TEACHING PASSIVE AS A FIELD-CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE OF FLT DISCIPLINARY DISCOURSE. THE CASE OF ENGINEERING

<doi>10.24250/jpe/2/2025/AP/</doi>

Abstract

Creating a functional disciplinary discourse in a FLT
context is a challenge for foreign language teachers who
should problematize issues contributing to the foundation
of the disciplinary discourse such as the specialization of
voice depending on the type of production, written or oral,
and genre students should be able to generate. Raising
awareness in students about the specialization of passive
voice in describing the technical processes in the case of
engineering students is a key element to learning how to
produce adapted and successful pieces of texts that serve
the purpose of emphasizing technological processes, which
is characteristic of the scientific discourse. Consequently,
this piece of research aims at bringing evidence in support
of the hypothesis that by constant training and practice
students become aware of the cognitive connection between
the use of passive voice and the informed production of
disciplinary discourse. In order to do so, we have
conducted an empirical study which verifies students’
capacity of adjusting the voice depending on the contexts,
thus demonstrating a clear cognitive separation between a
daily regular discourse and a technical engineering one.
The results of the study indicate a straightforward
correlation between the task genre and the voice selected
by students, which is an essential element in proving
awareness of their belonging to a disciplinary discourse
which they have taken in and used accordingly.