Three heads are better than one? Digital multimodal composition completed collaboratively versus individually

PurposeThis study investigates the relationships between the built environments of learning commons and user productivity, such as collaborative and individual work productivity and overall environmental satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted in a learning commons building at a higher education campus in the USA. The data collection and analysis were conducted with the survey responses of satisfaction with indoor environments and perceived productivity as well as the objective indoor environmental quality (IEQ) measurements. Statistical analysis was performed, including descriptive analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), regression analysis and ANOVA test.FindingsThe study presents that satisfaction with noise level is positively associated with individual productivity. The results imply that the spatial properties of open-plan commons, such as visibility and accessibility, are associated with space users' interactions and collaborative productivity. Overall satisfaction is in a positive relationship with lighting satisfaction, study supporting artifacts and furniture configuration. The results of this study reveal the importance of meeting the standards in IEQ factors on individual productivity and the spatial features preferred by space users that facilitate tasks and activities.Originality/valueThe mixed-method approach, including subjective and objective data collection of IEQ, is rarely utilized to show the relationships with perceived productivity. This study investigates a unique building design feature such as step seats in relation to space use and perceived productivity. The findings inform library leadership about environmental characteristics related to the user experience in learning commons, a new format of academic libraries.

With the deepening of globalization and changes in vocational education demands, the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course plays an increasingly important role in higher education, especially in cultivating students' professional English skills and cross-cultural communication abilities. However, traditional ESP teaching models overly emphasize theoretical knowledge, neglecting students' individual needs, which leads to poor learning outcomes. In response, this paper proposes a "One Center, Two Integrations, Four Dimensions" teaching model, centered on students, which integrates professional knowledge with language skills and organically combines online and offline teaching. The aim is to comprehensively enhance students' language proficiency, professional competence, cross-cultural communication skills, and innovative thinking. This paper details the design concept of this teaching model and its implementation path in the "English for Specific Purposes" course at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, as well as a diversified evaluation system and a resource integration plan involving collaboration between teachers and industry experts. This study provides new theoretical and practical references for optimizing the teaching model of ESP courses.

English has the status of a global language and nowadays, it is “a must tool“. In order to be successful in any field of study you need to know the language that is spoken or known worldwide. Therefore, English should be included in any fields of study or disciplines. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Courses have been offered at the public universities in Kosovo as an elective or compulsory course at many departments, at least for two semesters. Teaching English courses in higher education should be designed based on students’ needs by analyzing their level of English and study disciplines, concretely, English for specific purposes courses. Even though, ESP looks as an “easy peasy” issue, in this study has been involved the challenges that ESP teachers and students come across during the complexity of teaching and learning process. In general, this paper also presents an overview of the current situation of ESP courses profile at three public universities in Kosovo. The study has been carried out using three different evaluative research instruments, concretely, has been included a quantitative questionnaire with students and ESP teachers, a qualitative questionnaire (interview) with ten ESP teachers, currently teaching English specific courses at the three universities and also a class observation at three main public universities in Kosovo (Prishtina, Peja and Prizren). Based on the findings, the course content affects directly beliefs, motivation and interests of the students. Hence, ESP courses should be designed based on students’ specific language and professional needs in each discipline, while studying at Higher Educational Institutions.

This entry examines ways English for specific purposes (ESP) and English for academic purposes (EAP) support teachers in their endeavors to devise instruction to prepare English as a second language (ESL) learners for the demands of working or studying in English. EAP grew out of ESP and shares similar, pedagogical features with ESP. The entry describes a range of contexts in which specialized (ESP and EAP) language instructions typically occur and ways in which ESP and EAP are distinctive pedagogical frameworks. For learners, the provision of specialized language instruction that is based on identification of their work or study needs is widely understood to be motivating, effective, and efficient. However, for teachers of specialized English, working in this area can present considerable challenges in terms of developing their own knowledge of the specialist linguistic register, devising in‐house materials, and developing new courses or revising others, to meet the precise needs of their groups of learners. The entry describes ways the ESP and EAP research supports the work of teachers. It highlights the important role of linguistic inquiry into specialist language use and case reports of ESP and EAP teaching practices in particular contexts as major forms of support. It identifies lacunae in the literature and suggests future research directions.

