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General English Vs Academic English

General English focuses on shorter, informal texts and conversations about everyday topics, while Academic English involves longer, more formal texts, lectures, and discussions about specific topics within a field of study. Some key differences between general and academic reading and writing are that academic reading requires analyzing longer texts to understand the main ideas and critically think about the information, while academic writing involves clearly stating and organizing arguments to support a position on a topic. When attending lectures for academic purposes, helpful strategies include doing any assigned reading, paying attention rather than writing everything down, understanding that not everything will be clear but focusing on comprehensible parts, and asking questions to clarify understanding.

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491 views4 pages

General English Vs Academic English

General English focuses on shorter, informal texts and conversations about everyday topics, while Academic English involves longer, more formal texts, lectures, and discussions about specific topics within a field of study. Some key differences between general and academic reading and writing are that academic reading requires analyzing longer texts to understand the main ideas and critically think about the information, while academic writing involves clearly stating and organizing arguments to support a position on a topic. When attending lectures for academic purposes, helpful strategies include doing any assigned reading, paying attention rather than writing everything down, understanding that not everything will be clear but focusing on comprehensible parts, and asking questions to clarify understanding.

Uploaded by

stelia ioannou
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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General English Vs Academic English

1. What differences do you think there will be between general


English and academic English? Complete the Academic English
column of the table below.

Skill General English Academic English

Reading Shorter texts on different Longer texts on specific


topics of general interest topics to your field of
study-nursing

Writing Informal writing (e.g. email Formal writing related to


messages) and creative your field of study-patient
writing (e.g. stories) report, symptom report,
complete forms

Listening Understanding conversations Listening to lectures and


on everyday topics presentations-medical
terms, conversations
among doctors and nurses
and patients.

Speaking Taking part in conversations Taking part in classroom


for social reasons discussions related to your
field of study, having
conversations with doctors,
patients.
2. Reading and writing in academic English
- Look at the list of key terms associated with academic reading and
writing. Guess which ones refer to reading and which ones refer
to writing. One term is not relevant.
1. Take notes – write down notes while we read or listen to
something
2. Main idea-we have to be able to understand the main idea of a
reading and at the same time we should be able to clearly
express the main idea of a piece of writing.
3. Building and argument -writing-we need to express clearly
what our argument is.
4. Relevance of the text-reading
5. Ask for clarification-speaking-we can ask for clarification if we
read something online using the comments.
6. Critical thinking-reading-writing
7. Writer’s position-reading-you need to be able to identify the
writer’s opinion.

- Complete this summary of the terms associated with academic


reading using the words in the box.

analyse find out information

When you read a book or article for an essay you need to 1.find
out if the information in the text is relevant and useful. If it is,
you should take notes on the 2. Information in the text. You
should also 3. Analyse the information in the text and think about
how it compares with other ideas, how important it is and how
true it is. This is known as critical thinking.
- Complete the summary of the terms associated with academic
writing using the words in the box.

obvious organize topic

When you write an essay you need to think about what you
believe is true or not as far as the essay 1.topic _ is concerned.
This is known as the writer’s position (or the thesis statement).
You should not state your position in an 2.obvious way, but you
should +

build an argument in the essay that supports your position. You


should also 3. Organise your argument into paragraphs. Most
paragraphs contain a main idea, which is sometimes known as a
topic sentence.

3. Attending lectures

- Below are some suggestions to help students understand


lectures. Decide which you think are helpful ideas and which are
not.

1. If the lecturer asks you to read a text that relates to a lecture,


make sure you do that. H
2. If slides are put on a website before a lecture, don’t try and
read them because they probably won’t make much sense. NH
3. When you go to a lecture, it is better to sit at the back so the
lecturer can’t see you. If you sit at the front, the lecturer may
be able to see how much you can or can’t understand of the
lecture. NH
4. During a lecture, don’t try and write down everything. It’s
better to pay attention and make sense of what the lecturer is
saying. H
5. It is better to accept the fact that you may not understand
everything the lecturer says, but, at the same time, try to focus
on what you can understand. H
6. If lecturers invite questions at the end of the lecture, it is better
to say nothing. If you ask a question, they will think you are a
weak student. NH

The above activities have been take from Thain, C. Cambridge Academic English : An integrated
skills course for EAP (Student’s book). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 10-13.

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