Job Discussion Forums

[Brunouno]

Hello there,

Can anyone recommend any good EAP coursebooks with a strong focus on improving writing skills? They are for upper-intermediate Chinese students (16 year olds) who will all be studying in Western countries when they finish high school.

Thank you in advance.

[Tudor]

I quite like the 'Headway Academic Skills' series of books; there are Listening, Speaking & Study Skills ones and Reading, Writing & Study Skills ones across four levels so the highest level could be suitable for your students.

I like them as each unit is thematic and I find them far less 'dry' than other books I've encountered over the years.

[Brunouno]

Thank you very much. I'll check it out later today. Does anyone else have any recommendations?

[nomad soul]

[Brunouno]

They need an EAP book which focuses on writing to help prepare them for university study. Yes, they are well-rounded Chinese students, and they are going to have a general English and a vocabulary book also during the course so the other skills are not neglected.

[nomad soul]

[HLJHLJ]

It's going to depend on your context, but when I was doing EAP with teens, I didn't find any of the coursebooks particularly helpful. Instead, I worked with their class teachers and based it around writing they were doing for other classes. For example, if they were going to have to write an essay in history, geography, whatever, I worked with the teacher so I knew what was coming a week or two ahead. Then we started looking at examples, style and structure for that type of essay, followed by an essay plan, a draft and redraft, and then they submitted it to the class teacher.

It took a bit of organizing, but once it was up and running it worked really well. The students were more motivated because the writing had a purpose, and once the teachers saw how much better their writing was, which made it easier to grade, they were a lot more helpful.

[Brunouno]

[ntropy]

EVERGREEN is my favourite EAP Writing textbook, supplemented with materials/practice using whatever citation system (APA/MLA/etc) they will be expected to use.

[Brunouno]

Thank you. I'll check it out.

[ttxor1]

I've found First Steps in Academic Writing 2nd Edition from the Longman Academic Writing Series by Ann Hogue, published by Pearson Longman, useful.