چکیده
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The research project set out to improve reading skills among engineering students at
University of Maragheh where many of them were dissatisfied with existing negative attitudes
towards English and the inadequacies of the teaching that they received. A needs analysis was
carried out to establish what they and their teachers perceived as the major skills in which they
were deficient. This taxonomy of skills was then used as the basis for developing a reading
improvement program. It was trialed with an experimental group (N ¼ 66, 2 classes), compared
with a control group (N ¼ 70) which stayed with the reading materials currently used in the
institution. Students in the experimental group were not permitted to use the dictionary, but
were specially trained to employ textual and contextual clues; they used authentic materials as
opposed to the simplified ones that are in vogue at Iranian higher education levels. Their mean
scores rose from 47.45% in the pre-test to 73.76% in the post-test, whereas those of the control
group rose from 48.53% to 50.44%. In order to mobilize the students’ schemata, the ESP
teachers needed to assimilate subject concepts from their learners, and negotiate meaning with
them, rather than presenting themselves as the primary information providers.
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