middlesmoor.com

-	home page
-	photos of house
-	photos of surroundings
	addresses
-	mail@middlesmoor.com

INTENSIVE ADULT COURSES

INTENSIVE ADULT COURSES

There are various possibilities for the duration of a course.

IN ITALY
1. A series of weekends in the home town (in rotation at participants homes).
IN MIDDLESMOOR
2. A weekend (or more) as an introduction and trial prior to an intensive course.
3. A course of a week (or 10 days) in England at Middlesmoor.

The following are the important aspects of a course for small groups of 4-10 adults with a similar level of English and who want to learn English in an intensive course with few distractions.
1. They want to understand the simple grammar structures of English in a non pedantic fashion by learning them through using focused material of an interesting kind. We will use our grammar book as reference book so that the group, or the individual alone, can quickly clear up uncertainties about grammar. However the emphasis will be in spoken English and, to a lesser extent, written English. Each day's work will include activities of consolidation of vocabulary and one of my tasks will be to furnish at the end of each day, a full print out of the vocabulary and grammar that have occurred during the day's various activities. This will be very important for revising study during the courses and after.
2. Often adults have to face extremely boring material. The study material can be of 2 kinds:
COMPANIES

A particular company will supply work material so as to give the course a particular situational and lexical bias towards that area of industry or commerce.
INDIVIDUALS

Alternatively, I have built up over the years some interesting material from newspapers. I have reduced the article and its interesting material to a format in which some element of grammar is focus on and the wide vocabulary which is intrinsic to interesting and stimulating material is given complete support of translation of vocabulary into Italian. After all, as everyone knows by bitter experience, there are 2 chief problems for adults. Firstly we need to extend our often miserable range of vocabulary and to get adequate and focused practice in speaking and using the main structures of English. If adequately prepared this material can lead to interesting discussions. I have an archive of more than 700 newspaper articles which I am working on for a CD ROM hypertext that links diverse arguments. Such a source will avoid the need to use the often banal material of "adult" course books. It will give the group the opportunity of determining the material according to its particular interests.

5. For such intensive courses for busy and intelligent adults to succeed, the material must have an intrinsic interest, whether because usefully rooted in the needs of the work place or in the wider world of economics, politics and social change.

6. Incidentally, it is not self evident that what businessmen appreciate is more of the kind of subject that fills their work day. What is important is to improve their competence in simple but effective communication in English: the material that I have should provide the right stimulus.

7. For beginners the emphasis will obviously be different. I have found that what adults require is clear but brief explanation of the grammar problems that occur in particular contexts of communication: i.e. not disembodied grammar! Our grammar was written to facilitate subsequent self-study and revision and, in a sense, to make grammar less of a shibbolith! Speaking activities will be aimed at stimulating the use of these particular grammar structures and extending vocabulary.
The chief fault of courses is that what is learnt is too easily forgotten! We need focus and endlessly varied practice.