English for Computer Science, Reading Skills, Elementary Level, Second Edition

Welcome to the second edition to ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER

SCIENCE: READING SKILLS, ELEMENTARY LEVEL! This new edition

is the product of extensive revision and evaluation, not only by myself and my

students, but by the many instructors who, along with their students, have used

the previous edition and have contributed valuable suggestions and comments.

The success of the previous edition has been due, in large measure, to the honest

and careful appraisal given by language instructors and their students.

ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE: READING SKILLS,

ELEMENTARY LEVEL, is an introductory reading course for computer science

students. It focuses on the real needs of students at this level for vocabulary

expansion and reading skill-building. It is designed for use in EFL

adult-education programs, universities, colleges, technical schools, and language

institutes.

ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE: READING SKILLS,

ELEMENTARY LEVEL, is made up of ten thematically-based units, each of

which is divided into two parts. Vocabulary-building and skill-building exercises

accompany each reading. Each unit consists of a brief pre-reading exercise and

an exercise on skimming or scanning. Following the reading passage itself, there

are post-reading exercises that focus on important reading skills: getting the main

idea; understanding the reading structure; understanding from context; recognizing

contextual reference; the topic and topic sentence; understanding general and

specific ideas; summarizing; understanding signal words; making an outline;

understanding cause and effect; comparison and contrast; classification;

exemplification; inference; and understanding sequence.

Each part of the unit concludes with a discussion designed to encourage

students to think about, distill, and discuss the information they have read

throughout the unit. Sometimes the discussion deals with a topic from outside the

reading.

An important goal of ENGLISH FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE is to

help computing students to become confident readers by increasing their

vocabulary base and improving their reading skills. It engages them in the

process of reading thoughtfully and encourages them to move beyond passive

reading.