Complex of exercises for teaching civil engineering students how to write a covering letter in English
Teaching students of construction specialties to write English-language cover letters. Learning and practicing new vocabulary necessary for writing business letters. Application of a set of text-genre exercises "Presentation", "Vocabulary" and "Writing".
| Рубрика | Педагогика |
| Вид | статья |
| Язык | английский |
| Дата добавления | 18.11.2023 |
| Размер файла | 21,2 K |
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Complex of exercises for teaching civil engineering students how to write a covering letter in English
Balatska O.
Annotation
The article presents a complex of exercises which can be used for teaching civil engineering students how to write an English-language covering letter. Taking into consideration crucial importance of job-seekers' business writing skills, namely their ability to write a covering letters to get the job they want, I consider it important to allocate at the minimum three double lessons, і.e. six academic hours, to teach students how to write a covering letter in English. During those classes students will have to do a complex of exercises, totaling up to fifteen specifically develope dfor that purpose. As long as a covering letter is a cliched and standardized document and structure and form of covering letters is quite similar, it is expedient to teach students how to write a covering letter by using a combined text-genre and procedural approach.
Therefore, it is useful to use a complex of exercises that can be divided into the following three parts: “Presentation”, “Vocabulary” and “Writing”. When working with exercises from the first part, “Presentation”, it is better for students to begin with a thorough analysis of samples of English-language covering letters and after that proceed to exercises connected with formatting of covering letters, such as finding required information in a covering letter, putting components of a covering letter in the correct order, etc. After getting acquainted with the structure of a covering letter, it is good to learn and practice new vocabulary necessary for wring an English-language covering letter (part “Vocabulary”), using a variety of exercises for that purpose, such as matching English terms or phrases to their Ukrainian equivalents, finding definitions of the words, filling in the gaps in the sentences, distributing phrases among given categories, translating phrases from English into Ukrainian and vice versa.
At the last stage (part “Writing”), students proceed to writing covering letters starting with filling in the gaps in the given covering letter with appropriate pieces of information and then move on to writing their own writing letter for a specific position.
Key words: teaching, writing, covering letter, complex of exercises, English, part “Presentation”, part “Vocabulary”, part “Writing”, civil engineering students.
Анотація
Балацька О.Л. Комплекс вправ для навчання студентів будівельних спеціальностей написання супровідних листів англійською мовою
У статті наводиться комплекс вправ, який може бути використаний для навчання студентів будівельних спеціальностей написання англомовних супровідних листів. Беручи до уваги надзвичайно велике значення навичок ділового письма для шукачів роботи, а саме їхнє уміння писати супровідні листи з метою отримання бажаної вакансії, вважаємо вкрай важливим виділити принаймні три заняття, тобто шість академічних годин, на навчання студентів написання супровідних листів англійською мовою. На цих заняттях студенти повинні будуть виконати комплекс вправ, що нараховує п'ятнадцять спеціально розроблених вправ. Оскільки супровідний лист - клішований і стандартизований документ, а структура та форма супровідних листів досить схожі, доцільно навчати студентів написанню супровідних листів, використовуючи поєднаний текстово-жанровий і процесуальний підхід. Тому буде корисно для цього застосувати комплекс вправ, який можна розділити на такі три частини: “Presentation”, “Vocabulary” та “Writing”.
При опрацюванні вправ з першої частини “Presentation”, студентам краще почати з ретельного аналізу зразків англомовних супровідних листів, а потім перейти до вправ, пов'язаних із форматуванням супровідних листів, таких як пошук необхідної інформації в супровідних листах, розставлення компонентів наведеного супровідного листа в правильному порядку. Після ознайомлення зі структурою супровідних листів, доцільно вивчити та відпрацьовувати нову лексику, необхідну для їх написання (частина “Vocabulary”), використовуючи для цього різноманітні вправи, як-от пошук відповідностей між англійськими словами чи словосполученнями та їхніми українськими еквівалентами, пошук визначень наведених слів, заповнення пропусків у реченнях, розподіл за заданими категоріями, переклад з англійської мови на українську та навпаки. На останньому етапі (частина “Writing”) студенти здійснюють написання супровідних листів починаючи із заповнення пропусків у наведеному супровідному листі необхідною інформацією, а потім переходять до написання власних супровідних листів на конкретну посаду.
