The structure of academic writer identity in L2 book reviews by Russian undergradu-ates: Voice and stance

Introduction. The article focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of academic writer identity. The theoretical aspect comprises the analysis of the Anglo-American bulk of research devoted to the problem of writer identity in the academic written discourse. The purpose of the article is to define the structure of writer identity, its voice and stance. The practical objectives of the study is to investigate the identity of novice academic writers represented in their language choices as well as to describe the mechanism of such choices. In order to accomplish the purpose of the research, three types of writer positioning are distinguished: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. Materials and Methods. The theoretical analysis is based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and Rhetorical Genre Studies as well as recent developments of ESP. The analysis of empirical data has been conducted using the methods of discourse analysis as well as qualitative and quantitative methods of data processing. The study reveals the voice and stance represented by lexico-grammatical means of the English academic written discourse. The conducted experiment introduces the context of ESP and models the situation of the implementation of the genre approach in the Academic Writing course in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, which is one of the leading technical universities in Russia. The research materials include texts of academic book reviews written in English by Russian undergraduates. Results. The study has revealed the social nature of writer identity determined by the genre hybridity of a book review. It is shown that identification and positioning are in direсt connection with the source text; thus, while choosing a textbook of a general science book, the writer identity is getting to be collective or professional. Depending on the functional style of the source text, the rhetorical markers are changing as well. Thus, while choosing a textbook, students are writing for the teacher and addresses the student audience; at the same time in case of the general science text, the student rises to the level of an expert and addresses the scientific community. The popular science text helps work out the individual voice while the author’s style is changing toward the creative one and the dialogue between the writer and the reader is taking an intimate coloring. Subjectivity markers (adjectives with the negative value, boosters) are getting to be typical for the Russian linguistic and academic culture. Conclusions. The article concludes that constructing the socially-predetermined writer identity is an essential skill for students and academics. The writer identity is fluid and changeable depending on the social context – academic discourse and genre characteristics. The genre of a book review that combines objectivity and subjectivity gives an opportunity to construct writer identity according to the choice of the source text. The writer identity is culturally-predetermined and connected with the standards of Russian linguistic culture, academic rules and traditions of teaching English as a foreign language in Russia.

Influence of photography on students’ perception of electronic popular science text

The present article analyzes the relevance of the combination of the verbal and non-verbal components of popular science text and the role of computer technologies and the global information network Internet in creating texts of this type. The author conducts a study to assess the impact of Internet technologies on the process of creating electronic popular science text in an attempt to determine the most promising technologies used in this process. The author concludes that the most advanced technologies have to be used in creating a popular science text. It is noted that the Internet era opens up new opportunities for creating popular science texts, however, the most effective way to create popular science texts combines verbal and non-verbal means (primarily photographs) and modern computer technologies. An important aspect of popular science text is a trend towards the reduction in volume which is achieved through photographs often replacing lengthy descriptions and explanations. Considering the polysemantic nature of photography and the stabilizing function of a text in relation to an image, an approach to the consideration of verbal and visual components in the framework of popular science text is proposed.

A Study on Effects of Multimodal Science Text Design on Meaning-Making of Science Content: Science Teachers’ Perspectives

Numerous studies demonstrated that the meaning-making of scientific knowledge is affected by the design of multimodal science texts. Various modes are co-operated together in certain inter-semiotic mechanisms to produce meaning in multimodal texts. Based on this perspective, this research seeks to investigate the effect of mode level in science texts and compositional arrangement on the meaning-making of science concepts and processes. In this context, four science texts with the same content (transformation of energy) at different mode densities and two science texts with the same content (covalent bonding) one of which is arranged in accordance with variation theory of learning are designed. By using the case study method, this research explored six experienced science teachers’ views about the effects of mode level and multimodal text composition on meaning-making. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews. The thematic analysis was employed for data analysis. The findings demonstrated that mode density may affect meaning-making and so learning since different modes have affordance to represent different meaning and meaning relationship types. Besides, multimodal text composition may foreground the critical aspects of content, and help to design a coherent multimodal science text.

ON THE ISSUE OF PROFILIZATION OF TEACHING RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT THE PRE-UNIVERSITY STAGE IN A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

The article is devoted to the issues of specialized / professionally oriented teaching Russian as a foreign language at the pre-University stage of foreign students of engineering specialties. As one of the principles of such training, the principle of profiling is put forward. The authors suggest a possible way to profile the teaching of the Russian language to foreign students. Taking into account the communicative needs of first-year foreign students in the educational, scientific and professional fields, as well as specific methodological conditions that hinder the process of language pre-University training at the preparatory faculty, allowed us to develop a model of integrated learning of listening and writing. The developed model is based on the principles of communication, profile orientation, complexity in teaching types of speech activity, as well as accessibility, which is more subject to the selection and organization of educational material. Popular science text is chosen as the main teaching tool. Informative, informative, accessible presentation of scientific material, and the interdisciplinary nature of popular science text make it the optimal educational tool for profiling the process of teaching Russian at the pre-University stage, including in the field of teaching listening and lecture notes. The introduction of such a model will serve to restore continuity in the training of foreigners at the pre-University and main stages in a technical University, make it easier for students to communicate in the educational, scientific and professional spheres, and increase its effectiveness.