SHAPING SKILLS OF REASONING IN ESP COURSE AT TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Abstract

At present, the university graduates have to acquire not only profound knowledge but unique skills and competencies to be successful in the labour market. One of the main competencies of modern engineers is their proficiency to reason, to debate or to argue reasonably. The Russian tertiary education standards consider argumentation skills as a key competence for university graduates. These skills are critical for making decisions and students can develop their argumentation skills in their English classes at a technical university. The paper reviews and analyzes the issues of teaching reasoning in the ESP course. The authors share their ideas on the ESP design course applying IT tools and indicate the ways to pursue further research. To improve communicative competence in the specialist area, the authors suggest shaping the skills of argumentation through the ESP course acquisition. Teaching strategies, regarding stages of skills development, are identified. Theoretical background and literature review give grounds for designing effective assignments to promote fruitful communication and make our graduates more competitive in the workforce.