In the name of god
Reading and thinking in English discovering discourse
Prepared at oxford university press
Reviewer : marzieh eftekhari
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Authors:
Reading and thinking in English was developed in a project
sponsored jointly by the University of the Andes , Bogota
,Colombia and British Overseeas Development Ministry in
association with the British council
The director of the project was john Moore, of the british
council , and the members of the university who participated
in the writing of discovering discourse were Luisa Fernanda
de Knight , Teresa Munevar M AND DORA Bonnet de
Salgado
Discovering discourse was revised and extended for
publicationin in the depart of English as a foreign language
of the university of London institute of education by Moore,
with the assistance of Teresa Munevar from the university of
the Andes
Professor H.G Widdoson (of the university of London
Institute of Education ) is the associate Editore of Reading and
Thinking in English .
This book is written at 106 pages and this book have 6
chapters :
Reading and thinking in English is an integrated course in
reading comprehension for students of English as a foreign
language . it is based on the belief that a special kind of course
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is required for students of English whose main need is to gain
access to information through English .
The course has been designed for a wide range of learners
whose needs can be described as English for academic
purposes – advanced secondary school pupils preparing for
tertiary institution , adults whose profession requires them to
make use of material in English . it is therefore intended to
help students and others read textbooks, works of reference
and general academic interest , sourcebooks and journal in
English
The series consist of four books . concepts in use extends
students basic knnoledge of grammer and vocabulary and how
they are used to express fundamental concepts .
It also develops their awareness of how passages are built on
combination of these concepts .
Exploring functions deals with the use of concepts in the
communicative functions of academic writing .discovering
discourse develops , students awareness of how the devices of
language are used to express communicative function .
It also shows how passages are built on combination of simple
functions .
Discourse in action extends students knowledge of the
functional organization of written English and develops their
ability to handle information found in varied types of real
academic discourse .the series is designed so that the books in
. it can be used independently of the others in the series .
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Many intermediate or advanced learners may be able to begin
whit the thired or fourth books . the whole series , however,
provides a phased approach to the most challenging demands
of academic discourse .
The aim of this book is to develop students abilities to use
English in their studies .
One of the most important uses made of English is in reading
books and article s related to the subject or subjects which a
student is studying. In order to read efficiently in English the
students needs a knowledge of how the language is used in
academic writing includes
1 a knowledge of language itself , its grammatical structure
and vocabulary
2 a knowledge of how these features of language are
exploited in the presentation of information .
This book concentrate on the language used to organized
information in written passage . the title of each unit refers to
a particular method of organizing and presenting information
This organization is expressed by a certain number of
grammatical structures and a certain kined of vocabulary each
unit therefore , includes
1 reading comprehensiaon exersies to
help the student to obtain information
from a passage by following the writer
method of organization
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2 exercise to draw attention to the way grammer and
vocabulary are used in achieving this organization.
Both types of exercise are designed to develop reading
strategies which students will be able to apply to the passage
they may need to read as part of their studies . the course leads
students on to unsimplified passage so that they can practice
how to apply these reading strategies .
Reading ability is probably best developed not in isolation but
in association with the other communicative activities .
There are therefore opportunities for controlled writing in
each unit . the course , however , concentrates on reading for
academic purposes .
the course requires the active participation of the student . he
or she will have to practice regularly, think carefully and
critically and in general accept responsibility for his or her
own learning in this way , reading ability in English can be
developed in a meaningfull way , as part ot the whole
communicative process involved in studying
reading and thinking in English is a series of four books
forming a course in reading comprehension for students of
English as a foreign language . it prepare the student for the
specialist English met in textbooks , reports , journals etc.
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the subject matter is varied , so that the student becomes
accustomed to reading and thinking about specialized subject
matter, without being biased towards any one subject .
the complete series take the student from a basic level of
English to a level at which authentic ,unsimplified text can be
understood the course is graded but has been designed to
allow for entry at any stage the four books in the series are
concept in use (near beginner )
exploring functions (pre –intermediate )
discovering discourse (intermediate)
discourse in action (advanced)
discovering discourse is divided into six units . the first
introduces the strategies which are essential to the process of
reading . unit 2-6 then deal whit certain communicative
functions which are common in academic writing, for
example , generalizing, describing, defining ,classifying and
hypothesizing . the units show these functions are expressed
in English and give the student opportunities to apply the
reading strategies introduced in unit 1 .
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