English Workshops

B1 Test Preparation Workshop

The two-hourly B1 preparation will be run alongside the B1 course. Students are welcome to attend as many of these sessions as they want for an additional cost, but they will find the listening practice limited. The session will be divided into listening practice with expert tips about the exam and individual feedback about possible problem areas for students. The second part of the session will involve paired speaking practice with useful phrases and guidance about things to say, and things not to say.

IELTS Special Workshop (Suitable for Lower Levels)

This course will combine practice for lower levels and both the general and academic IELTS exams. IELTS is a test of international English, including practice of South African, Australian, New Zealand, British, Canadian and American English – perfect for use of English in a global situation! This will involve speaking, listening, reading and writing practice, with a lot of vocabulary and grammar support for students who find English very difficult. This will aim at students from all levels from Beginner to Low Intermediate, bands 1-5 of the IELTS exam.

Academic Writing Workshop

Do you want extra support or motivation with writing? This weekly workshop offers advice, practice and discussion of the different types of texts needed for academic or exams study. Each week will focus on a different text type, including reports, articles, letters, essays, graph descriptions, proposals, stories and more. You can join for the whole course or for individual sessions. These workshops will make use of any English you already know – grammar, reading, writing – and build on your knowledge. Great for every level.

Business Communication Workshop

Weekly Business English workshops to help you better manage any situation where you need English for work. There will be a different them each week, which will be the same for both Lower and Upper levels. The topics chosen will be based on student preference, with priority given to students attending all the classes in the series, but you can choose to attend individual workshops if preferred. The suggested topics are CVs, job interviews, business meetings, networking, negotiations and recruitment, amongst others.

Conversational Club*

This weekly workshop offers a fortnightly pronunciation booster, and an introduction to and development of academic speaking skills in the weeks in-between. This is a mixed level course, targeting the particular needs of students at the workshops. These workshops are designed to run as part of our regular Conversation Club, which meets every day in the afternoons. Speaking skills covered will include those needed for university or college study, including debating, individual and group presentations, and seminar participation. Sessions are repeated once each term. Pronunciation practice will include sentence intonation and particular problematic sounds, e.g. /r/, /l/ and /th/.

Academic Vocabulary Workshop

The Academic Word List is a list developed by international academics, (under the leadership of Dr Averil Coxhead), which includes the most used 570 words from all academic texts. The idea is that if you know all 570 words, you are very likely to understand any general academic text, including all those used in the FCE, CAE, CPE an IELTS exams as well as a range of required reading texts for university study. We have divided the 570 words into smaller groups of 50 words, which we will be studying in weekly workshops over a term. Workshops will include introduction of the words, practice in using them in context and memory techniques.

Life in the UK Workshop

These two hour workshops will include practice in answering the types of questions used in the ‘Life in the UK’ test, and an introduction to British culture using videos and discussion. They will also include study tips for how best to prepare for the ‘Life in the UK’ test outside of the workshop, and so continue to build on the learning started in the workshop. There will be some amount of sharing cultural experience of the UK with other students at the workshop as well. These workshops are designed as a detailed and very useful introduction to the test.