On the importance of a genre-based approach in the teaching of English for Medical Purposes

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel K. León Pérez ◽  
Pedro Martín-Martín
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
International Discourse ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Specialized Subject ◽  
Academic Genre

AbstractIn experimental disciplinary fields such as medicine, the writing up of a research paper in English may represent a major hurdle, especially for inexperienced writers and users of EAL (English as an Additional Language), mainly due to a lack of familiarity with international discourse conventions. Despite the efforts of many EAP (English for Academic Purposes) researchers and practitioners to provide support for medical PhD students and novice scholars by carrying out studies on research writing, specific courses with an explicit pedagogical approach to the teaching of academic genres are still scarce. Moreover, it often happens that the only possibility of receiving training in writing skills is in the pre-clinical years, when the students are not yet experienced language users and when they lack both the genre conventions and the specialized subject knowledge for such a demanding task. In this article, we offer our view of a genre-driven pedagogy and its practical applications in an EMP (English for Medical Purposes) classroom with the ultimate aim of helping students to publish their medical papers in international (English-language) journals. Our genre-based teaching approach consists in a prior discussion with students about the socio-cultural context in which a particular academic genre occurs. This process of discovery of the social circumstances that surround a specific genre can help them understand more readily its communicative purpose. We believe that a second stage should be the explicit teaching of functions and language structures of archetypal academic texts, initially in a highly controlled fashion, and later on a freer basis, but always using reference papers for illustration and comparison. If learners are more aware of the rhetorical strategies preferred by the members of their disciplinary communities, they may feel more confident as EAL writers about the rhetorical options they can choose depending on the context and type of audience they are addressing.

scholarly journals ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL COMPENENCE OF PHARMACEUTICAL STUDENTS IN THE ACADEMIC ENGLISH COURSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  
pp. 84-89
Author(s):  
Oksana Kovalenko ◽  
Olga Afanasenko
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Measurement Tools ◽  
Selection For

The paper presents the ideas on integration of English language academic writing into the training of Mater of Pharmacy students. The academic literature demonstrates a powerful didactic potential for the development of both language and professional competence of students majoring in pharmacy. This fact is evidenced by the empirical study that demonstrates the finding reflected in students’ graduation academic project performance. As a measurement tools we employed assessment rubrics of the graduate project, content analysis and questionnaire on teachers’ feedback. The participants of the study were students from the Pharmacy faculty and teachers of English for Academic Purposes in cooperation with teachers of pharmacy. Together they outlined the criteria for the texts selection. According to the results, students mastered not only academic writing skills, but also the skills of information processing and evaluation, critical thinking, presentation of information and academic integrity. The paper also presents methodological recommendations on academic texts selection for pharmaceutical students and forms of teachingacademic writing to students of non-linguistic specialties. The results of the study allow to draw the conclusion academic writing course will enhance professional competence and reduce students’ misinterpreting of academic language.

scholarly journals Identification of the most common phraseological units in the English language in academic texts: contributions coming from corpora

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Eduardo Batista da Silva ◽  
Adriane Orenha-Ottaiano ◽  
Maurizio Babini
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Dispersion Coefficient ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test ◽  
Academic Communication ◽  
Academic Genre

Academic-scientific phraseological units in the English language play a key role in the communication of/to experts, once they reproduce frequent and expected expressions in varied disciplines. This paper aims at identifying and analyzing the 100 non-specialized academic-scientific phraseological units (constituted of 4 words) in the English language, present in eight major fields of knowledge. The theoretical background referred to Phraseology and Corpus Linguistics. Regarding methodology, an academic corpus was compiled with more than 120 million words. The software WordSmith Tools was used for the linguistic-textual process. Through the Juilland dispersion coefficient and use coefficient, the most frequent phraseological units were identified in the academic texts. The list was eventually validated by the Wilcoxon rank sum test (α = 0.05), indicating that the phraseological units identified show a higher use in the academic communication when compared to the use in the general language. The most relevant units are ‘the case of’, ‘as a result of’ and ‘at the end of’. The list with the most functional phraseological units in the English language might provide a valuable pedagogical linguistic reference for the study of the academic genre. 

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles ◽  
Language Needs

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

The effects of prosody instruction on listening comprehension in an EAP classroom context

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882199034
Author(s):  
Mark McAndrews
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
Listening Instruction

In many English language teaching contexts, listening activities resemble listening comprehension tests. Scholars have argued that this product-oriented approach is not particularly effective in helping learners improve their listening skills and have advocated for the inclusion of instruction that targets specific features of spoken language. The current study tested these claims in the context of an English-for-academic-purposes (EAP) listening and speaking course. Sixty-four post-secondary learners of English were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In addition to their regularly scheduled listening activities, one group received 100 minutes of instruction for two prosodic features (paratone and prosodic phrasing), while the other group received an equal amount of product-oriented listening instruction. After the instructional treatment, learners in the prosody group outperformed those in the product-oriented group on comprehension of the target prosodic features, and on general listening proficiency tests. It is argued that short periods of instruction targeting prosodic features can improve the effectiveness of traditional product-oriented EAP listening instruction.

