خلاصة:
The present study aimed to assess the target and present reading comprehension needs and abilities of Iranian medical students with different levels of English language proficiency. A total of 283 medical students and 23 ESP instructors were chosen through cluster sampling. The data collection instruments included the Persian version of Atai and Nazari’s (2011) needs analysis questionnaire and a 40-item language proficiency test. The obtained results indicated that ‘general vocabulary’ and ‘medical terminology’ were considered ‘important’ in facilitating the comprehension of medical texts. In addition, the findings revealed that medical students need to improve all reading sub-skills. Furthermore, the respondents’ perceptions were significantly different with regard to students’ target needs and present abilities in reading comprehension. Finally, there was no statistically significant difference in students’ target and present needs and abilities across different levels of language proficiency. The findings have potential implications for the improvement of medical EAP courses.
ملخص الجهاز:
Undergraduates: need more general English than highly specific academic English Limited to computer students Atai &Nazari (2011) To assess target and present reading comprehension needs of EAP students of Health Information Management 15 content teachers, 10 EAP teachers, 15 graduate students ,180 undergraduate students majoring in HIM at three major medical universities, Tehran, Iran ‘skimming texts’, ‘using bilingual general dictionaries’, ‘scanning texts’, HIM terminologies’, ‘guessing meanings of words’, and ‘understanding main ideas: either‘ important’ or ‘very important’ to students’ success by all the participants.
Subject- specific instructors: dissatisfied with their students’ language skills Students of different fields were studied Only nursing and midwifery students were studied 83 Although reading comprehension in English is the most important skill and the main concern of ESP instructors and students in the Iranian academic context (Jafari & Shokrpour, 2012b; Sajadi & Oghabi, 2011; Tabatabaei, 2007), none of these needs analysis studies, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, has examined the present and target reading comprehension needs of Iranian medical students.