READABILITY OF ESP TEXTBOOKS IN IRAN: A NEGLECTED ISSUE OR A TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED ONE?

Abstract

This study investigates the readability index of the ESP textbooks taught at Iranian universities. To this end, 51 randomly selected texts from 11 ESP textbooks published by The Organization for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (SAMT) were analyzed. Seven main readability indexes, including Flesch Reading Ease Score, Gunning Fog, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, The Coleman-Liau Index, The SMOG Index, Automated Readability Index, and Linsear Write Formula were used to assess the readability of the texts. Surprisingly enough, the data analysis revealed that the majority of the texts were difficult, fairly difficult, and very difficult. The findings underscore that the texts used in the ESP textbooks at Iranian universities are not appropriate for ESP students in terms of the readability of the texts. It is concluded that readability of ESP books is a neglected issue that needs more in-depth consideration. The findings of the study might be useful for ESP textbooks’ authors and materials developers. The pedagogical implications of the study and further research directions are explained in detail.