GENERAL ENGLISH (GE)

Course Overview

The General English course is designed for students who want to improve their ability to communicate in English for social and work situations. General English also provides students with a solid foundation to progress to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) or other special purpose courses. It is offered at 7 levels:

General English Course Outcomes
The General English language program enables students to:

• Use English with greater confidence
• Develop their ability to understand conversations and television programs
• Read fiction and non-fiction texts with understanding
• Speak with increasing fluency, clarity & accuracy
• Activate their existing grammar, and develop a greater range and accuracy
• Understand both formal and everyday English

General English Course Content
Classes in the General English program are topic based, interactive and use a mixture of teaching and learning materials including course books, television, radio, CDs, DVDs and computer software. Course content focuses on the development of communication skills with a balance of speaking, listening, reading and writing tasks. Students learn through class activities, individual as well as pair and small group work. Each class has a main Integrated Skills teacher as well as 2-3 other teachers for option and other classes.

General English course modules include:

• Integrated Skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing skills are practised, and Grammar is presented in the context of the weekly topic
• Reading & Writing Skills: reading texts (stories, reports, news articles) are used in order to understand and practice useful language and develop vocabulary. Written work develops students’ abilities to construct sentences, paragraphs and essays
• Audio-Visual: students watch selected Australian, American and British television programs to learn to listen for general as well as more detailed meaning
• Computer Assisted Learning: students use different language learning programs to develop vocabulary and other skills
• Option classes: Students in Levels 4-7 can choose from the following: Academic or Business English, Conversation, IELTS Preparation, Movies or Songs