The Importance of English for Science Stream Students Case of The University of Tlemcen

Abstract

This research aims at tracking certain issues related to the status of English among a group from science university students of Tlemcen. Its main purpose is to find out the value and importance of English as realized by science university students in two higher institutions in Tlemcen. The institutions visited were the Faculty of Biology and Geology and the faculty of Technology at Tlemcen University. To reach this end, a research work was conducted by a questionnaire that was used to collect data from a sample of 30 students, who were asked to view their opinion about the value they attach to English and its use in daily lives. The data collected were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings revealed that there is a significant awareness toward the importance of English for them as science and technology students, thus, this awareness is not accompanied by any measures to develop their mastery of it. Furthermore, the other finding of this research was that English was found to be slowly occupying areas of use usually occupied by French despite the fact that French was still their dominant language in research activity and entrainment. This work provides evidence that the importance of English is very much recognized by the majority of the sample examined, which made the prospect of adopting it as the language of instruction in scientific disciplines favored.