Russell Stannard focuses on websites useful for students preparing to study at university.
I recently took on an EAP course at the University of Westminster, teaching Chinese students English in preparation for their courses in computer science. Among the many websites which deal with EAP, I found a few gems. My advice with nearly all the EAP material I have seen is that you need to edit and select. The material is often excellent but frequently there is too much to deal with in one lesson.
Focus on vocabulary
www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.html
There is an incredible amount of material on this site, which lists the most frequently used words in the different branches of academia. Every two lessons, I gave my students a selection of around 20 words from the list (the full list is several pages long and I am still working through it). I also recorded myself saying the words (using the sound recorder in my computer) and e-mailed the sound files to the students so that they could also hear the words. The students really appreciated getting the sound files, which did help them a lot with their pronunciation. They soon asked me to record the words again, leaving a bigger gap after each one so that they could repeat it when playing the file back. At the beginning of a lesson, I put the students into small groups and gave each group the words from the previous lesson on small pieces of paper in an envelope. The students had to take turns to take a word from the envelope and then explain its meaning to the others in the group, without actually saying the word itself. Whoever guessed the word, got to keep it. If no one guessed it, the word was put back in the envelope. If a student took a word from the envelope and didn’t know it, they returned it to the envelope and passed it on to the next student. This worked really well. The students got into the habit of learning the words I gave them, knowing that there would be an activity involving them at the beginning of the next lesson. I found it a good way to start the lesson as it got the students talking immediately, and any latecomers could simply be directed to join one of the groups. The ‘winner’ of the activity was the student with the most words.
Focus on reading
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/reading.html
I really like the article on reading strategies and reading skills on this site, though it is rather long. I copied and pasted it into two different Word documents, one containing the section on reading strategies, the other the section on reading skills. I then divided the class into two groups and gave each group a different worksheet:
First, the students in each group had to work together to decide what they thought was meant by the different skills or strategies on their worksheet and fill in the first column. This worked OK, but I had to encourage them a little and give them a few ideas as to what to write. However, my objective at this stage was simply to get them thinking about what the different skills and strategies might be. I then gave them the part of the article that was relevant to their group. They had to read it and fill in the second column. This worked much better; the students read the texts and filled in the tables, gathering lots of ideas about strategies and skills. Next, I put the students in pairs, one from each group. Each student had to tell their partner what they had read about and what they had learnt. I didn’t give them any worksheets to fill in, they just had to pass on orally the information they had gained. Finally, I brought the whole class together. I put a new table on the board (see right) and I got the students to tell me about the various skills and strategies. As they explained them, I filled in the table on the board. I then gave everyone a copy of the section of the article that they hadn’t received initially. As an activity, this was nothing spectacular in itself. However, now each time we read an article and do activities with it, I ask the students what skills the activity is trying to develop or what strategies we are practising. The students are much more tuned into why we are doing certain activities in class. They now realise there are specific reasons why I ask them to search for words, tell them what the text is about, talk about the picture first, etc. In this way, the activity has had a real impact.
Focus on writing
This site, from the University of Hertfordshire, is intended as a guide for students of EAP, but in reality there is lots of good material for teachers. It is very well organised, which makes it easy to find things which are relevant. I have made good use of the writing material, especially the section on organisation of academic essays.
Russell Stannard is a senior lecturer in ICT and course leader for MSc Multimedia at the University of Westminster, UK. He has an extensive publishing background in ELT and is currently working with Macmillan Hong Kong on a primary course called Standard English.
This article first appeared in English Teaching Professional, Issue 43, 2006
