Needs analysis of Iranian Law Students’ English Language Use and Evaluation of a Law ESP Book

The purpose of the present study was to hit upon the needs of Iranian undergraduate law studentsfor their ESP lessons. To yield this purpose, 40 Iranian undergraduate EFL students majoring inlaw participated in the present study. First, a needs analysis questionnaire, developed byBasturkmen (1998) including 26 items was administered to law students to extract informationconcerning their needs in the English language at Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. Then,the textbook evaluation checklist questionnaire, adapted by Danaye Tous and Haghighi (2014)consisting of 22 items was run to evaluate the ESP book taught for Law major in the universitiesin Iran from the students’ viewpoints. The results attained through needs analysis revealed thatamong the four language skills the most needed language skills were writing and speaking. Inaddition, the results attained through textbook evaluation checklist from students’ viewpointrevealed that students’ attitude about the ESP law book was positive. In this regard, it should bepointed out that “there is no faultless textbook which congregates all the supplies of teachers andstudents” (Cunning’s worth, 1984, p. 4). The results of the study have some implications. There isa need to perform a meticulous analysis of requirements before developing a textbook. Theinterests of the students should be assessed and accepted in the planning and assessment of atextbook. No doubt to mention that needs analysis is also essential for deciding the goals andpriorities of the language learning program as well as its significance in evaluating the learners 'needs and requests.

کلیدواژه ها:

Law ، ESP ، language needs ، needs analysis ، evaluation ، Law book ، students’ perspectives