Academic skills vs life skills
order thinking skills are essential to success in an international learning environment. International schools and universities expect their students to be capable of using such skills in their studies, particularly in writing essays and contributing to tutorial discussions.
The British Council has been running courses to help young Malaysians develop their language skills to become confident and fluent in English for 30 years. From next year, to ensure its students are fully prepared for their future academic studies, courses for Secondary students (13-17 year olds) will include the development of general academic skills, such as essay writing, developing presentations and debating skills. In class, these skills can be developed through the methodology for teaching the language, and the tasks and activities chosen. For example, students may be asked to analyse some example sentences to understand the underlying grammar patterns before the teacher clarifies their ideas; or students may be asked to evaluate their own or others’ writing to develop a better understanding of how texts in English are created.
Having these skills will enable students to succeed in both Malaysian schools in their English language classes, and in an international English-medium environment. In addition, Upper Secondary students (16-17 year olds) will develop general English language exam skills that will help them as they prepare for the SPM and future studies, wherever these may take them.
To introduce new students to their challenging and motivating courses, the British Council is also offering holiday courses for Nov/ Dec 2016, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare. These holiday courses for 5-17 year olds have been designed by the British Council’s dedicated team of highly-trained teachers to introduce young students to some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays in a range of workshops and intensive courses.
For more information, visit www.britishcouncil.my/kids