Skills for Life - English
English Courses
Our range of courses are designed to help you improve your understanding of written and spoken English for everyday use. You’ll learn about reading, writing and spelling as well as listening and speaking.
Word Skills Check
This is an easy way to check the skills you already have and see which ones you need to improve. It gives you a great idea of what computer based learning is like.
Once completed it will also help you and your tutor choose the courses that are right for you. It covers a range of topics and will show the learning you need to do before getting the qualification.
A Way with Words
A Way with Words helps you develop the reading a writing skills you use on daily basis. It gives you practical assistance through a range of exercises. There are a number of levels and different sections , so you can pick and choose the parts which are right for you, depending on your ability.
The courses will help you develop:
- Speaking and listening skills – including exercises which help you think about body language, giving clear instructions and getting involved in group discussions.
- Writing skills – using colons, apostrophes and thinking about structure and style.
- Reading skills – from basic understanding of everyday signs through to reading technical text and making summaries of long passages.
This is the perfect course of you find spelling tricky. It will guide you through the basic rules of spelling and help you improve your written English. Based in a department store, the course allows you to wander through the different departments, practicing your spelling as you go.
Spelling it Out
Spelling it out takes a close look at spelling. It gives you hints and tips on how to improve your own spelling, how to spot mistakes and how to remember difficult words, which may be helpful in the workplace.
Checkpoint
Checkpoint is a quick and simple way to practice and improve punctuation skills. It’s a fun course and provides clear rules that you’ll be able to apply to all your writing. You’ll learn to:
- Use capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks correctly
- Group sentences into paragraphs
- Use colons and semi colons
- Use dashes and hyphens
- Use commas in lists and in sentences
- Use apostrophes correctly.
There is also a printable rule book so you’ll never forget what you’ve learnt.
Better Letters
Complete this course and you will be able to write effective letters. The Better Letters course works alongside Microsoft word to help improve your letter writing skills. You’ll tackle both formal letters such as job applications and informal letters to friends. You’ll also be shown how to use email.
Living room
With Living Room you can try out learning before you choose a course. Set in a Virtual living room, you can improve the design of the room by changing wallpaper and furniture and putting up shelves. These tasks will give you good practice in listening to and following instructions.
Word On the Street
In this video the presenter gets himself into some fast moving, fast talking fixes in the street – its up to you to sort them out.