ABOUT THE COURSE
what will i learn?
what level am i?
why uic?

Max students per class	14
Hours per week	20 lessons per week (15 x 60 minutes General English and 5 lessons x 45 minutes making radio programme)
Start dates	Start any Monday (the school is closed for 2 weeks over Christmas and courses start on Tuesdays if the Monday is a public holdiay)
Levels	Intermediate to Advanced levels. Advanced = CAE/ielts 6.0. If your level is higher than this please check with us before you book.
Class times	This course is held in the morning from 0900-12.20 + 12.40-13.25, Monday-Friday

Do you need to really improve your English? Do you want real practice and a way of improving your English much more than in traditional classes? UIC is a language school in Central London and we know from experience that students who come to London want to improve their communication skills, become more confident using the language they already know and learn practical skills which will benefit their lives. The Communication Station is a class which can give you all this – you work in a small group to take on the roles necessary to produce a great radio show and we help you achieve this. We will teach you English skills, general communication skills and more specialised skills, (i.e. editing) to help you really make a difference to your English. The difference in confidence and ability over an 8 week period taking this class an hour a day is AMAZING.

The Communication Station is an organised language learning experience, taught and run from UIC in London. As a part of their English courses with UIC, students take a class involving them making and then broadcasting a radio programme. Students are encouraged to take control over all aspects of the course from selection of topic and music through planning, interviewing, scripting, recording and to final edit. During classes, English skills are developed in a very real environment alongside other practical skills which require language (i.e. editing). The programmes are broadcast every 2 weeks on the school radio website www.uiclondonradio.com

The courses can be taken in 2 week-blocks, at the end of each block the students make a programme during the 2 weeks and this is then broadcast on the Friday at the end of the block. Students can take as many 2-week blocks as they want.

We are also the only school in the world ever to win both the Star Award (voted on by travel agents world wide) and the British Council Award for Innovation in language teaching.

This course is a combination of our morning general English Standard course a special class focussing on conversation - leading to the making of a radio programme. 4 lessons a day. Sample timetable for one block of 2 weeks. If you want to hear the outcome of the course listen to www.uiclondonradio.com. Courses can be any length - a combination of 2 week blocks.

Placing internet radio in context. User generated content. What does it mean in a media context? What communication model does it follow?

Place on timeline. Plan activities for block

Characteristics of Presenters and producers and assigning the roles

Case study of an interview programme question forms, leading questions, developing an interviewee’s answers

Interview practice and interviewing each other

Brainstorm a 30 minute documentary show based on interviewing people – they choose the topic Value system of our audience. Malcolm Gladwell how to choose products

Trial interviews, scripting the questions for the real interviews the next week

Editing process, work flow diagram for production, establishing how to do interviews in an efficient way to aid editing

Interviews, gather material

Listening to the rushes, basic editing, very basic terminology of editing

Pres. Interviews, gather material, production and editing.

SHOW 1 EDITED

This course involves a lot of communicative English and is approprate for students at Intermediate level and above. We make sure you are in the right class from the beginning and spend some time on your first day both testing you and talking to you about your aims. Then we can make sure this is the right class. The level test is grammar, writing and spoken to give us the best idea of your different skills.

You will be given regular tests and tutorials in your class and when the time is right you will move to the next level. There are different ways of measuring progress and predicting where you will be in a certain number of weeks, almost all of our students make faster progress than the national average. Our exam pass rate is above the national average as well. If you would like more information about how much progress you can expect please just ask us.

Learning a language is in many ways just like learning anything, it is best done if you have a teacher who has the experience, skills and resources to help you. At UIC we have the experience to help you achieve your goals - the teachers who work on these courses have expoerience both as teachers and as teacher trainers and can help you continue with your professional development.

UIC is a language school in the centre of London. As well as English we also teach 10 other languages to around 400 people a week. We are accredited by the British Council and ISI (the private school equivalent of OFSTED) and all the languages we teach are inspected. We are also an award winning school, we are the only language school in the world to have won both of the major awards - the STAR Language School in Europe (voted on by travel agents worldwide) and the British Council ELTon award for innovation in English Language Teaching.

So, great location, award winning, accredited and inspected, and many years of successful language learning experience.

UIC is London's Language School