DEVELOPING FUTURE ENGINEERS’ GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE THROUGH A COGNITIVE APPROACH

Abstract

This article proposes a cognitive approach to developing future engineers’ grammatical competence in English within the pedagogical context of technical universities in Uzbekistan. It treats grammar as a resource for expressing technical meanings, organising professional knowledge, and communicating engineering decisions. The proposed methodology connects grammatical forms with the cognitive processes of noticing, categorisation, conceptualisation, and reflection. It incorporates contextualised language analysis, visual representations, guided discovery, and communicative tasks based on engineering situations. Learning activities focus on describing mechanisms, explaining processes, comparing technical alternatives, and expressing conditions and causal relationships. Particular attention is given to the relationship between students’ existing linguistic knowledge and the demands of English technical communication, including potential influences from Uzbek and Russian. The article outlines a teaching sequence that progresses from interpreting grammatical meaning to guided practice and independent use in professional discourse. Assessment combines grammatical accuracy, appropriateness of form–meaning choices, coherence, and successful completion of communicative tasks. As a methodological proposal, the article presents anticipated pedagogical benefits rather than findings from an implemented intervention. It provides a framework for classroom application and subsequent empirical evaluation, with the aim of connecting grammar instruction more closely to the communicative needs of future engineers.