摘要
By considering the fact that in EFL （English as foreign language） contexts learners need reading comprehension skill more than other skills in their academic studies, reading comprehension should be attached more importance especialy in ESP （English for specific purposes） classes in which reading ability plays a crucial role in the students＇ academic success. But in order to help learners in the best possible way, teachers need to identify their learners＇ problems in reading ESP texts. Detecting the problematic areas for the students will assist teachers better design and apply appropriate methods and strategies to solve their students＇ reading comprehension problems. Therefore, the following research was an attempt to explore the EFL learners＇ reading comprehension problmes in reading ESP texts in ESP classes. For the purpose of the study, five passages from their coursebook were selected and they were asked to underline the syntactically problematic parts in the passages. The subjects of the study were composed of 185 homogenous engineering students who were learning english as a foregin langauge. Chi-square analysis showed that 15 major syntactic categories are serious hurdle to reading comprehension of ESP texts. The results and implications are discussed in the light of TLA （teachers＇ language awareness）.
