Teaching mediation skills at technology-enhanced esp classes at technical universities

Abstract

Mediation is a new trend in the language teaching methodology that has been disregarded at English language classes at technical universities. While teaching ESP students is crucial to develop and improve their complex communicative competence, it should not be limited to reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills because real-life communication involves more sophisticated language skills such as mediation. Linguistic mediation is a dual-nature phenomenon with cognitive and linguistics domains. The present study demonstrates some practical recommendations on how to implement mediation teaching into ESP courses with the integration of online educational technologies. Our study was carried out among ESP teachers at a technical university and outlines the findings of an empirical study on teachers’ perception of language mediation. Our evidence-based findings and personal experience confirm that mediation can enrich the ESP syllabus and bridge the gap between the university and real professional life.