Voicing teachers’ perceptions and practices of ESP: a case study of Algerian higher education ESP teachers

This thesis which contributes to discussions in the field of ESP teacher education examines the learning experiences and teaching practices of nine Algerian ESP teachers working in a north-western Algerian university. The study focuses on the processes the teachers go through to improve their knowledge of ESP and its practices. It explores the teachers’ understanding and perceptions of ESP, their learning and professional development experiences and the coping approaches they select for dealing with their challenges. In this research, I adopted a qualitative case study methodology to address the research questions. The methods used to collect data were classroom observations, interviews and informal conversations.

The findings reveal that there is a complex variation and contradiction in how the participants view and practise ESP, and their beliefs and understanding of ESP appear to determine the type of their ESP instruction. Therefore, the teachers’ perceptions of what ESP is, appear to be necessary for deciding the type of the ESP course they need to design. In addition, the findings demonstrate the teachers’ learning activities and the professional development endeavors they adopt to manage their professional lives as well as the coping measures they select to cross the different boundaries they encounter while conducting their ESP teaching. Overall, the overarching finding of the thesis shows that after joining ESP teaching, the participants went through a developmental process throughout their teaching experiences starting from developing their understanding of ESP and its practices, developing themselves professionally and finding ways to cope with their hurdles. Thus, by going through this process not only are these teachers finding ways to understand what ESP is and how it should be practised in the real world and cope with their challenges and the demands of their profession but what the teachers are doing is improving their profession and developing their professionalism as ESP practitioners. Hence, the central argument of the thesis is that the issue of ESP being an un-professionalized field of teaching has deprofessionalized the work of ESP teachers and maximized their struggles and anxieties, thus, teachers’ engagement in professional learning and development resulted in improved professionalism of the teachers as well as professionalization of the field.