Headway Academic Skills 'link' Review
| Challenge | Solution | |-----------|----------| | Students ignore academic style (use “things” or “a lot of”) | Provide a “forbidden words” list and a substitution table. | | Note-taking fails – too slow | Teach abbreviations (e.g., “b/c” for because, “→” for leads to) and glossing. | | Plagiarism in writing | Use paraphrasing exercises with side-by-side original vs. student versions. | | Reluctant speakers | Start with pair work, then small groups, then whole class. Use sentence starters on board. |
Starting university is a massive leap, and often, the biggest challenge isn't just the subject matter—it’s the required to keep up. Whether you are navigating a foundation program or moving directly into higher education, the Headway Academic Skills series is designed to help you bridge that gap.
Have you used Headway Academic Skills in your classroom? Let us know your experience in the comments below.
Modules teach students how to skim for core arguments, scan for specific data, and navigate complex text structures. It emphasizes critical reading—encouraging students to question the author’s bias, source validity, and underlying assumptions. headway academic skills
: Students learn to adapt their reading speed through techniques like skimming (for general ideas) and scanning (for specific details), as well as intensive reading for deep comprehension.
Other criticisms found in user reviews include perceptions that some topics can be "boring" and that the language feels "20 years out of date". These points suggest that the series' heavy emphasis on formal, serious academic content can, at times, come at the expense of engaging material. An ESL textbook review on Scribd further noted that while Headway Academic Skills 3 introduces many reading and writing strategies, it "does not provide sufficient... integrated and meaningful practice". This highlights a common tension in EAP materials: balancing explicit skill instruction with the need for motivating, authentic, and repetitive practice.
Mastering Higher Education: A Comprehensive Guide to Headway Academic Skills | Challenge | Solution | |-----------|----------| | Students
Focusing on the Academic Word List (AWL), understanding collocations, and decoding meaning from context.
The course is divided into two main strands, each of which can be used separately or together to form a complete program:
Strategies for making clear, relevant notes from academic texts and lectures. student versions
: Develops lecture note-taking, presentation abilities, and participation in academic discussions. Key Features Headway Academic Skills Listening Speaking 1 Teachers Guide
: Provide targeted advice on how to improve efficiency, like using a dictionary effectively or predicting content. Review Section
Surviving higher education requires mastery of the —a collection of words most frequently found in academic texts across disciplines (e.g., analyze, concept, framework, formulate ). Headway Academic Skills explicitly teaches these words, focusing on word families, collocations, prefixes, and suffixes to drastically expand a student's lexical resource. Why Choose Headway Academic Skills? Cross-Disciplinary Relevance
Here are some practical tips to help you maintain good headway:
