In-sessional academic English support
Key information
- Start date
- Attendance mode
- Part-time, face to face, online
- Location
- Russell Square, College Buildings
Course overview
In-sessional courses operate from Learning Teaching Enhancement (LTE) in D18 library. They are designed to help International Students with their academic skills and systems in Academic English, specifically with the four skills of writing, reading, speaking and listening, and the systems of grammar and vocabulary acquisition.
In addition they exist, alongside other areas of LTE provision, to help introduce international students to UK university learning and teaching and assessment approaches. Different countries have very different systems of assessing understanding and some students may be quite unfamiliar with, for example, the UK argument essay or dissertation based approaches, or some of the newer types of assessment- podcasts, blogs, policy papers or video essays, for example.
It can be quite a daunting jump from doing mainly multiple choice tests or short paragraph answers to the assessments required by UK university type assessments. There are four main ways In-sessional support is delivered:
- Workshops (open to all)
- 4 or 5 week classroom based courses with small class sizes either on campus or online (by invitation)
- 1-1 tutorials given over 2 or 3 x 30 minute sessions (by invitation)
- Online materials to access for independent study (open to all)
In-sessional courses, as the name suggests, take place 'in-session', during term time (pre-sessional courses take place before -pre-session-the academic year begins). They begin in the first term after you are fully enrolled as a student at SOAS and operate from the LTE Sharepoint pages.
They are free of charge and non-credit bearing and no formal assessments are made. They exist to support international students on their academic journey and are open to all students for whom English is not their first language (English as a Second Language or ESL students).
Who should apply
Foundation Year, Undergraduate, taught Postgraduate (not ODL), Postgraduate Research, Visiting Research are all eligible if the student is ESL. (IFCELS and Distance Learning students do not have access to these courses.)
Initially, at the start of term, the In-sessional Lead at LTE will contact students who might be interested in taking these courses (towards the end of September) by e-mail and invite them to apply, prioritising those who, from their English language assessments or referrals from academics, might be seen to be most in need of support. These students will necessarily have slightly lower IELTS or TOEFL scores.
So if you are not contacted it means you already have robust levels of English and we would recommend you in the first instance try the Study Skills support which we have on offer for all students. (If you find this support to be not at the level you require then come back to us and we can see if we can help you.)
More about the provision
1. Workshops
The workshops will also be advertised on LTE Sharepoint pages and students are invited to register for these. The workshops will cater for larger groups of students. They will cover the four skill areas of writing, reading, speaking and listening as well as the system areas of grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Some of these will be online and some may be from rooms in SOAS. These will exist alongside the regular Study Skills LTE workshops.
Workshops will be a combination of lecture style input and workshop activities. Q and A is encouraged.
2. Classroom courses
The classroom based courses run five times a year so if you are not accepted initially you can apply again later. These are for smaller groups of 10-15 students and can take place face to face or online. Classes are normally 2 hours per week once a week for 4 or 5 week periods. They are accessed through e-mail invitation.
Classes are designed to encourage free and open discussion with the teacher and other students, to stimulate questioning and critical thinking within a supportive environment. They are a unique opportunity to meet and work alongside students from different disciplines, and backgrounds, which will often cross-fertilize.
Courses take place in blocks:
- Block 1 is term 1 weeks 2-5 (4 weeks)
- Block 2 is term 1 weeks 6-10 (5 weeks)
- Block 3 is term 2 weeks 1-5 (5 weeks)
- Block 4 is term 2 weeks 6-10 (5 weeks)
- Block 5 is term 3 weeks 1-5
There is no teaching during reading weeks or holidays.
3. ESL 1-1 tutorials
From week 6 of the first term, 1-1 tutorials will be offered and students who are invited can apply for these from the LTE Sharepoint pages. These will be offered in 1, 2 or 3 part sessions of 30 minutes each, depending on what is needed by the student. One-to-one tutorials
- The one-to-one tutorials usually take the form of up to 2 or 3 x focused 30-minute sessions which students prepare for in advance
- The sessions often focus on academic writing issues or grammar but they can also be used to help with spoken English skills or reading and listening.
- Students often send work such as essays for review to the tutor prior to the meeting, but please note that this is not a proof-reading service. The tutor might give a close analysis of errors in one or two paragraphs but will not correct your whole essay
- Please note that these should not be confused with academic tutorials or with the regular LTE 1-1 tutorials. The 1-1s are for Academic English (ESL) support and you can apply for these in the same way as for courses on the application form
- Initially you will be invited to attend these by e-mail
4. Online courses
Online self-study provision is self-access and available from the LTE Sharepoint pages. This can be accessed any time of year by anyone who is interested (English as a 2nd language or not!). These are independent study lessons which take about 1-2 hrs to complete for each lesson with 4-6 of these lessons per course.
Office hours
Neil Robbie is available in D18 in the library in person at various times on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and contactable via Teams at any time (0207 898 4815) . Please contact Neil at lteinfo@soas.ac.uk prior to visiting to be sure of an appointment.
Further reading
Structure
Calendar
They are not timetabled like your other courses, so you need to make a note of any courses you are accepted on in your personal calendar. You need to know your academic timetable in full before applying. The courses aim to support you in your academic programmes so work around their structure.
Important notice
The information on the website reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session. The modules are indicative options of the content students can expect and are/have been previously taught as part of these programmes.
However, this information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.
Teaching and learning
Moodle
The SOAS moodle offers a variety of online materials for In-sessional support which are accessible on the Learning and Teaching Enhancement sharepoint pages. These can be accessed once you are enrolled. Also the Skill for Success pages and Study Skills pages from LTE are recommended for your independent learning.
Fees and funding
Free in-sessional courses are open to the following part-time and full-time SOAS student groups
- Certificate and Diploma students
- Study Abroad students
- Foundation Year students
- Undergraduate students
- Postgraduate students
- Postgraduate research students
- Doctoral students
- Visiting Research Students
- In-sessional courses are not open to IFCELS students, Distance Learning students or SOAS staff (unless they are enrolled on a SOAS course).