Contemporary World Issues: An Interactive Approach to Reading and Writing

Abstract

U The academic writing needs of limited English proficiency (LEP) students have been difficult to define and problematic to address (Spack, 1988). Instructive practices borrowed from nativespeaker classrooms do not automatically solve the problems of the ESL student. In most writing classes, earlier pattern-centered approaches, such as controlled composition or the teaching of rhetorical patterns, have given way to process-centered approaches that focus on the writer's cognitive processes and often emphasize self-generated topics. But is this enough? Students in academic settings need to go beyond their personal knowledge base. Finding the link between a learner's background knowledge and experience and the academic requirements of different disciplines has been a demanding challenge, especially for teachers of ESL. Choosing topics that are culturally accessible and sufficiently weighty for use with university students is likewise a daunting task, given that many LEP students specialize in subject areas (such as engineering or physics) containing arcane or specialized vocabularies. Fortunately, a new text, Contemporary World Issues, provides ESL teachers with a variety of readings and exercises that siuccessfully address these areas of pedagogical difficulty. Contemporary World Issues is a reading-based, integrated skills textbook for upper intermediate or advanced students of ESL who will be doing academic work in English. The 12 units, each of which can generate up to eight hours of class time, are organized in a fixed format based on a reading passage. The units are not graded, and can be completed in any order. Each thematic unit is based on authentic materials intended to appeal to language learners of many different backgrounds. Topics include the following: About the Computer, Hugs are Better than Drugs, Money for Guns and Money for Butter, and Refugees: A Fact of Life? Each unit begins with a Background section that incorporates a variety of imaginative and interactive activities designed to induce content schemata and to preview key concepts and vocabulary. This is followed by a Pre-Reading section: More traditional in its approach, it leads the student to focus on skimming, scanning, and predicting before encountering the text as a whole. The Reading section is subdivided so that the student reads for a purpose, later discussing or using information to complete a task, such as filling in a graph. A Vocabulary Study exercise is also included in the