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[gmjones]

Hi,

I'm teaching my third semester of academic English to university students in Germany. They are business/engineering students with no background of academic writing in English, which is what we have in common! I've scraped through two semesters with successful results, so I can't be doing all that bad and am starting to find my feet, but I wondered if anyone could recommend any good books on how to approach academic essay writing with the students. I have very little contact to my boss, which is a hazard of the country I work in. My courses last 15 weeks with a class per week of 3 hours. I am fine on subjects to base the writing on, just would like a more structureed approach. There was a series of books for TEL teachers called 'How to teach pronunciation/grammar/listening' etc, but not for academic English. If anyone had any suggestions I'd be very grateful! Thanks!

[Dedicated]

gmjones,

A useful book is " Academic Writing" by Stephen Bailey (Routledge)
ISBN 0-415-38420-6

This is a standard text for pre-sessional students and contains sections on the writing process (organising paragraphs; paraphrasing;planning essays; introductions/conclusions etc), then the elements of writing (cause and effect;comparison; discussion;referencing etc) and a grammar section.

It has a key at the back, so it can be used in the classroom or for self-study.

Another useful series is the New Headway Academic skills books (1,2 and 3)

Hope this helps.

[Glenski]

Might help to know what they are capable of right now, what the syllabus says the class goals are, and what you think they should be doing.

I'm teaching science students in writing courses in Japan, and their basic ability to write is so weak, we are going back to extremely basic lessons over a 4-course series!