There are no specific tasks you must do before you arrive. However, you might find these suggestions very helpful.

Reading

Research and experience shows us that one of the best things you can do both for your English language in general, and for your academic English in particular, is read, read and read! Try to get into the habit of reading English regularly: if possible longer texts, not just short webpage material (whole news articles in major newspapers or news magazines are a good start). If you can, choose items related to your academic subject. It is fine to start with something relatively easy, such as basic textbooks, if this gets you into reading. You need to do a lot of reading at university, so it is best to develop a habit now.

Listening

You will, of course, be listening to English all the time when you arrive in Britain. If you are not used to listening to English, or even to English in a UK environment, you can start to practise now. Good places to start are:

• BBC World Service
• BBC Learning English
• British Council Learn English

Writing

As well as reading and listening regularly, try to write frequently in English even if you just write a diary or your thoughts about something you have read or heard. Writing English, a little and often, will help you become more fluent. We will help you improve your writing but you must get used to writing English first.

Get used to using a standard English-English dictionary. We suggest using Cambridge English Dictionary. It has British and American English, pronunciation recordings, and also includes translations into other languages as well as links to a thesaurus.

Any reading in your degree subject is good at this stage, whether it is through blogs, websites or textbooks. What is important is that you begin to understand more about your subject, and that you get used to learning about your subject in English.

Although it is not necessary to read all the books below before the course begins, we do recommend that you at least familiarise yourself with the names of the authors and the titles of the works below:

• Cottrell, S. (2023) Critical Thinking Skills: Effective Analysis, Argument and Reflection. 4th edn. London: Bloomsbury.
• Cottrell, S. (2019) The Study Skills Handbook. 5th edn. London: Red Globe Press.
• Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury.

It is useful to note that the University Bookshop offers 10% discount on most titles in print and have some price-beating book bundles. They also price match Amazon on core texts recommended in the module handbooks you will receive when you start in September.