Arroyo Vázquez Mª Luz y Mª Eugenia Sánchez Suárez, English for Art and Humanities: A Dynamic Course for Professional and Personal Development. Santa Cristina de Oleiros (La Coruña): Netbiblo, 2010, pp. 184 + CD.
English for Art and Humanities has been especially designed for university students or professionals who would like to use and improve their English in fields such as History, Art History, Literature, Film and Media and Language. This book integrates practice on the four language skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing) and aims at offering the opportunity to benefit not only professionally but also at a social and emotional level. An important aspect that has been emphasized is acquiring intercultural competence in a globalized world.
The approach is a very practical one, based on the different tasks that professionals may encounter in their various specialized contexts: teaching, research, dealing with artistic and multimedia projects, art galleries, museums, conservation, libraries, etc. Among the tasks students have to develop are commenting on a work of art, writing a book or a film review, advertising a product or service, writing a CV and a cover letter, etc. Topics include “The Great Black Migration”, “Segregation in American Schools”, “History, Art and Everyday Life in the USA during the Great Depression”, “How to Care for your Collections”, “First World War poems”, “Newspaper Headlines”, “Multiculturalism and race discrimination in Great Britain”, etc.
There is a complementary CD in which students can listen to a range of authentic material which includes poems, speeches, biographies, newspaper extracts, an oral presentation, etc. Specialized glossaries and grammar information and exercises are also included.