The series of classes 'English for Research Purposes', specifically aimed at young researchers, will cover a variety of topics and questions on scientific English.
Firstly, we will discuss a research text as a communicative act. In the second class, we will learn about the aspects of scientific style, possible intercultural aspects in scientific writing, and the importance of terminology. Then, we will pay attention to text organization and issues of hedging, vagueness, sensationalism, and exaggeration. In the fourth class, we will look at some of the constraints in scientific writing such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Fifthly, we will study the process of describing, comparing, contrasting, and narrating. Finally, we will consider some aspects of revising, editing, and proofreading.
Guntars Dreijers (pictured) holds a PhD and the position of Associate Professor in contrastive linguistics and translation studies. He has been actively cooperating with universities both nationally (Ventspils University of Applied sciences, RISEBA, University of Latvia), and internationally (Université Bretagne Sud in Lorient, France; TEI of Serres in Greece, Duzce and Bandirmas Universities in Turkey, University of Porto in Portugal). Promoting the academic exchange, Guntars Dreijers has delivered classes at the University of the West of England in the UK, and he participated in the academic exchange programmes at universities in Finland, Czech Republic, and the USA. His research interests include language aspects of translation and legal linguistics. He has been regularly invited as a plenary speaker for international conferences and has been involved as a scientific reviewer in a number of editorial boards. Guntars Dreijers is also participating in the national research programme 'Latvian Language', Erasmus+ programme 'Translating for Linguistic Diversity', and 'Teachers in the Distance'.
Course Outline
15 Dec
14:00–15:30
The Process of Communicating Science. Science in Dialogue. Views of Science
Practical exercises: Identifying flaws in writing, correcting mistakes, improving texts, identifying mistakes.
Text: Science Journalism
During the class, we will study broader macro-issues such as views on science, science and values, credibility and trust, knowledge filter, strategies of communicating science, contextualisation, and the dialogic nature of science communication.
Homework: (a text) will be discussed.
5 Jan
16:20–17:50
Scientific Text; Beyond the Paragraph.
Practical exercises: Text and information flow, paragraphs.
Text: Research in Science Communication
Exercises will focus on the internal structure of the text, and information structure on sentence–paragraph–text levels.
Homework: (a text) will be discussed.
