English Speaking Classes

Outcomes

Teach students how to express themselves effectively using appropriate grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation;

show students how to describe people, events and objects appropriately in English;

Teach students how to perform common language functions in social situations, such as making a request, asking for clarifications, giving and accepting invitations and so on; and

help students develop their oral skills for academic purposes (making presentations, participating in debates, extempore speech, group discussions and so on).

Study skills

As an adult learner your approach to learning will be different from that of your school days: you will choose what you want to study, you will have a professional and/or personal motivation for doing so and you will most likely be fitting your study activities around other professional or domestic responsibilities.

Essentially you will be taking control of your learning environment. As a consequence, you will need to consider performance issues related to time management, goal setting, stress management, etc. Perhaps you will also need to reacquaint yourself with such things as essay planning, coping with exams and using the Web as a learning resource.

Your most significant considerations will be time and space; that is, the time you dedicate to your learning and the environment in which you engage in that learning.

We recommend that you take time now — before starting your self-directed study — to familiarise yourself with these issues. There are a number of excellent resources on the Web.