A needs assessment for the English language courses at Shiraz University

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the present and the desired situation of the EAP instructional programs and to determine the discrepancy between these two situations at Shirrs University, Iran. The participants of this study consisted of 2030 students and 150 faculty members from all academic disciplines. The English language majors were, however, excluded from the study. Required data were collected through two separate questionnaires, one for the students and the other for the faculty members. Findings indicated that EAP curriculum at Shiraz University is not overall satisfactory to the students nor is it for the staff. Some of the sources of dissatisfaction included inadequacy of the general English textbooks, insufficient weekly hours of the English language instruction and undue emphasis on 'Grammar'. On the other hand, undergraduate students stated their first and most important needs to be 'Reading Comprehension;' Vocabulary & Specialized Terms.' However, graduate students considered 'Writing' and Conversation' skills as their number one priority.