In November 2019 I took part in a two-week English course at Mayflower College in Plymouth. It was an “English for Professionals” course, especially designed to offer much greater gains in areas such as the Environment and Science, that I wished to improve.
I chose Mayflower College because I was looking for an intensive course that could give me one-to-one focus. It offers a wide variety of teacher training and focuses on the skills I would like to improve, too. Moreover, it is located in Plymouth, a port city in Cornwall, famous for the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower from Plymouth to the New World in September 1620. I also had the opportunity to learn something more about Plymouth and the surrounding area through documents and trips after classes.
Before my departure, the school asked me to complete a needs analysis form; it allowed me and the school to plan and arrange my learning experience from the very beginning.
Classes ran from 9.15 to 12.30 p.m. and from 1.30 to 3.30 p.m., Monday to Friday, for two weeks. I was in a small group made up of people coming from different foreign countries (Russia, France, Middle East) in the morning and in the afternoon in one-to-one sessions with my own English teacher.
Working in such small groups, during the morning, allowed us to interact with the teacher at any stage of the lesson and ask for clarification as well as expressing our point of view. The afternoon lessons, indeed, were spent developing ideas for lessons on the subject of Science and the Environment.
During the course I was required to plan and deliver a lesson on the topic of environmental issues to a group of advanced learners; the lesson was about creating a mind map based on a text about three environmental issues of the day and was followed by an in-depth discussion.
My host family lived near the school; Heather and Justo, the homeowners, were a lovely couple in their 70s and I felt at home with them. Living with them, I got the chance to practise English more. We could speak about everything from everyday life to culture and the politics of different countries and exchange experiences.
METHODOLOGY
The aims of my course at Mayflower College were mainly three. The first one was the revision of several key grammar structures and putting them into practice in an informal classroom environment. The second goal was about development and widening of vocabulary through exercises like matching new words to definitions, word building (prefixes, -ed and -ing adjectives), lexis in context (deducing meaning from context) as well as investigating the use of language and vocabulary in the field of Science and the Environment. The third covered the delivery of classroom-based lessons about Science and the Moreover, every Friday I was tested on the four skills (reading, comprehension, grammar, listening) to check my progress.
DEVELOPING THE FUTURE ESSENTIAL SKILLS
I participated in all the course activities and, working within an international group of teachers, I was able to share ideas with my colleagues, learn new methodologies and the use of authentic materials to improve my language level. The new ideas and methods explored should provide me with renewed inspiration to continue my career as a teacher.
CONCLUSION
What could I say? It was a great experience! It was an opportunity to refresh my English, improve my fluency, renew my teaching with new ideas, meet colleagues and people from other countries and exchange experiences with them.