Роль видов национального спорта в формировании

50 
Вестник Карагандинского университета 
UDC 378.147:811.111:651.74 
Yu.O.Semenchuk 
Ternopil National Economic University, Ukraine 
(E-mail: yulian24semenchuk@gmail.com) 
Teaching students writing employment  
documents in English  
Social and economic transformations in the world and changes in educational paradigm open an opportunity 
for future specialists to academic mobility and possible integration into the world labor market. Consequent-
ly, the problem of teaching students how to write such employment documents as a cover letter and a resume 
in English is the focus of this article. The need for acquiring writing skills by students of economic specialties 
enhances the teachers of ESP to find and elaborate effective tasks and approaches to teaching writing. The 
overview of the pedagogical literature and practice analyzed in the article helps to define theoretical prerequi-
sites of writing and suggest ways for mastering writing skills by students in accordance with the latest trends 
in the methodology of teaching ESP.   
Key words: professional writing, cover letter, resume, theoretical background, methodology of teaching ESP.  
 
Introduction 
The opportunity to travel and work abroad gives a chance for Ukrainian students to be a part of the 
world labor market, so they need to learn the standards of foreign companies in employment process, to ac-
quire the knowledge of the work search procedure. Thus university students need to master their writing 
skills when preparing employment documents as the first step in building their career. In that context it is 
significant for ESP teachers to put forward effective means of teaching writing as a meaningful communica-
tion for satisfying essential needs of students and assist them in realizing their objectives. One of such means 
is interactive techniques of teaching, when students work in small groups, in pairs to collaborate their lin-
guistic, cognitive, social and creative efforts in order to present a final product of their activity.  
This study examines theoretical research works and findings of prominent scholars devoted to facilitat-
ing the teaching/learning writing, which can create a basis for elaborating effective writing exercises for stu-
dents. Also, the task of this article is to find ways for enhancing motivation to write employment documents, 
raising students’ awareness of the writing process, develop their writing styles as a part of their communica-
tive competence formation. Learning different concepts about academic writing and handling written tasks is 
aimed at mastering English as a powerful means of international communication nowadays.  
Having defined the tasks of the research, we can determine the purpose of this paper which is con-
densed to the analysis of the relevant literature, description of the modern trends in teaching writing with the 
emphasis on interactive methods, establishing peculiarities of designing and writing cover letters and re-
sumes, elaborating recommendations for developing effective exercises aimed at handling writing problems 
while creating employment documents. So we can formulate the following thesis statement: the need to 
build a successful career motivates the students to learn how to prepare and present effective employment 
documents, in particular, a cover letter and a resume, so the teachers’ task is to organize a proper educational 
environment for interactive teaching/learning activities with the help of elaborated exercises for enhancing 
students’ willingness to write, to assess and evaluate critically their pieces of writing. 
Review of Relevant Literature 
The problem of teaching students writing different texts, such as essays, reports, business letters, mem-
os, abstracts and so on, has always been in the center of scholars’ attention. The ability to write according to 
conventions adopted in the Western culture will permit future specialists to cope with the tasks at work, es-
pecially when they do business and develop mutual economic relations with foreign business partners. Re-
searchers 
(C.L. Bovee, M. Doherty, M. Guffey, L. Lougheed, S. Ober, J.F. Trimmer, M. Wilson and others)
 
studied psycho-linguistic and didactic preconditions, necessary for substantiating their theories aimed at im-
proving students’ writing skills and mastering their communicative competence. Numerous methods how to 
organize the writing process and motivate students to create their pieces of writing, which reflect different 
genres, have been proposed. In particular, specialists in academic writing pay much attention to teaching 

