Challenges Met In Designing Esp Courses Case Of A Business English Class

Abstract

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an approach to language teaching. It is goal-directed and based on learners’ needs, which implies designing courses that meet the students’ needs and objectives behind learning English. For designing ESP courses, many elements come into play besides needs identification and analysis and learning theories, namely learning objectives, syllabus design, materials selection, teaching methodology and assessment. To this end, teachers select suitable theories of learning. Then they move to the practical aspect which is needs analysis. However, in some Algerian universities and many ESP contexts, it is not possible to identify and analyse learners’ needs because of many factors. The aim of this paper is to describe the ESP situation in the Faculty of Economics, Management and Commerce at the University of Ghardaia and the challenges met in ESP course design in Accounting and Finance department in the same faculty