A taxonomy of grammar items to support English academic writing.

With increasing globalization it is predicted than in 2020 more than 7 million students will be studying outside their home country and many of these in English speaking countries or where English is the medium of comunication. Being able to study and produce material in another language is an additional challenge for these students who will also have to focus on their subject area. It is particularly challenging for Arabic and Chinese speakers who not only have to contend with a different alphabet but also different academic norms. The aim of this research project is to identify the key grammatical items which these students need to help them write Academic English. Many of the university Pre-sessional courses designed for non-English speaking students do not allow much time for grammar instruction and so this research aims to find those grammar items which can be taught quickly to maximise benefit to the student and university alike.

Autorentext

Alison Ramage Patterson has had over 15 years experience teaching English to adult students worldwide. She specialises in Academic Writing especially for Arabic and Chinese speakers. Having worked extensively with these groups she focused her MA dissertation project on finding the most useful grammar items to support their English academic writing