Intermedio B1 is an intermediate English course, which is equivalent to the European level B1.

In class we'll pay particular attention to communication, especially to speaking and listening skills but, obviously, we will also review the grammar and practise reading and writing skills.

The course consists of 135 hours, classes are 120 minutes long + 30 minutes in small groups at the end of the class. We will create these small groups so that the students in each group will come back once every two weeks.

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1. Main Objectives:

• develop communication in everyday situations (travelling, buying, complaining, solvingproblems, talking about yourself (e.g.your family and friends, yourpersonality, work and studies) and your hobbies (going out, eating, TV, internet, pets, clothes and fashion, etc.)

• improve your fluency and use linguistic functions in a correct way (importance of the four skills,

       but a lot of attention will be paid to listening and speaking).

• grammar: tenses, phrasal verbs, conditionals, types of sentences (expressing result, hypothesis, reason, cause etc.).

• writing: letters of complaint, emails, stories, descriptions, writing about books, films, concerts and games, advantages and disadvantages, CV and covering letter.

•  reading: original texts and articles (mainly from the Internet), books and magazines.

•  listening: different situations, interviews, TV, radio.

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2. Organization of the course:

- A textbook will be used in class: English File Intermediate Third Edition, with Workbook. Oxford University Press. Student's textbook's site.

- It is recommended to read at least two adapted books in English that you can check out from the library.

- English is the ONLY language to be spoken in class.

- Attendance is not really obligatory in the sense that even if you miss a lot of classes you can keep coming to class and do the exams in May and June BUT if you attend less than 70% of the classes you will lose the right to the "preinscripción" and if you want to go on studying as "alumno oficial" at the school, you will have to wait and see if they are vacancies (vacantes) or preregister (preinscribirse) in May. 

-Classes will be based on a communicative approach to language teaching, which means that, as a language is something we use, we will pay attention to the different situations and functions in which language is used. A lot of activities in pairs and groups will be done. So you must participate in the class in an active way.

-TUTOR HOURS: Tuesday/Thursday 15:30-16:00

 

3. Some helpful tips for this year:

• Work every day (pay special attention to new vocabulary).

• Try to talk as much as possible.

• look for opportunities to practice  (ifyou find listening difficult, practice that, listen to DVDs, TV in English (if you have Netflix, cable, etc.),go to the cinema, organize self-study groups to talk, post ads to meet native speakers (Madrid is a very popular place with Americans and Brits); buy and read newspapers and magazines in English, radio on internet, BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk.

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4. Evaluation:

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Regarding evaluation, you must take into account that you must pass Prueba de Certificación in May or in June if you don't pass it.

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This exam will consist of five different parts:

1. Comprensión oral

2. Comprensión escrita

3. Expresión escrita

4. Mediación

5. Expresión e interacción oral.

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In each part you can get a maximum of 10 marks, being 6 (60%) the required mark to pass. This mark must be obtained in the five skills to pass the course. Alternatively, if you get a minimum of 5 in  a maximum of two parts you will also pass the course if the average is 60% or above.

However, you only have to retake in June that part or those parts that you haven't passed in May, If they are not passed in June the student will have to retake the whole year.

Apart from these exams,there will be a mock exam to practise for this Prueba de Certificación in February. The written mock exam will be on Tuesday 5th February and the oral exam on Fridays 25th January or 1st February. 

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Dates of "Prueba de Certificación B1" 2018-19:

Written exam: 20th may 15:45     Oral exam: to be announced.

Dates of "Prueba de Certificación extraordinaria" B1 2018-19:

Written exam: 14th June 15:45   Oral exam: to be announced.

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There will also be continuous assessment through work in class, homework and writing assignments to inform you about your progress.

5. More important information:

There is an information sheet that you should read to find out about some interesting things about the school such as:

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• the library: with 7 computers, WIFI, and where you can also check out books.

• if you want to change to another group, in the first month you must place a note on the boards specifying the group you would like to change to. If you find someone you have to go to Secretaria and make the change. After the first month, you should talk to the teacher of the group you want to join and ask him/her if you can, explaining why you want to change your group (there must be a powerful reason)

• deadline for deregister in the course (Anulación Matrícula oficial) is end of March 2019. You'll need a proof of why you want to do this (healthreasons, you have moved to another city,etc.). You can also do this until mid October, without any proof of anything. You will NEVER get the money you paid back.

• If you want to do the "examen libre" in another language you can, ask when you have to register for that and how you have to do it but you can't be "alumno oficial and libre" of the same language at the same time.