Methodology

Strategy:

  • create confidence in the practical use of spoken and written English
  • cultivate capability of comprehending and reporting in English
  • make available the tools needed for a wide and varied “general” and “specific” vocabulary
  • provide opportunities to see the language in use
  • learn by doing
  • expose participants to varied language teaching approaches
  • to create an interesting and stimulating learning atmosphere
  • create a co-operative learning environment
  • encourage team work, praise individual attainment
  • active use of humour
  • street language vs. formal language
A Practical Approach

Course Content

  1. specialised police, military and mission vocabulary
  2. operational procedures, staff duties and reporting
  3. human rights and international law
  4. use of language and social etiquette; informal vs. formal language
  5. socio-cultural working relationships
  6. conversational skills
  7. diplomacy, liaison and mediation
  8. basic navigation, radio procedure, tactical terminology
  9. aspects of basic grammar
    • use of to do in its affirmative, negative and interrogative form
    • auxiliaries: be, have, may and can
    • use of must, have to and need
    • irregular verbs
    • adjectives (incl. comparatives and superlatives) and adverbs
    • imperatives
    • reported speech: correct use of tenses, direct and indirect speech
    • prepositions

In practical terms

  • Phase 1 reintroduces participants to active English
  • Phase 2 concentrates on specialty areas as well as practical usage
  • Phase 3 features a final scenario in which participants put all they have learned into active use
Course participants will be evaluated over the first day regarding their language level and needs – a resultant programme will be designed around them with the utmost flexibility.
Academic Rationale

There is Language Acquisition and Language Learning.

Language acquisition happens when the learner is surrounded by the target language, therefore learning takes place in a natural way e.g. similar to children acquiring their native tongue.

Language learning is through the process of serious, conscious cognitive effort, often focused on learning about the target language rather than practising it.

My programmes actively use the Communicative Approach through Content Language Integrated Learning.

Communicative Approach focuses on communicative ability from an early stage raising students’ motivation through short-term objectives and gains using language appropriate to a range of relevant topics and situations (e.g. work/ interests/ exchanges).

Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is aimed at causing language acquisition to take place (the natural way) by teaching and discussing themes and topics in the target language.

Thus I create a target language environment, transforming an unnatural way of language learning into a natural way of acquiring language.

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