Evaluation of ESP Teachers in Different Contexts of Iranian Universities

Abstract

In countries where English is mainly used for academic purposes, such as Iran, ESP plays a highly important role. In Iran, there are three major different contexts of ESP in which content teachers, language teachers, and professional ESP teachers at Language Departments of each discipline teach ESP. The present study intends to evaluate teachers in the three mentioned ESP contexts at several Iranian universities such as Shahid Beheshti, Esfahan, and Guilan Universities. For this purpose, at the first stage, 15 teachers and 30 students were interviewed and 20 classes were observed. At the second stage, 470 teachers and students of Medical and Para-medical Faculties were asked to participate in the study. A survey was run through distributing a 101-item questionnaire for teachers and an 83-item one for students, each one was checked through a pilot study and with a high reliability, among the participants. The results indicate teachers’ and students’ opinions of the current situation regarding their ESP context, especially the methodology, matched with each other. The results concerning the three contexts showed that context of Language Departments in each discipline is the most effective one as far as ESP teaching parameters are concerned and students and ESP teachers at Language Departments were mostly satisfied with their courses. On the other hand, the context of content teachers is the least effective one with the most problematic areas. This suggests that if ESP courses are offered by professional ESP teachers of Language Departments in each faculty, the shortcomings could be minimized.