Investigating Instructors' Expectations of ESP for B.A. Students of Nursing

The present study aimed at investigating English for specific purposes (ESP) instructors' expectations and attitudes towards teaching ESP to students of nursing in medical universities. As a survey study, the participants were 57 ESP instructors teaching at medical universities of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and Ilam. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather the data. The reliability coefficient of the researcher-made questionnaire equaled 0.74. The findings of the study revealed that the participating instructors expected the comprehension of reading passages to be the main goal of ESP courses at medical universities and that learning English grammar to be of the least degree of importance. Moreover, the participants' pointed to the dearth of attention to communicative skills in such courses. Additionally, the instructors argued that crowded ESP classes do not guarantee accountability in teaching. Furthermore, the instructors complained about the lack of facilities like language labs and language learning softwares in ESP courses. To conclude, paying due attention to communicative and interactive skills besides a concern for reading comprehension and vocabulary building, is of utmost priority in ESP courses. Hence, it seems incumbent upon ESP curriculum developers and course designers to evaluate ESP courses profoundly and take advantage of new theories in the realm of ESP.