Reading technical books

The growing concern among ESL professionals on how to make their teaching relevant to the needs and interests of their students has resulted in a proliferation of English for Science and Technology (EST) courses and programs. Since the non-native student's greatest strength in this area is usually his ability to read technical material, most of the textbooks available focus on this, rather than speaking or writing skills (Weissberg and Buker 1978: 321). Anne Eisenberg's new book, however, is the kind than can effectively function as the backbone of an EST course by not only capitalizing on that reading ability but also providing a framework around which oral and written work can be structured as well. As the introduction points out, 'It is a step-by-step program that you can do by yourself, or in a classroom." The clarity and sequencing are such that the book practically teaches by itself; yet at the same time the creative teacher will find it well-suited for group instruction. Although intended for native speakers, the book is ideal for college-bound international students at advanced levels of ESL instruction for several reasons. The text's emphasis on skills rather than concepts is exactly what these students need. A definite learn-by-doing approach is reflected in the fact that the book consists primarily of exercises. The explanation sections are quite thorough and should help the students a great deal, but the text is really a workbook and therein lies its real usefulness, since it not only focuses on the skills but breaks them down into manageable steps so the students can learn practical strategies for attacking reading comprehension problems. These steps are ordered (within both chapter and book) in a manner that allows the students to move confidently from simple controlled exercises to passages taken from college textbooks. The passages used in the exercises are general enough to fit the needs of most EST students and cover a sufficient variety of topics to hold their interest.