Abstract:

The pandemic has revealed the necessity to revise the methodology of teaching and learning ESP (English for specific purposes) in favour of effective and time-saving teaching materials which can be applied both in class and for self-studying. The authors believe that parallel texts have been undeservingly underestimated in the teaching/ learning process, whereas upon fulfilling certain efficiency criteria they can suggest a number of certain advantages to teachers and students. Present-day high use of ESP in the era of technical progress and the rapid development of oil and gas industry enhancing the emergence of new terminology make it relevant for English majors and science students developing career in mining to search for various reliable sources of specialized knowledge, English-language monographs and their translated versions being among them as most advisable sources for ESP studies and translation guidance. The recommended tools to ensure the students’ success in ESP classes and specialized translation courses include "Handbook of petroleum analysis", "Petroleum refining in nontechnical language" and "Nontechnical guide to petroleum geology, exploration, drilling & production", the original and translated versions of which have been thoroughly analyzed and the perspectives of their further application have been discussed. The paper describes various ways in which the monographs as parallel texts can be used to develop language skills in mining.The research procedure of parallel texts method is based on the testing of the above-mentioned tools in teaching 2nd year science students and 4th year English majors and involves the revealing of 1) general benefits of parallel texts method; 2) efficiency criteria the original must meet to become an authoritative source of specialized knowledge for students studying English as a foreign language; 3) the ratio of specialized vocabulary comprised in the monographs; 4) most frequently used translation techniques; 5) specific grammar features and presentation style which are a significant part of academic language studies. Moreover, the well-known monographs can be used to analyse and train most typical contexts featuring English items which mainly belong to special use. Finally, students get an excellent opportunity to practice written/oral translation from English into Russian and vice versa. In many aspects the monographs are highly methodical and serve at least as a good complement to comprehensive studies combining reading, retelling, translating, grammar studying and writing. The authors conclude that the discussed teaching tools have a great academic potential thanks to their multifunctional qualities and can be definitely included into the university curriculum design to develop basic language and intercultural competencies.

Keywords:

Efficiency criteria, English for petroleum technology, ESP, language course design, parallel texts, specialized translation.