Exploring reading comprehension needs of Iranian EAP students of health information management (HIM): A triangulated approach

Discipline-based English for Academic Purposes (EAP) reading programs in Iran are designed to fill the gap between the students’ general English reading competence and their ability to read authentic discipline-specific texts. This study attempted to assess target and present reading comprehension needs of EAP students of Health Information Management (HIM) through a triangulated approach involving a wide range of sources and measures. Participants included content teachers (N = 15), EAP teachers (N = 10), graduate students (N = 15), and undergraduate students (N = 180) majoring in HIM at three major medical universities in Tehran, Iran. Instrumentation included four questionnaires, a General English Proficiency (GEP) test, self-assessment, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations. The results indicated that ‘skimming texts’, ‘using bilingual general dictionaries’, ‘scanning texts’, ‘knowledge of HIM terminologies’, ‘guessing meanings of words’, and ‘understanding main ideas’ were perceived as either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to students’ success by all the participants. Also, our findings showed that undergraduate students’ GEP, in general, and reading comprehension, in particular, is lower than what is required in the EAP course. Implications of the study for improving EAP reading courses are presented.