Modern approaches to the study of foreign language academic writing by students of non-language faculties

Abstract

Since the 90s of the last century, the aims of teaching foreign languages have been changed. As a result, reading and writing, which were considered the auxiliary teaching aids before, have transformed into educational purposes equal to oral communication. The education reform going on at present and the changing requirements to the second language skills at secondary and tertiary levels as well as the changing approaches to the role of writing in the second language learning have stipulated the choice of topic. These days the internationalization of all spheres of economic, social and political life makes it vital to speak English as a means of international communication to succeed both in education and in later professional life. Therefore, the problem of the development of foreign language communicative competence in general and in writing in particular is quite relevant in the methodology of teaching foreign languages. The article outlines the difficulties students experience when mastering writing in English for Academic Purposes Course. It considers different approaches to teaching writing, their advantages and disadvantages. It is suggested how tasks peculiar to each approach can be used in academic writing courses to resolve these difficulties. Each of these approaches has certain imperfections that can be offset by the other. During the study of academic writing, an integrated use of the considered approaches is proposed, which will help students learn to generate, structure and design ideas in writing, as well as provide appropriate conditions for the development of their linguistic competence.