TEACHER TRAINING FILES

F20 - Module 3: EAP/ESP

Title: Skills all around

Author: Bowler, B & Harrison, R.

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ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES
Skills all
round
Bill Bowler and
Does this classroom exchange
sound familiar to you?
Richard Harrison
Teacher: Where’s your book, Ken?
round up the teaching of Student A: I forgot it.
Teacher: Then share with Tomas
language and learning skills. and remember to bring
your book next time.
Student A: OK.
W
hen embarking on a
course of study, students
need a variety of skills.
These range from basic
organisational skills, such as remembering
to bring books to class (as above), to
advanced language skills like reading
critically or planning a research paper.
This article aims to define ‘academic
skills’ and to suggest how we can
incorporate work on these skills into
relatively low-level ELT programmes.
What are
academic skills?
We all want our language students to be
as effective as they can possibly be. To
that end, we try to equip them with the
skills they will need for the particular
environment they will be entering –
whether it be a social, work or study
situation.
For students entering tertiary-level
institutions, this means that they will
need a range of ‘academic’ skills in
order to operate effectively on their
courses of study. These skills can be
divided into language skills (such as
reading and writing) on the one hand,
and study or learning skills (such as
note-taking and test-taking techniques)
on the other.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 49 March 2007 •
Who needs
academic skills?
Academic skills are relevant to both
students studying in their own language
as well as to those studying in a foreign
or second language. Most students are
poorly-equipped with study or learning
skills when entering higher education.
For example, they may not know how
to use a library effectively or how to
take good lecture notes. Most ‘muddle
through’ and pick up these skills along
the way.
Students operating in a foreign or
second language face a greater challenge.
They need to acquire a certain level of
proficiency in the language of
instruction in order to cope with the
linguistic demands of their courses –
listening to lectures, taking part in
discussions, submitting essays or reports,
reading textbooks, etc. These ‘non-
native’ students may, for example, be
able to comprehend reading texts of a
general nature reasonably well. However,
they are often not prepared for the range
of authentic, highly specialised texts
they may find on their course. In
addition, they are unlikely to possess all
the reading skills they will need to tackle
different text types appropriately.
Most students
are poorly-equipped
with study or learning
skills when entering
higher education
EAP (English for Academic
Purposes) courses traditionally deal with
these issues as they prepare students for
tertiary-level instruction in English.
Dudley-Evans and St John identify four
types of EAP situation worldwide:
1 EAP in an English-speaking country
(eg the UK, Australia)
2 EAP in ESL situations where
secondary education is in English
(some African and S E Asian states)
3 EAP situations in which certain
subjects are taught in English (eg
Middle Eastern countries)
4 EAP situations where subject courses
are taught in the national language
(eg Latin America) 
55
 Skills all

