Academic Encounters: Life in Society Student's Book: Reading, Study Skills, and Writing - Softcover

'This is a well presented, authentic looking series of readers that students should enjoy. They are graded into five levels, and the accompanying cassette will be useful, especially for pronunciation audio versions are very popular with students.' Josephine Caruana, Network News, Issue 34 'These were a very good read: exciting fast-moving stories at all levels, and a good mixture of subjects. Most touched on up-to-date themes, such as corruption, refugees, psychology, hunger, feminism, or ecology without being prosy, or moralising.' BaNina Vivanco, SATEFL Newsletter Vol 19 No 3 'It was only a matter of time before a major ELT publisher set out to challenge the market dominance of Penguin Classics in the area of readers ... CUP have hit back admirably. With something for everyone in your classes, this series is well worth investing in. In fact, it's going to be a difficult act to follow by other publishers.' IATEFL Issues 'The series breaks new ground in two respects. The first is the light and informal style of writing. It is notoriously difficult to write fluent prose using restricted lexis and syntax. Part of the secret is to use word and grammar lists flexibly; but it requires flair and a good ear to produce prose and dialogue that read so well and give such a genuine flavour of modern idiom.' English Teaching Professional 'What distinguishes the series from all the others is the zest and freshness of the text. Where the emphasis in other series is on plain and straightforward language, Cambridge English Reading texts typically use very modern expressions and the dialogue is faster moving. This has an impact on the quality of the audio cassettes, which make for very enjoyable listening.' David R. Hill, Survey Review: Readers, ELT Journal 'This title ... moves away, thankfully, from abridged and simplified versions of the classics (a tradition with which one could validly take issue) and now offers 'original fiction', designed specifically for learners of different levels and concentrating on contemporary topics and themes. This one is by Jeremy Harmer, of teacher training fame, now applying his knowledge of teaching more directly in the form of fiction. I'd buy a class set and/or fill up the self-access centre with them together with appropriately graded activities.' EA Journal, Volume 17, no. 2

The Academic Encounters series uses a sustained content approach to teach skills necessary for taking academic courses in English. There are two books for each content area. Academic Encounters: Life in Society engages students with authentic academic readings, photos, graphs, and charts on stimulating topics from the field of sociology. Topics include peer pressure, the influence of the media, and balancing home and work. Students develop important skills such as reading critically, examining graphic material, highlighting, note taking, and preparing for a quiz. By completing writing assignments of different lengths, students build academic writing skills, respond to the readings, and incorporate what they have learned. The topics correspond with those in Academic Listening Encounters: Life in Society. The books may be used independently or together.