Lockwood, R. B., Sokolik, M., & Zwier, L. J. (Series Eds.). (2017). University Success Series. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.

Anyone who has taught university-level English language learners knows that no matter how well they may have performed in their English language courses, they are usually not prepared for the shock of the real university classroom, which includes massive amounts of reading, competing in a classroom of native speakers, listening to hour-long lectures, and writing papers without their helpful English teachers nearby. How to help English for academic purposes (EAP) students bridge this gap has been a subject of research and experimentation by English language teaching professionals, myself included, for the last several decades. Delineating, and then breaking down those necessary skills that native English-speaking students take for granted has been a struggle for those of us working with this student population.

So, here’s some good news. University Success, a new three-level series from Pearson, gets to the heart of the matter when it comes to helping students cross this bridge between their English language courses and life in a real university classroom. Each of the three levels—Intermediate-to-High-Intermediate, Advanced, and Transitional—is divided into three separate stand-alone textbooks on reading, writing, and oral communication skills, so nine textbooks total in the series.

Each of the textbooks is also consistently divided into five content areas: biology, humanities, engineering, sociology, and economics, as well as three subskill areas, fundamental skills, critical thinking skills, and authentic extended content. This consistency across textbooks and levels would make this an excellent series for an integrated academic English program, and the up-to-date topics, readings, and lectures by Stanford University professors give the series the authenticity necessary.

Although there are myriad EAP textbooks, many of which I have used in my 32-year teaching career at the University of Washington, University Success brings together the best ideas from those texts into one series. For example, in the transitional level’s oral communication text, you can find activities covering everything from how to elaborate on a point you are trying to make to creating and communicating visuals, such as graphs or diagrams. The critical thinking section of this particular text in the series includes a section on “interpreting and utilizing hedging devices,” something you might not think to teach but is extremely useful. Finally, in the authenticextended content section of this textbook, students listen to lectures by one of five experts while they practice using all the note-taking and listening skills they have learned in previous units. Even for experienced teachers, this helps break down the complex mix of skills need for understanding what’s going on in the classroom and taking a more active role as a student.

Another feature unique to this series is the level of attention given to the metacognition of language learning, which again is a nice feature for both teachers and students. Each mini-skill within units is explained clearly and succinctly, so students, and equally important, teachers, can understand why they need to master it. Although further research into the extent of the value of metacognition in language learning is needed, it has been shown to be a valuable enough tool to warrant adding it to our teaching strategies:

It is very worthwhile for teachers to understand the importance of metacognition in language learning because it helps learners to become autonomous and self-regulated language learners…teachers should focus on both teaching language content and teaching the ways and processes of learning. (Raoofi, Chan, Mukundan, & Rashid, 2014, p. 45).

The University Successseries operates on this assumption.

One other factor that I always look for in a textbook is the layout and design. I want something that is academically appropriate for students who are serious college-level English language learners. The pages of the transitional level of University Success are dense, the print is small, and the units are one to two pages in length. There are plenty of visuals to break up the pages—tables, photos, graphs, cultural notes in boxes—all making this a respectable-looking book to bring to the table for my graduate and undergraduate students.

In terms of support materials, the University Success series is accompanied by Pearson’s online MyEnglishLab, where students go for the listening components of various activities throughout the textbooks, including lectures and a self-assessment component at the beginning of each chapter.

As usual with textbooks, there is more than enough, maybe too much material in each book. I would be hard put to get through all the activities in one textbook in my own language program’s 10-week quarters. In my recent use of the University Success Transition Level writing text, I have found myself rearranging the units, and picking and choosing from this text to fit my teaching style. Also, I can see where its progression from discrete skills to completing a paper might not fit with a teacher’s approach to an academic writing course. So, like every textbook series, it’s not perfect.

Still, most teachers, I believe, could put together solid 10-week or semester courses using just these resources, either following the books as laid out, or selecting units and exercises. I also think University Success is an excellent series for new teachers who are trying to wrap their heads around how to best help their university-level students bridge the gap between English classes and university courses. It takes years of teaching to learn which skills to teach and how to teach them, after all, and this series of textbooks can be useful in training yourself as a university-level English language instructor.

As one of the three series editors, Lawrence Zwier, an associate director of the English Language Center at Michigan State University puts it, this series provides an “academic onramp” for students, and I think it is definitely worth a look for your EAP courses.

Reference

Raoofi, S., Chan, S., Mukundan, J., & Rashid, S. M. (2014). Metacognition and second/foreign language learning. English Language Teaching, 7,(1), p. 36–49.

Mary Kay Seales has been an English language instructor at the University of Washington for more than 30 years, specializing in instruction for English for academic purposes students. She also has extensive experience in teacher training in the United States and internationally.