General information about the course

[Terry Phillips]

Skills in English is a multi-level course for students who will need to
• study wholly or partly in English medium at some point in the future, i.e., presessional students and / or…
• attend lectures and seminars in English, do reading research in English or write and present academic papers in English

Skills in English assumes that students studying the course are at an institution in their own country and do not have wide access to English or English-medium materials in the local environment, except through their library and / or multimedia centre. Teachers using the course in an English medium environment should take this into account by giving the students more opportunity for independent learning: for example by encouraging them to do more reading around individual topics and by making more immediate application of the skills they are learning.

Skills in English is learning based. In other words, the course is constructed to provide multiple learning access points, to ensure that all students make progress, rather than a very few committed learners. There are activities for students with all kinds of preferred learning style – visual, aural, kinaesthetic or read / write – and with both types of psychological make up, inductive and deductive.

Skills in English is written to a syllabus specially designed for these target students, in terms of:
• themes – the ten broad themes, like Education, Science and Natural, Culture and Civilization, which underlie all human knowledge, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica
• topics – areas of common core knowledge, within each broad theme, which build into a framework of learning; in each case, students will come to a topic in Skills in English with some knowledge, so the new information builds on existing; in each case, teachers can refer students to the Internet for further information on a topic in the course, because if its common-core nature.
• vocabulary and grammar – core items that underlie spoken and written texts involved in presenting academic and technical information; all vocabulary items for learning in the course are validated against widely-accepted lists of frequently used words, including Waystage from the Council of Europe. the updated General Service list and Averil Coxhead’s Academic Word List.
• the receptive skills – real world skills which ensure that the listener / reader is ahead of the speaker / writer and can therefore interact successfully with the text in real time
• the productive skills – real world planning and organising skills to ensure that the speaker / writer can say what is required plus building block knowledge about the written and spoken language so that text is coherent, cohesive and comprehensible
• the grammar you need – research has shown that complexity in English lies principally in the complex noun phrase, plus clause joining and embedding, rather than in the verb phrase; students are taught systematically to recognize the underlying syntactic structure of an English sentence, to enable them to find the key elements when receiving language and to produce the key elements in the correct order when producing language.

Skills in English is based on the latest research into language and language learning. We now know a great deal about how the brain makes language, and the writers of the course spent a year on a literature search of available findings in the four skills and the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary. This research was taken into account when constructing the materials (see list of selected research sources at the end of this document). Although all the research is widely known, most of it, in the opinion of the writers, has not made it into global coursebooks yet. As a result, some teachers, even those with a great deal of experience in ELT, may be surprised by certain aspect of the course. (see Frequently Asked Questions). In every case, the writers had a clear reason, backed by research, for the contents and the approach, and this should be considered when the books are being evaluated. The writers would be delighted to explain the rationale behind anything which seems unusual.

Skills in English has an elementary entry point in terms of general English. This low-level starting point distinguishes Skills in English from competing courses, such as North Star, which cannot be used by students until they have reached an intermediate level in general English. The writers of Skills in English believe that even elementary level students can be taught the basic word-attack and text-attack skills needed by the target students. It is not necessary for them to spend several hundred hours on a global general English course, such as Headway, which is more concerned with grammar than study skills, before they enter a skills-based study course.

Skills in English has a clean, clear design that draws students into the content without the dense and off-putting design of some competing works, for example, Quest.

Skills in English is clearly skills-based, but there are underlying vocabulary and grammar syllabuses. In the course books, students are introduced systematically to key lexical sets. Students at Level 3 can gain further practice by using the related interactive Clarity CD-ROM. The necessary structural items for a particular type of text or activity are highlighted and practised.

Skills in English has a complete testing programme at all levels. There is a test for each theme of each skill, with an additional mid-level test and an end of level test. All the tests aim to assess performance as well as competence, using the most advanced methods of evaluation. Marks in most of the tests are given for remembering factual information from the theme as well as themes and vocabulary, which is in line with the aim of the course to teach transferable knowledge as well as transferable skills.

Skills in English is the only course on the market to meet three basic criteria:
• designed for pre-sessional students OR students with a need to acquire academic English
• low-level entry point;
• skills-based.