This study was conducted to determine how to motivate technical college students to learn English for specific purposes (ESP) courses through corpus building and enhance their language proficiency during the coursework for their majors. This study explores corpus building skills, how to simplify ESP courses by corpus building for English as second language learners, and ESP course evaluations. Although ESP programs have been implemented in technical colleges in Taiwan for several years, many students and educational practitioners feel frustrated regarding the academic achievement of learners’ ESP courses. Corpus building is crucial for implementing an ESP program and its subsequent success. Designing appropriate teaching materials enables learners to overcome their fears when taking ESP courses. Numerous linguistic professionals have mentioned that ESP courses are aimed at advanced learners. However, the vocabulary size of most technical college students is below 2000 words in Taiwan. Teaching an ESP course at a technical university is challenging work for ESP teachers. Constructing an ESP corpus and selecting appropriate ESP vocabulary to meet learner needs is essential. Building a localized corpus and designing appropriate ESP materials based on student language proficiency is the future trend for ESP courses. In this study, we discuss basic rules for developing linguistics corpora, how to build localized corpora, and the most commonly used tutorials for corpus building.

The need for English language teaching to address specific language needs for a discipline has instigated growing demands for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in higher education institutions in Malaysia. In the context of a university which focuses on engineering programmes, monitored by an engineering professional body, ESP courses designed and developed for higher education are expected to include learning outcomes which reflect integration between English language and engineering fields. In other words, these English language courses need to address the language needs in the engineering field. Thus, English language educators within this context need to have relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to design and develop appropriate ESP courses. Questions arise in relation to how English language courses developed have addressed this expectation. This paper examines the extent to which this expectation is translated into the ESP courses at one technical university in Malaysia. The findings showcase how this expectation is disseminated to the English language educators. This paper provides insight into the complex process of designing English language courses that could address the language needs of the engineering field. In addition, this paper highlights aspects to consider when designing an ESP course for a specific discipline.

The growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in education has generated considerable interest in their potential effects on students’ learning outcomes, especially within the context of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. This study explores how ESP teachers perceive and manage the impact of AI tools on student learning, particularly in writing, vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and problem-solving. The study focuses on the following primary research question: How do teachers perceive and navigate the impact of the tools on student learning outcomes and academic integrity in ESP courses? The research study employed a qualitative approach to investigate the impact of tools on English teaching and learning. The data collection involved 16 ESP university teachers from three faculties. A structured questionnaire was developed based on a comprehensive review of relevant literature with three main dimensions: (1) academic integrity concerns, (2) overreliance on AI that hinders learning outcomes, and (3) challenges of integrating AI into ESP teaching and learning. The study findings reveal that students’ overreliance on artificial intelligence tools negatively affects language skill development, engagement, academic integrity, contextual understanding, and collaborative learning. One of the primary recommendations was to determine the specific boundaries for using AI, and to view AI as an academic aid, not a replacement.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is one of the basic subjects having a great potential for developing students’ foreign language professional competence. The present-day labor market suffers from an acute shortage of highly qualified specialists, who are able to operate in terms of integration and globalization processes as well as to implement international performance standards and latest technologies in order to successfully solve various professional problems under market economy conditions, having a high level of English language proficiency being the major requirement. In this respect, well-trained accountants are in great demand since accounting in Ukraine is going through the stage of reorientation and adaptation to International Financial Reporting Standards. Consequently, ESP is essential in professional training of future accountants since they must possess foreign language professional competence to be able to operate within International Accounting Standards. The main purpose of the article is to study the theoretical framework for defining the notion ‘foreign language professional competence’ for specialists majoring in accounting and taxation, and to substantiate how it can be achieved in practice by using appropriate teaching materials in ESP. In the course of research we used the following general scientific theoretical methods: systems analysis – to clarify the main categories of research; analysis and synthesis – to present separate assignments and to combine them according to the competencies they should develop; induction and deduction – to give the general definition to the notion ‘foreign language professional competence’ and to determine its meaning with regard to future accountants; abstract-logical method – to implement theoretical generalizations and conclusions as for the content of ESP for professional training of future accountants; graphical method – to visually present the correlation between general and special competencies, and the assignments for their development. The conducted research shows that the assignments elaborated by the author are characterized by the following: they are based on learners’ needs; they are related to the PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION AND METHODS OF TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION Issue II (82), 2021 177 subject area; they consider the collaborative work between teachers and students; they provide for students’ individual work; they reflect real life situations connected with professional activities. The proposed assignments in ESP aim at developing future accountants’ general and special competencies as well as at acquiring their foreign language professional competence. All these qualities will allow such specialists to be competitive in the modern labor market. Further research will be appropriate to investigate the issues referring to results of ESP study and efficient teaching methods to be used for professional training of future accountants.

