English for Science, Intermediate Level, First Edition

English For Science, Intermediate Level, is the second volume in the series. It is an integrated text organized around specific rhetorical functions: finding general and specific information, classifying, defining, understanding and using chronological order, determining cause and effect, comparing and contrasting, and predicting.  The text is designed for university students who are studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at an intermediate level in order to prepare them to participate in basic science courses in English. It facilitates the leap from basic English to academic English, and it prepares students to comprehend and use science material at an intermediate level.

Unit Organization

            The book emphasizes and integrates the basic skills of speaking, reading, and writing in the context of scientific academic usage. Grammar instruction – based on aspects arising from the reading passages – is restricted so as to aid consolidation of the above basic skills. The introduction of grammatical items is graded and sequenced in accordance with the principles of intermediate language acquisition.

            The units are organized around the rhetorical functions used in scientific study. Each rhetorical function is introduced in a short reading passage and developed further in relevant exercises. As far as possible, reading and writing skills are introduced as they relate to the rhetorical function.

            Topics have been carefully selected from the general science curriculum (biology, botany, chemistry, and physics) to serve as vehicles for presenting the rhetorical functions, syntactic constructions, and vocabulary used frequently in scientific discourse. They reflect an appropriate level of language. They are arranged in ten units. 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