Skills in English is intended to provide the core program for a course although for some institutions, the course alone will be sufficient to meet their English language teaching needs. It will prevent the need to buy a large number of separate books, without picking and choosing from them in order to ensure that students cover the areas required. For the majority of institutions, the course will be supplemented by materials written within the institution and/or obtained occasionally from local media or the Internet.

Skills in English is not for English as a Second Language (ESL) students, i.e., those who have just arrived in an English-speaking country as immigrants and wish to assimilate to the local culture, as well as to learn the language. Therefore, it does not focus on topics that aim to teach citizenship of a foreign country, or the attitudes of a foreign culture.

Skills in English is not designed for one specific country and does not set out to support or promote one particular culture, or criticise any culture. However, the experience of the writers ensures that topics that are regarded as controversial or offensive in various cultures are not presented. The writers believe that if institutions wish to deal with controversial topics in the lecture room, they can find or produce their own additional material on these topics.

Skills in English is not designed for use by one specific institution. However, the nature of the course, and the approach taken by the publishers, means that a certain amount of customization can be carried out if a particular institution wishes to do so. The pedagogic staff from an institution can request particular modules for the course, or particular combinations of modules. For example, they can request only the listening module, or only the reading and writing modules. An institution can ask that certain themes be omitted from the edition supplied to them, and/or certain additional themes added. The amount of customisation possible obviously depends on the potential sales of the customized version. In addition, once the course is being taught, the publishers solicit feedback from the institution and new editions for a particular institution take into account that feedback.

[ashraf172]

Thank you for this valuable and fruitful information.

[Terry Phillips]

To be honest, I don't think we have given enough information about the background to Skills in English and this has sometimes resulted in people using the course in the wrong way and therefore not getting the results they should. Hopefully the information above and that in the FAQs will help to deal with this issue.

[emily nadeau]

At the institute where I work, we recently switched our curriculum to the Skills in English series. Unfortunately, I don't think it is the kind of book my students want. My students want communication. Skills in English is designed to help students understand English lectures at a university, right? It is for the academic environment, for those students who are planning to leave their home country and go to a university in an English-speaking country or to take the IELTS. Skills in English is not designed to help students communicate in English in every day life. Is this correct? If so, do you have any tips for turning the curriculum into a communication course?

[Terry Phillips]

You are absolutely right. Skills in English is NOT designed for general communication. There are so many courses on the market with those target students. Skills in English is entirely geared towards students going on to study at tertiary level in English medium, either in an English-speaking country or, increasingly, in their own countries.
There is no way to change most of the Listening and Speaking to accommodate General English students, as the requirement of interactional and transactional conversation are completely different from those of understanding and producing extended turns in formal English. BUT you should find that the skills taught in Reading and Writing are useful in many cases. If you send me a few details of your institute and the target students, I might be able to give more specific advice.
Why was Skills in English chosen?

[Terry Phillips]

Emily
I forgot to ask. Where are you using the course?

[emily nadeau]

Terry,

Thanks for replying to my post so quickly. I'm at Cambridge Institute in Khartoum, Sudan. I'm not sure why the skills in english curriculum was chosen, because I was not part of the decision-making process. I'm teaching Level 1, 2, and 3 right now and especially with Level 2 I'm feeling really frustrated. My students registered for a communication course and I am trying to teach communication, but like you suggested the listening material is not suited for communication and also not all the topics make for good discussions. The way I understand the course is that it is an ESP course, for the specific purpose of teaching students how to listen to a lecture at university, how to take notes, and how to participate in a classroom-type discussion. I think it is a great book for students who are interested these types of skills, but not for students who want communication.

Anyway, I just spoke with my manager about this problem and he said that whoever sold Cambridge the curriculum said that it was a communication book.....so if you could help me out with some advice that would be great. Right now I feel sorry for my students who are a little bit bored with the listening and are also having trouble thinking of things to say about the different topics.

