180 students as participants who were requested to answer two kinds of questionnaires. Along with these questionnaires, six ESP instructors attended in semi structures interviews on the challenges of the course and their attitudes and expectations of the course. Additionally, the ESP courses at this university were observed to see how the process of ESP classes is. After obtaining the data through the observation, questionnaires and interviews, they were analyzed to get outcomes. The findings indicate some challenges and expectations which should be regarded in designing the ESP course to improve its quality in Iranian Universities. They include the low language proficiency of students, inexperienced instructors, lack of communicative activities, lack of use of productive language skills, along with the receptive language skills, overcrowded classes and irrelevant and outdated materials in ESP programs. As current instruction is limited to training unique vocabulary and reading via translating texts to the Persian language, the ESP course does not reflect any active participation and motivation of the ESP students and so it turns to be an ineffective course. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that these factors are regarded in designing ESP courses to attain the objectives the courses.