Ключові слова: навчання, написання, супровідний лист, комплекс вправ, студенти будівельних спеціальностей, англійська мова, частина “Presentation”, частина “Vocabulary”, частина “Writing”.
The English language plays a major role in our day-today life, as it is the Language of International Communication, the most common business language. Learning English will make students more employable not only in companies in the English-language countries, but also in foreign businesses in Ukraine.
Writing a covering letter is an important part of the job application process. A covering letter is usually or can be the first thing a potential employer reads from you, thus making their first impression of you. Your covering letter introduces you and your CV A covering letter gives you the opportunity to tell your potential employer your professional story in a way that's more personal than your CV.
In addition, a covering letter is important because approximately 26% of recruiters read covering letters and consider them crucial in making their decision to hire a person [2].
Taking into account the above, I believe it is necessary for the English language Syllabus for civil engineering students to include writing covering letters.
Various aspects of teaching English-language business correspondence has been studied by numerous scholars [1; 3; etc]. Inasmuch as a well-written and thought- out covering letter is significant for getting a job, teaching how to write it efficaciously has been analyzed by scientists both in Ukraine and abroad [1; 4; 5], namely scholars who have analyzed peculiarities of teaching writing covering letters, presenting developed complexes of exercises as well [1; etc.]. However, more attention should be paid to studying specifics of teaching writing English-language covering letters to university students with particular students' needs, civil engineering students, to be more exact.
The purpose of the article. The purpose of the research article is to present a complex of exercises for teaching civil engineering students how to write a covering letter in English.
english language text genre cover letter construction
Main body
The covering letter is a cliched and standardized document. As the structure and form of covering letters is similar, it is effective to teach university students how to write a covering letter in English by means of using a combined text-genre and procedural approach.
In order to teach civil engineering students how to write a covering letter in English it is expedient to use a number of exercises that can be divided into three sections: presentation, vocabulary and writing. It should also be mentioned that some ideas suggested by other authors working on this problem [1; 4; 5] were used for development of this complex of exercises,
Presentation
The purpose of Presentation is to make it possible for students to study and analyze covering letters carefully, namely: their structure, lexical, grammatical and stylistic features.
Students ought to start with analyzing the layout of a typical covering letter, as some students can be unfamiliar with it. After familiarizing with the structure of a covering letter, students should proceed to doing exercises the purpose of which is to make it possible to remember it better, such as finding required information in a covering letter, putting parts of a covering letter in the correct order, etc.
Exercise 1. Study the example of the covering letter below and say what information a typical covering letter includes
In this exercise students should analyze an example of a covering letter in order to learn what a covering letter is, what information it includes, what components it can be divided into. In this article we won't give either full-length examples of covering letters or unabridged texts of most exercises as detailed demonstration of most of the exercises would be too bulky to be in a research article of this type. Moreover, other teachers may want to adapt somewhat given exercises corresponding to their student's speciality and other needs. Any covering letter relevant to students' English level as well as their speciality will do for this purpose, as the objective of this exercise is to identify what kind of information can be found in a covering letter.
Exercise 2. Look through the covering letter in Exercise 1 once again and say what components a covering letter can be divided into
The purpose of this exercise is to devote some more attention to the structure of a covering letter, so that students will identify more details in the covering letter and will be able to remember it much better.
You may want to ask your students to do both this exercise, and some other exercises from this complex of exercises in pairs so that it will get easier for them, furthermore it can help you to make the process of teaching how to write a covering letter more interesting for students as many civil engineering students find writing too much rather tiring.
Exercise 3. Scan the following covering letter and the guidelines for writing a covering letter below, and check your answers to Exercise 2
This aim of this exercise is to go through the structure of a covering letter once again. This exercise should present a covering letter with highlighted components together with information about covering letter structure which you believe to be relevant to your student's needs.
