GUIDING LANGUAGE LEARNING IN UNIFORM: REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ONLINE ESP FOR MILITARY LEARNERS
GUIDING LANGUAGE LEARNING IN UNIFORM: REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN ONLINE ESP FOR MILITARY LEARNERS

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a reflective account of delivering an online English course for Romanian military personnel at the familiarization level, offered within an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) training framework at the Romanian Naval Academy “Mircea cel Bătrân”. The course responds to the needs of adult learners with limited English proficiency who must balance language study with demanding professional responsibilities and irregular schedules. It combines asynchronous instruction with synchronous interaction in order to develop basic communicative competence through general English content contextualized by military-related themes, while also increasing learner confidence and supporting language use in professionally relevant situations. Drawing on principles of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), formative assessment, and reflective pedagogy, the article examines how online ESP instruction can support low-proficiency military learners through structured flexibility, individualized feedback, and sustained instructor presence. The analysis draws on learner feedback, classroom observations, and reflective teaching practice collected during three course iterations involving 33 learners. The findings suggest that learner progress in this context depends not only on task design and digital delivery, but also on relational teaching, responsive feedback, and carefully managed synchronous interaction. The paper contributes to current discussions of online ESP pedagogy by illustrating how reflective teaching practice can support language learning in highly structured professional environments.

• Details
• Contents