Language Needs of Graduate Students and ESP Courses: The Case of Tourism Management in Iran

Abstract

International tourism and its related businesses have considerably increased recently. Due to this expansion, tourism employees must be able to communicate appropriately, and effective ESP programs need to be administered accordingly. Many studies have been conducted on current ESP courses for tourism; however, major problems still remain in designing ESP courses to satisfy L2 learners’ needs, especially those learning ESP in Iranian universities. The current study was an attempt to investigate the language needs of Iranian graduate students of tourism management based on their wants, lacks, and necessities. This mixed methods study involved a questionnaire and semistructured interviews with graduate students, English instructors, subject-specific instructors, and experts in tourism management. Despite the fact that wants, lacks, and necessities were not highly similar, based on the findings, it was concluded that all the 4 language skills need to be emphasized in their ESP courses in order to satisfy the specific needs of tourism management graduate students.

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