This study reports on investigating students' learning effectiveness in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in an elective course, "English Reading for Technology," offered to sophomores of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in a technical university in Taiwan. A sustained-content language leaching (SCLT) approach and a task-based learning (TBL) approach were combined with courseware-implemented ESP instruction. Students were asked to complete a variety of pre- and post-tests, including cloze tests, dictation and Q&A tests and a questionnaire survey of satisfaction was administered at the end of the instruction. The results indicated that students not only made significant progress but also felt satisfied with the content-based activities and integrative English practices provided by the courseware. A comparison was made with a control group using a conventional teacher-centered style of instruction. The learner-centered instruction with courseware implementation could be potentially helpful for teaching ESP courses by providing both content knowledge and related integrative language practice.