DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2020.v08i01.003

Pages: 13-22

English is used in all fields of activity and plays an important role in professional areas such as business, tourism, science and technology. This situation has made English for Specific Purposes (ESP) a growing field in Frenchspeaking countries like Senegal and the need for ESP teachers is rapidly increasing in this part of the world. English is now taught in every college department with the goal to produce graduates who meet the requirements of their chosen field of study. Applied linguists have been exploring learners‘ needs in ESP in many parts of the world in order to design curricula that meet the job market‘s requirements. However, there has been less research focusing on the instructors‘ training needs. As a matter of fact, there is a big gap between the goals of the English instructional program and the learners‘ needs and expectations. In Senegal, graduates realize when they start looking for jobs that their level in English does not meet the labor market needs. Using a mixed-method approach, the purpose of this study is to determine whether the fact that Senegalese graduates are not able to communicate effectively in job situations is due to the instructors‘ lack of training or not. It also aims to identify the training needs of Senegalese EFL instructors working in content-specific areas in order to improve the teaching of ESP in Senegal.