General English Courses

Course Overview

IBAT College delivers General English Classes to non-native speakers of English to further their English language skills within a vocationally oriented context. It has a dual purpose in giving learners recognition of their language for work purposes and to prepare them for further academic studies. The course teaches English as a foreign language. General courses will increase your competence and confidence when communicating in English.

Teaching Style

The pedagogical approaches employed in IBAT College integrate a primarily communicative approach with elements of other approaches to take into account different learners’ needs, attitudes and objectives in learning English. The overall approach is learner-centred and aims to equip the student with all the tools essential to becoming an autonomous learner.

Academic Progression

These courses are designed for students at all levels of English and our aim is to improve students’ fluency and accuracy whatever their starting level. Our written and spoken placement test ensures accurate placement and we offer a wide range of levels. Class lecture monitor students’ progress on an on-going basis and regular progress tests allow us to verify that students are studying at an appropriate level.

Who accredits the course?

This certificate is dually accredited by FETAC, the Further Education Training Awards Council, and includes a certificate from IBAT at the end of the course, and a supplementary certificate if you successfully pass the exams.

What is the schedule and teaching approach of this course?

Daily Vocabulary activities - e.g. adjectives to describe moods and personality

Weekly Dictionary Workshop - use dictionary to find words. Explanations, phonetics, plurals etc.

Communication and Grammar Activities:

• Students survey each other to find information
• Basic adverbs of frequency / questions
• Tenses, Parts of Speech, Modals etc.

Projects:

• Introduction to group project work
• Choosing a topic
• Sourcing materials
• Planning the project

Homework

• Preparing for tests: speaking about people/ asking and answering basic questions
• Preparing for trips: research, learning basic information about the destination e.g. Dublinia

Independent Learning - students have access to the Computer Laboratories where they are encouraged to pursue self-learning and revision activities online. The can practice all four skills on their own and have access to all online facilities.  

Listening and Speaking - pair work: Listening to two people describing themselves and their personality, writing the answers and describing their partner to the class.

Reading and Writing:

• Read a piece of text and then working in pairs answering questions from the text.
• Writing stories, letters, email. Punctuation workshops.
• Newspaper articles, books, texts etc.

Quizzes – How independent are you?

Role-play and Drama

Cultural Activities - museum visits,  heritage site visits, parks, gardens etc.

Video and Film Club - weekly DVD

Debates and Discussion in the class- all class members to participate on a class chosen topic e.g. “Festivals”.

Excursions - daytrips to a variety of interesting locations.

Sports & Recreation

How long is the course?

Students may join the General English course for a minimum of 1 week. There is no maximum period.

Timetable

Monday to Thursday 09:00 to 13:00 or Monday to Thursday 14:00 to 18:00

Cost

€1800 – 25 weeks course or €130 weekly