English Language and Letters

The present study sets as its main purpose to examine attitudes toward the uses of pedagogical translation in teaching ESP. The assumption behind this investigation is that much can be gained from the suggested input in raising the students’ reading comprehension of scientific texts. As teachers tend to use only English to expose students to the target language, this method, in some situations, does not ensure the students’ understanding.  Thus, this study is accomplished to afford an illustration about such difficulties met by first year master at the department of biology, Kasdi Merbah University, Ouargla, when they read scientific texts in English. It aims also, at highlighting the role of translation especially into the mother tongue in teaching ESP and teaching situations of L1 uses. Moreover, the study seeks finding out students’ attitudes toward that uses in ESP classroom that help ESP teachers to decide whether to implement it or to avoid translation into the mother tongue. To meet these mentioned objectives and to gather data, the descriptive method is selected. After analyzing the data obtained, results reveal that translation into the mother tongue has an important impact on the learning and teaching contexts. On the basis of the results achieved, the conclusion is drawn.