CARRIER CONTENT FOR SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING & MATHS (STEM)
EAP course designers educated within Arts & Humanities disciplines sometimes find it difficult to engage with STEM disciplines or to design materials that give a true picture of texts in those disciplines. The challenge is to use texts that are comprehensible to teachers with similar backgrounds but useful for STEM students. One of the key text functions for STEM is problem-solution as a form or argument – justifying the best solution to a problem. These materials look at a sociological issue in STEM within the framework of an academic article. Teachers and students are scaffolded through a long and quite complex article in stages. Students are encouraged to form their own views as they work through the text.
the displacement of workplace teaspoons
This paper was first published in a prestigious medical journal in 2005 and subsequently circulated on the web and reviewed in Private Eye – a satirical magazine – for the amusement of researchers everywhere. It provides a good example of a tightly focused piece of research which begins with a problem that is then described and measured. Because it is a spoof (i.e. joke) article, the topic of the article is trivial but easily understood, allowing us to concentrate on the research process, method and results in order to understand how these are communicated in this highly conventional format.
the evolution of academic style
Academic style is often characterised in contrast with speaking style: formal vs informal. This worksheet explores how and why academic writing style has changed since Isaac Newton first published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 80 (19 Feb. 1671/2), pp. 3075-3087
Getting started writing essays and reports
These online materials, formatted for use on a mobile phone, look at the basics of essay and report writing by analysing a successful essay and report in the context of the decisions the writers made to focus their topic, select relevant sources and use them effectively. They are publically available here https://rise.articulate.com/share/rG_bQo6f6LOqfXbxBeFNPK84Alv6KOfi
Teacher beliefs about teaching EAP
This questionnaire was developed to gather data for a paper (Alexander, 2012) looking at teacher beliefs about teaching low level EAP (CEFR A2). It can be a useful starting point for new EAP teachers to understand their underlying beliefs about teaching ELT.
Understanding the nature of reality
This worksheet was designed for use with low proficiency level students who nevertheless have a sophistocated understanding of research concepts in their discipline. It grounds explanations about the nature of reality through findamental research questions, key figures who challenged the view of reality in their field, and an example grounded in the students’ own experience.
EAP Essentials 