For real Life
After this English for Life course
You Will
* Be able to communicate about a variety of issues of your choice, relevant to your professional and/or personal needs.
*Have a much wider range of vocabulary applicable to life in general.
*Use grammatical structures for past, present and future: express life experiences, tell stories, future wishes and habits.
*Be able to find inner resources to deal with and solve communication difficulties.
*Experience how much you have learnt from other students' ideas, questions and opinions.
Methodology
Both the English for Life and the Dialogue Coaching courses find their roots in the pedagogy behind Soka Education (value creation education).
Since having come into contact with Makiguchi's ideas on education and how to educate students to live the happiest life possible - according to him, the main goal behind education - Ana Calha has tried to apply them in her English classes for the past 14 years.
In terms of methodology, this means the emphasis on the needs and interests of each student while guiding them to find their own unique voice. In the long run, students become active and creative citizens, with personal ideas and perspectives.
More specifically for the English for Life classes, Ana Calha applies her training in content-based language teaching experienced in her MA, as well as what she learnt during CELTA. At the same time, she uses hundreds of techniques acquired in the past 14 years through classroom practice and the contact with other teachers. l
Dialogue topics
Here are just a few examples of listening, reading or visual links
used as discussion starters in our last English for Life course. Topics chosen by students.
The Power of Words doc
More course details
English for Life is an English language course for the mininum of 4 students at a time that runs for three month-periods. It focuses mainly on speaking fluency, while also covering the grammatical structures, the linguistic functions and the vocabulary that each particular group needs to work on.
In terms of the content of the lessons, each group chooses what issues it wants to discuss - current events, social issues, and so on - to fit their interests. These are extremely engaging lessons, where students have an opportunity to use their English in real contexts, while also learning how to express opinions, agree, disagree...
The one other element that is essential in these courses is the fact that the English language is used in a way that it provides students with the tools to practise their innate Dialogue skills. With the help of a teacher trained and experienced in both English teaching and Dialogue training, each member of the group will be able to end the course with a much better awareness of how to improve their communication with every single person in his/her life. Here we have it... English for Life.
