The Impact of ESP Teachers’ and Learners’ Conceptualization of World Englishes on ESP Learners’ Speaking across Gender

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  • Flora Efaf Soltani1,
  • Mohamadreza Khodareza1,
  • Davood Mashhadi Heidar1,
  1. Department of English, To.C., Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran

Published in Issue 2025-08-23

How to Cite

Efaf Soltani, F., Khodareza, M., & Mashhadi Heidar, D. (2025). The Impact of ESP Teachers’ and Learners’ Conceptualization of World Englishes on ESP Learners’ Speaking across Gender. Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice, 18(1). https://oiccpress.com/jelpp/article/view/19496

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Abstract

Learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) aims to equip its learners to communicate in the multicultural work domain. The new emphases in learning ESP at the university level include the evolution of ESP itself over the last 50 years, and the challenges that ESP students face in speaking English. Conversely, the prevalence of World Englishes (WEs) in university contexts has made it relevant to ESP because both ESP and WEs aim to equip learners with practical communication skills. Therefore, with a quasi-experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of WEs conceptualization on ESP students' speaking English across gender. According to the questionnaire data, the male and female ESP Learners and Teachers with high, mid, and low conceptualization were identified. Additionally, the data from the Preliminary Speaking Sample test, administered at the beginning and end of the ESP learners' course, were analyzed using Two-way ANOVA which revealed a statistically significant interaction between WEs conceptualization and gender intervention on the speaking performance of ESP students. These results reinforce the effectiveness and applicability of WEs in ESP classes. WEs conceptualization enhances both teachers' and students' awareness, thereby improving speaking skills. Furthermore, WEs conceptualization can be considered as an applicable multicultural solution. Its outcomes offer significant benefits to ESP curriculum developers and in-service teachers.

Keywords

  • conceptualization,
  • ESP,
  • intervention,
  • speaking,
  • World Englishes
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