A Needs Analysis of English for Mathematics in French Higher Education

International audience ; English for mathematics (EFM) remains a rather under-researched area in English for specific purposes (ESP). A possible hypothesis to explain the scarcity of studies in this field is the significant cognitive and disciplinary challenge faced by ESP instructors or researchers while dealing with mathematics, which, as opposed to other disciplines such as law, economics or biology, can be highly intimidating and impenetrable for people who have not received advanced instruction in the field. Also, the language of mathematics is highly specific, as it is, somehow, a language in its own right, with sentences including some linguistic elements combined with a high number of mathematical operators, connectors, symbols (O'Halloran 2008). This leads to a very peculiar integration of language and mathematical expressions, as shown by Petit (1991), who found that, while three different constructions may occur with proper nouns in EFM (the 's genitive, the 'of' genitive and the NØN structure), they were neither always possible nor equivalent, depending on the context of use. In a subsequent article (Petit 1993), he highlighted unusual, specific syntactic patterns associated with abbreviations or the use of proper nouns in EFM. 2 Most surveys on EFM have focused on research articles in mathematics (henceforth RAMs). McGrath and Kuteeva (2012) applied Hyland's stance and engagement theory to a small corpus of 25 mathematics research articles and found a low number of hedges and attitude markers compared to other academic disciplines, while shared knowledge A Needs Analysis of English for Mathematics in French Higher Education ASp, 86 | 2024 ; Les besoins spécifiques en anglais des étudiants en mathématiques ont été peu cartographiés à ce jour. L'objectif de cette étude était d'analyser les besoins linguistiques des étudiants en mathématiques dans un établissement d’enseignement supérieur français et de cibler les compétences clés en anglais à l’aide d'un test standardisé. Une enquête par questionnaire ...