Acoustic ecologies in ESP: rethinking professional language learning through soundscapes

Abstract This study investigates the potential of soundscapes, professionally situated acoustic environments, as innovative tools in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Conducted in Tehran, Iran, across three professional domains (nursing, law, and barista service), the research examined how sound-based priming compared to text-based priming and control conditions influences ESP learners’ spoken performance and affective engagement. Drawing on acoustic ecology, embodied cognition, and sociocultural theory, a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design was employed with 60 participants (20 per profession) divided into three groups exposed to curated profession-specific soundscapes prior to speaking tasks. Quantitative analysis of lexical richness, discourse fluency, and affective depth showed that the sound-primed group significantly outperformed both text-primed and control groups. Qualitative findings from interviews and reflective journals highlighted three recurring themes: contextual immersion, emotional resonance, and lexical activation, illustrating how sound environments stimulated situational awareness, heightened affective involvement, and facilitated specialized vocabulary retrieval. This study fills a critical gap in ESP pedagogy by demonstrating the underexplored role of auditory environments in enhancing professional language use. The findings suggest that integrating soundscapes into ESP instruction can deepen authenticity, bridge cognitive and affective learning, and expand the multimodal repertoire of teaching practices, offering both culturally adaptable and cost-effective strategies.