Thursday 9 January 2020

Welcome to 2020 and to the second edition of Skillful

Summary (really an introduction)

I've just been reviewing the second edition of the Skillful series of books for academic English, and they are looking good. The first edition of MacMillan Education's series of books, published in 2013, was well designed to guide students competence in both listening and speaking, and reading and writing English in academic situations, such as at university, and the second edition builds on that solid base. 

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Response 

Although still under the overall supervision of Dorothy Zemach, the new edition of Skillful has new authors for the books in the series, and they have not merely made a few small changes: the material has been thoroughly revised, and I think greatly strengthened, so I'm looking forward to using it in my EAP classes at AUA. As an examination of the contents pages for each of the books in the series shows, each unit focusses on a topic to explore and practice listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The content pages also show that these skills are related to vocabulary and grammar acquisition in a well-planned progression. 

 As the description on the front covers, "The skills for success at university and beyond," tells us, these books aim to give students the language skills appropriate to university work. They are not, that is, preparation for an IELTS or other exam, but that said, they will provide a solid foundation in the skills that TOEFL and other exams test, but they go beyond narrow exam preparation to prepare you for work at university or other situations where the academic version  of English is used. 
Having had a chance to also play with them a little, the digital resources complement the books effectively, and include in addition to self-assessment material for students, all of the listening and video files that are used in the course. 
 
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Question

Are you ready for a challenging, and I hope enjoyable, learning experience? 
   
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