English Conversational Skills for Beginners (1)
About this course
Have you ever thought about learning English? Whether it is for working in an international environment, studying, travelling abroad, or just talking to someone who doesn’t speak Arabic, even a few words of English can open doors.
This course is aimed at helping you learn English that you can use practically, immediately. The focus is conversational language – the kind of language you use when you’re speaking – at an Elementary level, and there is special attention paid to useful phrases and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation.
Drawing on the British Council’s expertise in English language learning and teaching, the course uses short videos of a group of Arabic-speaking learners on a British Council English course, so you can see the kind of language they are learning. These videos will be presented and commented on by an experienced English language teacher from the British Council who, in Arabic, will highlight important points related to the language, and give you useful tips. You will then have plenty of opportunities to practice that language, in quizzes, discussions and by using specially developed software to help you remember new words and phrases.
What You Will Learn
- Spoken English you can use in common situations, such as talking about yourself, your habits and routines and your future plans.
- Essential vocabulary areas, such as numbers, and telling the time.
- Pronunciation tips, to help with difficult sounds, stress and other aspects of speaking English.
- Examples of how English differs from Arabic, which can be useful for your understanding.
- Tips on how best to manage your learning, to help you be more effective.
Prerequisites
- If you are just starting to learn English, this course is perfect for you, as it is aimed at beginner and elementary level learners. However, even if you are a higher level, it will give you some useful practise, and you will find lots of helpful tips!
- Please note that the British Council follows a global Child Protection policy which means we need to clearly separate young learners (18 years and below) from adults in both online and face to face courses. Therefore, if you are 18 years and below, you will not be able to remain enrolled in the course.
Institution
Edraak
Edraak, is a massive open online course (MOOC) platform, that is an initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF). QRF is determined to ensure that the Arab world is at the forefront of educational innovation. As such, QRF has capitalized on regional Arab talent to leverage technology developed by the Harvard-MIT consortium, edX, to create the first non-profit Arabic MOOC platform. The new MOOC platform will present the Arab world with unique and vital opportunities that can be part of a necessary revolution in education and learning.
First, the platform will broadcast the best Arab professors to the region, offering original Arabic courses – developed by QRF – to further enrich Arab education. Through its partnership with edX, the platform will also give Arab learners access in Arabic to courses taught and developed at top tier institutions like HarvardX, MITX, and UC BerkelyX. All courses are delivered at no cost to the learner.
Second, QRF envisions the use of the platform to showcase Arab role models by broadcasting short online courses by practitioners and professionals from a variety of fields spanning the arts and sciences.
Finally, QRF believes that the platform will enable the Arab world to take advantage of the international interest in regional affairs to tell its own story to the world. Arab university professors and regional experts can use the platform to give courses in English about the region and its history. This will serve to inform a global audience that is interested in the region’s development.
The British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.
We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Last year we reached over 65 million people directly and 731 million people overall including online, through broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.
Instructors
Alan Keenan
Alan Keenan is an English Teacher at the British Council in Amman, Jordan. He has a Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Queen’s University Belfast. He has been teaching English for ten years, mostly in the Arab World. He has taught English to people of all ages. He currently teaches courses in General English for adults and young learners as well as Preparation for IELTS courses. He has learned both Modern Standard Arabic and the Levantine dialects. He is married and has three young children.
Ismail Alsmail
Ismail is an English teacher at the British Council in Amman, Jordan. He has a Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) from Al Baath University in Syria, and a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) from the University of Cambridge. Ismail has over seven years of teaching experience in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan. He has experience of teaching students at different language levels, ranging from beginner to advanced.
