Subject Guide for ESL Students

The goal of taking English As A Second Language (ESL) at Trent is to acquire the reading, writing and speaking skills necessary to assume university level research. Library resources tend to be geared towards specific academic disciplines like biology, history and psychology. By the end of ESL training Trent students will be able to read and comprehend material published in peer-reviewed journals and scholarly books. However, for the first few levels of ESL training this material is not suitable. Below are resources that will help students at various levels of ESL training.

Getting Started

1: Look in the right place.

When you do your research, it's important to know where to look and what you will find there. You won't find everything in one place, so think about what you want to find. Generally, there are three places to look:

2: Use the best search terms.

Think about the terms you are going to search for. The computer will look for the letters - not the ideas! Think about other words that might be useful.

See the online tutorial: Keyword Searching Techniques.

3: Do something with your results.

Your choices depend on the database you use. Look for options to:

• Save your results - to a stick, your own computer, or your H: drive.
• Print your results. Include the full text when possible.
• Email your results. Include the full text when possible.

Advanced students (Level 5) can use RefWorks to store citations for later use.

4: Use Library resources

Many online resources are restricted - you can only enter them if you pay for access. The Trent Library pays for Trent students to have access to many restricted sites, but you need to get there using the links on the Library website in order to be recognized as a Trent student.

General Indexes

What's an index?

These online databases index materials like magazines and newspapers. Because they contain material which is less scholarly, this type of material is easier to read. These are not specific to one academic discipline, so you should be able to find material on a broad range of topics.

Academic Search Elite
	Academic Search Elite is a very popular database with Trent students because it covers a broad range of topics and has full-text. Both scholarly journals and popular magazines are included. Tip: When you have done a search you will see a search results option on the left-hand side of the search results screen. Tick the box next to Magazines to limit your results to magazines. These will be written for a more general audience compared to academic peer-reviewed journals.
Canadian Newsstand
	This full-text database covers 20 Canadian newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials, and features. Some date as far back as the 1980s.
CBCA
	Covers articles in Canadian scholarly journals and popular magazines, as well as some newspapers.
Gale Databases
	Search a wide variety of databases at once. It may be more difficult to sort through the results when you search everything at once.

More Scholarly Indexes

These databases are more scholarly and sometimes cover specific subject areas more extensively. Level 5 students should strive to use these materials, since this in the type of research expected of University students. See the tutorial on Scholarly Resources.

Business Source Complete

Very good for finding business information, including:

• articles from academic journals, trade magazines, and newspapers;
• country profiles;
• statistics;
• company reports; etc.

Scholars Portal Journals

A large part of our online journals are available through this site.

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Last Modified: February 6, 2012
Maintained by , Thomas J. Bata Library.