Book excerpt: A paired skills series uses a sustained content approach to teach skills necessary for taking academic courses in English. Academic Encounters Level 1 Student's Book Listening and Speaking: The Natural World engages students through interviews and academic lectures on stimulating topics from the fields of earth science and biology. Topics include the atmosphere, Earth's water supply, and life processes common to all living things. Students develop crucial listening and note-taking skills, discuss content, conduct interviews, and make presentations. A Student DVD includes all of the academic lectures. The topics correspond with those in Academic Encounters Level 1 Reading and Writing: The Natural World. The books may be used independently or together.