This is a general English course for students at B2 Level who want to improve all areas of their English language skills: writing, reading, listening, speaking and elements (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse). The main focus will be on helping you become more confident at using language in everyday and less familiar settings. Fluency (speaking a lot and quickly) and accuracy (not making mistakes) will be given equal importance.
This course will help you:
- Interact with others confidently and fluently at length on a range of topics using more idiomatic expressions and a wide range of vocabulary
- Develop your ability to use more complex grammatical structures
- Fine tune your pronunciation of difficult sounds and be able to use appropriate rhythm and intonation
- Comprehend longer listening texts with a variety of accents
- Practice planning, organising, writing and checking texts
- Gain competence in reading more authentic texts
Which book will I use? What special features does the book have?
The course uses a book called Speakout Upper Intermediate 2nd Edition. It is divided into 10 units.
Each unit starts with an overview followed by two main input sections that cover grammar, vocabulary and four skills. Section three covers functional language for everyday situations matched to their CEFR level. An important feature of the book is the inclusion of podcasts with native speakers and BBC TV clips, aimed at helping students enhance their four skills by using authentic materials in section four. Each unit ends with a Lookback page to revise key language. At the back of the book there is a useful Grammar Summary and practice exercises to help review. There is also a Vocabulary Bank, providing an extra vocabulary focus.
| Upper Intermediate A (Units 1-4) |
| Topics – introductions (new things), issues, stories, life
Vocabulary – personality, feelings, adverts, verbs and nouns with the same form, surveillance, opinion adjectives, social issues, reading genres, adjectives for stories, sayings, free time, positive adjectives, uncountable and plural nouns Language – direct/indirect questions, present perfect/past simple, present perfect simple and continuous, the passive, narrative tenses, wishes and regrets, present and past habits, future forms. Functional Language – making polite enquiries, giving opinions and agree/disagree, expressing likes and dislikes, describing procedures, use mirror questions. |
| Upper Intermediate B (Units5-7) | Upper Intermediate C (Units 8-10) | |
| Topics – ideas, age, the media
Vocabulary- behaviour, locations, actions, feelings, time idioms, describing films, the arts, dimensions Language- articles, real and hypothetical conditionals, modal verbs and related phrases, future perfect and continuous, quantifiers, reported speech. Functional language- Suggesting ideas, reacting to or commenting on ideas, persuading, adding emphasis |
Topics – business ideas, the media, trouble
Vocabulary – Collocations: Decisions, compound adjectives, values, behaviour, crime, dependant prepositions, synonyms, incidents, adjectives to describe films, vocabulary related to art reviews, two-part phrases. Language – past and mixed conditionals, -ing forms and infinitives, past modals of deduction, relative causes, participle clauses Functional language- handling awkward situations, soften a message, reporting an incident, giving a tour (giving facts, commenting on facts, leading the way) |