Résumé:
Learning scientific subjects through a foreign/second language is a widespread approach of
education in higher educational institutions. Accordingly, this study explores the problems
that biology teachers and students at Larbi Tébessi University face with the currently used
medium of instruction. The study further investigates biology teachers’ and students’ attitudes
towards the use of English as a medium of instruction to teach biology modules. Accordingly,
two hypotheses have been formulated; the first one suggests that students and teachers would
have positive attitudes towards using English as a medium of instruction in teaching biology
modules, and the second proposes that biology teachers and students would face certain
problems with French as an instructional language. Thus, a sample of 25 teachers and 500
students responded to semi open-ended questionnaires about the use of English to teach
biology subjects. The obtained results suggest a general positive attitude among the majority
of both teachers and students towards the use of English for instruction at the Department of
Biology. However, a considerable number of participants have shown hesitation about the
implementation of an EMI-based programme with regard to the current educational policy
and English language teaching in middle and secondary education. In this sense, this study
has certain implications related to language education problems encountered by both teachers
and students.
