Gradual writing technique: Enhancing task-based ESP course

The emergence of advanced AI tools launched a new education era of “beautiful” AI-generated texts and effortless writing assignments. The trend of using AI tools for generating school assignments has undermined the value of student writing also in ESP lessons, although writing has been considered, together with speaking, a productive skill whose improvement ESL manuals require as an indicator of language skill development and assessment as defined by CEFR descriptors. In order to keep writing a tool of thinking and expressing human ideas while learning the technical terminology in ESP course, the traditional 1-page written home assignments were replaced by a series of short, 50-200 words long paragraphs that students developed directly during the ESP lessons. All these “micro-assignments” targeted architectural projects that the students were developing during the same semester, thus the outcome writing was a form of diary of student thinking process and served as preparation material for their final written assignment that was graded. As a result of this writing experiment, much lower number of students reported using AI tools for generating the short and topic-focused writings. This paper reports on employing this emergency /experimental writing technique in the course of technical English for architects FA BUT and summarizes the main factors leading to student centered writing component in ESP lessons.