2. Developing EAP reading materials for teaching and publication
Sam McCarter

3. Abstract
The talk will look at developing EAP reading materials for teaching and publication. The main elements covered will be: the criteria used for choosing reading materials for teaching purposes; what the considerations are for publishing reading materials for the materials writer; whether there is any conflict between both these purposes; and possible future developments for the delivery of EAP reading materials.

4. Choosing reading materials for teaching purposes

5. Meaning-focused Output
Reading should be related to other language
skills.
(Nation, I.S.P. (2009). Teaching ESL/ EFL
Reading and Writing. New York. Routledge.)

6. Growing class size, standardized tests, pressure from licensing boards to introduce a certain number of topics, and the speeded-up climate of the information age limit dialogue and the depth of presentation of academic material.
Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory Politics, and Practice. Abingdon New York: Routledge.

7. Essential elements Time relationships Problem and solution
Cause and effect
Classification
Comparison and contrast
Argumentation
Description- processes/ sequencing
Narrative
Instruction

8. Definition
Explanation
Exemplification
Generalization and specificity
Drawing conclusions
Rhetorical organization
(Jordan, R.R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

9. Time
Course design – test/ classroom vs. course/ course book
The types of questions
No questions
The topic
Teacher-centred materials
Student-centred materials
Unlike newspapers, academic texts do not present information for interest and entertainment; they aim to present information in a way that will advance the understanding of that topic, ...
(Alexander, O., Argent, S. & Spencer, J. (2008). EAP essentials: A teacher's guide to principles and practice. Reading: Garnet.)

10. Independent learning
Sources
Length
The level of the students and text complexity
Complexity – simplification of the text
Glossaries
Topics- (unlimited?) vs. organization (range finite?)

11. Vocabulary Wordlists- Basic 2000 words AWL
(Coxhead, A A new Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34 (2): 213–38.)
AKL
(Paquot, M Academic Vocabulary in Learner Writing: From Extraction to Analysis. London & New-York: Continuum.)
AWL tool

12. The skills that students need to navigate reading texts efficiently -prediction -skimming -scanning -distinguishing between: -factual and non-factual information -important and less important items -relevant and irrelevant information -explicit and implicit information -ideas examples and opinions

13. -drawing inferences and conclusions
-deducing unknown words
-understanding graphic presentation (data, diagrams, etc.)
-understanding text organisation and linguistic/ semantic aspects,
e.g. relationships between and within sentences (e.g. cohesion)
recognising discourse/ semantic markers and their function
(Jordan, R.R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

14. Other skills
Switching reading ‘gears’
Learning what not to read/ look at
Studying/ learning/ testing/ leisure
Noticing/ recognizing function/ language/
Nominalisation vs. denominalization
Activating schemata
Predicting organization
Surveying

15. ‘Teacher skills’
Not ‘killing students’ interest in reading by ‘doing a text to death’
Creating interest in the text/ reading
(text without comprehension questions)
Comprehension of structure etc vs. content
Lexical priming
Deciding what to focus on

16. Publishing reading materials for the materials writer

17. Planning
Recording
Permissions
-Electronic rights
Book extent
-Length of text/ questions/ unit/
Page size
Thinking in spreads
Visual components
Story board

18. Sources/ Limits
Readers
Cost
Changes to text
Skills
Refusals
Topic areas in
Subjects in academic world- STEM focus?
General vs. specific

19. Elements mentioned
Tests vs. course books
Student background
Level of students
Age of students
Prior knowledge/ learning styles

20. Editors
Future
Interest – student/ teacher
Vocabulary
Style/ register

21. Conflicts Necessary tension between: Writer vs. writer
Writer(s) vs. editor(s)
Writer(s) vs. readers

22. Space
Time
Cost
Interest
Generic vs. specific
Style

23. Future Digital and book Digital only Resistance to digital
Greater flexibility- writer, teacher and student
‘Switching on knowledge’
Payment vs. Royalties

24. Thank you!

25. References
Alexander, O., Argent, S. & Spencer, J. (2008). EAP essentials: A teacher's guide to principles and practice. Reading: Garnet.
Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory Politics, and Practice. Abingdon New York: Routledge.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new Academic Word List. TESOL Quarterly, 34 (2): 213–38.
Jordan, R.R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A guide and
resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I.S.P. (2009). Teaching ESL/ EFL Reading and Writing. New York. Routledge.
Nuttall, C. (2005). Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language (2nd Edition). Macmillan: Oxford.
Paquot, M. (2010). Academic Vocabulary in Learner Writing: From Extraction to Analysis. London & New-York: Continuum.

26. Thank you!