General English courses in the UK, USA and Canada

At St Giles we understand that different students have different needs. The St Giles "learner-centred" approach to teaching English enables our teachers to meet your individual needs. Courses cover practice in all four skill areas: reading, writing, speaking and listening. However, you will find the focus of our General English programmes is on speaking and listening - generally the main requirements of today's modern English speaker.

A typical General English programme includes:

• Developing and improving your spoken English to make you a clearer and more confident speaker
• Developing your listening and comprehension skills
• Learning and reviewing the basic grammatical structures of the English language
• Everyday English - language that you can use in real-life situations, both spoken and written
• Reading practice and comprehension testing

For all General English courses you will use a text book, which forms the basis of your study. Text books are also supplemented a variety of authentic materials.

Minimum course lengths for General English courses

The minimum course length for General English is 1 week. There is no upper limit, although if you plan to study with St Giles for 6 months or more we would recommend our specially discounted International Semester Courses programmes.

Your Timetable

We offer a range of English programmes throughout the day. Each lesson lasts for 50 minutes, and most classes take place between the following approximate hours:

• 28 lessons per week full day course 09:00 - 15:30
• 20 lessons per week morning course 09:00 - 13:00
• 15 or 20 lessons per week afternoon course 14:00 - 18:00
• 22 lessons per week morning course (San Francisco only) 9:00 - 13:00*
• 22 lessons per week afternoon course (San Francisco only) 13:45 - 17:40*

* Plus two lessons of supervised private study

Actual class times vary by college. Please check current Course Dates and Fees for exact times.