| ESP stands for English for Specific Purposes and it is a broad and diverse field of English language teaching. As China speeds up opening to the outside world, there is a dramatic increase in scientific and technical interchange and people become to recognize the importance of ESP teaching and learning. The course of subject-based English, which is designed for the third- and fourth-year college students, forms a main part of the ESP teaching and learning in China. However, because of the obscure requirements in the College English Teaching Syllabus (the revised edition) and the wealth of published ESP materials available on the market, selecting an appropriate ESP material that will be most suitable for a particular group of students becomes a challenging task for most ESP teachers.The study is carried out to present a checklist of criteria for materials selection which will equip teachers to do their own selection of ESP materials for college students of science and technology. A self-designed investigation was employed to examine the present situation of ESP materials and the attitudes of learners and teachers towards the materials. After analyzing the results of the investigation, the author compared the learners' needs with the requirements of the subject-based English in the College English Teaching Syllabus (the revised edition),and then raised several points of attention in ESP materials selection in the following six aspects: materials package (published materials or in-house materials, components of materials package), language content (vocabulary, grammar, discourse), language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation), topics (highly specialized materials or materials with broader topic areas, authenticity), methodology (approach, techniques) and other practical considerations.Hopefully, this research can provide some helpful advise for the ESP teachers in their materials evaluation and selection as well as their ESP teaching.
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