Smarter English: September 2019

 

I participated in the project “Smarter English”, a project that includes 5 days ‘lessons for a total of 25 hours with
mother tongue teachers.
I was in the higher level.The level depended on the result of a test given us on line during  summer and my teachers were: Jonathan from UK, Alba from UK and Ivana from Australia.
They were all young but well- prepared, their  teaching method was very effective. We started by introducing ourselves , toget to  know each other a little better and then they started testing our  skills and knowledge with games. There were various types of games:some helped us to learn new words about various themes like: health, fashion, shops,countries, English and American words. All this was to practice
our English speaking activities and learn a lot of new things.

We  learned to be good sellers, and to convince customers to buy a product.
We played Cluedo, and we had to guess who was the murderer by looking for information and events and suspect.
We  learned many English proverbs, my favorite is “every cloud has a silver lining.” We watched many documentaries and learn new things about three important countries: United Kingdom, United States of America and Australia, such as economy, traditions, sports, religion etc.
We did the other activities like describing an English comedy by expanding our vocabulary and writing a movie review.
It was a very constructive  experience that allowed to me to expand my knowledge and improve my speaking . I would recommend this  course to all those who love English and who like  learning new things.

It helped me a lot with the pronunciation and  how to approach  English speaking  people. The teachers have always been very polite and ready to explain every kind of doubt. We laughed, we learnt, we were happy and flattered to participate to it. I suggest it to everyone at every  level, it will be very helpful and also a valid experience to make new friend and learn English easily.

 

It was a very interesting experience because the activities I did were very different to the usual lessons we have at school.
We had three English mother tongue teachers. With them we did games about different topics, we played short theatre pieces and we discovered proverbs and new idioms, so I could learn new vocabulary.
My family was also a host family, and I could spend some more time with a teacher after the lessons: we went together by bus to school, we ate together in the evening, I practised my English, I improved thanks to this  cultural exchange.
I invite all the  students to have this experience.

 

“Smarter English” is a course in the first week of September, before school starts, with excellent mother-tongue speakers; it’s carried out to strengthen our English with linguistic confidence and pronunciation. All the activities the teachers propose are conducted only in English, like the speaking ones, in which we have to create some dialogues, or the grammar ones; the speakers keep the students inspired and motivated every hour with newer and  newer opportunities to learn and, after that week, everyone should feel more confident to do the best with this language.
You can also learn many new interesting things from the native teachers’  countries!
I think this course helps improve the confidence and the practice you need with the English idiom, because it engages you to do your best from the beginning and, after that, you’ll feel more comfortable with it. I helped a lot and I learned to appreciate the language more than I did before. “Smarter English” is a great experience for the students to do.

 

During the first week of September, Caterina and I followed a mother tongue course here in Marco Belli High School, it’s called “Smarter English” and it makes us improve our English and become more confident speaking English.
We had three mother tongue teachers: Jonathan from Birmingham, Ivana from Melbourne and Alba from Brighton, and we were divided into three groups of different levels.
During the lessons we talked a lot ad played lots of games… The funny thing is that we all had to get used to their accents, and they all were so different! I think Alba was the easiest to understand, because she talked slowly; then Ivana’ s accent was more like the American one, and in my opinion Jonathan’ s one was the most difficult, because he talked fast ,but in the end I really enjoyed listening to them talking and I learnt to notice the differences.
We played games everyday, for example “Kahoot”, an online quiz: there was a question on the board screen, and we had to click the answer on our phones (that were connected to the website). We also played games like “Guess the word” or role-plays. We also learnt something about other countries and their culture, and we worked with specific dictionaries.
It was great fun, because I learnt a lot of things and I feel a little moreconfident talking English. I thinkI will repeat the experience again next year, and I hope to meet the people from last year.

 

Smarter English is a project where you have to speak English. Teachers divided us into four small groups of four/five people. Their names were Jon, Nicola, Emily and Ana. They were good and funny teachers. They made us do many activities. The project started at half past eight and it finished at half past twelve, there were three breaks, it started on 3rd September and it finished on 7th September. When the teachers spoke to me in English I didn’t understand what they were saying because they talked very fast, but in the end I was able to understand them. It was a beautiful experience and I had fun.

It was a very good experience. I would like to  do it again!
I had a lot of fun, the teachers were friendly and now I’m better at English.
Thank you!!!

The Smarter English courses were a lot of fun and they really helped me to improve my knowledge of the language. The teachers were very nice and I really liked the roleplays we made because they were quick and good at improvising the dialogues

When the project started I was really bored and I felt anxious, but as the time passed I became happier and more relaxed.
The teachers were very nice and welcoming and my classmates were friendly.
I really recommend this course to other students!

I really liked the week of the Smarter English! It was a fantastic and unforgettable experience because the teachers were very good and funny. It wasn’t difficult and I learned a lot. Jasmine

During the week of the Smarter English course I met new people who were very nice and I was happy because I also had a really good experience. I think that in this language course I learned a lot of new things that I’m sure will be important for my future. I recommend it to everybody!