An investigation of Iranian ESP teachers’ beliefsattitudes and classroom actions

The present study aimed at investigating Iranian in-service ESP teachers’ beliefs and attitudes and the extent towhich such beliefs exert influence on their classroom practices. A total of 22 ESP teachers took part in the study. Theparticipants’ beliefs and attitudes were elicited through a 30-item questionnaire on a Likert scale. In addition to thequestionnaire, the participants were interviewed. The interview consisted of 8 questions which were mainly concernedwith the teachers’ actual classroom practices. Furthermore, in order to examine the ESP teachers’ actions, observationswere made at some regular interfaces. The results of the study indicated that the beliefs and attitudes ESP teachers’held with regard to different aspects ESP influenced their classroom actions. However, there were also discrepanciesbetween teachers’ beliefs teachers’ beliefs and their actual classroom practices an issue which can be accounted forby several factors such as students’ low general English proficiency, inappropriate materials, time limitation and etc.

An investigation of Iranian ESP teachers’ beliefsattitudes and classroom actions Keywords:

actions , attitudes , beliefs , English for specific purposes (ESP).