Designing an ESP Course for Medical Representatives in Pakistan

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to investigate professional needs of English language for Medical Representatives in Pakistan. For the purpose of finding out English language needs for Medical Representatives, mixed method approach has been applied. Three groups of research population are selected for gathering data considering them main stakeholders of this professional discourse community. These population groups: medical representatives, professional trainers and Ex-medical representative. A questionnaire was developed to collect data from medical representatives and interviews were conducted to gather relevant information from professional trainers and Ex-medical representatives. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS (Version 17) and qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis identifying common themes from respondents’ responses. The findings of this research paper indicate that proficiency in English language is a key factor for success in medical representatives’ profession. The study presents recommendations and directions to design ESP course for medical representatives in Pakistan.

Keywords: English for specific purposes (ESP), English for academic purposes (EAP), English for occupational purpose (EOP), needs analysis, course design.