?
Graph Description as an Issue in L2 Academic English Writing
Young people’s interest in taking international exams, such as IELTS, results from student mobility and their willingness to appraise language abilities. In this case, irrespective of their professional domains, L2 learners are submitted to Academic Writing Task One that implies comprehending graphic information and processing it in written discourse. The gap between a host of graph description tests and an insignificant number of efficient teaching methods has provided a rationale for the current study. It focuses on graph description as a cognitive, psychological and educational process and employs the analysis method in the theoretical section. The data derived from scientific investigations have revealed the key pillars of successful written graph presentation: the combination of all four main skills, i.e. reading, listening, writing, and speaking; skills transfer; critical thinking and writing; the appropriate use of style; graphic literacy. Based on the action research design method, the study has quested for peculiar language problems detrimental to processing the graph description task. It is concluded that the “constant nudging” method, a skills transfer, the use of appropriate vocabulary for describing trends alongside academic functional phrases and grammar features, the analysis of mass media information with numeric data are solutions to graph description issues.