Developing Communication Skills of ESP Students Through Role-Play Activities: A Classroom-Based Study in an Oil and Gas Context

Abstract

This study investigates the use of structured role-play activities as a means of developing speaking skills among English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students preparing for careers in the oil and gas industry. A four-week, classroom-based, quasi-experimental intervention was carried out with 48 third-year undergraduate students at the Branch of Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas in Tashkent. Two intact class groups (approximately 24 students each) were taught by the same instructor; one group received a series of safety-themed role-play tasks targeting the passive voice, while the other followed conventional coursebook-based ESP instruction over the same period. Pre- and post-intervention speaking performance was rated on a CEFR-based rubric, and informal post-intervention conversations with students provided complementary perspectives on the learning experience. The experimental group showed a notable gain in mean speaking score (from 62% to 85%), considerably exceeding the modest improvement observed in the comparison group (60% to 63%). Student reflections, although informally collected, suggested increased confidence in using domain-specific language and engaging with workplace communication tasks such as safety briefings and incident reporting. The study reports practitioner-level evidence that purposefully designed role-play can support ESP speaking development, while transparently acknowledging the methodological limitations of a single-instructor, single-site intact-groups design. Implications for ESP curriculum design and directions for more rigorous follow-up research are discussed.