Contemporary topics

Contemporary Topics 1 gives students practice in the skills they need for academic success. Intermediate students of English develop listening and note-taking skills as they listen and respond to twelve lectures from diverse disciplines, ranging from art to media studies to biology. The lectures are presented in an authentic style and represent a variety of rhetorical structures that mirror the lectures a student will encounter in an academic environment. Exercises focus on predicting, identifying key information and organizational patterns, and summarizing and reconstructing lectures from notes. To build academic listening skills, Contemporary Topics 1 helps students: * Learn academic vocabulary that will be useful in many future contexts * Become familiar with a variety of rhetorical structures and the discourse cues those structures evoke * Explore how to organize notes for different types of lectures * Build comprehension by listening to short, clear lectures while taking notes * Use the information from their notes to reconstruct the lecture * Evaluate which listening strategies and note-taking styles work best for each individual Contemporary Topics 2 is an intermediate-level book and audio program designed to help students develop the listening and note-taking skills they need to prepare for the TOEFL and to attend academic lectures in English. The program, which offers an accessible simulation of both test-taking and university-style lecture practice, was developed in response to classroom observations of the challenges students face in academic settings. Lecture topics were selected both because of their general appeal to students of varying backgrounds and interests, and because they reflect subjects typically covered in academic settings. Students are provided with a stimulating educational experience as they develop the academic skills they need to do university-level work in their own fields. Recognizing the multiple challenges that non-English speaking students face in an academic situation, Contemporary Topics 2 is designed to: * develop students' ability to focus on the main ideas of a lecture * provide students with a good foundation in note-taking skills * increase students' vocabulary * develop students' analytical skills * help students recognize how different types of lectures are organized * promote speaking ability through cooperative work * familiarize students with academic test taking.

Contemporary topic 1

CD 01
CD 02
Contemporary topic 2
CD 01
CD 02
CD 03

cd 2

Or See the MIRRORS box for 3 CDs

Books 1 wanted