چکیده:
This study was an attempt to explore the Iranian university students‟
views about the rather controversial question of who should teach ESP
courses among EFL teachers and the specialists-in-the-field in Iran. For
this purpose, 120 undergraduate students majoring in accounting,
business management and industrial management were selected from
among university students. The members of each major were divided into
two groups of A and B, the former being taught their ESP course by an
EFL teacher, the latter by a specialist-in-the-field instructor. Although
different items of the research instrument (questionnaire) addressed
diverse aspects of teaching method such as teacher knowledge, functions
and techniques, the study was based on the following major research
question: Which ESP instructor teaches more satisfactorily and
effectively from students‟ point of view: the EFL teacher, or the
specialist- in- the- field instructor? A survey questionnaire consisting of
35 items related to the ESP teachers‟ knowledge, functions and
techniques used in the classroom was designed to collect the required
data for the study. The data gathered was then subjected to both
descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Comparison of the total
mean scores of the two groups for each major revealed that the students‟
rate of satisfaction with the EFL teacher was significantly higher than
that with the specialist-in-the-field instructor. The study also offers some
pedagogical recommendations for ESP practitioners.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Although different items of the research instrument (questionnaire) addressed diverse aspects of teaching method such as teacher knowledge, functions and techniques, the study was based on the following major research question: Which ESP instructor teaches more satisfactorily and effectively from students‟ point of view: the EFL teacher, or the specialist- in- the- field instructor?
Sadeghi (2005) mentions three major requirements for the ESP teacher: "English language knowledge, thorough command of course design, and an expert knowledge of the related field of science" (p.
This proves the fact that English major ESP instructors can fulfill course goals much better than specialists in the field provided that they possess a certain level of background knowledge in their students‟ academic subjects of ESP teaching in order to meet this challenge Factors such as the potential superiority of ELT teachers over non-ELT instructors in terms of appropriate competence, language proficiency, linguistic performance, teaching styles, strategic competence, and language awareness are mostly influential in English majors‟ success in ESP classes.
3. T-tests Results for Students’ Satisfaction with the ESP Teachers’ Methods and Techniques In this part the questionnaire included items related to the methods and techniques used in classroom by EFL and field specialist teachers; these were items 22 (activating the students background knowledge), 23 (teaching reading strategies), 24 (teaching study skills), 25 (making the students use monolingual dictionaries), 26 (giving appropriate assignments), 27 (teaching grammatical points), 28 (doing the reading comprehension exercises), 29 (having English presentations in classroom), 30 (doing listening activities), 31 (summarizing texts), 32 (conducting cooperative and collaborative activities in classroom), 33 (having discussions in English), 34 (teaching method), and 35 (testing techniques).