The ESL Science Book

Introduction ,(p. v-vi)

The ESL SCIENCE Book is a reproducible ESL/EFL reading and discussion text for intermediate or higher level students. It offers a number of important design features that make both teaching and learning easy and enjoyable.

1) Contextualized learning: Each reading selection focuses on a single topic, and is followed by vocabulary and comprehension exercises that review and expand upon the theme of the reading.
2) Relevant content: Each unit examines a topic that is interesting and informative.
3) Lively journalistic style: Although the passages are written for English language learners, their style remains vivid and authentic.
4) Variety of exercises: The numerous exercises offer a range of integrated activities for each unit -- getting the main idea, basic comprehension, finding details, inferences, interpretation and extension of important concepts, vocabulary study, a word puzzle, and a cloze exercise.
5) Illustrations: There is a clear and evocative illustration at the beginning of each unit, which can be used for pre-reading exercises such as activating prior knowledge and vocabulary brainstorming, or as a basis for discussion.
6) Answer Key: The text includes a full answer key for every closed-ended question in every unit.
7) Reproducible Format: Purchase of an original copy of this text gives the purchaser explicit permission to reproduce pages at will.

This package can be used quite simply as it is presented in these pages. In fact, it was carefully planned to be effective in that way. However, resourceful teachers will most likely want to consider one or more of the following suggestions:

Pre-Activity: Instead of immediately beginning to read the passage, have students start with a discussion or game to encourage them to think about the theme of the unit. The picture or title at the beginning of the unit can be useful in this connection, so can newspaper or magazine illustrations or headlines, or current television or radio news items.

Order of Exercises: By all means, use all the activities provided for each unit, and allow sufficient time for these to be completed thoroughly (including time for small groups to discuss alternate answers and so on). But build in variety by changing the order in which the exercises are done, and by varying the designation of activities for in-class or at-home assignments.

Intensity of Work: Be sure to take full advantage of the wide range of different kinds of involvement that these materials offer. At one end of the continuum, for instance, the Interpretation questions can be used to inspire free, creative discussion of themes, values and general ideas. By contrast, at the other end of the continuum, the Word Power exercises provide an excellent foundation for practice in all the detailed and demanding but very important strategies for independent vocabulary development: not just careful contextual reading and word-part analysis, but also dictionary and thesaurus use. Resourceful attention to this kind of varied involvement with the materials will make teaching and learning more enjoyable and more effective, too.