The materials described here are used to teach English for special purposes at the University of Birmingham. Using the communicative or functional approach to language teaching, they deal with a "common core" of skills, leaving for later in the program special sub-units relating these skills to texts, tasks and problems peculiar to a particular discipline. Except for the pre-session two-week courses, they are designed to be taught on a one-hour per week basis through two or three terms, using a flexible, largely elective approach. Descriptions are provided of three pre-session courses -- Note-taking and Note Reconstitution, Socialization and Seminar Discussion Strategies -- and two full term courses, Academic Writing and Listening Comprehension: Discussion Texts. For each course, indications are given on objectives, instructional materials, scope and content, matching of learning experiences with a variety of student needs, and evaluation. Included in the description of the socialization course is a discussion of some of the problems and needs in communicational language teaching and of the ongoing revision and development of materials for the course. (AMH)