Syntactic complexity is a crucial aspect of linguistic proficiency and thus understanding and supporting such development in learners is a keen concern for language teachers. Research conducted has shown growing sophistication of noun phrase structures by writers of different abilities in academic writing (Biber & Gray, 2010; Liu & Li,…

The case presentation is the core section of a medical case report. Issues in the teaching of case report writing have recently been the subject of great interest in medical education, especially in the era of globalization. Given that Taiwanese medical students, residents and junior physicians are requested to write case reports in English and…

First person pronouns are a rhetorical strategy which allows researchers to perform different discourse functions in the text, through which they construct a convincing argument that persuades readers of the validity and novelty of their claims and of their own competence. In this paper I explore how Spanish EFL Engineering students use first…

Analysis of how students of English for Science and Engineering use certain categories of nouns in their technical writing projects revealed a significant use of "sub-technical" and "text-structuring" words serving both referential and discourse-oriented functions. The use of matching or cloze-type and open-ended writing exercises to improve…

A study classified 61 writing assignments from 10 undergraduate science and technology courses on the basis of audience and task specifications. Most assignments emphasized reporting on specific participatory experiences, and 25 percent of assignments specified an audience other than the course instructor. Pedagogical implications for…

Determines that the complexity of syntax does not significantly affect reading comprehension of native and non-native English speakers when reading technical writing. Finds no significant differences between subgroups reading an authentic computer science text and those reading a syntactically adapted text, either in comprehension or in speed. (MG)

The English composing processes and products of a group of Spanish researchers at the University of Cordoba, Spain, were studied. The group (1) has a good grasp of the information structure of the English scientific article; (2) rarely undertakes structural revision; and (3) is primarily concerned with precise expression of their thoughts.…

This report aims to show how an emphasis on vocabulary can contribute to courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), using the data from two lexical studies. The first study attempts to discover to what extent there may be a general language of science, or semi-technical vocabulary. This type of vocabulary would seem to offer a useful…

Describes a study into what happens when academics who learned English for Special Purposes broadened their goals and attempted reading geared to those with a knowledge of "general" English. Results showed that participant comprehension increased significantly, but reading speed did not consistently increase. (Author/SED)

A study investigated the types of writing assignments commonly found in undergraduate natural sciences and engineering courses. The study was used as a basis for the development of composition courses for limited-English-speaking students in these fields, the most popular fields of study among foreign students. Eighty take-home assignments given…

Forty-eight American (L1) and 48 Dutch students (L2), half of whom had computer science backgrounds and half of whom did not, were tested for their use of either scientific text (ST) syntactic structures or the less difficult common syntax when writing technical discourse (in Appendix). Results indicate that both L1 and L2 technical writers wrote…