Teaching students writing… 
Серия «Педагогика». № 3(79)/2015 
51 
writing essays [1; 137, 2; 145]. Researchers state that writing as a «productive skill in which students are 
expected to communicate their ideas with others in a written form» is one of the most challenging tasks for 
English language learners because it is «an accuracy focused activity as well as an act of communication 
where one can practice their skills of using grammar, vocabulary and also put their ideas in a coherent fash-
ion» [3; 9].  
Besides researchers’ works devoted to the methodology of teaching students writing essays, there are a 
lot of studies focused on the problem of teaching writing abstracts. Students need to know certain rules of 
writing such texts if they want to publish their articles in scientific journals or conference proceedings. 
Sometimes abstract as a part of a scientific publication is confused with resume, which in Western culture is 
meant to be used in employment practice, so students need to know the difference between these two genres. 
Some researchers (T. Korzh, N. Glazko, L. Gavrilov, I. Sannikova, E. Timofeeva and others) pay much at-
tention to the problem of teaching students writing abstracts, which is «a ‘lighthouse’ in the world with over-
crowded and saturated information systems» [4; 38]. Professor P. Sysoev in one of his articles also dwells 
upon that issue as students need to be taught how to describe briefly their research project when applying for 
a grant or when publishing the results of their research activity [5].  
So we can witness a great number of works which highlight the peculiarities of teaching students writ-
ing, describe the methodology and offer relevant exercises. At the same time despite numerous works of re-
searchers and considerable contribution to the methodology of teaching writing, the problem of teaching stu-
dents writing employment documents in the course of ESP remains actual. That is why this problem requires 
further research to provide teachers/students with a sustainable theoretical foundation of the effective teach-
ing/learning method, with elaborated practical recommendations, which will enhance the quality of training. 
Hence, we move to the discussion and presenting the main part of our research. 
Discussion 
In the paradigm of competence approach to teaching ESP it is necessary to prepare students for per-
forming future professional activity with the help of acquired skills, including writing ones, which future 
specialists will use both within their own country and abroad. An important skill is the one connected with 
handling employment procedure, when would-be employees will have to fill in application forms, compose 
cover letters and compile resumes in the first part of their job search activity. Teaching students with the 
purpose of acquiring such skills requires also providing them with the knowledge of socio-cultural peculiari-
ties of application procedure, because in the majority of post-Soviet countries, including Ukraine, abovemen-
tioned employment documents are still rarely used by companies. Hence, it is necessary to teach students not 
only writing employment documents, but also take into account socio-cultural context of using such docu-
ments in real situations, whether in Ukrainian or Western companies [6]. Also teaching process should re-
flect recent and most effective methods and technologies, which can provide up-to-date organization of class 
activities aimed at developing writing skills. Having undertaken a special research [7], we proved that inter-
active teaching can be an appropriate way for forming communicative competence, a part of which is devel-
oping writing skills with learning socio-cultural peculiarities of business discourse. Therefore we will further 
describe the main features of employment documents with the overview of writing process and consider 
some interactive techniques, which we recommend using in order to enhance writing activity of students. 
First of all we would like to consider such a document as a resume, which is known to be widely used 
by different companies in the recruitment process. A resume is a brief account of one’s educational and pro-
fessional experience and qualifications, neatly written and submitted to the chosen company’s human re-
source department. There are different types of resume: chronological, functional, combination. Each com-
pany may put forward its own requirements as to the content, structure and layout of this document, but in 
general it has some common features and sections. The most important information, in our opinion, is the 
information about the applicant, namely, his/her first and last names, address, and also a profile, which is a 
short statement about what the applicant’s objectives are. In other words, the writer must say what he/she is 
looking for, using positive language, for example,  «A dynamic Competitive Intelligence (CI) professional 
seeking challenges in sales and marketing». The profile may be written in italics or it is possible to put a box 
around it. Some companies want the applicant’s photo to be put in the either corner of a one-page resume. 
The remaining parts of the resume contain information about the applicant’s education and qualifications 
gained at different courses (starting with the most recent dates), work experience (if any) with the indication 
of the company’s name, performed duties (responsibilities), and also there must be a list of relevant for the 
applied position competencies the applicant has acquired. When writing their resume, students as future ap-

