Linguistic background. Considering the general educational and cultural l background
of the students who entered the university and regarding the fact that what they
learned in junior high school and high school was not frequently recycled and used,
students usually entered the university mostly (75%) with below the average level of
English language proficiency. As ESP students reported, they had forgotten many of
the words and grammatical rules they had already learned/ memorized.
Curriculum requirements. In ESP, students in each field of study are required to
read a book whose content is supposed to be related to their field of study. In this way
they get familiar with their specialized vocabulary. There are no grammatical points
explained in ESP books. Students who take ESP course after they have
learned/experienced the basic concepts (e.g., devices, processes, etc.) in their field of
study, learn the specialized English terms much easier than those who have not. In
addition, the congruity between the ESP content and what these students would pass
in their specialized courses can facilitate the learning of specialized vocabulary to a
great extent since students experience what they learned in their ESP course is
practically useful for them.
With regard to the relationship between ESP content and the students’ training
courses, the more students are required to use the specialized vocabulary they had
already learned in their ESP course in their training sessions, the more motivated they
become to learn more new words and use them as the need arises. On the other hand,
the simultaneous presentation of ESP and training courses helped the students to
experience the practical use (application) of the specialized vocabulary items in
authentic (real) contexts such as clinics, hospitals or drugstores.
Prior presentation of training courses to ESP courses also raised the ESP students’
consciousness about the importance and necessity of learning specialized vocabulary
in satisfying their academic needs.