From thematic content to professional accountability: A conceptual framework for digital sustainability in English for computer science
Keywords:
Digital Sustainability, English for Specific Purposes, Computer Science Education, Education for Sustainable Development, Genre AnalysisAbstract
Sustainability has entered computing education and English language teaching along separate paths. Computing educators treat it as technical knowledge about energy, hardware, and software; language educators, as thematic content for language work. Neither addresses computer science undergraduates, who will build the systems whose environmental costs are at issue and must account for them in English. This conceptual paper argues that English for Computer Science requires a distinct treatment, in which digital technology is the object whose sustainability is at stake rather than the medium through which it is discussed. Following a theory-adaptation design and a structured Scopus search executed on 30 July 2026, the paper distinguishes four competing senses of digital sustainability and proposes a working definition. It then transposes the sustainability competences of Wiek et al. (2011) and Brundiers et al. (2021), competence by competence, into three language dimensions: referential accuracy, discursive accountability, and critical evaluation. Each is specified with target genres, lexicogrammatical exponents, and assessable outcomes, and four principles for materials design follow. The framework is conceptual and unvalidated; it sets an agenda for Indonesian higher education, where English for Computer Science is typically a service course, and the computing sector is expanding.
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