What I want to know about modular is ...
by Owain Llewellyn
1. If you feel you are not ready to progress to the next level, speak to your teacher about it. We will usually allow you to progress to another module at your current level except when we really feel you are so strong that you need to move up.
2. Yes, we did. One of our conclusions was that students were spending too much time at beginner and elementary, which is why we shortened these courses. At upper intermediate and advanced, students may in fact need more than 160 hours in a number of cases.
3. Why aren't beginner and elementary becoming modular?
4. • Beginner and elementary need more support at the start as they are starting out on their language learning journey • They need to learn key language structures to communicate.
5. IELTS??
6. It is possible that your progress means you will not cover every unit from the book. the important thing is that you are placed in the correct level, not which units from the book you have done.
7. • research about learning language shows that you learn a language in a circular fashion rather than a linear one. • It means that you get more choice in when you study as we can offer more possible times to study. • more chances to study at your own chosen pace.
8. You will get your end of level certificate when the teacher decides you are ready to move from for example B1 intermediate to B2 Upper intermediate. It doesn't matter how many modules you have completed.
9. The one person who can do this is your teacher. They collect evidence to assess your level during the course. This evidence includes
10. Did you do a survey about students' real level before the new modular syllabus? If so, what were the conclusions?
11. Is all the class gonna stay on yellow ?
11.1. Yes, every adult student will be studying a yellow course. It is possible, however, that some students will move to upper int yellow from intermediate 3, while other students might be recommended to study intermediate level based on their language level.
12. Who can tell me what my level is?
13. What if we are worried we are not ready for the next level, e.g we are moving from upper intermediate to advanced?
14. Are we going to ignore some lessons if we stick with this new method?
15. syllabus
16. my next level
17. Why are we moving to modular?
18. Do de have to study at least 3 levels to get our diplomas? I was put in Advanced 4 I don't know how it works
18.1. IELTS
19. Can I participate in the IELTS?
20. There will also be a focus on writing skills, and we will also focus on grammar and vocabulary to support your communication skills.
21. We are increasing the focus on speaking practice because studies show that learning grammar rules is not enough to learn a language. There will still be some grammar work, but speaking practice is the single most important thing we can give you. So yes, your speaking will get better with reduced focus on grammar.
22. Can we have our speaking test with another teacher?
22.1. Much of what we do does not change. We have believed for a long time that the best approach is the communicative approach where we focus on speaking and doing real life tasks. In modular we increase the focus on speaking further. Therefore, there will be more speaking tasks.
23. • within a given level the 4 levels are not differentiated by level. • They are named after colours to show that they are all at the same level. This means there is no fixed entry point into the different levels (A2, B1)
24. Modular starts on November 18th. It affects all British Council Adult Courses from A2 (pre-intermediate to C1 Advanced). It doesn't affect IELTS or business English.
24.1. No, advanced 1 is a class in our current system. In modular, all numbered classes will disappear (except at A1 and A2 level). They will be replaced by coloured modules. The coloured modules are not in a level order, so there is no exact equivalent.
25. This is a nice idea. For the time being, assessment will be conducted only by your class teacher in most cases, however, they are well trained in assessing your level.
26. Most likely your next course will begin on 18th November, or one of the days in the week following.
27. What is the difference between the old system and modular in terms of what we do in class?
28. Modular starts in November. The new courses begin on November 18th.
29. While this is a very nice idea for externally benchmarking your level, for the time being we will need to keep it that your class teacher assesses your speaking, unless there is a case where a second opinion is really needed. Be assured that as teachers we get together and team assess examples of students' speaking to ensure that we operate under the same criteria.
29.1. A good question. Yes, absolutely. We believe that correction and feedback on your speaking is very important and we wish to increase the amount we give in modular.
29.1.1. Definitely, we believe that correction and other feedback on your speaking is benficial. We also believe that it is usually best to correct your speaking after completing a task, therefore feedback will be given after you stop speaking.
29.2. Speaking
29.2.1. Will my teacher correct my speaking in modular?