With a lecture on the state of British politics on Tuesday, this week it will be a good idea to keep an eye on the news. The BBC is a good starting point, but there are lots of publications that provide news, and you can find links to them all collected together on this useful British media website.
If you don't know anything about the current UK Government, it may be worth browsing the Who's Who guide either on the BBC or the Guardian.
Later in the week, you'll be reading about another piece of research conducted by Essex University staff. You can read different reports on the research - in increasingly academic style - via the Essex University website, Environmental Science and Technology news pages, and the journal article research was first published in.
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Classic PS Group Writing Task
On Friday the 29th of July, you will complete a group writing task as an EAP assignment. This is an opportunity for you to gain experience in working in a group to produce a piece of writing. You will be able to submit your group essay as part of your EAP Self-Study Portfolio.
EXTRA TEXT text: BIS (2011) “Putting students at the heart of higher education”. Available online at http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=420160&SubjectId=2 [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
The essay question is:
Is the University of Essex right to set its tuition fees at £9000 per year?
Each member of your group should read one or more of the following texts. You can decide together how you divide up the reading:
STUDENT A :
1. “From the Vice-Chancellor” and “Focus on Quality as fees set at £9,000”. Essex Quarterly. April 2011
2. “Vice Chancellor’s Update” Available online at https://www.essex.ac.uk/budget_prospects/vc_updates/240211.aspx [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
STUDENT B:
Vasagar, J. (2011) “Fees will put teenagers off applying for university, say 42% of vice chancellors” The Observer, 12 June. Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/12/fees-chancellors-poll-universities?INTCMP=SRCH [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
STUDENT C :
Paton, G. and Collins, N. (2011) "Ten universities could fail after £9,000 tuition fees” The Telegraph, 7 June Available online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8560874/Ten-universities-could-fail-after-9000-tuition-fees.html [Retrieved 11 July 2011]If you would like some extra listening practice, you can also watch a video of Professor Jules Pretty justifying the University's decision to set tutition fees at £9,000 here.
When you read your text(s), make clear notes that will be helpful to you when summarising content for your group. After you have all summarised your texts for each other, you will need to plan an answer in response to the question. You must then decide HOW you are going to write and edit your essay. You can also decide on what you think is a suitable word limit, but you can ask your tutor for some advice on this.
You should email your group text to your EAP tutor by 4pm on Friday the 29th of July. Good luck, and enjoy the task!
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.7
“Organising paragraphs”, Chapter 1.10 from Bailey
“Introductions and conclusions”, Chapter 1.11 from Bailey
Monday, 25 July 2011
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.6
“Nouns and the words they combine with” from Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.28-29
“Nouns and prepositions” from Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.38-39
Friday, 22 July 2011
PS Classic Recommended Reading : Week 2
Obviously, you're not expected to read all of these texts. You'll probably see enough of them in classes! If you want to do some further exploration, however, you could follow some of these links:
There are a couple of themes that will arise in week 2 that you may be interested in reading more about. Follow the links below for further exploration:
Architecture: a text from the BBC website written by the author of How to Read Buildings
Beowulf: The film, the poem itself, and a page on translations of the poem.
British History : from the BBC website
Science: Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" blog and, for listening practice, a BBC radio programme called "The Infinitive Monkey Cage"
Scott Thornbury: lots of articles on the English language and English language teaching on Scott's website
University fees: watch a video of an interview with Essex University's Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Jules Pretty talking about student fees
PS Classic Bibliography : Week 2
The bibliography for texts used in week 2's EAP materials is as follows:
BBC (2011) “University Funding : Q&A”. Available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11483638 [Retrieved 30 March 2011]
BIS (2011) “Putting students at the heart of higher education”. Available online at http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=420160&SubjectId=2 [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
The British Museum and BBC Radio 4 (2011). ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’. [Online]:http://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/holding_area/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx [Retrieved 14 June 2011]
Davidson Cragoe, C. (2008) How to Read Buildings : A Crash Course in Architecture. Herbert Press : London
Goldacre, B. (2008) Bad Science. London : Harper Collins
Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. (2006) Writing Academic English. 4th edn. White Plains, NY : Pearson Education
Paton, G. and Collins, N. (2011) “Ten universities could fail after £9,000 tuition fees” The Telegraph, 7 June Available online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8560874/Ten-universities-could-fail-after-9000-tuition-fees.html [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
Phillips, M. G., O’Neill, M. E. and Osmond, G. (2007) “Broadening Horizons in Sport History : Films, Photographs, and Monuments”. Journal of Sport History 34/2, p.278
Steed, A. and McColgan, A. (2009) “Is it fair that women should pay less for their car insurance than men?” The Observer, 9th August. Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/aug/09/women-care-insurance-men [Retrieved 7 July 2011]
Thornbury, S. (1998) “The Lexical Approach: A journey without maps?” Modern English Teacher, 7, 1998, pp. 7-13.
Vasagar, J. (2011) “Fees will put teenagers off applying for university, say 42% of vice chancellors” The Observer, 12 June. Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jun/12/fees-chancellors-poll-universities?INTCMP=SRCH [Retrieved 11 July 2011]
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.5
“What is special about academic English” from Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.10-11
“Comparing and contrasting” from Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.96-97
Units 25-7 of Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.58-63
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.4
“Reading: finding suitable sources”, Chapter 1.2A from Bailey
“Reading: developing critical approaches”, Chapter 1.2B from Bailey
You can also choose your own articles to read, and fill in a self-study reading worksheet for your chosen text.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.2
Units 2-9 from Academic Vocabulary in Use
“Academic vocabulary”, Chapter 3.2 from Bailey
Monday, 18 July 2011
Suggested Self-study Material to follow EAP 3.1
“What is special about academic English?” from Academic Vocabulary in Use, pp.10-11
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
The University of Essex : Related Reading
For information about the university:
Top Universities Website (proceed with caution!)
For more about Essex in general:
20 Reasons to Celebrate Essex from the Independent
PS Classic Recommended Reading : Week 1
During the Presessional Programme, you will be asked to read and study texts on a range of themes and topics. If you want to prepare for lessons by checking that you can understand these texts, you can look at classroom material in advance via this blog.
Also, if you find any of the topics particularly interesting, you can use this blog to follow links to further reading around the subject.
In week one, we'll be looking at the themes of Culture Shock, Independent Study, Exercise, and The University of Essex. Click on the themes themselves for texts to read and explore.
Also, if you find any of the topics particularly interesting, you can use this blog to follow links to further reading around the subject.
In week one, we'll be looking at the themes of Culture Shock, Independent Study, Exercise, and The University of Essex. Click on the themes themselves for texts to read and explore.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Culture Shock
Some suggested texts and websites on culture shock:
International Students and Culture Shock on the UKCISA website.
UK Life and Culture from the British Council site, which also features a video of an international student talking about his experiences of life in the UK.
International Students and Culture Shock on the UKCISA website.
UK Life and Culture from the British Council site, which also features a video of an international student talking about his experiences of life in the UK.
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