English as the language of scientific research in Algeria

Abstract EN

English has spread as a lingua franca in communication and as the language of scientific research.

it has taken the lion's share in published books and journals and has become the language of exact sciences.

however, most research in Algerian universities is conducted in French since it is the first language used in scientific domains, although Arabic is the country's national language.

Hence, French is acquired not only for the community's linguistic practices but also for scientific research.

this fact presents many research problems for researchers, especially in exact sciences like medicine, chemistry, ecology, psychology, and other fields, because they have a poor language background in English.

therefore, experts in English language teaching strive to train teachers and prepare programs to teach specific English for these domains.

this paper aims to provide a guideline for teachers to teach particular English vocabulary for each field of work instead of general English.

to this end, a group of 200 learners from medicine was chosen to test their English vocabulary.

100 participants were studying general English, and others were trained through the ESP program.

the findings have shown that learners, who have learned specific English, have acquired some language proficiency and an excellent linguistic background in English.