Teaching academic writing to students of non-language institutions of higher education as an independent type of language activity

Abstract

The study of a foreign language in institutions of higher education is an integral part of a comprehensive training program for modern specialists. Fluency in a foreign language means perfect mastery of the four common types of speech activity: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The article highlights the problems of teaching written language to students of non-language institutions of higher education in the process of learning a foreign language. The relevance of the article is due to the growing role of written language in the processes of communication and information exchange, which constitute a person’s communicative system and are the individual needs of every person. Therefore, the formation of a culture of writing is one of the main tasks that contribute to the activation of general and communicative competencies in various situations that arise in different spheres of social life. The article distinguishes between the concepts of writing and written language, defines these concepts, and identifies the role and place of written language in the structure of foreign language teaching in non-language educational institutions. The role of writing and written language at different stages of learning a foreign language is determined. Such types of writing as writing for training, writing for communication, reasoned writing are considered. Writing for communication is developed through writing for training, which, in turn, is based on the technique of writing and on the developed graphic and spelling skills. The main purpose of teaching writing for communication is to develop the ability to create different types of written statements for educational, professional and social activities. The article substantiates the need to teach critical thinking to develop the skills of reasoned writing. The definition of the concept of reasoned writing is given. Attention is drawn to the use of secondary texts in the teaching of writing in a foreign language. The definition of the concept of the secondary text is given and it is offered to consider the translation into the native language that is used in training as the secondary text. It is argued that translation from a foreign language into a native language and from a native language into a foreign language is an effective means of establishing cross-language correspondences, which clearly demonstrates differences in the ways of seeing and describing reality in different languages. The article identifies prospects for further research in the field of teaching higher education students writing in a foreign language.