Skills in English Level 3, Reading & Listening

Skills in English Reading Level 3 Course Book and Reading Resources Booklet The Garnet Education Skills in English series was highly commended in the Duke of Edinburgh English Speaking Union English Language Book Award in 2004. Do you have to read texts in English as part of your studies? Then you need Skills in English Reading. This course builds the skills that help you do reading research in English. At Level 3, you learn how to: * confirm precise meaning; * find the main point of an article; * understand negative prefixes; * recognise information; * find the main information in: an active sentence, a passive sentence, a complex sentence with participles; * a complex sentence with embedded that / which / who clauses; * look for evidence in a text; * understand internal definitions; * research on the Internet using search engines and indexes / FAQs; * use hyperlinks; * understand the writer's attitude; * make inferences about background knowledge; * and understand tables and figures. As well as preparing students for entry into English-medium study, the Skills in English Course is ideal for students who wish to improve their scores in skills-based examinations for university entry requirements, such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Rather than focusing on exam preparation, Skills in English teaches the necessary skills as part of a systematic programme of language development. Skills in English courses are also available in Listening, Speaking and Writing. See the Skills in English website at skillsinenglish.com for additional materials and help. Key Features * Reading texts a maximum of 700 words * Listening texts a maximum of 1,000 words * Speaking tasks between five and ten paragraphs, with short essay-type writing assignments * Test booklets containing theme tests, a revision test after five units, plus an end-of-course test * Teacher's Book containing full answer keys and methodology notes Accompanying Teacher's Book, Student Test Pack and Teacher Test Booklet also available.

Review: "The common-core knowledge in this series is the next big step for ELT to take in the 21st century." David Crystal "Extremely well-planned and constructed and very impressive." Duke of Edinburgh ESU English Language Award judges "At last a course that truly prepares students for IELTS by developing the necessary skills from the pre-intermediate level." Kevin Higgins, Professor of English, Asian University of Science and Technology, Thailand "Skills in English has formed the backbone of our 2008 Intensive English Course and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a skills-based course with an academic focus." Gabriel Roberts, University of Wales in Cardiff "I would thoroughly recommend this series to any centre running academic English courses." Tessa Moore, University of Nottingham "We have finally found a textbook which caters for international students at tertiary level." Sophia Michael, Intercollege, Cyprus "A very useful addition to the EAP tutor toolkit, which has received positive feedback from students too." Lezli Ataker, Nottingham Trent University "Attractively presented, with interesting topics and a number of language tasks which engage the students' interest and enhance the four language skills." Buckinghamshire Chilterns University "The topics are very interesting because they reflect today's world and what surrounds our students." Daniela Rizzuti, University of Calabria, Italy "Very appropriate for mixed-ability groups having different degrees of confidence in their English abilities." Aston University, UK "We are now using this series very successfully." Judith Sclare, EFL Unit, University of Glasgow "The single most useful tool you could buy, if you are going to invest in a resource for embedding ESOL into a mainstream Science or other study curriculum, or is you are resourcing a Language Support provision." Liverpool Community College "The topics and tasks are appropriate for all learners and the course is preparing them well for future university study." Helen Armstrong, University of Teesside "Garnet's Reading Level 3 book in their comprehensive four-level Skills in English course is for intermediate to upper-intermediate learners of English with a score of 5.0-5.5 on the IELTS or 500-527 on the TOEFL. Although it is not a strategy book, it drills the skills they test and raises learners' general level of language ability. Its teaching method is test-present-test, which intends first to sensitize learners by raising their awareness and then to present, produce and revise skills. Within the series of interrelated books, it revises and augments theme-related vocabulary as well as academic reading skills. The beginning of each unit emphasizes building up vocabulary. Previously introduced words printed in red are revised while new words printed in green are introduced in context. At the back of the book the lexis is grouped thematically and listed alphabetically. What kinds of reading skills are we talking about? These include finding the main point of an article, learning precise vocabulary, mastering negative prefixes, finding the main information in active and passive sentences, analyzing complex sentences containing relative clauses and/or participles, looking for evidence, understanding internal definitions, predicting, understanding the writer's attitude and making inferences. Its ten topics include education, daily life, work and business, science, the physical world, culture and civilization, labour-saving devices, arts and literature, sports and leisure, and nutrition and health. Each four-page unit is meant to be covered in two two-hour classes. Treating topics which learners can relate to helps motivate and activate them. For example, unit three provides a survey questionnaire containing 14 factors which people looking for a job take into consideration. After reading the relevant articles in the Resource Book, learners can interview their classmates who rank these factors, then evaluate and tabulate the results, and finally write a report or an article. Thus, utilizing exercises like this also helps transmit academic methods by learning by doing. The substantial Teacher's Book contains answer keys, supplementary information, tips, special language and culture notes especially geared for Arabic students. Notes for students of other cultures can be found on the website along with a downloadable test for each unit, a revision test after units 1-5, a final test after Unit 10, and vocabulary and grammar games. The high-quality pdfs, printable, adaptable and resizable, require access to broadband, but downloading them still takes a lot of time. Reading Resources containing one article per theme provides a considerable amount of input, which can be discussed or used to generate writing tasks. I like the boxes with the 'skills checks' which could be adapted for board work. They assume students have been exposed to the key points of the unit, but that they are not yet able to use them correctly. In addition, the authentic texts are brimming with the grammatical structures being handled, while the exercises focus on locating and manipulating them. Based on the assumption that some learners need to focus on certain skills more than others, the books in the series are published separately. Thus, teachers can focus on one skills at a time or combine segments of it. Cost-wise they are by no means more economical than traditional four-skills-in-one course books, but this one practices valuable reading skills needed to excel on tests or in academic life in a focused manner. Learners of English who are about to begin a course of studies using English on a tertiary level would find working through Reading Level 3 beneficial." Margret Rohmeder for the ETAS Journal 25/1, Winter 2007 "The series is called Skills in English and take students in four levels from Elementary to Advanced in the four skills, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Each of the four skills, at each level, can be either used as stand alone or in conjunction with the other skills books. This is a course made up of 3 parts, Reading, Writing and Speaking, and aims to 'build the skills' of the learner in each area, by working through a series of themes, such as Education, Daily Life, Work and Business, Science and Nature, Culture and Civilisation, Sports and Leisure. The themes that are dealt with are the same in all 3 skills and levels. Although I haven't yet used the books as a complete course, I can imagine doing so. Each book covers its particular skills in detail with plenty of room for practice and with a well-structured approach. I have found them very useful as a teaching resource, using them to focus on either a topic or a particular grammar point. In the Writing part of the course, for example, theme 3 deals with 'Hiring and Firing' and gives some good vocabulary for the topic, as well as introducing the area of flow charts. I have used this very successfully in numerous classes, with students producing a flow chart showing some process at their place of work, for example, the disciplinary process in their company. In short, this is quite a good book for the teacher to dip into, but you wouldn't be able to use it as a stand alone resource." Emma Gledhill-Schmitt for the ELTAF Newsletter, Spring 2007