
The foreign language practice through writing an essay
The foreign language practice through writing an essay is extremely useful and necessary for study and work. Students of European and American schools, colleges and universities write essays every week and in all subjects. Essay is the main form of assignments by students. Although essays on jurisprudence, biology, and operational management differ, these differences are more related to the specific content of the discipline, while the basis of the essay remains common.
The essay as a genre appeared thanks to Michel de Montaigne, who lived in the 17th century. He had a large library of ancient Greek writers. The ancient Greek art and literature contains the idea of a balance of power and influence between the right choir and the left one, this is how theaters were built and
performances were given in them, philosophers were seated in meetings according to the same principle. And the same principle was later implemented in Christian church buildings, where there is a right and left kliros. In fact, the Greeks were great intuitive observers, and they saw this symmetry and balance in nature. Anyway, the principle of balance has been realized in the essay genre, from Montaigne to the present day.
When you practice language through an essay, please note that in any essay there is always an introduction and conclusion, the main body paragraphs are broken so that one idea takes one paragraph. There are at least 4 paragraphs in the basic essay, we mentioned the first and last, that are the introduction and conclusion. The two paragraphs of the main part are written in such a way as to show the described phenomenon on the one hand, and then on the other. Or you can show the advantages in one paragraph and the disadvantages in another, the opinion of some people in one paragraph and other people in another, the cause of the problem in one paragraph and the solution in another.
In addition, each paragraph is written according to the same idea of balance. You first give a general description, then show the details, and then summarize with an example or explanation. The practice of the language in an essay allows you to master the logical schemes for constructing a text.
Many English and British writers have made it as essayists. These include Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Robert Burton and many others. The essay as a genre developed from a confession to friends and readers to philosophical reflections and travel notes, enriched with new means of expression, techniques, but the essence remained unchanged - an essay is a short, sincere personal discussion about a personally and socially significant phenomenon. That is why the essay is convenient for everyone: lawyers, politicians, biologists, or psychologists.
Language practice with an essay is a complex and multifaceted process. When you practice a language, you can start with a school-level essay on topics that are included in the international standards for knowledge of foreign languages. These topics are: study, disciplines and projects, hobbies, free time, holidays and food, seasons, friends, family, pets, plants and animals, ecology, future profession, sports, health, weather, climate, cities, countries, villages, history and great personalities, as well as topics derived from them.
After you have practiced the language enough with school topics, you can move on to a more difficult level and a larger essay. For example, to pass IELTS, you need to master about 70 topics, which are basically the same as those indicated above, but deployed with a more mature and adult argumentation. Next, you deal with essays written by students and professionals who have already chosen a career path and write essays on more specific topics. For example, biologists write essays about the 16 biomes of the earth, and lawyers write essays on human rights.
Why is it important to practice language with an essay? Because when reading ready-made essays, you can see at a glance all the used synonyms and grammatical forms on the topic. Further, practicing language with an essay, you master not only the vocabulary on the topic, but also the logic behind the applying grammar, as well you learn the very basic scheme of thoughts layout that is used by everyone who studied, works and uses the language.
It must be said that the essay as a genre developed not only in the UK. Italian, French, and in general, European and American essays are excellent. The need to express the soul in a certain order is inherent in people in the West. In Russian, the essay is much less common, in classical literature it is represented, for example, by Alexander Radishchev's Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow and Wilhelm Küchelbecker's Diary. But these works do not have the same clear structure as the English essays, nor the idea of balance, when the phenomenon is weighed from one side and the other. The works in Russian are more politicized and less balanced, we can say that they are darker.
Thus, the language practice by essay will open up a whole world for you. Essays are short works, relatives of an oral monologue, which will be useful to you for networking, presentations giving, reports, conversations with acquaintances and friends.
Working out the topic with the help of an essay, you read, write, speak, listen to a semantic piece that you can apply then universally for any occasion. The topics for the IELTS essay, monologue and dialogue with the examiner are really the same, and it makes it easier to prepare for the exam by practicing the language with the essay.
On our website, we post essays of different levels and topics with line-by-line translation and reading aloud so that you can train all language skills at once. You can write your essay and send it to a tutor for review. Also, on the basis of the essay, a lesson with a tutor can be built. We are happy to help.