{"title":"English language needs of Iranian students of civil engineering: Are the courses aligned with workplace needs?","authors":"Nooshin Nateghian","doi":"10.1016/j.esp.2024.08.002","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Although Iranian universities offer English for specific purposes (ESP) courses extensively, there are plenty of challenges in the process of teaching the courses. Drawing on multiple methods, this study explored what 5 civil-engineering ESP instructors, 5 company engineers, and 10 students expected to be included in their language courses suitable for workplace-specific requirements. It used multiple sources of data, including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and focus group discussions. Analysis of data showed that in addition to proficiency in general English, civil engineers need to discuss technical issues, attend conferences and seminars, read or write specific genres, and communicate orally, all of which require knowledge of both general and technical English. However, university programs are not specifically designed according to students’ specialized needs. This study contributes to the importance of needs-based curriculum development pertinent to engineering English challenges and highlights the significance of tailor-made language instruction. Furthermore, ESP educators, policy makers, course planners, and other stakeholders can take advantage of needs-based resources to help engineering students solve problems pertinent to their specialization.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47809,"journal":{"name":"English for Specific Purposes","volume":"76 ","pages":"Pages 122-135"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"English for Specific Purposes","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889490624000395","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although Iranian universities offer English for specific purposes (ESP) courses extensively, there are plenty of challenges in the process of teaching the courses. Drawing on multiple methods, this study explored what 5 civil-engineering ESP instructors, 5 company engineers, and 10 students expected to be included in their language courses suitable for workplace-specific requirements. It used multiple sources of data, including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and focus group discussions. Analysis of data showed that in addition to proficiency in general English, civil engineers need to discuss technical issues, attend conferences and seminars, read or write specific genres, and communicate orally, all of which require knowledge of both general and technical English. However, university programs are not specifically designed according to students’ specialized needs. This study contributes to the importance of needs-based curriculum development pertinent to engineering English challenges and highlights the significance of tailor-made language instruction. Furthermore, ESP educators, policy makers, course planners, and other stakeholders can take advantage of needs-based resources to help engineering students solve problems pertinent to their specialization.
期刊介绍:
English For Specific Purposes is an international peer-reviewed journal that welcomes submissions from across the world. Authors are encouraged to submit articles and research/discussion notes on topics relevant to the teaching and learning of discourse for specific communities: academic, occupational, or otherwise specialized. Topics such as the following may be treated from the perspective of English for specific purposes: second language acquisition in specialized contexts, needs assessment, curriculum development and evaluation, materials preparation, discourse analysis, descriptions of specialized varieties of English.