Nepalese English (Nenglish): Diverse and expanded assortment of Standard English

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (01) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Nani Babu Ghimire
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Written Form

Nepalese English is a new version of Standard English which is developed due to the effect of the Worlds Englishes. When the English language is expanded, the consequence has been seen in the use of English according to the socio-cultural context of the countries. The use of English either in spoken or written form is also seen differently from the Standard English in Nepal. To uncover this change in the use of English in Nepal, I studied two fictions (novels) written by two Nepalese literary figures in English based on qualitative analysis of the authors’ practice in the use of Nepalese English in writing fiction and found that there is the influence of Nepalese socio-cultural, socio-political, social norms and values in English literature. The finding also illustrated that Nepalese words (characters, location, kinship and taboos terms) are making their entries, complete sentences in Nepali are written, English suffixes are being attached to Nepalese words and vice versa, the word order of English is changed in Nepalese English (Nenglish), the literal translation of Nepalese proverbs are being introduced in English literature. The practice of writing English literature using Nepalese English is being extended to create its own features in English language which leads to develop Nepalese English as a separate variety in the field of language study.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Language Learning Strategies and Lexical Complexity Measures

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Ervin Kovacevic
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Language Learning Strategies ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Lexical Complexity ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the hypothesis that language learning strategies (LLS) partly account for the level of L2 proficiency (i.e. the level of L2 lexical complexity produced in the written output of English language learners). To test the hypothesis, 152 English-proficient freshman students of Bosnian L1 linguistic background were surveyed utilizing the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) designed by Rebecca Oxford (1990). Their lexical output was collected through short essays that were written during formal exams held in English for Academic Purposes undergraduate courses at the International University of Sarajevo. The written samples were converted to an electronic format and analyzed with the Web-based Lexical Complexity Analyzer (Lu, 2012; Ai & Lu, 2010). Relationships between six SILL subscales and twenty-five lexical complexity (LC) measures were assessed through applying the principles of correlational design. The results confirmed the hypothesis. Statistically significant correlations were found between memory strategies and three LC measures, cognitive strategies and twenty LC measures, compensation strategies and nine LC measures, and affective strategies and three LC measures. It is concluded that the relationship between LLS and LC levels is mostly conditioned by LLS types.

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity in EFL and Native Learners' Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Murniati Murniati
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Undergraduate Thesis

<p>This research aims to find syntactic complexity of the abstracts in the undergraduate thesis written down by university learners in Indonesia and the ones written down by native speakers of English. The characteristics of syntactic complexity produced by Indonesian learners and the learners who are the native speakers should also be analyzed. It is possible to extend the type of syntactic complexity found in academic texts. In the end, those extensions should be characterized the English language used by Indonesian learners. The data is gained through downloading the abstracts of the undergraduate thesis in the academic year of 2015-2016 from the UBM English Department alumni database. The data regarding the abstracts written down by the native speakers is downloaded from the reputable universities in The United States of America. After that, the data is analyzed by making used of the syntactic analyzer by Lu &amp; Ai (2015). The results shows that the Indonesian learners tend to write more complex sentences and use subordination in the abstracts. The native speakers, on the other hands, tend to write longer sentences with longer T-Unit and clauses. They also tend to write complex nominal in the abstracts. The number of coordination used is similar between the ones written down by Indonesian learners and native speakers of English. <strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords:</strong> syntactic complexity, syntactic structures, undergraduate thesis, Indonesian learners

Technology-Based Literacy Approach for English Language Learners

2013 ◽  
pp. 723-740
Author(s):  
Erin L. White
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Literacy Curriculum ◽  
English Language Acquisition ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Everyday Classroom

There is a growing need to implement an alternative and viable solution in U.S. K-12 schools that will address the ever-growing gap that the rapidly growing English Language Learner (ELL) population presents. This chapter examines various technology-based tools and their potential impact. These technology-based solutions could help to alleviate an already taxed educational system, as well as significantly aid in improving and increasing English language acquisition among the nation’s K-12 ELL population. A review of recent research provides evidence and a strong foundation that supports the integration of these solutions. An ELL Design Quadrant ensures that one follows best practices when integrating technology, and a practical applications section presents examples of contemporary technology with accompanying instructional strategies that educators can utilize in the everyday classroom. Throughout the chapter, references to language acquisition and learning theories provide the evidence and background knowledge necessary to integrate technology into the ELL literacy curriculum, based on sound judgment.

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