round
All of these scenarios can represent
challenges for students. The most
challenging is probably situation 3, where
non-native speakers of English make a
very sudden transition to studying at least
some subjects in English on entering
tertiary education. (Monolingual English
teachers can reflect on how daunting it
would be suddenly to study one of their
university subjects in, say, French.)
However, we cannot assume that it
is only non-native speakers who require
help with language proficiency.
Although native speakers are probably
able to chat easily with friends and write
reasonably fluently in their own
language, they may not be able to make
an oral presentation or write a research
paper in an academic style.
We cannot assume
that it is only non-
native speakers
who require help with
language proficiency
How to incorporate
academic skills
In the past, EAP work was thought to be
‘the icing on the cake’, something that
could be added once students reached a
high level of general language skills.
These days, however, there is a growing
realisation that teaching academic skills
can be introduced from elementary level
onwards, particularly where students need
to make a sudden transition to English-
medium education at tertiary level.
If we need to establish a tailor-made
academic skills syllabus, the most
effective way to do so is to ask ourselves
these questions:
● What language skills and sub-skills
do the students need to perform
effectively in this institution?
● Are there any ‘learning to learn’ study
skills that we need to teach alongside
language skills?
56 • Issue 49 March 2007 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
In answer to these questions, we might
draw up lists which could include these
sub-skills:
Language skills
Reading
● predicting content
● skimming, scanning, intensive and
extensive reading
● identifying main message – topic
sentences
● interpreting meaning from context
● recognising fact and speculation
● identifying purpose and audience
Writing
● capitalisation and punctuation
● linking ideas
● writing formal/informal letters and
emails
● explaining a graph/statistics
● summarising
● writing from notes/research
● discursive writing
● describing a place/process/person/
device
● correcting own work
We could draw up similar lists for
listening and speaking skills.
Study/learning skills
Vocabulary
● recording vocabulary
● using dictionaries
● deducing parts of speech / word
meanings
● avoiding repetition
● word building (prefixes and suffixes)
● synonyms, antonyms, homonyms
● dependent prepositions
● collocations
Research
● formulating efficient search plans
● crediting sources in essays and reports
● using indexes / search engines
● identifying reliable internet sites /
books
● consulting online encyclopedias
We could also break down other study/
learning skills such as organisational
skills (preparing for class, etc), note-
taking and test-taking techniques in a
similar way.
Academic skills in ELT
Let us look at a couple of practical
examples of how these academic skills
can be incorporated into ELT materials.
Task A
This is an example of a low-level research
activity to familarise students with the
content and layout of textbooks.
You will need to provide students
with copies of the front cover, imprint
page, contents page, back cover and
index from a suitable textbook.
TASK A
Look at the textbook pages you
have been given.
1 Match the pages with these parts
of a book:
a) index d) front cover
b) imprint page e) contents page
c) back cover
2 Use the information on the pages
to answer these questions:
a) What is the title of the book?
b) Who is the author?
c) When was it first published?
d) What is the book about?
e) On which page can you find
information on .....
f) How many chapters are there?
g) Which chapter is about ...........?
h) Who is the book for: students,
specialists or general readers?
3 Find a book you want to read.
Then answer these questions:
a) What is the title?
b) Who is the author?
c) When was the book first
published?
d) Why do you want to read this
book?
e) Will you read it all or just some
parts?
Now tell another student about the
book and why you want to read it.
Task B
This task (see page 57) shows how
training in the skill of word recognition
might progress. The answers are:
a) adjective, b) noun, c) adjective,
d) verb, e) adjective, f) adverb, g) noun.
This kind of exercise can be
followed by a discussion – perhaps
supported by a bilingual dictionary – in
which real words might be substituted
for the nonsense words in the text.
Possible answers here would be:
a) pleased/honoured/happy,
b) session/plenary/address/speech,
c) ecological/mathematical/agricultural,
etc, d) invited/asked, e) good,
f) warmly, g) sessions/workshops.
 Related activities might include
deducing the meaning of real words in
other reading texts, and the use of
synonyms to achieve elegant variation
in a written text.
TASK B
Look at the nonsense word sayon in
Dr Jane Gullis’s talk. Decide on the
part of speech each time: verb,
noun, adjective, adverb.
Before I go any further I would just
like to say that I am very a) sayoned
to be here giving the opening
b) sayon at this year’s confererence
on the importance of c) sayonical
studies in the modern world. When I
was d) sayoned to come, I said ‘yes’
at once. I have e) sayoning memories
of my last visit here in 2005. I was
welcomed very f) sayonly by everyone
then, and my g) sayons at that
