to keep or to leave: unlocking the efficiency of general english course in iranian context

General english course (gec), considering its syllabus, is a misnomer for the english for academic purposes (eap) instruction in iran. the major goal of gec, as set by the ministry of science, research and technology, is to help undergraduate students develop a reasonable ability to read and comprehend their reference textbooks in their majors. since a lot of time, money, and energy are spent on gec and given the dropout rate among students, its efficiency needs to be evaluated meticulously. this study was an attempt to assess the efficiency of gec in achieving its purported objectives. two hundred and sixty-six university students taking their gec sat for the pretest of the study in order to get a preliminary profile of their reading comprehension ability as well as their knowledge of vocabulary. after 15 sessions of treatment, based on the gec syllabus, the learners took a posttest. results of a wilcoxon signed rank test revealed an improvement from the pretest to the posttest, which is negligible with regard to a small effect size. this state of affairs denotes that gec has not achieved its goals completely. the implications of the study for policymakers, curriculum developers, and educators are discussed.