Nursing students’ information-seeking behavior in English for specific purpose (ESP) courses: Do quality of education and reflective practice matter?

Background: Quality of education plays a key role in the development of education. Having this perspective in mind, the researchers explored the quality of English for specific purpose (ESP) courses from ESP instructors’ point of views and investigated the role of quality of education of ESP courses in information-seeking behavior of the students. They also probed the possible relationship between ESP instructors’ reflective practice and quality of ESP courses.

Methods: Seventy-nine ESP instructors, were given the researcher- made quality of education in ESP and the English language teaching reflection inventories. At the end of the term, 317 nursing students received aninformation-seeking behavior questionnaire. To consolidate the findings of the students’ questionnaire, 15 volunteer students were interviewed.

Results: Based on the findings, the quality of ESP courses as reported by ESP instructors was poor. As the responses to the questionnaire of quality of education in ESP revealed, the instructors reported that they do not have sufficient information on subject matters, the content of the lessons is neither updated nor motivating. It was also reported that not all language skills are included in the course and at the same time the teacher-centered courses are not communicative. It was also found that there was a significant correlation between TEFL instructors reflective practice and the quality of ESP courses. In addition, a significant correlation was seen between quality of education of ESP courses and information-seeking behavior of the students.

Conclusion: Based on the findings, the instructors’ reflective practice was poor and the quality of the ESP courses was not satisfactory either. Perhaps, such a condition has lead the instructors not to encourage their students to use other available ESP or English language teaching resources other than their course books. The findings have implications for ESP curriculum development and ESP teachers.