Discourse analysis in teaching foreign languages for professional purposes (based on Français de la communication professionnelle)

In LSP, Discourse Analysis seems to be an indispensable element in determining the aims and content of education. It is part of the needs analysis of a given audience. However, most people who learn foreign languages for professional purposes, use ready-made materials rather than specially designed courses. LSP textbooks, including those used business language education, are developed for a wide audience. This, however, has negative consequences for the discursive aspects of this education, as illustrated in the corpus of textbooks for the Français des affaires, often seen as French in the company or French for professional communication. This broadly defined scope de facto covers different types of discourse. This is not so much a problem if discursive conditions are shown through didactic dialogues embedded in one company: discursive behaviors could then be patterned onto their models in a real company with similar parameters. However, the analyzed body of text shows that the authors of the textbooks examined focus more on introducing the necessary language forms and explaining the mechanisms of language functioning than on the mechanisms of matching the message to the context. An example of this is the neglect of the form that could mediate between tutoiement and vouvoiement, ie the use of name + vous. Recourse to discourse analysis would help avoid this and other reservations mentioned in the text