Pre and Post Test Evaluations of Students in the Needs-Analysis Based EAP Course at Undergraduate Level

Zohreh Nafissi, Fariba Rezaeipanah, Roya Monsefi

Abstract


Iran’s education system is exam-based and to gain admission to universities at undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels, candidates have to sit a competitive examination. For this reason, developing an EAP course which prepares the candidates for these examinations is of crucial importance. The present study attempted to develop an EAP course for the selected number of undergraduate students of Statistics at Alzahra University and Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The aim was to prepare these students for the English language section of the entrance examination for MS degree in Statistics and then to determine if there was any significant difference between students’ performance in their pre and post tests. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in this study and different instruments such as a questionnaire, semi-structured and structured interviews, and analysis of texts, were used to gather needs analysis data. The results indicated that the majority of participants preferred the presence of more ESP courses at universities. There was also a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores of the participants who took part in the EAP course. 

 


Keywords


ESP, EAP Course, MS Entrance Examination, Needs Analysis, Study Purposes

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.1p.207

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