Practical aspects – the way of conducting class

The role of the teacher in conveying knowledge is a complex one. On the one hand, the teacher needs to ensure that the theoretical knowledge of structures and techniques do not overwhelm the students. On the other hand, the teacher needs to provide ample practice opportunities to develop the necessary skills.

As far as practical tasks for the students are concerned, they can be used as a means of gleaning theoretical knowledge from provided samples. Such exercises allow the students to train their critical skills and the ability to work with text. They teach to notice the structure of texts and to apply the theoretical principles in students’ writing. Additionally, the samples can serve as simple exercises, used to practice structural or grammatical topics. Naturally, preparation of both rests with the teacher and will most probably be adjusted to the group profile and students’ level.

Here the teachers must consider another issue, namely sample selection to illustrate the discussed topic. While copyrighted material may be difficult to acquire, texts written by other students may serve as good examples. In order to present applicable and relevant materials, the teachers turn to field-specific text. It is best that students train on texts belonging to their area of studies, as such materials yields great results, especially in more linguistically advanced groups.

Evaluation

Seeing that the main aim of the course is teaching the students practical applications of academic language principles, the teachers need to monitor their progress.

The students are evaluated on different assignments: in-class work with exercises, specific writing tasks, or tasks given to complete outside the classroom. Furthermore, instructors need to provide meaningful evaluation. They need to be consequent and make sure that the students follow clear structural and stylistic requirements of academic writing. At the same time, they must be flexible and allow the students to find their own writing style. With this aspect of evaluation, it is possible to create or adapt a mark sheet or evaluation sheet with clearly defined criteria. Following specified requirements allows the students to appraise their writing more critically and teaches them a more complex approach to the writing process.

Another method of providing feedback is conducting one-on-one meetings and discussing the progress with every student individually. While it may be time-consuming, it is more personalised and ensures constant progress monitoring.

Both evaluation approaches should be combined to provide the best results and facilitate the development of students’ academic writing style.

Summary

Teaching academic English to students is a process that needs to include all the elements of academic writing, from the most rudimentary, to the most advanced. Once the students are familiar with the specificity of academic language, they can easily acquire its structural and stylistic features.

The students rely on the teacher to provide ample instruction in formal aspects, and ensure the selection of proper teaching materials. With numerous sources for teaching aids, the teacher can select traditional or electronic resources, or can prepare materials on their own. Also, the instructor has to consider the specific environment of technical English and select materials accordingly.

However, the teacher’s role is not limited to providing teaching materials and instruction. The teacher assesses and monitors the students’ progress. Thus, the students should not only be evaluated, but also be guided through the writing process and be given suggestions for future improvement.

 

Bibliography

1. Cumming A. Goals for Academic Writing: ESL students and their instructors. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing, 2006.

2. Leki I. Academic Writing. Knoxville: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

3. Furneaux C. The Challenges of Teaching Academic Writing [pdf].

4. Retrieved from http://www.uefap.com/articles/furneaux.pdf Monash University http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing /index. xml

5. Oshima A., Hogue A. Writing Academic English. Pearson/Longman, 2005. Purdue University https://owl.english.purdue. edu/owl/section/4/

6. Silva T., Matsuda P.K. On Second Language Writing. Routledge, 2012.

УДК 372

Barbara Sawicka

M. A., Senior lecturer at Centre of Languages and Communication

Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, Poland

Abstract: Before embarking on the task of creating the exercises to the text that we wish our students to read, we need to decide if the language of the text, especially its grammar, is manageable for our students. Ideally, students should be exposed to authentic materials but if the language is impenetrable for students to understand, the texts should be adapted for their level remaining at the same time as much real English as possible. If, on the other hand, the grammar of the text is not too complicated, we can set about creating our step by step exercises, even though the number of unfamiliar words seems to be overwhelming. The type of exercises we devise depends on the objectives we want to achieve, e.g. enhancing reading skills, teaching note taking or giving presentations. However, no matter what our objectives are, we have to start with a thorough practice of unfamiliar vocabulary.

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Key words: authentic materials, textbooks, teaching and learning process, enhancing reading skills, teaching note taking or giving presentations, ESP texts, thorough practice of unfamiliar vocabulary.