CALL Lesson Planning for ESP Classes in Morocco: Challenges & Opportunities

Résumé

Lesson planning forms a road-map for instructors to set learning objectives and ensure the way they should be presented. A lesson plan shows the instructor’s competence in combining theory and practice (Pang, 2016). Hence, using the objectives planned in the curriculum and students’ needs, instructors determine the form and content of their instruction, such as the lesson stages, activities, feedback techniques, assessment, time and class management, and materials and equipment needed for the lesson. In Morocco, since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, lesson planning is designed not only for a face-to-face instruction but also for a computer assisted language learning (CALL) format. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate lesson plans designed for CALL lessons. The focus was to work on classes of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as this field is relatively unexplored in Moroccan academia. The main explored aspects of CALL lesson planning are activities, feedback techniques, assessments, and time management considering the delivery mode which can be synchronous and/or asynchronous. The methodology follows a mixed method approach. Data was collected through semi structured interviews with ESP instructors and surveys were administered to students to determine their needs. The study showed that instructors faced challenges when switching their lesson plan design to a CALL format. They have also tried to adopt new teaching approaches, techniques, and learning tools to develop synchronous and asynchronous ESP lesson plans. Finally, the feedback from the students’ needs surveys provided insights about future course planning.