Language as Infrastructure in STEM Education
Integrating ESP into Undergraduate STEM Curricula in Non-Anglophone Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33830/ijrse.v8i1.14304Keywords:
English for Specific Purposes (ESP), STEM education, disciplinary literacy, English-medium instruction (EMI), higher education, language as infrastructureAbstract
In English-medium STEM education, language proficiency is often treated as an auxiliary skill rather than a core component of disciplinary learning. This quasi-experimental mixed-methods study reconceptualizes language as critical infrastructure and examines the impact of integrating English for Specific Purposes (ESP) into an undergraduate basic sciences curriculum. In a non-Anglophone national university, 76 students were assigned to an experimental group (n=35) receiving ESP-integrated, genre-based instruction aligned with their STEM coursework, or a control group (n=41) following a traditional ESP syllabus. Data from pre/post discipline-specific assessments, analytic rubrics, self-efficacy surveys, classroom artifacts, and faculty logs were analysed. Results showed the experimental group achieved significantly greater gains in discipline-specific communication (large effect, ηₚ²=.57) and outperformed the control group across all rubric dimensions, including genre structure and argumentation clarity (Cohen’s d=1.94). A composite academic performance score confirmed the intervention’s substantial overall effectiveness (η²=.51). Furthermore, the experimental group reported significantly increased self-efficacy and sense of disciplinary belonging (ηₚ²=.46). Qualitative analysis revealed enhanced rhetorical sophistication and feasible implementation. The study concludes that systematic ESP integration functions as transformative pedagogical infrastructure, simultaneously advancing academic performance, communicative competence, and student identity in STEM. It provides an evidence-based model for curriculum design and institutional reform in multilingual higher education contexts.
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