Welcome to Learning English for Academic Purposes: First Steps. Find out more about what you will be doing over the next six weeks to improve your listening, speaking, reading and writing in preparation for university study.

You can only develop your skills in academic English through actual examples, so we have chosen examples on the theme of water, which can be studied in many academic disciplines. Here you start to think about this theme.

Get started on your journey to academic English and learn how to develop important skills.

Find out about the importance of a good water supply as you practise important reading strategies.

Paraphrasing is a useful skill in academic writing. Try these quizzes to develop your ability to paraphrase.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.

Welcome back. Watch the video to find out what you’ll be doing in Week 2.

Learn some strategies for finding and evaluating information for an academic purpose.

Find out how to interpret and write about information that is presented in a map.

Find out how to interpret and write about information that is presented in a bar chart.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.

Welcome back. Watch the video to find out what you’ll be doing in Week 3.

Learn some useful strategies for listening to lectures in English.

Learn strategies to build your vocabulary for understanding lectures and make notes of new words and phrases to use in your final report.

Listen to an expert talking about current water challenges facing the world.

Focus on the language used in the lecture to describe the causes and effects of the problems related to water

Practise your skills by recording yourself talking about global water challenges.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.

Welcome to Week 4. Watch the video to find out what you’ll be doing.

Find out how to use academic language to propose solutions.

Find out how to use a table to note down main points.

Learn how to write short, formal notes.

Find out how to organise information when writing in English.

Find out how to write accurate references to show where your information comes from.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.

Welcome to Week 5. Watch the video to find out what you’ll be doing.

Follow the next steps to prepare and plan a report based on the topic of water.

Start writing your first draft and improve your editing skills.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.

Welcome to Week 6. Watch the video to find out what you’ll be doing.

Find out how to make the most of feedback.

Now you have a chance to improve what you have written.

Time to review what you have learned this week, and check what progress you have made.