Self Study | Understand English

Self Study

The aim of this self-study website is to help improve your understanding of academic English. The exercises included are mainly aimed at students of Academic English who are at intermediate level and above. However, they could help any English learner whose aim is to understand how meaning is created in English. If you are preparing to study in an institution that delivers its courses in English such as a pre-sessional course, in-sessional course, foundation programme or something similar, then looking at how meaning is created will help understanding of complex material, and therefore the ability to create an academic text.

Although this is not a course, a teacher may wish to incorporate some elements into their lessons. The content is not ordered as you may want to focus on different aspects to suit your own needs. Links have been added to allow you to move between the different pages if you need clarification on a particular aspect of the materials. You are also encouraged to use materials you have access to through your institution for the practice exercises, or if you are not currently enrolled on a course, Google Scholar gives access to many free academic articles in all disciplines.

This work stems from specific research conducted by the late Dr Josephine O’Brien at Zayed University in Dubai, which was presented by Jo and myself at the TESOL Arabia Conference in 2014. The research was written up as a journal article entitled Second Language Reading: Current Trends in Postgraduate TESOL Research in the Middle East and published in Teaching, Learning and Researching Reading in EFL, TESOL Arabia's 2014 publication. Although the original research was aimed at speakers of Arabic, we believe it has relevance to all learners of English. The main finding was that if a student has problems reading in their first language, then this will impact on their ability to read in a second language. Understanding how meaning is created is essential for any language learner.

The texts used are mainly abstracts from academic articles or texts which have been chosen for their use of specific language features. Although it is not necessary to gain copyright permission to use the texts as they are less than 300 words and there is no financial gain involved, we would like to thank the authors of the texts.

If this website helps you in any way, then it has achieved its aim.

Please send any comments or questions to,

Author: Jill Cook, MA Applied Linguistics, RSA DipTEFLA, BA(Hons) Social Science

Email: jillcook@akathimaikos.com

Editor: Christine Lee