Summary
Advanced-level literacy textbooks, written for students who are transitioning from ‘general’ academic English to the English of their academic disciplines, are not often discipline-specific, nor are they written by teams of authors who bring in both language and disciplinary expertise. In this chapter, we showcase an interdisciplinary textbook development project that brought together professionals from two disparate fields: applied linguistics and chemistry: Specifically, we explain the complex and iterative process that led to the publication of Write like a Chemist, a textbook that assists university-level chemistry students (native and nonnative speakers of English) develop discipline-specific reading and writing skills. To explain why the textbook looks the way it does, we chart the various paths taken during the writing process. After providing background on the project and identifying the textbook’s defining characteristics, we highlight numerous (and intertwined) steps that led to its development and final publication. We comment on these steps sequentially, even though most occurred in a non-linear fashion, influencing and informing one another throughout the multi-year project. We depict the following steps in the textbook-development process: (i) articulating priorities and principles; (ii) scaffolding the instructional approach; (in) selecting target genres, compiling corpora with full-length text exemplars, and analyzing them using tools from corpus linguistics and discourse, genre, and move analyses; (iv) converting analytical findings into instructional materials; (v) piloting and assessing materials; and (vi) using feedback to improve materials. To describe the textbook publication process, we focus on steps taken to (i) find a publisher; (ii) secure copyright permissions; (in) select a title; (iv) acknowledge contributors; and (v) finalize copy. We conclude with suggestions for language professionals who wish to pursue interdisciplinary textbook endeavors in other content areas or with different skill emphases.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alley, M. (1996). The craft of scientific writing (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
Beall, H. and Trimbur, J. (2001). A short guide to writing about chemistry (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T.N. (1995). Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Biber, D., Connor, U., and Upton, TA. (2007). Discourse on the move: Using corpus analysis to describe discourse structure. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Coghill, A.M. and Garson, L.R. (Eds.). (2006). The ACS style guide: Effective communication of scientific information (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Chemical Society.
Demko, Z.P. and Sharpless, K.B. (2001). Preparation of 5-substituted lH-tetrazoles from nitriles in water. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 66, 7945–7950.
Donovan, P. (1998). Piloting — A publisher’s view. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 149–189). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dudley-Evans, T and St. John, M.J. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Feak, C.B. and Swales, J.M. (2010). Writing for publication: Corpus-informed materials for postdoctoral fellows in perinatology. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching materials: Theory and practice (pp. 279–300). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Finley, J.W., Ip, C., Lisk, D.J., Davis, CD., Hintze, K.J., and Whanger, P.D. (2001). Cancer-protective properties of high-selenium broccoli. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 49, 2679–2683.
Frechtling Westat, J. (2002). The 2002 user friendly handbook for project evaluation. Arlington: National Science Foundation.
Harwood, N. (2010). Issues in materials development and design. In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching materials: Theory and practice (pp. 3–30). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hedin-Dahlström, J., Rosengren-Holmberg, J.P., Legrand, S., Wikman, S., and Nicholls, I.A. (2006). A class II aldolase mimic. Journal of Organic Chemistry, 71, 4845–4853.
Hill, S.S., Soppelsa, B.F., and West, G.K. (1982). Teaching ESL students to read and write experimental-research papers. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 333–347.
Horn, B., Stoller, F.L., and Robinson, M.S. (2008). Interdisciplinary collaboration: Two heads are better than one. English Teaching Forum, 42, 2–13.
Hyland, K. (1998). Hedging in scientific research articles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Johnson, K. (2003). Designing language teaching tasks. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kanoksilapatham, B. (2005). Rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 269–292.
Kovac, J. and Sherwood, D.W. (2001). Writing across the chemistry curriculum: An instructor’s handbook. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan Horse. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 190–216). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Moriarty, M.F. (1997). Writing science through critical thinking. Sudbury: Jones and Barlett.
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse analysis: An introduction. New York: Continuum.
Robinson, M.S., Stoller, F.L., Costanza-Robinson, M.S., and Jones, J.K. (2008). Write like a chemist: A guide and resource. New York: Oxford University Press.
Samuda, V. (2005). Expertise in pedagogic task design. In K. Johnson (Ed.), Expertise in second language learning and teaching (pp. 230–254). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stoller, F.L., Horn, B., Grabe, W., and Robinson, M.S. (2005). Creating and validating assessment instruments for a discipline-specific writing course: An interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2, 75–104.
Stoller, F.L., Horn, B., Grabe, W., and Robinson, M.S. (2006). Evaluative review in materials development. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5, 174–192.
Stoller, F.L. and Robinson, M.S. (2013). Chemistry journal articles: An interdisciplinary approach to move analysis with pedagogical aims. English for Specific Purposes, 32, 45–57.
Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J.M. (2004). Research genres: Exploration and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J.M. and Feak, C.B. (2001). Reflections on collaborative practice in EAP materials production. In M. Hewings (Ed.), Academic writing in context: Implications and applications. Papers in honor of Tony Dudley-Evans (pp. 215–226). Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press.
Swales, J.M. and Feak, C.B. (2009). Abstracts and the writing of abstracts. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Tardy, C.M. (2009). Building genre knowledge. West Lafayette: Parlor Press.
Tomlinson, B. (2003). Materials evaluation. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (pp. 15–36). London: Continuum.
Wardle, E.A. (2004). Can cross-disciplinary links help us teach ‘academic discourse’ in FYC? Across the Disciplines: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Language, Learning, and Academic Writing, 1. Retrieved from http://wac.colostate.edu.
Wi, S. and Frydman, L. (2001). Heteronuclear recoupling in solid-state magic-angle-spinning NMR via overtone inadiation. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 123, 10354–10361.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Fredricka L. Stoller, Marin S. Robinson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stoller, F.L., Robinson, M.S. (2014). An Interdisciplinary Textbook Project: Charting the Paths Taken. In: Harwood, N. (eds) English Language Teaching Textbooks. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276285_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137276285_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-27630-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-27628-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Language & Linguistics CollectionEducation (R0)