Enhancing Flood Disaster Literacy and English Communication Skills through Bilingual Community-Based Training

Abstract

Communities in flood-prone areas of Indonesia continue to face increasing flood risk driven by land-use change, extreme rainfall, and rapid urbanization, while their disaster literacy and basic English communication skills for accessing emergency information remain limited. This community service program aimed to enhance participants' flood disaster literacy and basic English communication skills through a bilingual, community-based training approach. The program was implemented for senior high school students and youth in a flood-prone sub-district of Bandar Lampung, Lampung Province, through four stages: initial needs assessment, bilingual training (lectures, demonstration, group discussion, and simulation), flood preparedness simulation, and evaluation using pre-test and post-test instruments. Training materials integrated flood-related content-hazards, preparedness, evacuation, and emergency response-with corresponding English components, including disaster vocabulary, emergency expressions, and instruction-giving. Results showed an increase in participants' flood knowledge scores and English disaster-communication scores, together with an improved ability to determine and communicate appropriate action during flood events, as assessed through a practical performance task. Participants also reported greater confidence in using basic English expressions during simulated emergencies. These findings indicate that a bilingual approach integrating disaster education with functional English communication training is an effective and readily replicable model for strengthening community-based flood preparedness, and offers a novel contribution linking hydrology, disaster education, and English language education.