Section 1. Guidelines for intensive reading of ESP texts

Reading is the primary channel through which students will progress in English after the ESP course is over. A good reading program provides instruction in the skills required at various levels of reading, along with plenty of practice in this skill, which can only be developed through intensive and continual practice.

Two types of skills are needed in reading: simple identification skills, (decoding) and higher level cognitive skills such as analyzing, synthesizing, and predicting. The reading program should work on two levels to develop both types of skill.

In order to do this, two types of reading tasks are incorporated in the Manual: intensive and extensive.

Part 1 of the Manual is designed for intensive reading (analyzing, synthesizing, and predicting) in the classroom through close analysis of shorter passages, and can be used to develop vocabulary, grammar skills, and comprehension.

Part 2 of the Manual is designed for extensive reading (simple identification skills or decoding) by way of faster individual reading of longer passages to develop understanding of writers' organizational strategies, to improve reading speed, and to focus on main ideas.

Fluent reading depends primarily on knowledge of vocabulary and subject matter, and secondarily on knowledge of grammatical structure and familiarity with the ways that writers organize texts in English. Vocabulary development, then, is a vital aspect of reading (and listening) development. Students will need to develop a good vocabulary in order to be efficient ESP readers. They already know quite a lot of special vocabulary in English in their fields though most certainly they will have to expand it and develop the additional vocabulary they need for further study. Vocabulary should be learned only in context, never in word lists to be memorized with dictionary definitions.

Grammar is best learned in connection with writing, but exercises related to the reading passages the students have worked with can also help them to increase their reading comprehension. Higher level cognitive skills necessary for good reading depend on knowledge of the subject matter of the texts and knowledge of the way that information is organized in writing.