Innovation in Language Learning

Teaching scientific writing at Russian universities currently faces two major issues. Firstly, low level students often move directly from learning General English to writing scientific texts, with no or insufficient prior experience in writing. Secondly, high level students are trained to write through essays where assessment criteria vary from those of a scientific text. Training hours allocated along with frequently implicit knowledge acquisition do not allow students to develop skills and competences to the required extent. Additionally, students are expected to rely either on their own experience in writing in their native language or guidelines from their scientific advisors who rather ‘feel it is a good text’ than can explain why it is of high quality. Realigning CEFR can-do descriptors for scientific writing may serve as a viable solution to ensure students make a smoother transition to writing in sciences.