English for Specific Purposes (ESP): The state of the art (An online interview with Mohammad Hassan Tahririan)

In this interview, Mohammad Hassan Tahririan reflects on his experiences, perceptions, and views about English for Specific Purposes (ESP) by first identifying the differences between the General English Language and ESP courses, and then pinpointing recent practices of teaching ESP. He discusses the future directions and areas of ESP research in Iran and points out some challenges that both ESP learners and teachers encounter during learning and teaching the courses. He also emphasizes that if stakeholders insist on offering ESP courses, the required conditions should be provided. If the students are not convinced that learning English is a must for them, imposing ESP courses on them will not be much different from unwanted General English courses. Tahririan believes that the future of most EFL programs in Iran will be in ESP, if understood and offered as expected.