{"title":"Writing for engineering","authors":"Claire Simpson-Smith","doi":"10.1075/aral.19009.sim","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Professional engineers must move easily between concretization and abstraction in written communication, while remaining rooted in the context of the particular engineering problem to be solved. Engineering programmes often seek to use a replicated professional situation in order to prepare students for the workplace; however, there are questions as to how a decontextualized task prepares students for the language and knowledge requirements of the field. This paper reports on the findings of a Master’s research project, which investigated this issue through a comparison of two sets of engineering feasibility studies: publicly available industry texts and English as an Additional Language (EAL) student texts from a Master’s engineering program. The findings show that while the corpora have some similarities, there are differences that suggest that the student texts are less bound to the concrete reality of their project, which has implications for those working in disciplinary and professional literacies.","PeriodicalId":43911,"journal":{"name":"Australian Review of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2020-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Australian Review of Applied Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.19009.sim","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract Professional engineers must move easily between concretization and abstraction in written communication, while remaining rooted in the context of the particular engineering problem to be solved. Engineering programmes often seek to use a replicated professional situation in order to prepare students for the workplace; however, there are questions as to how a decontextualized task prepares students for the language and knowledge requirements of the field. This paper reports on the findings of a Master’s research project, which investigated this issue through a comparison of two sets of engineering feasibility studies: publicly available industry texts and English as an Additional Language (EAL) student texts from a Master’s engineering program. The findings show that while the corpora have some similarities, there are differences that suggest that the student texts are less bound to the concrete reality of their project, which has implications for those working in disciplinary and professional literacies.
期刊介绍:
The Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) is the preeminent journal of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA). ARAL is a peer reviewed journal that promotes scholarly discussion and contemporary understandings of language-related matters with a view to impacting on real-world problems and debates. The journal publishes empirical and theoretical research on language/s in educational, professional, institutional and community settings. ARAL welcomes national and international submissions presenting research related to any of the major sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics as well as transdisciplinary studies. Areas of particular interest include but are not limited to: · Analysis of discourse and interaction · Assessment and evaluation · Bi/multilingualism and bi/multilingual education · Corpus linguistics · Cognitive linguistics · Language, culture and identity · Language maintenance and revitalization · Language planning and policy · Language teaching and learning, including specific languages and TESOL · Pragmatics · Research design and methodology · Second language acquisition · Sociolinguistics · Language and technology · Translating and interpreting.