A Needs-based Evaluation of EAP Syllabuses

The main purpose of the present exploration was to see if EAP syllabuses have been developed based on reading comprehension needs of undergraduate students. To this end, 656 undergraduate students, 75 graduate students, 150 post-graduate students, 75 content teachers and 30 EAP teachers of fifteen randomly selected academic disciplines filled in a needs analysis questionnaire. To triangulate the quantitative data, open ended questions, informal conversation, classroom observation and content analysis of the syllabuses were implemented. The results showed that all of reading comprehension needs were considered either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ and there were statistically significant differences among sub-skills and strategies of reading comprehension needs. Classroom observations showed that EAP classes in reality do not cater for undergraduates reading comprehension needs restricted to text translation and mother-tongue equivalents of general and specific words. More importantly, it was found that EAP syllabuses have not been fully developed based on reading comprehension needs of undergraduate students. Implications and suggestions for redesigning EAP syllabuses are discussed.