Make sure to highlight in the model covering letter you are to give in this exercise the following components: return address, date, inside address, salutation, opening paragraph, middle paragraph(s), closing paragraph, ending, signature, typed name, and enclosures.
It is useful to give in this exercise information about the structure of a covering letter in the form of a table explaining specifics of every component of a covering letter, and giving extra examples. It is expedient to put information about components of a covering letter in the order in which they can usually be seen in a typical covering letter. When checking the answers to Exercise 2 with your students, you may want to pay more attention to peculiarities of every component of a covering letter your civil engineering student should know.
Exercise 4. Read these two covering letters and complete the notes
Notes
Covering letter 1
Position applying:
Applicant's name:
Applicant's work experience:
Applicant's professional skills:
<...>
In this exercise two more examples of English-language covering letters are demonstrated for students to practice with so that they can go though covering letter structure once again. Being aware of a covering letter layout at this stage, they have to find those pieces of information required.
Exercise 5. Put the parts of the following covering letter in the correct order (use the guidelines for writing a covering letter in Exercise 3 if you need). The first one is done for you
27 April 2022
Apartment 48, 237 City Road, New York, N.Y.
684 59 14 alicia20r@gmail.com
Mr Tom Brandon
Director of Human Resources DeltaO, Inc.
370 Benson St New York, NY
If you find that my qualifications and experience are suitable, I can be available for interview at short notice. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely
Dear Mr Brandon
I wish to apply for the position of Personal Assistant advertised on your web-site.
Enc: You will see from my CV that I have five years' work experience as a personal assistant. I am fluent in French and German, which I studied at university.
Alicia V Ray
This exercise can help to improve students' knowledge of a covering letter structure. It contains a covering letter divided into fragments and presented in the mixed order. If time allows, you may want to offer your students to write out the covering letter in full.
Exercise 6. Scan the following covering letter. This letter lacks some important information. Explain what obligatory components of a covering letter are missing
Exercise 6 can improve and simultaneously test students' knowledge of the covering letter structure. This exercise should contain an example of a covering letter that corresponds to your students' needs, but some important obligatory parts should be taken out of it, such as salutation, one of the paragraphs of the letter, the date, the ending, etc.
Exercise 7. Scan the covering letter below. This letter lacks some important components, besides the components which are in this letter are in the wrong order. Rewrite the letter in a proper way
This exercise makes the task even more difficult as you both take out some of the obligatory components of a covering letter, and put them in the wrong order so that your students will have to put them right and write themselves those components which are missing.
You can use any covering letter for this exercise from which you will take out those obligatory components which will be easy for your students to write without special preparation with vocabulary work, e.g. date, return address, ending, enclosure, etc.
Vocabulary
In order to help your students leam the vocabulary they will need to write their covering letters you can use a number of exercises both for learning new words, and useful phrases necessary to know to write an English-language covering letter. To achieve this, you may want to use several exercises, e.g. matching, classifying, gap-filling. Exercise 8. Learn the words from the List of Active Vocabulary by heart and proceed to other activities.
Exercise 8 should present a list of English words and their Ukrainian equivalents that your students should know to write a covering letter in English, such as covering letter, enclosure, signature, requirement, to attach, to obtain, yours sincerely, yours faithfully, advertisement, consideration, etc.
Then working with vocabulary necessary to write a covering letter I believe it is much more expedient for students to practise using not individual words, but those phrases, cliches, which are useful for writing letters. That's why I think it's necessary to devote most of vocabulary exercises to practicing those useful phrases.
Exercises 9. Match English phrases (1-12) with their Ukrainian equivalents (A-L)
The first one is done for you. Example: I am eager to begin a career in construction. - Я хотів би почати кар'єру у сфері будівництва
1) I am very interested in obtaining a position in your company.
2) I have two years ' experience as an architect.
3) I believe that my work experience and enthusiasm would enable me to make a significant contribution to your company. <...>
A) У мене є дворічний стаж роботи на посаді архітектора.
B) Мені здається, що я зможу внести значний внесок у роботу вашої компанії, застосовуючи свій досвід й бажання працювати.
