Principles and Practices of ESP Course Design—A Case Study of a University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The study is aimed to investigate the learners’ perspectives of perceived needs on their ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses. This study reviewed the literature on needs analysis for ESP course design, offered a feasible measurement as an alternative approach, and described an example of needs analysis in an international business course at a university of technology. Two groups of 257 participants of varying proficiency levels participated in the study, including English major and non-English major students. A learner’s needs analysis questionnaire was administered to collect data from the subjects using the survey method. The data was analyzed via the SPSS software package for window. It was concluded that the most problematic area was writing skill.