Each chapter focuses on equipping learners with the reading, vocabulary, and grammar skills that they will need in order to read theological publications written in English. In addition, each chapter provides an overview and discussion of a key topic found in introductory theology books and books of Christian doctrine.
ETE includes a wide variety of practice exercises, and we have included a few pages of sample materials for you to view.
1. When studying ETE, students practice using more than 25 different reading strategies. Pages 20-21 list strategies for reading at an appropriate pace and understanding what you read, including locations throughout the book where these strategies are practiced.
2. Each chapter has two or more focused readings which discuss important theological topics. Glosses (short definitions) are provided for many of the less common vocabulary words. (See pp. 50-51 for a sample reading with glosses.) Each reading is preceded by one or more pre-reading exercises (e.g., p. 50) and followed by one or more post-reading exercises (e.g., p. 51).
3. ETE introduces and provides practice exercises for a large number of vocabulary strategies. The chart on p. 17 lists ten strategies that students are encouraged to use as they read.
4. Because many students lack a strong vocabulary base for reading academic publications written in English, each chapter includes a section on general academic vocabulary. For each chapter we have selected 20 or 24 words that meet two criteria: they occur in the readings in that chapter and they are from the widely used Academic Word List by Averil Coxhead. See pp. 30-32 for the Chapter 1 academic vocabulary followed by three practice exercises.
5. Beginning with Chapter 3, each chapter contains a major section on theological vocabulary. See pp. 100-105 for the section on theological vocabulary related to the attributes of God. Note that this is preceded by pre-reading questions and followed by post-reading exercises to help learners understand the reading.
6. Each chapter ends with a review section. In the Chapter 3 exercises, note the review exercises for two additional areas not discussed above, a grammar exercise (adjective clauses) and a word analysis exercise (prefixes). Also note that this chapter, like all other chapters, ends with a section called "Evaluating Your Learning" which focuses on learning strategies. See pp. 106-109.
