TEACHING ACADEMIC WRITING IN ENGLISH TO STUDENTS OF ECONOMICS THROUGH CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS

The article addresses EFL students’ academic writing competence by fostering and evaluating their writing practices through conceptual metaphors. The research dataset comprised 102 Russian students majoring in economics. The students received the instruction based on the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory during their EAP, ESP and EMI courses in economics. Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIPVU) and the method of metaphoric modeling were used to assess EFL writing competence in economic knowledge domains – knowledge of terms and specific concepts, represented as conceptual metaphors. The statistical analysis did not show significant changes in the writing competence level of students when their EAP and ESP writing was compared. However, statistical differences were revealed in the use of metaphors when the students progressed from their EAP to EMI course and from their ESP to EMI course. The qualitative analysis demonstrated main differences within the conceptual metaphor domains in ESP and EMI writing. On the whole, the results reported here suggest the dynamics of FL writing competence of the Russian students specializing in economics when attending an EAP course, an ESP course and an EMI course in economics at the university.