Why not take advantage of the month of July to give your English a boost? This is what the students of the intensive English courses thought. The CEU-UCH offered these summer courses to provide exam preparation for the official B1 and B2 exams. The lessons, taught by the Languages Service team, took place at the Moncada-Alfara Campus over six days. In total, 24 hours of techniques and exam exercises.
This new approach was very well received by the students. Gema Arévalo, who is currently studying Nursing at the University, said: “What I liked the most was that we practised a lot of speaking and listening, which were my weakest skills.” This student enrolled in the B2 class to prepare for the Cambridge First Certificate December exam.
Although Gema does not need the certificate to finish her degree, she is already thinking about her future career. “I do not discount the option of looking for work abroad. The UK, for example, requires many nurses and to have the First Certificate would be a point in my favour.” Asked about the importance of English for her, she added: “Most of the bibliography I need is written in English and many texts have not been translated into Spanish so I consider that I need a basic knowledge of English for my training but also to communicate with patients from other countries as English is the lingua franca”.
The courses were open to both students and staff, as well as people from outside the university. This is the case of Marta Esteve, a student who starts the Baccalaureate in September. “I will now sit an official B1 exam and after a B2 one because I will need to prove my fluency in English to access Medicine in English here at the CEU-UCH,” she said.
Marta was also satisfied with the course. “It has helped me prepare for the exam and has given me plenty of information about CertACLES B1, an accreditation that I had not heard about. The classes have been dynamic and I liked being able to do mock exam exercises but, above all, I enjoyed speaking English with other people.”
