What do Civil Engineers Say about their English Language Needs: An Interview Research on Iranian ESP Students

The present research aims to investigate Iranian university students’ perceptions about their English language needs in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. In doing so, eight students of some state universities in Iran were selected as the participants of the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to elicit their perceptions. Qualitative analysis of students’ interview transcripts through grounded theory and NVivo qualitativedata analysis revealed three main categories of 1) Importance of reading comprehension in ESP courses; 2) Significance of vocabulary learning in ESP courses; and 3) Students’ dissatisfaction of ESP courses, which shaped students’ perceptions regarding their target language needs. Findings contributed to the fact that ESP students should be aware of their needs and policy makers and material developers can benefit from ESP communicative tasks to fulfill students’ needs in the context of interaction, which makes the learning process more meaningful for ESP students.

Keywords:

Civil Engineering , ESP , Language Needs , Needs Analysis.