English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become one of the most, popular scholarly topics in recent years, but has so far received less attention from researchers than it deserves. This study investigates Kurdistan University teachers and student perceptions of their ESP courses, explores student needs and expectations of ESP courses; and examines the differences in perceptions of ESP between teachers and students. Two reliable and validated questionnaires and semi structured interview were used to collect data on perception of ESP teachers' and learners' toward ESP. The articipants involved in this study were 122 students, and 15 instructors at Kurdistan University. The collected data were carefully analyzed by descriptive statistics and T-test. The overall findings of the present study showed that both of the teachers' and the students were aware of the importance and the difficulties as well as their future needs toward ESP courses. Results indicate that teachers and learners appear to share some similar views, but there are also divergence between the teachers' and the students' perception toward ESP. Further analysis and interview findings indicated that there are some difficulties in ESP courses for teachers and learners, such as the content of ESP curriculum, teachers' qualification and learning objectives in ESP courses. Some useful pedagogical implications based on the results of this study are proposed for prospective ESP teaching and curriculum application. Suggestions for further research are also discussed.
