 |
 |
Michelle asked about resources on Academic English (particularly for Home Students). I hope you don't mind me starting off with a plug for my own stuff, but I do have two sites up in this area .. http://www.academicenglishgenerator.com is a pretty easy set of examples, definitions and exercises on basic academic English .. http://tinyurl.com/6xy9hy is a thrice-weekly podcast focusing on a particular academic word (last week's words were 'acknowledge' 'viable' and 'credible') together with tasks and vocab for online interviews with a wide range of academics (last week had an ecologist talking about climate change and biodiversity, an energy expert talking about nuclear energy and a historian talking about the history and nutritional value of chocolate). The podcast is NZ based, so I throw in a local cultural question and pics .. the featured academics tend to be a mixed bag .. two of last week's had British accents) .. I email a reminder of each podcast, together with some of the content to all of the international students in the campus (over 1000). It's hard to tell how much they get used by the students .. more research needed! I've entitled the podcast 'International Students NZ' .. though, as Michelle pointed out, quite a few of the domestic students (many of whom haven't actually grown up in NZ) could do with a supercharge on their EAP .. By the way, I'm also in the process of making a set of exercises on business law vocabulary on the quizlet.com site .. that's another area were domestic students also have problems .. The first (seventeen-page) chapter of the textbook for this first-year compulsory paper includes all of the following words: Refrain from Disseminate Distinguish Discriminate Validity Arbitrary Delegated Statutory Judicial precedent Compliance Conform Canvassed Decriminalization In accord with Constraints Derived Incidence Legal liability Adherents Unethically Disclose Fiduciary Presumption Adjudication Jurisdiction Prescribing Vigilance Flora and fauna Seizure Undergo Nomenclature Underpin Lay reader Tyro solecisms It's pretty difficult for the students to separate the wheat (ie words they actually need to learn for the subject) from the chaff (bamboozling words such as solecism and tyro, which are just thrown in there!) They are just overwhelmed! What's nice about the quizlet site is the variety of tasks on the same set of vocabulary .. so hopefully, separating out some of the key vocabulary and letting students work through the games will help them with what is a difficult paper anyway .. hey, I'm only in academic support .. I'm the butler here, not the lord of the manor! Anyway, if you want to have a look at the quizlet site, I've used it so far to make up a set of kitchen actions (for a refugee student I teach as a home tutor) at: http://quizlet.com/_k9yw and a Belgian listener to my podcasts has turned my phrasal verbs and idioms exercises into quizlet sets at: http://quizlet.com/_lin0 and http://quizlet.com/_k7ee ... which is nice! Anyway, after that long plug, here are a few other recommended sources for academic English ... Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: http://uvt.ust.hk/about.html Hong Kong Polytechnic University: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eap/default.htm University of Hertfordshire: http://www.uefap.com/vocab/vocfram.htm Cheers from chilly Auckland, NZ, Martin McMorrow, Tertiary Learning Advisor, Massey University