Teaching expressions of cause, effect, purpose and function in English to students of science and technology

Abstract

Definitions of scientific terms, descriptions of scientific and technological processes and procedures, and the like have a pride of place in most of the scientific writings. As a result, the students who pursue their undergraduate or masters program in science and technology in various universities across the world require using several expressions in their writing tasks intended to define, describe and discuss certain concepts pertaining to their respective domains of knowledge. Among them, expressions to explain causes and effects, purposes and functions are more frequently used than others in the writing tasks carried out by the students of science and technology. This article discusses the strategies and the practical exercises that can be used by the teachers of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) to teach the expressions of cause, effect, purpose and function in their ESP classes. Key words: English, writing, science and technology, teachers, classroom.