Welcome to the C1 English Course!

Welcome, C1-Level Instructor!

As one of our top teachers, we are confident that your expertise and dedication will ensure the success of your students as they progress through the C1 (Proficient User) English course. The C1 level represents an exciting and challenging phase for learners, and your role is pivotal in guiding them to advanced language proficiency.

Teacher Expectations:

By the end of the course, your students should be able to:

• Understand and interpret a wide variety of complex texts, including those with abstract, technical, or specialized language.
• Communicate fluently and effectively in both academic and professional contexts, with minimal effort required to find expressions.
• Produce clear, detailed written and spoken texts, demonstrating mastery over advanced grammatical structures and cohesive devices.
• Apply advanced vocabulary and idiomatic expressions in real-world situations, enhancing their ability to engage in meaningful conversations.

Your goal as a teacher is to foster not only the linguistic abilities of your students but also their confidence and fluency, enabling them to handle real-world scenarios with ease.

Course Content Overview:

Throughout this course, you will cover a variety of advanced grammar and communication topics, ensuring that students build the fluency and accuracy needed for real-world communication. Below is the detailed content you’ll be teaching:

1. Mixed Conditionals:
   • Guide students through hypothetical and unreal scenarios.
   • Example: “If I had known earlier, I would have done it differently.”
   • Teaching Tip: Role-play situations or ask students to share moments when they wished they could change the past.
2. Future Perfect & Future Perfect Progressive:
   • Teach students to describe actions that will be completed by a specific time in the future.
   • Example: “By the end of the year, I will have traveled to three countries.”
   • Teaching Tip: Use project-based activities where students make future predictions about their personal or professional lives.
3. Modals of Speculation:
   • Help students express deductions about the past.
   • Example: “She must have forgotten the meeting.”
   • Teaching Tip: Have students analyze case studies or mysteries and speculate about what could have happened.
4. Advanced Cohesive Devices:
   • Transition students into using discourse markers for fluent, logical communication.
   • Example: “On the other hand, I believe we should consider…”
   • Teaching Tip: Engage students in debates, encouraging them to use cohesive devices for structuring their arguments.
5. Nominalization & Formal Writing:
   • Strengthen students’ ability to create formal and concise written structures.
   • Example: “The improvement of the project was significant.”
   • Teaching Tip: Assign tasks where students transform informal texts into formal reports using nominalization.
6. Advanced Verb Tenses:
   • Teach students Future Perfect, Future Perfect Progressive, Present Perfect Continuous, and Past Perfect Continuous.
   • Example: “By this time next year, I will have been working here for five years.”
   • Teaching Tip: Use storytelling tasks where students weave different timeframes into one narrative.
7. Adverb Clauses (Time, Cause, Condition, Concession):
   • Help students connect ideas using advanced adverb clauses.
   • Example: “Although the project was challenging, we completed it on time.”
   • Teaching Tip: Assign tasks where students explain cause-effect scenarios with multiple clauses.
8. Subject-Verb Agreement:
   • Focus on agreement with complex or compound subjects.
   • Example: “The team, as well as the coach, is preparing for the final match.”
   • Teaching Tip: Use error-correction exercises where students identify mistakes in subject-verb agreement.
9. Passive Voice & Causative:
   • Advanced use of passive voice and causative forms.
   • Example: “The project was completed on time.” / “We had the car repaired.”
   • Teaching Tip: Ask students to transform active sentences into passive or causative constructions in real-world contexts.
10. Relative Clauses & Reduced Relative Clauses:

• Teach students how to use defining and non-defining clauses, as well as reduced forms.
• Example: “The man who was sitting by the window is my brother.” / “The man sitting by the window is my brother.”
• Teaching Tip: Have students describe people or situations using both full and reduced clauses.

11. Emphatic Structures (Inversion for Emphasis):

• Teach inversion for emphasis and dramatic effect.
• Example: “Seldom have I seen such dedication.”
• Teaching Tip: Use storytelling or debates where students need to emphasize a point using inversion.

12. Complex Sentence Structures:

• Work on creating long, layered sentences with multiple clauses.
• Example: “Although she was tired, she completed the project, which was due the next day, without any complaints.”
• Teaching Tip: Have students write essays or present arguments, focusing on sentence complexity.

13. Reported Speech (Advanced):

• Teach students how to report speech with complex sentences and backshifting.
• Example: “He said that he had been working on the project for weeks.”
• Teaching Tip: Have students transform direct quotes into reported speech, incorporating tense changes.

14. Advanced Vocabulary & Idiomatic Expressions:

• Focus on idiomatic language and expanding advanced vocabulary.
• Example: “Hit the nail on the head” or “Cutting-edge technology.”
• Teaching Tip: Use role-playing or discussions to integrate idiomatic expressions into conversations.

15. Discourse Markers for Organizing Arguments:

• Teach discourse markers for fluency and organizing complex ideas.
• Example: “On the contrary, I believe…” or “In conclusion…”
• Teaching Tip: Encourage students to use discourse markers in presentations or debates to organize their arguments effectively.

A Couple of Ideas to Keep Classes Engaging:

• Case Studies & Real-Life Simulations: Encourage students to role-play job interviews, debates, or business meetings. This allows them to use complex sentence structures and express themselves fluently in formal and informal situations.
• Project-Based Learning: Give students a long-term project that requires them to use multiple grammatical structures, cohesive devices, and advanced vocabulary. For instance, have them write a detailed business proposal or research paper and present it to the class.
• Peer Feedback: Regularly incorporate peer-to-peer evaluations where students give feedback on each other’s use of advanced grammar and fluency during presentations or writing tasks. This fosters a collaborative and reflective learning environment.

Advice for Success:

• Encourage Active Participation: Push students to take an active role in discussions and presentations. The more they engage, the faster they will internalize the advanced structures.
• Provide Continuous Feedback: Give detailed feedback on their use of grammar, vocabulary, and communication strategies, helping them identify areas for improvement.
• Challenge Them: Don’t be afraid to challenge your students with complex tasks. The C1 level is all about preparing them for the real world, where language use isn’t always straightforward.