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Abstract:
English is increasingly important in technical and vocational education because learners must interpret equipment labels, manuals, safety instructions, specifications, diagrams, and workplace communication that frequently use English. Yet general-purpose English materials may not adequately address the communicative tasks of learners in electricity programmes. This conceptual and pedagogical design paper develops a context-sensitive English for Specific Purposes (ESP) framework for teaching English in secondary-level electricity classes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The framework is informed by the national orientation toward specialized English in technical education, established ESP principles, recent vocational needs analysis research, and classroom-informed materials originally developed for electricity learners. Rather than treating technical English as a list of isolated terms, the proposed model organizes instruction around target tasks: identifying components, interpreting safety messages, reading technical information, describing installation procedures, reporting measurements, explaining faults, and producing short workplace texts. The model integrates technical vocabulary, reading, pronunciation, grammar-in-context, multimodal support, task-based practice, and formative assessment through a six-stage lesson cycle. A sample unit on electrical safety and measurement illustrates how the framework can be implemented with limited resources. The article argues for authentic but level-appropriate materials, systematic attention to disciplinary language, and stronger collaboration between English teachers and technical-subject teachers. Because the paper does not report an empirical intervention, future classroom trials should eval-uate learning gains, feasibility, and learner perceptions.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes; technical and vocational education; electricity; technical English; vocabulary; needs analysis; Democratic Republic of the Congo

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