An Investigation into Engineering ESP Textbooks from Instructors’ Perspective: Critical Thinking in Focus

Abstract

This study is an attempt to evaluate, through a qualitative design, engineering ESP (English for Specific Purposes) textbooks taught to students of Engineering with a focus on critical thinking skill. A typical ESP textbook taught in Iran consists of 15 units, starting with a text, comprehension, vocabulary, and several production exercises. The purpose of this study is to evaluate ESP textbooks and present four ESP instructors’ opinions with respect to critical thinking as a fundamental need for students of engineering. To this end, a semi-structured interview was exploited to probe the books and through content analysis, instructors’ opinions were categorized and their commonalities were extracted grounded on five main themes of the WGCTA (Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal). The results of the content analysis indicated that there was a general consensus among the instructors that these textbooks do not rightly address the needs of learners in terms of enhancing their critical thinking skill; therefore, certain suggestions were provided by the instructors to improve the books. The findings promise implications for reflection in ESP instruction and materials development.