Preparing a diploma in English: curriculum organization

The paper considers the problem of students’ academic literacy, which could be enhanced during the course of English for Academic Purpose (EAP) aimed at preparing students for writing and defending their Project Proposal (a shortened version of the graduation paper in Russian). Due to the specificity of the EAP course geared to simultaneous development of specific language skills for conducting research work and meta-language, research competences, a serious concern is consistent organization of the course contents. The expected outcome of the course is creating a research product that meets the official requirements for an academic paper, and developing students’ research competencies, critical thinking and creativity that are to be realized in the process of preparing their graduation thesis. The suggested stages of organizing the course contents may be useful in achieving the complexity of the course goals: designing the research, introducing students to the formalities and technicalities of writing a research paper, developing academic skills in the framework of the integrated approach. This diversity of tasks poses a number of challenges for the stakeholders of the educational process requiring certain techniques to overcome them.