EXPLORING EFFICIENCY IN TEACHING EAP WRITING AT RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES

Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Russian universities is becoming important nowadays because of the increasing attention to globalization. In education globalization is occurred through internationalization of education where EAP plays a crucial role. The authors of the article argue that, on the one hand, teaching English in non-linguistic Russian universities is often reduced to mastering the so-called general course of the language, which does not provide students with a tool for international communication in professional spheres. On the other hand, the English language, becoming the language of international academic communication, is transformed into a special academic discipline, becoming both a means and a content of learning English. Thus, new tasks are set for teachers of English, one of the most important is the search for effective technologies for teaching EAP. This article describes implementation of information communication technologies (ICT) in EAP course at Russian nonlinguistic universities. The aim is to carry out the theoretical analysis of the integration scheme of blended learning into the curriculum of Russian universities includes the research on the efficiency of wiki based EAP teaching experience and examines the pros and cons of various forms of blended learning opposed to the traditional classroom education and puts forward the issues of blended learning.
The article reflects the stages of the project based on technology enhanced teaching EAP to undergraduate students by means of Web 2.0 tools. The article contains a detailed description of the project, its mission and respondents’ feedback gained via quantitative and qualitative research methods. Based on the professors’ and students’ interviews, questionnaires and observation, it has been found out to be in demand among the students who are digital natives and long for ICT assisted language learning and is subject to some criticism along with numerous benefits, which are also reflected in the results and findings of the study.