A Triangulated Study on Occupational English Language Needs of Iranian Bank Clerks

Nowadays, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a major area of interest around the world. The researchers believe that ESP is an enterprise involving education, training and practice; it draws upon three major realms of knowledge: language, pedagogy and the students’ specialized areas of interest. This study aimed to investigate the present and target occupational English needs of Iranian bank clerks. Also, it sought to find any possible mismatch between Iranian bank clerks and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) teachers’ perceptions of the present and target occupational English needs of bank clerks. For this purpose, two groups (totally 60 participants) were studied. The first group included 40 bank clerks, and the second group included 20 EOP teachers. The data were collected through two semi-structured interviews and two questionnaires and were analyzed using the SPSS software. The results obtained through descriptive and inferential statistics including the Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference between bank clerks and EOP teachers’ perceptions with respect to the present and target occupational English needs of bank clerks. Therefore, it is proposed that all educational stakeholders take these perceptual mismatches into consideration, as these mismatches may influence the effectiveness of EOP classes and courses to a great extent.

Keywords:

ESP , EOP , Needs analysis , Present situation needs , Target situation needs