Includes glossary and transcripts.

"English for Environmental Science is a skills-based course designed specifically for students of environmental science who are about to enter English-medium tertiary level studies. It provides carefully graded practice and progression in the key academic skills that all students need, such as listening to lectures and speaking in seminars. It also equips students with the specialist language they need to participate successfully within an environment science department. Extensive listening exercises come from environmental science lectures, and all reading texts are taken from the same field of study. There is also a focus throughout on the key environmental science vocabulary that students will need.

Listening: how to understand and take effective noted on the extended lectures, including how to follow the argument and identify the speaker's point of view.

Speaking: how to participate effectively in a variety of realistic situations, from seminars to presentations, including how to analyze complex sentences and identify such things as the writer's stance.

Writing: how to produce coherent and well -structured assignments, including such skills as paraphrasing and the use of appropriate academic phrases.

Vocabulary: a wide range of activities to develop students' knowledge and use of key vocabulary, both in the field of environmental science and of academic study in general.

Vocabulary and Skills banks: a reference resource to provide students with revision of the key words and phrases and skills presented in the unit.

Full transcripts of all listening exercises.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unit 1: WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE? (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Definition of environmental science
Aspects of environmental science

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Words from general English with a special meaning in environmental science
Prefixes and suffixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
preparing for a lecture
predicting lecture content from the introduction
understanding lecture organization
choosing an appropriate form of notes
making lecture notes

Speaking:
speaking from notes

Unit 2: WHAT DO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTISTS DO? (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
The role of environmental scientists
Careers in environmental science

VOCABULARY FOCUS
English-English dictionaries: headwords - definition - parts of speech - phonemes - stress markers - countable/uncountable - transitive/intransitive

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
using research questions to focus on relevant information in a text
using topic sentences to get an overview of the text

Writing:
writing topic sentences
summarizing a text

Unit 3: THE ATMOSPHERE (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Gaseous composition of the atmosphere
Effects of human activity on the atmosphere
Depletion of the ozone layer

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Stress patterns in multi-syllable words
Prefixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
Preparing for a lecture
Predicting lecture content
Making lecture notes
Using different information sources

Speaking:
Reporting research findings
Formulating questions

Unit 4: COMPUTERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
Digital mapping/GIS
Computers for research

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Computer jargon
Abbreviations and acronyms
Discourse and stance markers
Verb and noun suffixes

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
Identifying topic development within a paragraph
Using the internet effectively
Evaluating Internet search results

Writing:
Reporting research findings

Unit 5: ENERGY RESOURCES (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Non-renewable energy sources and their environmental impact
Renewable energy sources, e.g. solar, hydro, wind power

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Word sets: synonyms, antonyms, etc.
The language of trends
Common lecture language

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
Understanding "signpost language" in lectures
Using symbols and abbreviations in note-taking

Speaking:
Making effective contributions to a seminar

Unit 6: SOIL AS A RESOURCE (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
Composition of soil/different types of soil
Impact of intensive farming on soil

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Synonyms, replacement subjects, etc., for sentence-level paraphrasing

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
Locating key information in complex sentences

Writing:
Reporting findings from other sources: paraphrasing
Writing complex sentences

Unit 7: RECYCLING WASTE (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Recycling methods and processes
Advantages and disadvantages of recycling

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Compound nouns
Fixed phrases from public relations
Fixed phrases from academic English
Common lecture language

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
Understanding speaker emphasis

Speaking:
Asking for clarification
Responding to queries and requests for clarification

Unit 8: ECOSYSTEMS (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
The Earth's biosphere
Definition of ecosystem
How organisms interact within an ecosystem/food chains

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Synonyms
Nouns from verbs
Definitions
Common "direction" verbs in essay titles (discuss, analyze, evaluate, etc.)

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
Understanding dependent clauses with passives

Writing:
Paraphrasing
Expanding notes into complex sentences
Recognizing different essay types/structures: descriptive, analytical, comparison/evaluation, argument
Writing essay plans
Writing essays

Unit 9: PRESERVING BIODIVERSITY (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Impact of human activity on flora and fauna
Accelerated extinctions
Case study: lowland and mountain gorilla

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Fixed phrases from public relations
Fixed phrases from academic English

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
Using the Cornell note-taking system
Recognizing digressions in lectures

Speaking:
Making effective contributions to a seminar
Referring to other people's ideas in a seminar

Unit 10: POLLUTION (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
Environmental effects of modern transportation systems and power stations
Technological and legislative measures to reduce pollution

VOCABULARY FOCUS
"Neutral" and "marked" words
Fixed phrases from public relations and finance
Fixed phrases from academic English

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
Recognizing the writer's stance and level of confidence or tentativeness
Inferring implicit ideas

Writing:
Writing situation-problem-solution-evaluation essays
Using direct quotations
Compiling a bibliographic/reference list

Unit 11: AGRICULTURE (Listening + Speaking)

TOPICS
Environmental impacts of modern farming methods
GM foods
Organic farming

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Words/phrases used to link ideas (moreover, as a result, etc.)
Stress patterns in noun phrases and compounds
Fixed phrases from academic English
Words/phrases related to farming and environmental issues

SKILLS FOCUS

Listening:
Recognizing the speaker's stance
Writing up notes in full

Speaking:
Building an argument in a seminar
Agreeing/disagreeing

Unit 12: SUSTAINABILITY (Reading + Writing)

TOPICS
The concept of sustainability
Survey gathering quantitative data on attitudes to sustainable transport

VOCABULARY FOCUS
Verbs used to introduce ideas from other sources (X contends/suggests/asserts that ...)
Linking words/phrases conveying contrast (whereas), result (consequently), reasons (due to), etc.
Words for quantities (a significant minority)

SKILLS FOCUS

Reading:
Understanding how ideas in a text are linked

Writing:
Deciding whether to use direct quotation or paraphrase
Incorporating quotations
Writing research reports
Writing effective introductions and conclusions

Intended for students of environmental science who are about to enter English-medium tertiary level studies.