identifying the language needs and developing an esp coursebook for m.a students of exercise physiology in iran

This study was conducted to design an appropriate esp coursebook for m.a students of exercise physiology in iran based on their language learning needs. a total of 40 male and female students majoring in exercise physiology as well as 4 subject instructors who taught esp at the sports science departments of the universities took part in the study. the rationale behind selecting the field of exercise physiology was that there was no esp coursebook for the m.a students of exercise physiology and esp instructors had to utilize self-selected materials to adapt for their classes. the researcher employed a qualitative-quantitative research method encompassing two data gathering tools: a questionnaire and an interview. two sets of needs analysis questionnaire were used in this study: students’ questionnaire and esp instructors’ questionnaire. prior to using students’ questionnaire and esp instructors’ questionnaire for data collection, the questionnaires were piloted and validated. the obtained results demonstrated that reading and writing, followed by speaking and listening were respectively recognized as the most important skills by the participants. furthermore, the participants expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of translation, writing and grammar exercises, interesting topics and pictures in esp materials used in sports science departments. equally, esp instructors of the field were dissatisfied with the ma students’ language skills. as a result, the data obtained from the needs analysis phase were used to develop a coursebook for m.a students of exercise physiology.