THE MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP)

Abstract

The article highlights a hotly debated issue of teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes and provides an in-depth analysis of new approaches to increasing its effectiveness. Focus on discourse analytic approach is especially topical in the case of the discipline English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is designed for adult learners, professional work situations, and university degrees. It requires specific methods, different from General English learning and teaching. The university curriculum defines learning English as ESP because its material and syllabus correlate with the students’ needs based on their major. Well thought out syllabus is the first confident step towards developing comprehensive language competencies in ESP. The findings of the study argue that mind mapping is a technique which offers many possibilities for teachers of English for Specific Purposes at university, can be used to support various language learning activities, and increase the motivation of the students to study the foreign language. The article substantiates the need for innovative approaches to the methods of teaching the ESP course and seeks out to identify the advantages of mind mapping technique integration into the learning process, from which both the teachers and the ESP language learners can benefit. The results of the empirical study prove the efficiency of mind mapping in selecting, sorting, and remembering important information, learning professional vocabulary, and developing writing skills. Application of mind mapping makes a considerable contribution to developing skills of critical thinking and foreign language competencies of the students. The mind maps can systematize a vast amount of information, and the process of their construction stimulates the ability to remember the entire material easily, develop logic, ability to argue, imagination, reading technique. Further research is suggested to deploy the importance of mind mapping technique for enhancement of the students’ reading comprehension of the major-based texts in the English for Specific Purposes course.