The Academic Encounters series uses a sustained content approach to teach skills necessary for taking academic courses in English. There are two books for each content area. Academic Encounters: Human Behavior uses authentic readings from college textbooks to teach academic reading skills, and introduces topics such as stress, health, and nonverbal communication. These topics engage students in the subject matter while exposing them to academic discourse. This book contains exercises that develop reading skills such as skimming, reading for the main idea, reading for speed, and understanding vocabulary in context. While completing writing assignments of different lengths, students respond to the readings and incorporate what they have learned. Study skills, such as summarizing, note taking, highlighting key points, and test preparation, are also taught. Topics correspond with those in Academic Listening Encounters: Human Behavior, and these books can be used together as a four-skills course; however, they function equally well as stand-alone texts.