WEEK 1 | EFAPP MODULE

COURSE OUTLINE FOR EFAPP

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses provide language instruction for academic
study in American universities. Language skills addressed include: listening comprehension, fluency
development, oral intelligibility, reading, grammar, writing, and vocabulary development. Academic
study skills addressed include: test taking and note taking skills, academic vocabulary usage, critical
reading and writing, comprehending academic lectures, research and library skills, formal
composition forms and development, including research papers.

UNIT 1.1 Fundamentals of Reading Academic Texts

A. Four Macro Skills in English Communication

When we learn a language, there are 4 macro skills that we need for success
communication, these are reading, writing, speaking and listening. We need to learn
these 4 skill in order for us to communicate with other people. We usually listen first,
then we will learn to speak, then we will learn how to read then write. Below this text, we
will elaborate what are these 4 macro skills of communication.

Listening

The first one in the 4 macro skills of communication. The process of using the sense of
hearing, in order for the person to know what is happening around him. There are 3
types of listening, the passive, active, and competitive. Passive listening happens when
a person listens to the speaker without any response at it. He/she will only listen to the
speaker without giving any feedbacks. Active listening happens when a person listens
to the speaker while also acknowledging the information given by the speaker. Active
listeners also give their brief or short response to the given information of the speaker.
Competitive listening happens when a person listens to the speaker in order for them to
give their own opinion to the speaker, he also promotes his/ her own ideas as if they are
arguing with each other. This kind of listening usually happens during a court hearing or
a debate between two parties.

Speaking

The second communication skill in language. The process of conveying a message to a

receiver verbally, or a process where the listener applies to him/herself the information
he/she have heard. Speaking can be a tool in order for an individual to express his/her
feelings towards what he heard. A listener applies all the information he received while
listening in order for him to communicate with other persons, or to share their feeling
and thought with each other. Communication will fail if the receiver didn't understand
what the sender is saying. Possible causes are; the sender don't know how to construct
sentence properly or the receiver can't decode the message given to him by the sender.

Reading

The third communication skill in language. It is the process of analyzing symbols for you
to understand the message conveyed by the sender. A person learns to read by
memorizing the alphabets, analyzing the sounds per letter make and applying it in order
for him to decode the message given to him by the sender. Reading takes a lot of
practice in order for an individual to decode the message given by the sender. if the
scenario is like this, the receiver decodes the message successfully, but he/she didn't
understand what he/she is reading, communication will fail.

Writing
The last and probably the most complex skill in communication. Writing takes time and
practice for you to master the said skill. Writing can be practiced by knowing the strokes
of each letter in the alphabet. Writing is also a process in which a person can share his
thoughts and feelings through symbols. Writing can also be a tool to develop and
strengthen human connections and the society.
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EXERCISE 1: Table Diagram

Directions: Make a table diagram indicating the four macro skills with its definition and features.
Definitions must be your own words or understanding. You can write samples of your own as well.

LISTENING READING SPEAKING WRITING

Your own definition….

Your own sample….

B. Purposes of Reading
The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the page to what you already know. If you
don't know anything about a subject, then pouring words of text into your mind is like pouring
water into your hand.

1. Improving Comprehension.
Reading comprehension requires motivation, mental frameworks for holding ideas,
concentration and good study techniques. Here are some suggestions.

2. Develop a broad background.

Broaden your background knowledge by reading newspapers, magazines and books.
Become interested in world events.

3. Know the structure of paragraphs.

Good writers construct paragraphs that have a beginning, middle and end. Often, the
first sentence will give an overview that helps provide a framework for adding details.
Also, look for transitional words, phrases or paragraphs that change the topic.

4. Identify the type of reasoning.

Does the author use cause and effect reasoning, hypothesis, model building, induction
or deduction,systems thinking?

5. Anticipate and predict.

Really smart readers try to anticipate the author and predict future ideas and questions.
If you're right, this reinforces your understanding. If you're wrong, you make
adjustments quicker.
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6. Look for the method of organization.

Is the material organized chronologically, serially, logically, functionally, spatially or
hierarchical? See section 10 for more examples on organization.

7. Create motivation and interest.

Preview material, ask questions, discuss ideas with classmates. The stronger your
interest, the greater your comprehension.

8. Pay attention to supporting cues.

Study pictures, graphs and headings. Read the first and last paragraph in a chapter, or
the first sentence in each section.

9. Highlight, summarize and review.

Just reading a book once is not enough. To develop a deeper understanding, you have
to highlight, summarize and review important ideas.

10. Build a good vocabulary.

For most educated people, this is a lifetime project. The best way to improve your
vocabulary is to use a dictionary regularly. You might carry around a pocket dictionary
and use it to look up new words. Or, you can keep a list of words to look up at the end
of the day. Concentrate on roots, prefixes and endings.

11. Use a systematic reading technique like SQR3.

Develop a systematic reading style, like the SQR3 method and make adjustments to it,
depending on priorities and purpose. The SQR3 steps include Survey, Question, Read,
Recite and Review.

12. Monitor effectiveness.

Good readers monitor their attention, concentration and effectiveness. They quickly
recognize if they've missed an idea and backup to reread it.

EXERCISE 2: Read the gist

Directions: Look for any reading material, read it and try to find out the main gist of it. Write your
answers on the space provided.

Write your answer here….

___________________________________________________
Title
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C. Features of Academic Texts

1. Complexity: Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language.
Written language has longer words, it is lexically more dense and it has a more varied
vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases. Written texts
are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more
subordinate clauses and more passives.

2. Formality: Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means that in an

essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.

3. Precision: In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.

4. Objectivity: Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It therefore

has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader. This means that the main
emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments you
want to make, rather than you. For that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns
(and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs).

5. Explicitness: Academic writing is explicit about the relationships int he text.

Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader
how the various parts of the text are related. These connections can be made explicit by
the use of different signalling words.

6. Accuracy: Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words
with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics"
and "phonemics"; general English does not.

7. Hedging: In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make decisions
about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making.
Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways. A technique common in certain
kinds of academic writing is known by linguists as a ‘hedge’.

8. Organisation: Academic writing is well organised. It flows easily from one section to
the next in a logical fashion. A good place to start is the genre of your text. Once you
have decided on the genre, the structure is easily determined.

9. Planning: Academic writing is well planned. It usually takes place after research and
evaluation, according to a specific purpose and plan.

EXERCISE 3: Paste Me Here

Directions: Look for any academic writing and paste a sample text here. Describe what the text is all
about and which features of academic text involve in the material you pasted.

Paste here your sample Academic Text……

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Your answer here ……

EXERCISE 4: Reflection
Directions: Make a 2 minute video presentation about the importance of learning the English Macro
Skills as a student and as a Filipino citizen. Send your recorded video presentation to your subject
teacher through this email add: labradorK.spc1@gmail.com.

In making a video presentation follows this online video etiquettes:

1. Wear proper or any formal attire.

2. The video must not be limited less than 2 minutes and a maximum of 2:30 minutes only.
3. Look for any conducive and appropriate background in your recording presentation.
4. Avoid unnecessary background sounds while talking/recording.
5. Content of your video presentation matters than graphic facets.

Sources: https://sites.google.com/site/eappslessons/topics-in-eapp

End of Week 1 | EFAPP MODULE