“Explication de Texte” Revisited in an ESP Context

This study investigates current reading instruction in ESP. Specifically, it studies what has changed and what has not in a context where explication de texte used to be a major asset in teaching English as a foreign language. Four-point scale questionnaires were gathered from 13 secondary school inspectors, 65 ESP teachers and 94 students. They were asked about using texts to (a) teach grammar and vocabulary, and (b) practice reading strategies (careful reading, skimming, reading from beginning to end and reading only beginnings and ends). To shed additional light on these areas, we asked them three further questions on (c) reading aloud, (d) text length, and (e) time given to read a one-page text. Results showed that although, on some items, some movement away from the traditional approach has been recorded, the majority of reading instruction is still under the spell of explication de texte. This paper suggests that EFL science students need more in terms of reading strategies, if we want to make of them operational readers of literature in their field of study.