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…

Over the centuries, first Latin and then French, German, and Russian have receded in perceived importance as languages of science. Other powerful languages with extensive internal scientific discourse, such as Japanese and Chinese, have always been largely excluded. The dominance of English has elevated the reputation of English-language…

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…

The restricted time allocated to courses and the immediate need to read literature in English necessitates the teaching of selective reading in many English as a foreign language contexts. This paper reports on one element of an expeditious (quick, effective, efficient and selective) reading course for learners in an English for Academic Purposes…

Information-structuring courses offered at the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand) present concepts, patterns, hypotheses, and procedures for discussion on the basis that their consideration can contribute to better idea organization, text production, and text interpretation for engineering and other technology students learning…

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…

In a Singapore study of the evaluation of engineering students' writing, engineering lecturers and language lecturers marked scripts differently. Analysis showed that engineering lecturers placed more emphasis on students' understanding of a process rather than their expression of that understanding. (Contains 13 references.) (LB)

In Zimbabwe, university students continue to have problems with scientific communication despite the fact that English is a widely-used second language and students have received most formal science instruction in English. However, the problems differ from those of both students of English as a foreign language and students studying their first…

This paper discusses the dilemma of the non-specialist teacher of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or English for Science and Technology when faced with technical content, and describes the response of De La Salle University (Philippines) that broadened the graduate curriculum to help develop future ESP teacher competencies. The personal…

Scotland's vocationally-oriented Napier College was funded by the French Government to develop language courses for scientists and engineers. The courses developed have been intensive and extensive, based on work started by a team of French scientists focusing on the language, concepts, and ways of thinking common to the scientific community.…