چکیده:
The present study investigated the English-speaking needs of Iranian English-majoring undergraduate and graduate students from their instructors’ perspectives. To this end, four Iranian English instructors from Shiraz University participated in the study by taking part in an unstructured interview on their students’ speaking problems, the magnitude of the problem, and the probable causes and solutions to the problems. The results revealed that the participants believed that there is a problem with their students’ English-speaking ability at all levels of BA, MA and Ph.D. Despite the instructors’ conflicting ideas, the findings indicated that students at BA and MA levels have more serious speaking problems. The causes of these problems were reported to be insufficient focus on improving speaking skills, the inefficiency of the preceding education and lack of any gate-keeping or post-admission speaking assessment. The instructors were in favor of introducing the speaking skill in the post-admission assessment and the EAP programs to solve the problem.
خلاصه ماشینی:
To this end, four Iranian English instructors from Shiraz University participated in the study by taking part in an unstructured interview on their students’ speaking problems, the magnitude of the problem, and the probable causes and solutions to the problems.
Research Question Two: What is the magnitude of the problem with the academic English-speaking ability of students at each level of education as perceived by the instructors?
In another needs-analysis study, Kim (2006), using a survey, examined East Asian international graduate students ’views on their academic listening and speaking skill needs in their university courses and their challenges in meeting these needs.
Concerning speaking ability, which is the focus of the present study, the qualitative analysis of the data obtained from semi- structured interviews with six university instructors indicated minimal involvement of language use tasks requiring speaking at the undergraduate courses as opposed to other skills such as reading.
g. Atai, 2000; Eslami, 2010; Eslami-Rasekh & Valizadeh, 2004; Gooniband, 1988; Khajeie, 1993; Mazdayasna & Tahririan, 2008).
Considering Shiraz University English-majoring students, needs analysis studies are needed to identify the problem with students’ speaking ability, its causes and probable solutions and instructors are considered a good source to provide the desired information (Ferris & Tagg, 1996).
With this background, the present paper reports on the results of a small-scale needs assessment study that aimed to identify the academic speaking needs of students in the English department of Shiraz university based on the perspective of their instructors.