web-based language teaching as a tool for providing needs analysis in iranian esp courses

Despite the large number of studies conducted in order to find english language teachers towards the use of technology in language teaching as well as effectiveness of using technology in development of different language skills, very few studies have focused on the use of technology in esp courses and investigation of needs analysis among undergraduates. in any specific esp course, the key factor is identification of the needs and wants of the students of the class in order for increasing their motivation in english language learning. the present study was conducted to implement a web-based strategy of language teaching as a tool to make a needs analysis among iranian undergraduates of engineering. for this aim. 80 iranian undergraduates of engineering were selected using convenience sampling to take part in the study. the participants were divided into two equal groups. for the first group, a web-based instruction of language were adopted for teaching materials to the students and discovering their interests and needs as they search the web pages. on the other hand, the participants of the second group were taught using conventional language teaching methods without any specific needs analysis strategy. a mixed-method of analysis using participants' scores in their final tests as well as their responses to interviews and questionnaires regarding their satisfaction of the courses was adopted to collect and analyzed the required data. the findings of the study revealed significant satisfaction of the participants who were taught using web-based strategy. the study also resulted in significant effect of web-based language teaching in providing needs analysis of esp students and undergraduates' specific language skills development. the findings have implications for esp teachers in using web pages and online sources as a tool in needs analysis before designing the language curriculum.