ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC AND SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE OF ENGINEERING SCHOLARS BASED ON WRITTEN CORPUS FOR NEEDS-BASED APPROACH TO EAP COURSES

This study aims at assessing the academic and specialized vocabulary knowledge of nonnative (Iranian) engineering scholars based on the availability in ISI articles corpus in order to analyze the needs and re-evaluate the existing syllabi in the two fields of General English (GE) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at universities. Various methods have been applied in the course of this research. As the quantitative data, the ratio of the native scholars' academic and specialized vocabulary knowledge to that of the non-natives was calculated; as the qualitative data, it was investigated whether or not the non-natives paid attention to the instruction of GE and EAP.To collect the quantitative data, ۸۰ random ISI articles were chosen as samples. Half of the articles were written by native engineering scholars, while the other half were written by engineering scholars from Islamic Azad University (South Tehran Branch). Additionally, to collect the qualitative data, ۳۰ non-native scholars from Islamic Azad University (South Tehran Branch) were randomly selected to be interviewed. The results from analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data were related to each other, concluding that the nonnatives’ vocabulary knowledge was limited and smaller compared to the natives’. Furthermore, the interviews showed that the non-natives essentially needed to change their views on the instruction of GE and EAP at university. At the final stage, the existing needs were investigated and thus, a short pamphlet of materials as a suggestion for further study has been developed in this article in order to facilitate learning and teaching academic and specialized vocabulary.

کلیدواژه ها:

vocabulary knowledge ، engineering scholars ، English for Academic Purposes ، General English