Yu.O.Semenchuk 
52 
Вестник Карагандинского университета 
plicants should include any volunteer or unpaid activities because this information can characterize them as 
responsible and reliable persons ready to help others. It is worth mentioning that job hunters need resumes 
with so called ‘action’ words: participated in, assisted, filed, sold, promoted, etc. An example of accom-
plishments list may be as follows: Increased company revenue by 30% through a new marketing plan; Se-
cured $2 million in capital funding; Directed $500 million purchase of a natural gas company; Created in-
telligence systems to monitor competitors; Increased energy sales by $1 million through weather analysis. 
Mentioning computer skills (Microsoft Office — Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint; Microsoft Project 
98; HTML, Website Creation, Internet Search Engines and Directory Listings) is favorable for the job seek-
er. Also it is necessary to be precise and short when writing about such competencies, as team player, com-
municator, etc. For example, it is not enough to say/write that the applicant is good at languages. Instead, the 
job seeker must specify his/her mother tongue and assess his/her level in understanding, speaking, and writ-
ing in the indicated foreign language according to the descriptions of Common European Framework of Ref-
erence for Languages. Giving references in the resume is optional.  
Furthermore, job application procedure requires writing a cover letter, which is usually attached to the 
resume. As S. Ober defines it, a job application letter (a cover letter) is a «sales letter» [8; 264] and its writer 
should apply the following approaches when writing:  
  Selecting a central selling theme;  
  Gaining the reader’s attention;  
  Creating interest and building desire;  
  Motivating action.  
When learning how to write a cover letter, the students must know that it is necessary to follow the re-
quirements common for writing any business letter. Typically a cover letter contains information about the 
addressee and the date, greeting, three or four paragraphs, formal ending, and signing off. Such a letter must 
be clear and concise, correct and courteous to create a positive and favorable impression. In the body of the 
letter it is necessary to include information which does not repeat the one in the resume. It can be a reference 
to the advertisement where the applicant learned about the vacancy, details of relevant education and/or pre-
vious job, a willingness to attend for a job interview. The job seeker may highlight his/her skills and experi-
ence that can contribute to the company. All in all the writer must emphasize his/her suitability for the post 
in question, express his/her enthusiasm to work for the company. It is necessary to concentrate on positive 
aspects of the job, underline the potential for promotion if the candidate is employed.  
So we have mentioned some peculiarities of job search documents, samples or templates of which can 
be easily found on the Internet. Keeping that information in mind, it will be possible to elaborate effective 
tasks/exercises to teach students how to prepare such pieces of writing so that they can receive an invitation 
for the job interview from the prospective employer. In our opinion, based on numerous research works, 
elaborated exercises must be done in interactive format of class activity, because applying interactive means 
of teaching can motivate students to write, provide them with necessary knowledge and assistance to acquire 
the writing skills. That is why now we want to dwell on applying interactive approach to teaching students 
writing employment documents. 
The importance of using interactive activity, which can take different forms in the classroom, has been 
long proved by various researchers (H.G. Widdowson, N. Brieger, M. Ellis, Ch. Johnson, J.M. Dobson, 
J. Comfort, D. Nunan and others). They emphasize the effectiveness of cooperative learning, which implies 
full participation of both teacher and student and the interaction of student with student with the purpose of 
planning classroom and independent activities, organizing vocabulary, drawing lexical charts, doing other 
tasks (for example, preparing a project). Interactive learning also implies small-group activity, large group 
instruction, interacting in pairs, while the teacher becomes an advisor, guide, helper, supporter, and partner in 
cooperative venture. According to M. Williams and R. Burden [9; 59], learners in the language classroom 
can be treated as partners by involving them in decisions about what activities to carry out, asking them what 
topics they are interested in or allowing them to select books to read. Such an approach to teacher-student 
relations can ensure mutual respect and responsibility for the results of studying, provide information for dis-
cussions and writing different texts, which all together promote interaction as a powerful means of forming 
communicative competence and successful language learning. Interaction in the classroom can be stimulated 
if the teacher creates a friendly and business-like atmosphere, in which students feel free to communicate 
using their knowledge and demonstrating acquired skills and thus learn writing in the process of meaningful 
and appropriate to the context communication, which corresponds with the requirements of communicative 
and student-oriented approach to foreign language teaching. So we can deduce that the process of mastering 

