ENGLISH AS A COMMUNICATIVE TOOL IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY XX
Preliminary program
Co-chairs:
- Alexander B. Pravdin, Svetlana V. Eremina, Saratov State University
Secretary:
- Natalia I. Kazadaeva, Saratov State University
International Program Committee:
- Vladimir L. Derbov, Saratov State University
- Kirill V. Larin, University of Houston, USA
- Martin Leahy, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
- Alexander V. Priezzhev, Moscow State University
- Valery V. Tuchin, Saratov State University
- Dmitry A. Zimnyakov, Saratov State Technical University
The main goal of the Workshop is to introduce young researches and students to the international community of scientists dealing with development and application of laser and optical technologies in medicine and biology. Joining this fast-developing field of research is impossible without active English, the language that has become an international communicative tool of modern science. The communicative problem that most of the beginner scientists face is well expressed in the maxim “If you want your voice to be heard in the present-day world, it should sound in English”.
Most of the modern publications necessary for the work of a graduate student, postgraduate or young scientists is in English. Therefore, the skill of scanning large amounts of English text with selecting informationally valuable fragments will be one of the leading topics of the sessions and round-table discussions. The level of discussions will be intended for graduate students.
The main attention will be paid to training the active English as an international communicative tool without which it is impossible to present one’s own research results to the scientific community. Traditionally in Russia the language education of specialists in natural sciences was oriented at passive English. We believe that introducing the students and young researchers to the technology of scientific presentations and Internet sites, to the style and grammar peculiarities of a scientific article, etc., will stimulate the progress in their language education and help to overcome the psychological barrier impeding the active use of English.
The Workshop will include lecture sessions with oral presentations. The subjects touched upon during these sessions will be extended and developed in round-table discussions.
We expect active participation of the leading English instructors of Saratov National Research State University, including those working within the framework of REC006 Project, the School professors that have considerable experience in English scientific presentations, the members of Editorial Boards and referees of international journals. At least 3-4 foreign scientists including those from English-speaking countries are supposed to take part in the Workshop.
In the framework of the Workshop an Internet session will be organized in which the participants will be introduced to the facilities of remote language acquisition and consult with instructors.
Topics:
The education program will include but is not restricted to the following topic areas:
- The style of a modern scientific publication
- Cursory reading as a means to extract maximal information basing on minimal vocabulary
- Submitting a paper to an International Journal: language requirements
- Russian-English terminology system in biomedical optics