EC Cape Town English Language School

AY Student of the Month: Serif Türkyılmaz

Claudia — Sat, 25 May 2013 12:06:12 +0000

Congratulations to Şerif Süha Türkyılmaz who is our AY Student of the Month for March!

Read more about this star student on our AY blog!

Class Tutorials – What are they?

Claudia — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:43:27 +0000

Today teacher Warren conducted class tutorials with his Elementary class. What are tutorials and what are their purpose?

Class Tutorials are a vital part of an EC students’ English language studies. Every 4 weeks they are given a chance to evaluate themselves. They reflect on their own progress, where they have excelled and where they still need to develop. Learner autonomy is also assessed and students can highlight what they are doing to increase their progress and improve their learning experience. With that teachers conduct one to ones ( tutorials ) with their student. The self-evaluation is discussed with the teacher and they are given valuable recommendations as to how to continue progressing and maintaining what they have learned. A copy of the tutorial with the self-evaluation and recommendations by the teacher is given to the student for reference.

This is a perfect opportunity for students to voice concerns they may have and ask for guidance and for teachers a valuable moment to discuss anything that may be pertinent to the student. Many more holistic matters are also taken care of, such as home-sickness and culture shock which are real issues and can be detrimental to a students’ experience.

Tutorials are more than just a chat with a teacher, they help to guide and motivate.

Nicoletta

Good Luck to our IELTS students!

Claudia — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:39:15 +0000

Nasreen treated her Ielts preparation class to some delicious eats as 4 are doing their exams today and tomorrow. They have all worked very hard and sacrificed a lot to be here and study with us

On behalf of everyone at EC Cape Town I would like to wish the best of luck to Lionel, Salem, Christophe and Louella.

Make us proud!

Nicoletta

Guided Homework Class Testimonials

Claudia — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:08:10 +0000

Why are we going to the homework class?

I do my homework to improve my Grammar. The homework class helps me to improve my English. It is better to work in the homework class, it is helping to connect with other students.

Ramadan Swead 13/05/2013 – Libyan

There is many answers for this question. Frist of all in homework class you are never fell bore, because usually it home you are lone and this makes you fell bore and this of course makes you to stop, but in homework class you are doing your homework with other students and it is rare you fell bore.

Secondly, usually you ned help to understand your homework and sometimes it home you can’t find help, but in homework class there is always teacher to help you and specially for you. Finally the homework class its really the best place to do your duties and always open for you.

Demoo Ahmed 13/05/2013 – Saudi Arabian / Chadian

I need help with homework, I do my homework to improve my Grammar but it helps to me to improve my English. Is better to work in homework class because need talk to the teacher and I speek more with other EC students not Arabic. We can help one another.

Mohamed Agag 13/05/2013 – Libyan

The Saint Paul’s Students at EC CapeTown

Claudia — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:27:40 +0000

EC Cape Town is giving back to the surrounding area doing what we do best (core value) teaching English.

We have invited some grade school learners to join our After School English Literacy Programme in house at EC.

Meet Imange, Jadin and Eldinalo….smart, motivated and ready to learn! Well done boys

Stationary donated by a Swiss student!

Eastern Food Bazaar with Mark

Claudia — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:33:56 +0000

On Friday 17 May teacher Mark took his pre intermediate class to the Eastern Food Bazaar- a ‘food court’ selling authentic Indian, Turkish & Chinese cuisine, to name a few!. Students will need to write a review of the Eastern Food Bazaar and their meal

Iziko National History Museum with Nicola

Claudia — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:19:45 +0000

On Wednesday 15 May the Pre-Intermediate class went to the Iziko National History Museum with their teacher, Nicola. The topic of their lessons for the week is nature and this was a perfect opportunity for the students to use their new vocabulary while learning about South African wildlife

More pictures on the EC Cape Town Facebook page

City Bowl Market

Claudia — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:23:13 +0000

On Thursday 9 May I took a group of students to the City Bowl Food Market – a gourmet food market based in the city centre with a variety of food traders. We had beer tastings and wine tastings from 9 different South African wine estates. After we enjoyed delicious food from around the world while listening to live music! I would definitely recommend students visit this market!

- Susanne, Intern

Giving Back Day

Claudia — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:23:02 +0000

EC staff spent Saturday, 20 April 2013 helping stock a library for children in Barcelona, Guguletu. The children were delighted to spend a few hours playing games with teachers. The afternoon was ended with a delicious lunch prepared by the teachers for the kids. Another surprise followed – they were presented with gifts of clothing, some even made by one of our teachers, Una! We were blessed with beautiful weather and it was wonderful seeing the vegetable patch (which we planted last year) developing so well. We all agreed that giving children books to assist them with their education IS the best gift we could give on EC’s “Giving Back Day”!

More pictures on the EC Cape Town Facebook page

Free Grammar Class with Alice

Claudia — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:00:05 +0000

That was about two months ago when Nicoletta (DOS) asked me if I was keen on teaching free grammar lessons to Beginner and Elementary students. I didn’t need to think too much about it and told her that I would love to give it a try. I had never taught to a group before and didn’t really know what to expect and how I was going to handle it. Ian showed me the teachers’ hidden place for course books with which I could prepare my classes. I selected one book that I thought could suit the Beginner and Elementary levels and have been working on it for seven weeks now.

My first class was on the verb to be and I had prepared the lesson, games and exercises. Although I was theoretically prepared, I didn’t really know how it was going to go in practice. I stressed out a little just before entering the class, but felt better when I started, oddly.

There were two students for my first class, which was good because it wasn’t too much intimidating and everything that I had planned worked out. The next couple of weeks, 6 or 7 students joined the class, which was a bigger challenge for me. A month later, I was going to give a class on the Present Perfect and 20 students turned up to the class! I didn’t expect this at all and actually ran out of copies.

The students had probably got the information by word of mouth. Besides, because I had personally advertised the class by telling what the content of the lesson was going to be, more students became interested. And needless to say that practically everybody has an issue whatsoever with this good old Present Perfect…

During this 45-minute class, the students are focus and involved in the activities and games. I try to do my best to pass on my grammar notions and I think the students are doing pretty well. Many of them give me optional homework back, which is a real pleasure for me to correct. Thanks to this privileged opportunity, I think I have quite figured out what I am going to do for a living in the coming future.

~Sheetal Makhan / AYC