By the end of their degree, we expect our students to be independent learners who can read and understand mathematical texts (e.g. textbooks/papers) and study to understand the course material rather than trying to learn the exam. In practice, many of our students do not meet this expectation, in large part because we rarely teach these skills directly — they form part of the so-called hidden curriculum.

In this talk, I will present some activities I employed during an undergraduate calculus course which aimed to address these issues. I will also discuss how I borrow tools and techniques from my experience as a qualified English as a foreign language teacher to design my teaching sessions. Part of this was developed jointly with David Sheard (KCL).