Speech acts and eco-communication in ESP for sustainable agriculture: Insights from needs analysis

The study examines the needs of the learners in the development of speech acts and eco-communication in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for sustainable agriculture. The growing worldwide attention to environmentally friendly practices has increased the importance of effective communication skills, especially using English to communicate sustainability ideas in agricultural contexts. However, despite this demand, many learners still have difficulty in expressing agricultural knowledge and engaging in eco-communication. Thus, this study seeks to investigate learners’ needs, gaps and desires about the use of speech acts and eco-communication in agricultural ESP contexts. The study uses a mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data in an effort to provide a comprehensive needs analysis. Quantitative data were collected from 28 participants using a structured questionnaire measuring three dimensions namely necessities, lacks and wants and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean scores and standard deviations. Qualitative responses were gathered to enrich the interpretation of learners’ responses. The results show that the learners have moderate to high need to use English for eco-communication, especially for explaining sustainable methods and participating in discussions. However, they face difficulties in the mastery of vocabulary, in expressing environmental problems and in doing the appropriate speech acts. Learners want interactive, authentic and contextualized learning activities, such as role-plays and real-life case studies. These results emphasize the need to design ESP materials integrating speech acts, domain-specific content and experiential learning to improve learners’ eco-communication competence in sustainable agriculture.