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English for Science and Technology : overview |
English for Science and Technology1 (EST1) targets non-language students majoring in scientific and technological branches and enrolled at Tunisian universities. It is an on-line course designed under the responsibility of Tunis Virtual University. Access and technical details are provided by the same university.
EST1 is the first module in a set of three modules (EST1, EST2, EST3). It aims at familiarizing students, majoring in science and technology, with the grammar of scientific English. The scientific discourse community uses grammar to serve its specific communicative needs. The results of linguistic investigations, from a genre perspective, indicated that grammatical uses are established conventions rather than decontextualized rules.
This module teaches the grammatical conventions established by scientists and technicians to describe experiments, report and comment on results. The profile of target learners does not allow exposure to highly specialized texts, therefore, teaching materials are selected from semi-technical/popularized sources.
Research, in the ESP context of Tunisia, has shown that scientists and technicians need first and foremost reading and writing skills. Therefore, the module proposes exercises to promote these two skills. However, focus will first be put on the mechanics of scientific English. This introductory module will ensure that students have appropriate command of the register that they will have, as professionals, to reproduce orally and in written forms. ESP2 and ESP3 will build on the grammatical competence that students will have acquired by the end of ESP1.
View the course
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