Engineering Students’ Motivation for ESP Courses: Investigating the Effect of Academic Level

Technical English assumes importance for academic and future occupational success in engineering fields. However, students’ lack of motivation to take ESP courses raises an issue which requires investigation. In order to shed light on engineering students’ motivation to take ESP courses, 75 students majoring in engineering fields at different academic levels attended focus group interviews and stated their incentives to take ESP courses. Qualitative analysis of students’ perspectives revealed that they deemed technical English knowledge to be necessary. However, they did not consider ESP courses as useful since they took this course in last year of their studies. Results indicated that academic level (first year, second year, third year, and fourth year) had great impact on students’ motivation. Most students construed technical English as the knowledge of technical terms and concepts which could be acquired during their subject courses. Having already learned technical terminology and academic reading skill through excessive reading of English sources, senior students mainly took the course to get good marks and not to extend technical terminology or reading strategy which are the main objectives of ESP courses. It could be concluded that ESP courses are more effective when offered in the first year right after taking general English course, not in last year just to pass the course. The results imply that the focus of ESP courses should be shifted toward improving students’ academic English skills especially productive skills and strategies.

Keywords:

ESP , motivation , engineering students , technical English , academic level