Teaching ESL Students to Read and Write Experimental-Research Papers

Abstract

Reading and writing experimental-research papers is important to academic and processional success in the sciences and social sciences, and is becoming increasingly important in the humanities. Few ESL teachers, however, feel comfortable teaching ESL students to read and write such papers. This paper presents both a discussion of experimental-research paper organization and a method for teaching reading and writing of experimental-research articles to ESL students. ESL teachers are advised to teach students to analyze the reading purpose first, and then to select a reading strategy to meet that purpose. Activities must be structured so that students move from teacher-supplied data to student-collected data. 333I I

Towards a Validated Analysis of Scientific Text Structure

“…Until recently, there have been few if any ESL texts which deal with how to read and write such papers (Hill ~ ~ 1982).…”

“…The need for EST materials concerned with the scientific paper As Hill, Soppelsa and West (1982) observe, the ability to read and write experimental-research papers is important for success in the sciences. It has also been observed that science students exhibit a clear preference for technical, subjectrelated materials to be used in ESL classes.…”

First Experiences with Reading Primary Literature by Undergraduate Life Science Students

“…Other authors have made the same point as Swales (e.g. Cook & Meyer, 1988;Hill, Soppelsa, & West, 1982) although it has to be noted that some authors are rather critical of this so-called 'genreist' approach. These opponents argue that students should not be coerced into using stilted forms of text (for an overview of this discussion, see Purcell-Gates, Duke, & Martineau, 2007).…”

The IMRD overflow phenomenon: form and function of Japanese-language journal documents

“…Global structure, in contrast, has received less attention. After Hill, Soppelsa, and West's (1982) description of the general arrangement of experimental-research articles, investigations concerning this structural level have been few and somewhat isolated (e.g., Posteguillo, 1999;Ruiying & Allison, 2004;Sollaci & Pereira, 2004). It seems that only recently has macrostructure started to be examined on a more regular basis (see Aragão, 2011aAragão, , 2011bAragão, , 2015Lin & Evans, 2012).…”