Those people in front of English subject (5)
I believe the answer is:
theme
'subject' is the definition.
('theme' can be a synonym of 'subject')
'those people in front of english' is the wordplay.
'those people' becomes 'them' (I've seen this before).
'in front of' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'english' is 'e'.
'them'+'e'='THEME'
(Other definitions for theme that I've seen before include "Subject matter, topic" , "Thread, melody" , "Leitmotiv" , "Signature tune" , "essay" .)