Page 13 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

PREFACE xi
covers the present tense, then the present perfect tense, and then the past tense." Although the curriculum is organized in a particu- lar order, instruction on academic L2 writing and language has to include all its elements. For this reason, the material and teaching techniques discussed here can have a variety of logical organiza- tional structures, all of which could be more or less appropriate for a specific course or particular group of students in a particular con- text. It is a widely known fact that few ESL teachers follow the order of curriculum developed by someone else, and this book does not expect to be an exception.
This book is oriented for teachers of high intermediate and advanced ac- ademic ESL students. One of its fundamental assumptions is that learning to write academic text in a second language takes a lot of hard work, and that for L2 academic writers, the foundations of language must be in place be- fore they can begin to produce passable academic papers and assignments.
To this end, the teaching materials, teaching activities, and suggestions for teaching are based on a single objective: The quality of language teach- ing and student language learning must improve if non-native writers are to succeed in their academic careers.
ORGANIZATION OF THEVOLUME
The volume is divided into three Parts. Part I begins with chapter 1, which explains the importance of text in written academic discourse. It also pro- vides a detailed overviewof the essential ESL skills that every student must have to function in the academic milieu. Chapter 2 delves into the specific student writing tasks that all students must face—and deal with—in their studies in the disciplines. Chapter 3 presents the guidelines for a course curriculum that addresses the specifics of academic vocabulary, grammar, dealing with errors, teaching students to edit their text, and other funda- mental writing skills essential for students' academic survival.
The chapters in Part II plow into the nitty gritty of the classroom teaching of language. This section begins in chapter 4 with a core and expanded analysis of the English sentence structure to enable writers to construct rea- sonably complete sentences and edit their own text. The chapters on the es- sential sentence elements largely follow the order of the sentence. Essential academic nouns and the structure of the noun phrase are dealt with in chap- ter 5, followed by the place and types of pronouns in academic prose in chapter 6. Chapter 7 works with the teaching of a limited range of English verb tenses and the ever-important uses of the passive voice. Lexical types of foundational academic verbs and their textual functions are the focus of chapter 8. The construction of adjective and adverb phrases, as well as the essential adjective and adverb vocabulary, follow in chapter 9.
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