Thanks,
Emily

[Terry Phillips]

Just to get the terminology straight, I would say that Skills in English is an EAP course - English for Academic Purposes - rather than ESP which tends to mean a course which prepares students for English in the workplace.
One other very important point. We have found that teachers often have great difficulty coming to terms with the course until they have been inducted in to research and approach which lies behind it. We are in the process of arranging such an induction course for your institute which should take place in the next few weeks.
Some possible solutions to your problem:
1. Check what the students mean by communication. How do they really want to use their English? The point here is that for too long we have taught ENOP - English for No Obvious Purpose. Every time we speak or understand spoken language, read or understand written text, communication has taken place, so Skills in English IS a communication course. You were not mis-sold on that. Perhaps we should have gone further, though, in finding out what kind of communication the students at your institute want. Many students DO now want to learn English for tertiary study in English medium and it may just be that your students have this desire AS WELL AS a wish to learn interactional and transactional language of every day life. If so, you can emphasise how well (if you agree!) Skills in English does this, and find another way to bring the interactional and transactional language into the classroom.
2. Choose the themes which will appeal to your students. Skills in English has a modular structure, which means that you can omit whole themes and not damage the integrity of the course. Just make sure you cover the omitted Skills Checks with other material or when these skills are recycled in later themes. I can give you more ideas about this if you wish.
3. Use the listening texts as input information for discussions. Many users of Skills in English say they get more speaking (of the interactional kind) out of the Listening modules than out of the Speaking. So, don't spend a long time teaching all the listening skills, just use the material to inform the students about a new topic then set up a discussion. The topics were carefully chosen to appeal to the age group so I don't think you will have any problem getting students interested in the TOPIC. They are probably getting bored by the PROCESS because, as you say, they don't see it as useful to them. You could even give some of the information from the listening texts as reading texts.
Let me know what you think of these ideas and I'll try to think of some more!

[emily nadeau]

Terry,

Thanks again for your help. When the students here register for an english class, they have to pick whether they want a general english or communication course. We explain to them that in the general english the focus is on grammar with reading, writing, listening, and a little bit of speaking (and here we are currently using Headway but might switch to Skills in the future). We say the communication is just listening and speaking and the focus is on developing listening skills and giving them loads of practice in speaking. Here in Sudan most of the students had enough reading and writing in their primary/secondary schools but never learned to speak very well, so this is what they want. They want to speak. I caught on to your suggestion about using the listening as informational material to lead into a discussion or presentation, and this is what I'm doing in my Level 3 class (and trying to do in Level 2). In Level 3, the listening was okay for discussion when the topic was more theoretical, like the theories of Piaget, Erikson, Mayo, Herzberg, but when we got into the science theme and listened to lectures about tornadoes and hurricanes, which were more factual, the discussion was a little more difficult. What I've been doing is making a sort of competition of "who can talk the longest?" and letting them time each other and count vocabulary that they hear each group use. All of this to get them to say as much as they can about the topic. Still, it is a little bit of struggle to get them to listen to a LONG lecture with a LOT of facts and not get bored. And sometimes when I ask them to discuss it (like the topic of hurricanes for example), they groan a bit. What I found in the past is that students get excited about a discussion if the topic has two-sides or if it allows them to add their personal opinions, which doesn't really work with a factual topic like hurricanes.

Also, for listening, the activities in the book are designed to teach skills for understanding a lecture. I should teach them how to take notes, how to pull out the main idea, how to understand the structure of a lecture and predict what is going to come next. Unfortunately, my students aren't interested in this because they finished university and most of them are working now.

Well, anyway, I'm working with it as best I can at the moment. I look forward to any training that may be available to us soon. Thanks again for the advice and information.

Emily

[Terry Phillips]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply in such detail. I'm sure your ideas will be useful for others in a similar situation.
It really seems that, in your case, you should:
1. skip themes that will NOT lead to discussion e.g. tornadoes
2. give some of the information from long lectures as written text - it has the same basic structure anyway, because it is formal spoken. You could break the lecture up and give some information to one group of students and they then have to transfer the information to another group.
3. perhaps give some information through a Socratic dialogue i.e. you tell the students that you have some information about e.g. a theory of child development and then they have to ask you questions to elicit the information