Includes an access code to a comprehensive digital component, Digibook.

''Every student needs top class listening and speaking skills to succeed at an academic level. Skillful focuses on these two skills to give presentation, instant practice and complete immersion in those language skills. It offers students the opportunity to develop language skills by presenting them with ideas from today's world, while building critical thinking skills that are vital for academic success.

This is taken even further with a focus on study skills, providing students with practical guidance and support, and building confidence for independent learning throughout their university career.'' (Book Cover)

CONTENTS

U1 GATHERING

Listening texts: 1. Three meetings (Am. & Br. Eng.) -- 2. Getting from you and me, to we (Br. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Inferring a speaker’s attitude -- Applying a theory to other situations

Language development: Binomials -- Modal verbs and levels of directness

Pronunciation skill: Intonation and attitude

Speaking skill: Interrupting

Speaking task: Planning a study group

Digibook video activity: No man is an island

Study skills: Speaking in groups

U2 GAMES

Listening texts: 1. Video games: Lessons for life (Br. Eng.) -- 2. Game theory (Am. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Identifying key information in an argument -- Selecting information for notes and summaries

Language development: Prepositional verbs -- Phrasal verbs

Pronunciation skill: Identifying the linking /r/

Speaking skill: Agreeing and disagreeing – degrees of formality

Speaking task: Formulating a debate on banning violent electronic games

Digibook video activity: Reality TV: The harsh reality

Critical thinking skills: Why develop critical thinking skills? / Stella Cottrell

U3 NOSTALGIA

Listening texts: 1. How to deal with homesickness (Am. & Br. Eng.) -- 2. Memory and smell (Br. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Organizing qualitative data -- Representative samples

Language development: Approximation --- Particulizer and exclusive adverbs

Pronunciation skill: Juncture

Speaking skill: Identifying sources of information

Speaking task: Conducting a survey on memory

Digibook video activity: Retro-volution

Study skills: Listening to extended lectures

U4 RISK

Listening texts: 1. The world’s most dangerous jobs (Am. Eng.) -- 2. What is acceptable risk? (Am. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Using illustrative examples to support an argument -- Anticipating a conclusion based on reasons and evidence

Language development: Nominalization -- Possible, probable, and hypothetical future predictions

Pronunciation skill: Word stress in word families

Speaking skill: Managing conversation

Speaking task: Undertaking an informal risk assessment

Digibook video activity: Risky business

Critical thinking skills: Critical thinking: Knowledge, skills, and attitudes / Stella Cottrell

U5 SPRAWL

Listening texts: 1. Cars and cities (Am. Eng.) -- 2. Making cities more liveable (Br. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Recognizing logical order -- Evaluating against criteria

Language development: Connotation -- Academic verbs

Pronunciation skill: Contrastive stress

Speaking skill: Supporting proposals

Speaking task: Presenting a proposal of an action plan for an urban issue

Digibook video activity: The urban footprint

Study skills: Recording achievement

U6 LEGACY

Listening texts: 1. Family food legacies (Am. Eng.) -- 2. Technology legacies (Am. & Br. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Source validity -- Use of the passive in source citations

Language development: Inversion -- Collocations: way

Pronunciation skill: Pausing for dramatic emphasis

Speaking skill: Emphasizing important information – repetition and contrastive pairs

Speaking task: Making a speech about a person who has left a legacy

Digibook video activity: Tracing the family line

Critical thinking skills: The author’s position / Stella Cottrell

U7 EXPANSE

Listening texts: 1. The Tans-Siberian railway (Am. & Br. Eng.) -- 2. Why do people climb mountains? (Am. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Differentiating between fact and opinion -- Identifying statements that need justification

Language development: Attitude adverbials -- Abstract nouns

Pronunciation skill: Word stress: abstract nouns formed from adjectives

Speaking skill: Negotiating

Speaking task: Organizing a cultural program

Digibook video activity: Infinite boundaries

Study skills: Organizing your personal study online

U8 CHANGE

Listening texts: 1. Metamorphosis – the secrets behind nature’s amazing change (Am. Eng.) -- 2. A global tax on changing money? (Br. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Maximizing language -- Recognizing implicit assumptions

Language development: Expressing change -- Gradable adjectives

Pronunciation skill: Intonation and tonic prominence

Speaking skill: Adding points to an argument

Speaking task: Holding a debate about educational changes

Digibook video activity: Shock to the system

Critical thinking skills: Argument and disagreement / Stella Cottrell

U9 FLOW

Listening texts: 1. Not worth a dam (Br. Eng.) -- 2. The concept of flow (Am. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Identifying counter-arguments -- Visual aids and diagrams

Language development: Irregular plurals -- Words in context - Working with concordance data

Pronunciation skill: Intonation to express hesitation and doubt

Speaking skill: Softening criticism

Speaking task: Making an advertisement supported by visuals

Digibook video activity: Volcanic flow

Study skills: Exam techniques

U10 CONFLICT

Listening texts: 1. Conflict of interest (Br. Eng.) -- 2. “The Sporting Spirit” (Am. Eng.)

Critical thinking skills: Identifying strengths in theories and arguments -- Consistency

Language development: Hedging and boasting -- Using the correct linker

Pronunciation skill: Linking and catenation

Speaking skill: Managing conflict -- Reformulating and monitoring

Speaking task: Role-playing mini-conflict situations

Digibook video activity: The warrior gene

Critical thinking skills: Categorizing / Stella Cottrell