This study aims to identify the target needs of students in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses at a private university in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The participants in this study were 10 students majoring in medicine. This study employed a qualitative descriptive method to explain students' perspectives of the ESP courses. The research data were obtained through surveys and interviews. The findings reveal that the participants expect the ESP courses focus on the target needs of their academic and professional lives with an emphasis on drilling their skills in the four aspects of language. In addition, it also shows that students have a positive perception of the ESP courses at the university. The findings of the study also declared that the ESP program should focus on the effective use of language and improve their language skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

In English for Specific Purposes (ESP), an area which focuses on learners’ acquisition of language used to carry out tasks in specific contexts, digital mediation proves invaluable, since, among other things, it allows learners’ exposure to subject-specific terminology and genre. Netflix, a subscription-based streaming service that allows members to watch TV shows, movies and documentaries on internet-connected devices, has been gaining popularity among young audiences. Even though the use of videos in the ESP teaching and learning process is not new, research that describes the experience of using Netflix in ESP is limited. This paper presents an action research study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) course for first year students of Commerce, Finance and Shipping at the Cyprus University of Technology. The purpose of the study was to find a way in which students would be exposed to more authentic-like language related to their field of study and to increase motivation, amidst social distancing and online instruction; for this purpose, the course facilitator utilised Netflix. The participants in the study were 42 first year students of the Department of Commerce, Finance and Shipping. Data were collected through a mixed methods approach, an online questionnaire and student reflections. The results of the study showed students’ overall satisfaction with the integration of Netflix in the learning process. Despite certain challenges they faced, students noted that generally the experience was beneficial in terms of language skills improvement as well as professional skills development, among others.KeywordsDigital mediaNetflixESP

This research aims to develop Learning Moduls that support a learning model designed to integrate the theory and the implementation in which relevance and meaningfulness of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course can be achieved. Therefore, the problem of this research is: What kind of learning module book of English for Specific Purposes course to realize relevance and meaningfulness? This research used Research and Development method that aims to develop and validate products in education. Steps of development method that will be used include (1) collecting pre-development data, (2) designing the product prototype, (3) verifying the product to experts who are competent at the product, (4) revising the product into the product prototype 2, (5) applying the product for obtaining qualitative evaluation, and (6) revising the product into the final product that has been validated after having steps of expert verification and implementation. The research data were qualitative and quantitative data that had been verified by experts and evaluated by students in terms of how the product designed can realize relevance and meaningfulness of the integration between theories and real implementation. The development research result is in accordance with the objective in which the result is an ESP learning module book for students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University.

This research aims to develop Learning Moduls that support a learning model designed to integrate the theory and the implementation in which relevance and meaningfulness of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course can be achieved. Therefore, the problem of this research is: What kind of learning module book of English for Specific Purposes course to realize relevance and meaningfulness? This research used Research and Development method that aims to develop and validate products in education. Steps of development method that will be used include (1) collecting pre-development data, (2) designing the product prototype, (3) verifying the product to experts who are competent at the product, (4) revising the product into the product prototype 2, (5) applying the product for obtaining qualitative evaluation, and (6) revising the product into the final product that has been validated after having steps of expert verification and implementation. The research data were qualitative and quantitative data that had been verified by experts and evaluated by students in terms of how the product designed can realize relevance and meaningfulness of the integration between theories and real implementation. The development research result is in accordance with the objective in which the result is an ESP learning module book for students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University.

