Rethinking English for Medical Purposes in Iran: Investigating the effectiveness of the status quo from stakeholders’ perspectives

This study tries to explore the stakeholders’ perception about the status quo of English for Medical Purposes (EMP) in Iranian context, and their ideas for the improvement of the current situation. For so doing, both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection were used. In the first phase of the study, a structured questionnaire was developed and distributed among 282 Medical Students, 12 instructors, and 15 practitioners studying and working at Birjand University of Medical Sciences to probe into their perception of the extent to which the current EMP curriculum can satisfy medical students’ language needs. In the second phase of the study, 25 medical students, 8 instructors, 12 practitioners, and 3 EFL instructors were interviewed. The results of the first phase of the study (quantitative part) showed that the participants believed that the current EMP curriculum cannot satisfy medical students’ English language needs in the four major language skills and their subcomponents. Furthermore, they were not satisfied with the current class size, teaching and evaluation methods, textbooks, and the time allocated for teaching EMP. The findings of the second phase of the study (qualitative part) further confirmed the participants’ dissatisfaction with the components of the EMP curriculum. In addition, they believed that changes in the status quo of EMP should begin with the EMP educational policies. The findings are discussed and the implications for policy and practice are mentioned.