Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Hossein Davari ¹
• Abutaleb Iranmehr ²

¹ English Department, Damghan University

² Shahrood University of Technology

Abstract

The ‘English for academic purposes’ program, or the so-called ‘specialized English’ program, is one of the key educational sub-systems in Iran's higher education, which has experienced a life of about four decades. Reviewing the related research to this program in the higher education system shows that although it has been evaluated from different angles and mainly from the viewpoint of teaching methods and materials, we have rarely seen its critical evaluation from a broader perspective, Understanding such necessity and using grounded theory, the opinions of eleven specialists in the field of English for academic purposes (EAP) have been qualitatively examined and analyzed. The findings indicate that this program is faced with serious shortcomings in two main areas of policymaking and implementation, which were classified into seven sub-areas.The results of this research can help higher education policymakers, curriculum designer, instructors and other stakeholders in the process of revising and implementing this program.

Keywords

• Specialized English
• Evaluation
• Educational planning
• Higher education system
• Language planning

Main Subjects

• Curriculum and educational planning in higher education