Collaborative group work is a core component of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in engineering-related degree programmes, yet relatively little is known about how first-year students in technical disciplines perceive and experience these collaborative tasks. Understanding their perspectives is essential for designing group-based assessments that promote equitable participation, effective communication, and the development of professional competencies. This study addresses this gap by examining first-year students’ experiences of completing a collaborative research proposal in ESP courses embedded within Computer Engineering, Robotics, and Computational Mathematics degrees. A total of 117 students provided open-ended feedback via the Mentimeter platform, and their responses were thematically coded and classified by valence (positive, neutral, or negative). Quantitative coding revealed that 68.85% of comments were positive, highlighting perceived benefits, including shared responsibility, improved communication, greater efficiency, and opportunities to learn from peers. Neutral responses (15.57%) typically described mixed experiences or practical difficulties, while 11.48% of comments were negative, with students reporting unequal contributions, last-minute work, limited coordination, and challenges managing uncooperative team members. Thematic analysis across all clusters underscored communication quality, organisational skills, technological proficiency, and respect among teammates as central determinants of successful collaboration. The findings indicate that while most students value collaborative work, persistent barriers — especially those related to inequitable participation and unclear task management — can undermine the learning experience. The study contributes novel evidence from under-researched ESP contexts in STEM programmes. It offers practical implications for designing group assignments, suggesting the need for explicit training in teamwork skills, clearer structuring of collaborative tasks and targeted support mechanisms to monitor participation and improve group functioning.

The article is devoted to the role of the online component of the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, which was designed as a joint interdisciplinary project between the teachers of ESP and the lecturer of Database Systems (DB) course, which has been delivered in English to the 3rd year students of High School of Cyberphysical Systems and Control of SPbPU since 2016. The ESP course enabled the developers to achieve a higher degree of professional focus than conventional ESP textbooks provide. This paper focuses on the design of the course syllabus, its organization in LMS MOODLE, and analysis of the two year approbation of both experimental ESP course and Database Systems course given in English. Although the results of the first year ESP course approbation were successful, the survey conducted at the end of the first year teaching DB course in English highlighted some problem zones. This resulted in modifying the way of teaching the ESP course during the second year approbation. In particular, some elements of the flipped classroom methodology were introduced with the aim of allocating more time for discussing complex concepts of the discipline in class so the students become familiar with them in advance while doing their homework. The results of the survey conducted at the end of the second year approbation as well as the results of the second year DB course acquisition are discussed. Authors conclude that online component of the experimental ESP course makes it more flexible, allows adopting it to changing requirements of DB course lecturer which can be achieved only in case of close interdepartmental cooperation. Future work plan is outlined.

This study aimed to (1) elaborate on microblogging-based instruction, which was built on social media platform X and designed based on the four phases of the design-based research (DBR) framework (Amiel and Reeves in J Educ Technol Soc 11(4):29–40, https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.11.4.29, 2008); (2) put microblogging-based instruction into practice in a medical English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course; (3) examine students’ perceptions of the pedagogical value of X platform usage on their learning experiences; and (4) investigate how well microblogging-based instruction enhances the students’ specialised-language performance. On the basis of the four phases of the DBR framework, a study was conducted with students studying a medical ESP course to identify the problems in the teaching practices used in ESP courses. To improve the identified problems, following the second phase, social media platform X was used to supplement ESP face-to-face instruction. Three tasks were designed for the students to do on X. These tasks were implemented and assessed on 19 EFL first-year premedical undergraduate students over 16 weeks at a university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data collected from the students included a copy version of the ESP final test, a questionnaire, and semi- structured interviews. The results revealed that X-based instruction improved students’ ability to use medicine-specialised language, offered opportunities for students to become more familiar with medicine-specific terms, perceived ability in using writing and reading skills, collaborative learning, and generated thoughtful discussions outside the confines of the classroom. However, the students’ inadequate knowledge of the specialised subject, the stress of making X mandatory, and log- in overload remain key challenges against the effective appropriation of X use in an ESP context.