Teaching students writing… 
Серия «Педагогика». № 3(79)/2015 
53 
basics of written business communication in the ESP course by the students must be organized in interactive 
forms of work with sample documents, authentic texts for reading and/or listening in order to learn the struc-
ture of business letters, style of writing, special terminology. Also students in  interactive activity will ex-
pand the knowledge of socio-cultural context of business contacts and learn how to apply this knowledge in 
modelling situations of business communication. The use of interactive teaching methods in the classroom 
and individual work will allow students to solve business problems, develop their creative abilities in the 
process of doing professionally oriented tasks and learn cross-cultural communication standards of writing 
documentation [10]. 
The purpose of interactive teaching, as A. Obskov states, is creating by the teacher certain conditions, in 
which learners can themselves «open, acquire and construct knowledge» [11; 121]. Using interactive teach-
ing methods also stimulates all-round development of students, which implies forming one’s own point of 
view and expressing it in the classroom, supporting one’s opinion with arguments, analyzing received infor-
mation, using creative approach to the learning material [12; 195]. Researchers single out plenty of activities 
aimed at developing writing skills: (a) work in pairs or small groups of three or four students when organiz-
ing presentations and disputes; (b) professionally oriented role plays and case studies while analyzing busi-
ness documentation and preparing these documents for further use (for example, during the job interview). 
No doubt, all these activities proved to be useful and must be practiced in the classroom as they promote 
communication, which in its turn enhances learning vocabulary of business writing, structure and style of 
business correspondence, socio-cultural peculiarities of the items, which are different for non-native speakers 
of English. Such an approach to interactive teaching/learning pays a considerable attention to developing 
communication, to acquiring knowledge about language elements, to carrying out communicative functions 
in a written form (for example, asking for an interview and/or rejecting the offer, agreeing to accept the posi-
tion and/or denying some information, and the like). Participating in a meaningful communication, students 
choose activities they best satisfy their needs as communicators in different social and professional (or, ra-
ther, quasi-professional) roles. Pointing out interactive forms of activity as the most efficient in the process 
of teaching/learning a foreign language, including mastering vocabulary and professional terminology, we 
can provide students with a powerful means and techniques to form their communicative competence. That 
is why it is necessary to prepare various tasks for developing writing skills in the interactive format of class-
room and individual activities.  
As it has been noticed by many researchers, writing allows to present a product of this activity, a piece 
of text, which serves a criterion of the quality of learning, shows the degree of competence in writing, and in 
the long run testifies the success of education. Writing as a process requires following certain steps: create 
ideas, organize them, write a rough draft and polish it by editing and making revisions. To create ideas prior 
to writing a resume, students need to read relevant materials about it, take notes and evaluate critically pecu-
liarities of the structure and style. Discussing each type of a resume, students interact in small groups of three 
or four students to express different views so then one speaker from each group presents the results to the 
whole group. In such a way all students will acquire basic knowledge about the types of resume and will in-
vent ideas how to write them. Also students will discuss the best way of organizing essential structural com-
ponents of the resume in one coherent text when they get acquainted with the samples and templates of the 
resume. Reading samples will enhance receptive skills while filling in blanks in the template will develop 
reproductive and productive skills. In the interactive activity of discussing, arguing, debating students will 
start working on revising and editing the final text, which may serve as a model for writing a resume which 
reflects actual information of each student. Also students are engaged in peer evaluation of the written re-
sume, which is interactive in its nature and fosters such skills as listening, responding, agreeing, denying, etc. 
Students receive feedback from their colleagues (which might be more effective than the feedback from the 
teacher) and learn in the activity that involves much speaking and listening. So in the described above mode 
of work students will demonstrate their skills in reading, speaking, listening and writing, providing one of the 
basic principles of interconnected teaching in all kinds of speech activity. Free samples of resumes can be 
retrieved, for example, from the web-page https://career.eng.ohio-state.edu/student/resume-templates.php 
and given to students for reading, analyzing, discussing, evaluating and further creating their own resumes.  
The same procedure like writing resumes can be applied when teaching students writing cover letters. 
First of all it is necessary to plan the letter, to make a list of items that must be incorporated in it. The letter 
should contain all points in a logical sequence, linking up sentences and paragraphs by means of ‘transi-
tions’, such as however, moreover, for this reason, therefore, etc., to provide unity and coherence. The first 
paragraph of the letter states the general purpose; middle paragraphs (body of the letter) provide information 