C) Я дуже зацікавлений в одержанні посади у Вашій компанії. <...>
The following exercises, Exercise 10-13, will also help your students to learn a variety of phrases useful for writing a covering letter.
Exercise 10. Cover useful phrases in English (1-12) in Exercise 9 with a sheet of paper and try to translate their Ukrainian equivalents (A -L) into English, and vice versa
Exercise 11. Scan the phrases below (1-15). Decide which of them you can use in the opening paragraph (O), middle paragraph(s) (M) or closing paragraph (C) of your covering letter
Write O, M or C correspondingly. Example: C I look forward to hearing from you soon.
1) You may reach me at the above email address or phone number.
2) I have considerable experience in ...
3) John Westwood informed me of a Construction Superintendant position that is available at your company.
4) My education, work experience and skills make me an ideal candidate for this position.
5) I was interested to see your advertisement for civil engineer on your web-site. <...>
Exercise 12. Translate the following phrases into Ukrainian
1. obtain a position; 2. requirements outlined in the advertisement; 3. schedule a job interview; 4. make an important contribution to smth.; 5. in response to the advertisement; 6. have a part time job; <...>.
Exercise 13. Translate the following phrases into English
1. отримувати посаду; 2. відповідати вимогам; 3. робити внесок у розвиток компанії; 4. додати до листа рекомендації; 5. призначати співбесіду; 6. щиро Ваш; 7. наявна вакансія; <...>.
Writing
In this part, your students should do exercises where they have to write covering letters with or without prompts. Exercise 14. You are looking for a civil engineer position. You were interested to see the job advertisement on a recruiting website. Write your reply to the advertisement. Use the form below to help you.
Your address telephone - email
Date
Return address Dear
I was interested to see your advertisement for in
As you will see from my CV, I
I think I am a I am competent in
In addition, I hold a certificate in
If there's any further information you require, please contact me at
I look forward to
Yours sincerely Your signature Your name
Exercise 15
Part A) Think about the position you'd like to have in the future, then write your own covering letter for the position you are interested in to the company you would like to work for.
Part B) Work in pairs. Exchange the covering letters you have written when doing Part A of this exercise. Analyze your partner's covering letter and if there are some faults in it, point them out to your partner for them to improve it. After discussing your covering letter with your partner, show it to your teacher. Then type that final version as a home assignment.
Conslusions
Writing covering letters in English can present some difficulties for civil engineering students that's why we find it expedient to use a complex of exercises which can be divided into three parts: presentation, vocabulary and writing, dealing with relevant aspects of writing covering letters, with up to 15 exercises in total. Three lessons at the minimum should be allocated to teaching writing covering letters in English.
Bibliography
1. Тарнопольський О.Б., Кожушко С.П. Методика навчання студентів вищих навчальних закладів письма англійською мовою. Вінниця: Нова книга, 2008. 288 с.
2. Do I Need a Cover Letter? Are Cover Letters Necessary in 2023?
3. Guffey M. E., Loewy D., Almonte R. Essentials of Business Communication. Nelson Education Limited, 2015. 576 p.
4. Lougheed L. Business Correspondence: a Guide to Everyday Writing. Pearson Education, 2003. 149 p.
5. Parsky L. English for employment. N.Y.: Educational Design, Inc. 1998. 125 p.
References
1. Tarnopolskyi O.B. (2008) Kozhushko S.P. Metodyka navchannia studentiv vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladiv pysma anhliiskoiu movoiu [Methodology of teaching students of higher educational institutions to write in English]. Vinnytsia: Nova knyha. 288 s. [in Ukrainian].
2. Do I Need a Cover Letter? Are Cover Letters Necessary in 2023?
3. Guffey M. E., Loewy D., Almonte R. (2015) Essentials of Business Communication. Nelson Education Limited. 576 p.
4. Lougheed L. (2003) Business Correspondence: a Guide to Everyday Writing. Pearson Education. 149 p.
5. Parsky L. English for employment (1998) N.Y: Educational Design, Inc. 125 p.
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