ESP in-service teacher training programs: Do they change Iranian teachers’ beliefs, classroom practices and students’ achievements?

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) coined the term “practitioner” for ESP teachers since, they claimed, many pivotal roles such as course designers, materials developers, researchers, evaluators, and classroom teachers should be taken on by an ESP instructor. That is why teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) requires a special approach to the training of the teachers who are supposed to teach English through content. The present study aimed at investigating the underlying effects of an ESP in-service teacher training program on the beliefs and instructional practices of Iranian ESP teachers as well as students’ achievements. A population of 423 Iranian ESP teachers responded to a survey questionnaire on teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. This was followed by selecting 120 teachers and assigning them into two experimental and two control groups. The experimental groups participated in a ten week ESP in-service teacher training program. The outcomes of Chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests clearly revealed the influential and constructive role of the training program on the beliefs and classroom practices of ESP teachers. The study also found significant difference between the achievements of students who enjoyed trained ESP instructors in comparison to those who received untrained ESP instructors.