This article posits that there is a natural affinity between an ethnographic-inspired approach and ESP teaching and research in the wide-angled, sociocultural perspective prevalent in French universities. In spite of little bibliometric evidence to this effect, this study identifies an unrecognised but nevertheless discernible ethnographic-orientated current which underlines the involvement of all three central protagonists of the discipline, ESP teachers, learners and researchers. The article concludes by advocating that the sociocultural orientation of ESP teaching and research in the French academic context stands to benefit from greater integration of the principles and practices of ethnography in French ESP studies.