conference were well received …
Academic skills training
Here are a few principles to bear in mind
when training students in academic skills.
1 Be realistic about students’
abilities.
Although students entering tertiary
education have probably had many years
of English language instruction in their
schools, this does not mean that their
language proficiency is adequate for
university study in English. Do not rely
on evidence of what the students have
covered (ie the formal content of their
school syllabus), but assess what they
are really capable of (by needs analysis,
diagnostic testing, etc) and plan the
programme of instruction accordingly.
2 Choose serious but not dry
topics.
Close subject-relation may give face
validity to an ELT academic skills course
but chemistry students, for example, may
not be thrilled to face yet more texts on
chemistry during English classes. There
is also a likelihood that the subject
content of ELT materials may not be
pitched appropriately for the students’
current level of knowledge – leading
either to a feeling of ‘tokenism’ if the
material is too simple or of bafflement if
it is too difficult. Texts on serious topics
which are of general interest, such as
work and stress, people and the
environment, technology and inventions,
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 49 March 2007 •
etc are better for an academic skills
course than an unremitting diet of
specialist subject content.
3 Make sure that practice is given
in all relevant sub-skills.
Traditional reading practice, for example,
too often consists of a single type of
activity and assumes one type of text.
Students are given tasks – true/false,
multiple choice, short answer, etc –
which focus either on comprehension of
the content of a text or on the
vocabulary it contains.
Total comprehension can, of course,
be a reasonable goal, but we should not
neglect other reading sub-skills such as
recognising opinion, predicting content
from title/subheadings or reading between
the lines. Readers should also be aware
that they do not need to tackle every
text in the same way. Some texts may
require rapid surface reading for gist.
Even at elementary level, students need
to be exposed to roughly-graded texts in
order to prepare them for the acceptance
of ‘fuzzy understanding’ of densely
written academic texts. Other texts, such
as directories or webpages, may need
scanning quickly for particular facts.
Teachers can also use reading texts
as tools to show how written texts are
constructed. We can focus on features
such as referential pronouns, linking
words and phrases or topic sentences in
paragraphs to help the reader to decipher
the meaning, and also to offer as models
to students for their own writing.
4 Fit the task to the student.
To practise research skills, for example,
we may ask students to get information
from internet sites. But it is important
to grade this task according to the level
of the students.
At a low level, students could be
directed to selected websites on, say,
wind power, and asked to identify which
sites are: a) a company website, b)
someone’s personal page, c) an
encyclopaedia entry. At a higher level,
students could be asked to search the
internet to find answers to a number of
topic-related questions and then use that
information to write a short summary.
Similarly, we can ask students to
respond to a textbook at a basic
‘preview’ level as shown in task A
above. We could ask higher-level
students to read and review a textbook
or make recommendations on its
usefulness for other students.
5 Let students know what is
going on.
It is important for students to know why
they are doing an activity and how it fits
into the overall picture. For example, if
they are asked to select headings for
paragraphs from a list, they should know
they are practising the reading skill of
skimming for gist. If they are completing
a gapped paragraph with cohesive
markers from a list, encourage them to
think about how paragraphs are put
together. This approach helps students
to raise their language awareness and
become reflective learners.

Teaching academic skills can be
challenging (especially when a sudden
switch to English-medium instruction is
involved) and programmes need to be
planned with care. Tasks should be
appropriate for the actual level of the
students, but texts need not always be
closely subject- or level-related. We
should maximise the time-effectiveness
of our academic skills programme by
prioritising skills and focusing on those
skills which are most useful and can be
easily taught. We should also aim to
raise student awareness of language and
foster independent learning. ETp
Dudley-Evans, T and St John, M J
Developments in English for Specific
Purposes CUP 1998
Richard Harrison has
been a teacher, teacher
trainer and ELT writer for
more than 30 years. He
has worked in several
Gulf countries, but is
presently based in
London. His publications
include Keep Writing,
English Please!, Upgrade:
a First Course in English
for Higher Studies and
most recently New
Headway Academic
Skills: Reading, Writing
and Study Skills, Level 1
(OUP).
rharri144@hotmail.com
Bill Bowler has been an
ELT teacher, teacher
trainer and materials
writer for several years.
He is currently involved
with several teacher
training and ELT
consultancy projects in
Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East.
bowminter@bowminter.jazztel.es
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