The Educational Content of the ESP Curriculum at Iran Language Institute: reappraisal at policy, planning, and practice levels

The literature on curriculum evaluation and renewal indicates that the success of a given curriculum depends largely on the extent to which all stakeholders develop and share similar understanding of different aspects of that curriculum. The importance of evaluation and renewal is doubled when it comes to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) which is by definition a needs-oriented movement. As such, the present study, which is a part of a larger study, shed light on the Iran Language Institute ESP stakeholders' perceptions as to the educational content of the programs. In so doing, semi-structured qualitative interview and questionnaire were employed to probe the stakeholders' perceptions regarding the educational content. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that there were different, and at times contradictory, perceptions with regard to the educational content. The findings of this study might be considered a starting point for the ILI ESP curriculum renewal.