News Archive

When three colleagues were asked by Oxford University Press (OUP) to write a series of text books for adults learning English, they agreed to do it, knowing that they would be able to draw on each other’s complementary experiences.

Jenny Robinson , Kathy Shiels and Melissa Garnsworthy , who together have more than 85 years’ teaching experience, work at the UWA Centre for English Language Teaching (CELT).

The first of their reading and writing course books, the recently published Read It, Write It: Australasian Intermediate , have won the Australian Publishers’ Award in the TAFE and Vocational Education category. The set is made up of a student book and a teacher resource book.

Kathy said the trio and other colleagues at CELT had already identified the need for more relevant text books with local content. However, it became more urgent when, from 2007, there was an influx of Arabic-speaking students into CELT.

“While Arabic-speaking students have highly developed speaking and listening skills, they had particular needs in developing their academic language so specific courses with original reading texts and writing models were developed,” Kathy said.

“In 2009 I was invited to present a seminar on the new material and an OUP representative attended. I was later contacted and asked if we would be interested in submitting a proposal for a writing contract.

“We couldn’t have done it without the support and encouragement of CELT Director Bianca Panizza and CELT’s teachers and students who enabled us to trial all the lessons so that we could redraft them before publication.

“The personal feedback and input from students, including graduates, was very useful. We also contacted them on Facebook where they could read sections to tell us whether they were relevant and interesting.”

The texts refer to all the cultures of the CELT students as well as Australia and New Zealand. They and include topics such as comfort food, population changes and the beach.

Each unit builds carefully on the last so the language is scaffolded in order for students to access the next level of reading and writing skills.

The authors are very happy with the result and now they – and other teachers and their students – have the benefit of Australasia-specific resources.

The series is published by OUP in Melbourne and distributed throughout their offices internationally. OUP in Canada has ordered extra copies and may write an adaptation.

Published in UWA News , 15 October 2012