General English

This level is equivalent to CEFR A0 (Absolute Beginner). At this level, students have an interactive learning experience through: ● Engaging and varied videos, ● Uniquely motivating texts, topics, and tasks ● Authentic content from real people Perception: At Starter level, students will be capable of understanding and utilizing everyday expressions and basic phrases linked to areas such as personal information, family, shopping, and food. In Starter classes, we introduce simple, interesting topics with basic phrases and visual aids. During this level, you will learn: ● To identify the alphabet, numbers, and area codes ● To identify classroom objects and directions ● To identify countries of origin, different places, and buildings ● To exchange personal information ● To describe people and pictures ● To describe a location ● To describe health problems ● To talk about daily activities, time, clothes, and prices, ● To talk about jobs and skills ● To talk about home responsibilities and free-time activities ● To describe people’s likes and dislikes

This level is for false beginner students. This level is equivalent to CEFR A1. Perception: Every level at English Castle aims to get students to talk; Beginner is no exception. To achieve this, beginner students need two things above all else: motivation and support. Beginners’ language level is low, but they need interesting topics and texts just as much as Intermediate or Advanced students. During this level, you will learn: ● To Introduce yourself ● To talk about your family and friends ● To talk about countries and nationalities ● To talk about buying and selling ● To talk about preferences and habits ● To talk about meals and food ● To talk about jobs and work ● To talk about clothes ● To describe rooms and hotel facilities ● To talk about past activities and events ● To understand short conversations

At this level, students will learn daily short conversations in English. They will also know the basics of English and can communicate simple, basic needs. This level is equivalent to CEFR A1-A2. Perception: This level marks a crucial stage in language acquisition, where students transition from basic familiarity to a more comprehensive understanding of the language. At this stage, students will master fundamental grammar rules, expand their vocabulary, and enhance their communication skills. This level focuses on building conversational skills, enabling students to engage in basic dialogues on familiar topics. During this level, you will learn: ● To make predictions ● To talk about abilities ● To ask and answer quiz questions ● To talk about professions and jobs ● To give opinions (music questionnaire) ● To talk about favorite times and hours of the day ● To talk about reading habits, retelling a story or text ● To talk about a typical weekend, seasons and weather ● To talk about greetings, nationalities, giving personal information ● To describe things and expressing likes and dislikes about your country ● To talk about dreams and ambitions, phones and the internet, city holidays, tourist information, TV, films, and books

This level is for students who are able to communicate in everyday situations with commonly used expressions and elementary vocabulary. This level is equivalent to CEFR A2-B1. Perception: This level signifies a stage where students move beyond basic language proficiency and delve into more complex linguistic structures. Students are expected to consolidate their understanding of grammar, expand their vocabulary, and refine their communication skills. Mastery of various verb tenses, including past, present, and future, becomes a focal point. At this level, developing reading comprehension and listening skills is essential, enabling students to grasp information from moderately complex texts and conversations. During this Level, you will learn: ● To understand similarities and differences, describing people, appearances, feelings, and personalities in detail ● How to ask for help ● To talk about yourself in a descriptive way ● To discuss habits and preferences ● To understand the key events in a story and share narratives from past experiences ● To talk about the correct positioning of objects, places, and people ● To understand biographical information and write short blogs, informal and formal emails, and biography ● To talk about future decisions, plans, predictions, and arrangements ● To check hypotheses; using visual evidence and background knowledge

This level is equivalent to CEFR B1. Perception: The Intermediate level is often a milestone for students. At this point, students begin to ‘take off’ in terms of their ability to communicate. Some students, however, may see the Intermediate level as a ‘plateau’ and feel that they are no longer making the progress they were before. Students at this level need fresh challenges to help them realize how much they know and to make their passive knowledge active with a steady input of new language. During this level, you will: ● improve your speaking through motivating and accessible topics, such as ○ Preferences, agreeing and disagreeing ○ Future events ○ Retelling a story ○ Money and experiences ○ Annoying habits and manners ○ Anecdotes, childhood, sports, films ○ Assessing advice ○ Making deductions ○ Present and past habits; shopping, digital habits, school ○ Discussing pros and cons, describing ideal situations ● improve your understanding through ○ exposure to a wide variety of authentic text types and stimulating material ○ practice in ‘getting the gist’ and listening for detail ○ practice in dealing with authentic spoken language

This level is equivalent to CEFR B2. Perception: Upper-intermediate students rightly feel that they are now quite high-level learners of English and are ready to ‘push on’ to become proficient users of the language. To achieve this they need motivating materials and challenging tasks. They need clear objectives to focus on taking their skills to a higher level, as well as dealing with more complex language input. Finally, they need classes to be as fun and dynamic as they were at lower levels; there is no reason that higher-level lessons should become dry and overserious. Students still want to enjoy their English classes – role-plays, language games, challenges, and quizzes are still as valuable pedagogically as ever and can often be exploited more effectively at this level. During this level, you will: ● improve your speaking through up-to-date, stimulating topics to talk and exchange opinions about ○ politely refusing to answer a question, reacting to what someone says ○ reacting to a story about something strange ○ flight stories, telling an anecdote understanding formal language in announcement. ○ managing discussions, politely disagreeing ○ ways of talking about feelings, wishes, the environment, risk-taking, emergencies, sleep, music, crime, media, reading habits, and cities ○ talking about future possibilities ● improve your understanding through; ○ engaging topics and stimulating material ○ exposure to a wide variety of authentic text types and colloquial spoken language ○ exposure to longer listenings and a wide variety of accents ○ achievable tasks but with an increasing level of challenge, such as ■ Using a diagram to understand a text ■ Using your knowledge of the world to help you understand formal advice ■ Understanding facts vs theories ■ Identifying solutions to problems ■ Understanding the language of speculation public speaking ■ Understanding a discussion – opinions, explanations, examples ■ Identifying advantages and disadvantages

This level at English Castle is equivalent to CEFR C1. Perception When students reach an advanced level of English, they are, by definition, successful learners and they typically feel positive about the language and their classes. However, it can be hard to make them feel they are actually making progress and improving. It is important to challenge students with material that they feel is relevant to their needs and which they can see a purpose to. They want to see and hear material from the real world, which respects their intelligence, but also need support to help them use what they know to overcome new challenges and to set realistic and positive expectations of what they can achieve. During this course you will learn: ● To adapt your spoken English to a variety of situations and registers; ○ Half-agreeing and politely disagreeing ○ Talking about work ○ Expressing ideas with precision ○ Expressing a response to a creative text/literature ○ Giving background details to an experience ○ Discussing and interpreting information in a questionnaire ○ Giving a well-structured presentation and taking questions ○ Discussing behavior and issues, showing sensitivity to different perspectives ○ Using persuasive language ○ Exchanging complex information to solve a problem ○ Discussing contentious issues diplomatically ○ Reacting to a speaker and relating your own ideas ○ Practice in recognizing and using discourse markers in speech ○ Improve in accuracy as well as further development of your fluency ○ Techniques and strategies for participating in a conversation ● To improve your understanding through; ○ Exposure to longer listenings and a wide variety of accents ○ Exposure to a wide variety of authentic text types colloquial spoken language ○ Achievable tasks but with an increasing level of challenge ■ Identifying attitude and implied meaning ■ Conveying the main ideas in a text ■ Reading notes and expanding them into a spoken explanation ■ Distinguishing between positive and negative effects ■ Understanding a lecture or talk ■ Understanding contrasting points of view, agreement / disagreement / partial agreement