Title: Language as a mediating tool to facilitate professional thinking

Names of presenters: Ülle Sihver, Ursula Erik

Affiliation and academic titles: Estonian University of Life Sciences,

Ülle Sihver, M.A., Head of Language Centre;

Ursula Erik, M.A., University lecturer

Email addresses: ylle.sihver@emu.ee ursula.erik@emu.ee

 

Keywords: mediation, social agent, terminology work, specific language skills, course development

 

Abstract:

The aim of mediation process, defined in the most general terms, is to reduce the gap between two agents who are distant from each other – linguistically or content-wise. A language learner resp. user as a social agent aims at comprehending language as a mediation tool that enables to communicate, receive and produce information and express their social needs as a private person and member of society. In tertiary education, English proficiency is focused on mediating speciality related information. Therefore, the acquisition of linguistic, formal and cultural proficiency for mediation within specific and scientific contexts is of utmost importance and aligns with the curricula. The course for English/Estonian mediation for academic and professional purposes was re-designed from a former course of English for Specific Purposes. The development of the new course is based on understanding the function of mediation and terminology work as a core part of specialty studies, and the corresponding skills the future specialist needs. Backwards planning was applied and the primary objective of the course is the ability of the future specialist to mediate professional information between languages and cultures. The re-designed course aims at developing students’ meta-learning and mediating skills. The tangible results for the learner are: an abstract, a terminology list with English-Estonian equivalents explained in context, an academic presentation, and an article for the Estonian language version of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. The intangible skills required and practiced include reading comprehension, critical thinking, academic writing, language proficiency in both English and Estonian, public speaking, research, and mediating between the source and target languages. The course is based on the concept that via using terminology and the code of the source and the target language, the agents mediate the meaning they have comprehended.