THE IMPORTANCE OF CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The international cooperation of researchers around the world is a pre-requisite for the development of science. English, the lingua franca of the 21st century, is a widely accepted tool for global communication of those involved in research. The present paper is meant to investigate into the kind of language these scientists, very often non-native speakers of English, need to cope with in the field they cultivate. Empirical facts indicate that what they need is not simply English for genereal purposes but English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which includes research article writing, participating in joint projects and giving conference presentations, just to mention but a few. The study claims that a genre-based approach may multiply the use of the outcome. In the corpus of 24 English conference presentations three levels of communication are identified and their role and relative weight are discussed. The conclusions include recommendations on what, how and when non-native speakers of English should be taught to become efficient presenters.