Facilitating Ecological Learning through ESP Material Development for Students in the Life and Natural Sciences

By conducting surveys and questionnaires, we have aimed at identifying the needs of students enrolled in academic programmes within the domain of Natural and Life Sciences who also study English as a Foreign Language, Ecological Communication, and English for Specific Purposes. The analysis also targets students’ perceptions and attitudes toward recently-developed EFL material and prospected ESP textbook materials targeting “Ecological English”, as well as “English for the Life Sciences”. With this purpose in mind, we wish to make better use of the students’ feedback and be able to adapt our teaching materials so as to correspond to the learners’ genuine needs and interests. The qualitative analysis of the students’ feedback indicates that they are largely interested in understanding ecological processes and communication at all levels in nature. We also include examples of tasks devised for an ecological English textbook, in the hope of developing optimized educational models and also with a view to sharing best practices in foreign language teaching/learning. The objectives of language teaching must include raising ecological awareness, developing ecological communication competence, and transformative social attitudes.