“What Do They Really Need?” The Implementation of Multimodality in Indonesian Higher Education of English for Specific Purposes Courses

Abstract

This study investigates students’ needs in learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), focusing on the students' needs and supported by visual text theory to enhance students’ understanding of the course materials. The problem is that many ESP students struggle not due to limited ability but insufficient support in comprehending learning materials. Employing a descriptive needs analysis, the study involved 92 undergraduate students from a non-English department at an Indonesian university and collected data through a structured questionnaire. The study aims to identify priority language skills, topic preferences, and students’ perceptions of visual elements in ESP textbooks. The findings show that students prioritize communicative skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing, for academic and professional purposes. However, the analysis also reveals that existing visual resources are largely conceptual and text-dominated. The study concludes that ESP textbook design should be designed with learners’ communicative needs through more balanced visual - verbal integration.