Yu.O.Semenchuk 
54 
Вестник Карагандинского университета 
the writer wants to find out (to clarify, to request, to order, etc.). The final paragraph rounds off the letter 
with a friendly (complimentary) closing line: We hope to hear from you soon; We are looking forward to 
your reply; Please contact us (me) if you would like further (more) information. It is advisable to use the 
American block system: begin every new paragraph at the left-hand margin with no indentation. Whichever 
style is used, the writer must be consistent and use that style throughout the letter. Accuracy is also important 
because careless spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes in a letter create a bad impression on the read-
er. All these points about the structure and style should be explained to the students and discussed with them 
when reading samples and analyzing each part of the letter. This activity can be conducted with the whole 
class while writing students’ personal letters can be done individually and in pairs so that each partner can 
evaluate the written product of each other (peer evaluation) and express his/her remarks aimed at improving 
the final text before submitting it to the teacher. Samples of cover letters for reading, analyzing and further 
writing can be retrieved, for example, from the web page http://www.career.vt.edu/JobSearchGuide/ 
CoverLetterSamples.html#Sample34.  
Conclusions 
Thus we have analyzed typical features of a resume and a cover letter that students are supposed to 
know in order to prepare such documents and present them to their desired employers in the process of their 
job search. In the cover letter and resume would-be applicants present a picture of themselves that highlights 
their abilities and accomplishments and quickly communicates that they have enough qualifications for a job  
interview. A cover letter serves as a sales letter for the applicant’s services, so it must be neat, clear, polite, 
purposeful, accurate, and technically correct not only to make a good impression on the reader, but persuade 
him/her that its writer is a proper person to be offered a job. Keeping this information in mind, students will 
in their interactive activity both in class and out of class acquire the knowledge of resume and cover letter 
peculiarities, obtain skills of writing these employment documents as it is required by the studying program. 
Also students will learn socio-cultural features of such documents, which will enable them to present their 
resumes and cover letters in a real job seeking process. So teachers of ESP should pay considerable attention 
to the problem of developing students’ skills in writing employment documents, which will help future spe-
cialists to be knowledgeable and competitive on the labor market. This research does not embrace all the as-
pects of teaching students writing employment documents, so the perspective of our further research will 
tackle the problem of creating effective tasks aimed at polishing students’ writing abilities and preparing 
them for the second step in the job search process, namely for the job interview and post-interview activities.     
 
 
References 
1  Leki I. Academic Writing: exploring processes and strategies. — 2
nd
 Ed. — Cambridge: CUP, 2004. — 432 p. 
2  Oshima A., Hogue A. Introduction to Academic Writing. — 3
rd
 Ed. — N.Y.: Pearson Education, 2007. — 221 p. 
3  Zhetpisbayeva B.A., Beiysenbayeva B.A. Classroom activities for developing students writing skills // Karaganda University 
Herald. Pedagogic Series. — 2014. — № 4 (76). — P. 9–14. 
4  Benčič S. Theoretical and Practical Outlines for Writing Abstract in English // Karaganda University Herald. Pedagogic Se-
ries. — 2014. — 4 (76). — P. 38–41. 
5  Sysoev P.V. Abstract Writing Rules // Foreign Languages at School. — 2009. — № 4. — P. 81–83. 
6  Semenchuk Yu.O. The Development of Cross-Cultural Communication Skills during the Foreign Language Classes // Foreign 
Languages. — 2011. — № 3 (67). — P. 32–37. 
7  Semenchuk Yu.O. Forming English lexical competence with students of economic specialties by means of interactive teaching // 
Thesis for a PhD degree in Applied Linguistics. — Kyiv: KLNU, 2007. — 280 p. 
8  Ober S. Contemporary Business Communication. — 6
th
 Ed. — Boston: Houghton Miffin Co., 2006. — 644 p. 
9  Williams M., Burden R.L. Psychology for Language Teachers: a Social Constructivist Approach. — Cambridge: CUP, 1997. 
— 240 p. 
10  Semenchuk Yu.O. Using Interactive Technologies in Teaching Students English Economic Terminology // Foreign Lan-
guages. — 2010. — № 1. — P. 31–35. 
11  Obskov A.V. The Problem of Interactive Study of Teaching Foreign Language at Higher School // Tomsk State Pedagogical 
University Bulletin. — 2012. — № 11 (126). — P. 120–124. 
12  Aikenova R. The Role of Interactive Methods and Techniques of Teaching in Forming Computer Linguistic Competence // 
Omsk Scientific Herald. — 2010. — 1 (85). — P. 194–196. 
 
 

Teaching students writing… 
Серия «Педагогика». № 3(79)/2015 
55 
Ю.О.Семенчук 

жүктеу/скачать 3,79 Mb.

Достарыңызбен бөлісу: