A comparative ESP study: The case of Poland and Romania

The paper presents a study performed in two universities in Poland and Romania. It aimed to identify learners’ needs and difficulties when learning ESP, and also what common needs students in the two universities have, in spite of the fact that they study different branches of ESP–English for Economics and Medical English, respectively. For this purpose, we designed a questionnaire containing 14 open and closed questions. The participants in the study were 100 students at the Koszalin University of Technology in Poland and 100 students from the “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The results of the study showed that, in spite of their different fields of training, there were many similarities between the responses of the students, but also certain differences that derived mostly from the different background and specific language needs of learners. Therefore, we may conclude that university students who study sciences, in particular Business and Medicine, might have certain similar needs when learning Professional English. Moreover, being aware of the students’ needs and difficulties, as revealed in the present study, might help their teachers to adjust the sy