Investigating English Use within ESP learners’ practices and interactions through BE & EOP classroom observation

Abstract

Classroom observations are used in language teaching to provide teachers with constructive critical feedback aimed at improving classroom instructional techniques. This paper represents a comprehensive framework for class observation within business English learners at the Graduate School of Economy of Oran, Algeria, and English Occupational Trainees at the SONATRACH learning institution. This investigation aims to confer a practical and detailed insight into learners’ use of mother-tongue and French language while performing their English learning tasks and so forth in interacting between them and with their teacher of English. To generate useful data, we have selected two methods: a "classroom observation system" and a classroom assessment scoring system. The findings show that the relative frequency of language used by the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners was not regular or stable. Each time the use of English, the second foreign language (FL2) is low, the use of other languages, French as the first foreign language (FL1) and the Mother-tongue: Algerian Arabic dialect (MT) is high and vice versa. Accordingly, the informants fall into the category of unbalanced use of languages with a steady involvement in learning activities due to certain criteria that would be discussed and explicated in the paper in hands.