Target 1:

Target 2:

Target 3:

Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday Friday Saturday

Sunday

Study Plan

Study Aims:

(to be used in tutorials for students here for more than 4 weeks)

FIVE MAIN LANGUAGE GOALS

On your first day at SGI you completed a Student Profile. Here, you wrote down your five main language goals. Don’t forget these goals. Remind yourself of them to stay motivated and on track to achieving your goals.

1) ___________________________________

2) ___________________________________

3) ___________________________________

4) ___________________________________

5) ___________________________________

TUTORIALS: If you are studying for more than 4 weeks you will automatically have a tutorial to discuss your progression and things you can do to improve your English. If you are here for less than 4 weeks, you can still request a tutorial – just ask your teacher.

7.30 Get up8.15 – 9.00 Read on the

tube9.15 – 3.00 SGI4.00 – 6.30 Social

Programme6.30 – 7.00/7.15

Homework

7.15 – 8.15 Dinner8.15 – 9.00 Study Session

1

Monday

Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday

Friday Saturday

Sunday

Study Session 1

ListeningBBC Podcast

ReadingEconomy Article

VocabularyHome

ListeningBritish Council Podcast

ReadingEconomy Article

WritingDiary

GrammarChapter 2

Study Readin Vocabul Listenin Gramm Listeni Readin Listeni

Get organised!

Healthy body, healthy mind!

Active learning

Study at your level

Use your English

Key to success!

Coffee & chatMake friends, make plans

Participate 100% in class

Get involved in the SGI social programme

Study properly Put in the hours!

Reading newspapers and watching films in English is great...but will not necessarily improve your English. It’s important to study at your level - you’ll see faster results if you use graded materials designed for language learners like yourself!

Eat breakfast

Take breaks between study sessions

Get 8 hours sleep

Organise notes into ‘grammar’, ‘vocabulary’, ‘conversation’ etc.

Make neat notes so you don’t have to write up your notes again at home.

Make a study plan.

Keep a study log so you can record what you’re studying and watch yourself progress.

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

Hours studying per weekClasswork

homework project revision class vocab writing up

notes other

Reading a book a graded

reader a newspaper other

Listening listening to a

podcast the radio watching

TV/Films other

Speaking speaking with

classmates with host-

family social

programme other

Writing writing a diary emails essays other

Exam Preparation

reading listening writing part 1 writing part 2 speaking other

---Study Log---

Oxford Online Skills Programme

For only £6.75 you can access up to 80 hours of studying materials.

This is a great resource to improve general English with activities for reading, speaking, listening and writing, covering level A1 to C2, with a particular focus at intermediate level with courses at B1, B1+ and B1++. There is also courses specific for Academic English, helping build skills needed for university. https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/adult_courses/oxford_online_skills_program/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

English Grammar in Use

Easy to follow grammar explanations with activities and answers so you can correct your mistakes.

This is a great resource to use alongside what you’re studying in class.

Make sure you get the right book for your level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced, and make sure you get a book with answers . You can usually find a book for between £15-£20. Go to www.amazon.co.uk and type in ‘English Grammar in Use’ or visit Waterstones book shop at 421 Oxford

MacMillan Graded Readers

The best way to improve your reading is to read materials at your level. Graded readers are particularly designed for language learners. Macmillan readers are great because they come with an audio CD so you can improve your listening as well.

Collins English For Life

A great range of coursebooks from A2 to B2+, seperated into different skills, such as reading and speaking.

The listening book is particularly good with 20 authentic recordings of real English in a range of accents.

You can usually find a coursebook for under £10. Go to: www.amazon.co.uk and type in ‘Collins English for Life’ or visit Waterstones book shop at 421 Oxford Street.

Ted Talks Short, powerful talks covering almost all topics, from science to business to global issues. Great for C1+ students.

Learn with the newspaperRead all about it!

Newspapers provide students with a daily source of real life literature to learn new vocabulary and develop reading skills. Take a look at our recommendations of how to study with newspapers.

By reading several articles about the same story, you will begin to see the new vocabulary repeated and this will help you remember the words. With each article, you should notice that the number of words you’ve underlined is less. So for example, in the first article you didn’t understand 20 words, in the second article, 19 words, in the third article, 18 words, and so on....

Next, find another article about the same story. If you’re reading online there will be a list of ‘related articles’ for you to click on and explore and/or you can read the same story in a different newspaper. Make sure you spend sufficient time learning the new vocabulary so you are able to give a summary.

When you’ve read three or four articles you can use your list of vocabulary from all the articles to give a summary of the story. If you like, you can also write a summary of the story. Make sure you use all the new vocabulary as well as key words and expressions.

Most suitable

for B2+

Different sections of the newspaper can be more difficult than others. So for example, fashion is usually quite difficult because of the number of adjectives and fashion-specific vocabulary. Most students find the economics, money and business sections to be the easiest. Financial articles tend to be shorter and the same words tend to repeat themselves more frequently.

Firstly, read an article. Underline (or highlight if you’re reading online) all the words you don’t know. Look up the words in a dictionnary. Write the new words in a list. Learn the words. Read again to make sure it makes sense. Now, practice speaking and using the vocabulary - summarise the article to yourself or a friend (you don’t need to write a summary, just speak).

Try: the Guardian, the Independent, the Telegraph and the Financial Times (they all have very good websites). Also, take a look at BBC News online.

General English

Business /

How long does it take?

How long does it take to learn English?

Well, that really depends on you. Obviously, some students need less time and some students need more. Many factors influence how fast you move up levels, such as your age, your native language and your experience of studying another language.

However, one thing is for certain – the more hours you study, the quicker you progress.

Your studying needs to be purposeful – that means,

for example, active learning, doing ‘graded’ activities, learning vocabulary properly, and doing lots of speaking.

To stay motivated and for best results, make sure you

set SMART targets – goals which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

Be realistic. It’s important to recognise that learning English takes time. You are not going to learn the entire English language in one month! So set goals which are possible to achieve.

Aim high. Everyone can learn English. Aim to be a successful English language student.

Proficiency

Advanced

Upper-Int

Intermediate

Pre-Int

How many hours should I study a day? Well, that really depends on how much time you have, how quickly you want to improve, and how motivated you are.

If you’re really serious about learning English, we recommend you treat studying Engish like a full-time job. A working week is about 37½ hours. If you have 22½ hours of classes, then you need to study 15 hours a week

at home. That’s about 3 hours a night!

If that seems too much, start with an hour a night and build up gradually!

ENGLISH

to revise (v)

a notepad (n)

to jot down (v)

to highlight (v)

clear (adj)

straightforward (adj)

Your Language

repasar

el cuarderno

(la agenda)

(memorizar)

(la pizarra)

If you don’t understand a word in class, you can look it up in a dictionary later.

If you want to translate a word from your language into English, you can look it up in a dictionary after class.

Spend 20-30 minutes a day learning new vocabulary from class.

The great thing is you don’t need to write out the words again.

Just cover one half of the page and try to remember the translation.

to pour (verter) / to pass (v) (pasar) / in amazement (asombrado) to complain (quejarse) / smile (sonreir) / to grunt (grunir)

Write the words at the top of the page(or where there’s space).

Most students write translations next to the reading text which doesn’t help when you want to learn vocabularly.

Spend 5-10 minutes everyday reading texts from your coursebook. Make sure you know the vocabulary and that you understand the meaning of the words in context.

Tips for learning vocabulary...

Keep a vocab section in your notebook

General English

Business /