English Language Support Team
Moving to a new country is exciting but can be a little daunting - we’re here to offer the best advice and support we can.
What we do
If you’re an international or EU student, you can get support from the English Language Team to improve your language and academic skills. We provide:
- weekly group classes where you will meet other international students and can make new friends while you improve your English skills
- one-to-one tutorials to meet your individual academic requirements.
These classes and tutorials will help you develop your spoken English, giving you the confidence to speak up in class. You can improve your academic writing and referencing skills, or you might simply want to improve your general English to make the most of your time studying in the UK.
How do I join a class or arrange a tutorial?
The English Language Support classes start on Wednesday, 5th October at 14:00 in the Flaxman Building, L301.
Contact the English Language Support Team on ELSupport@staffs.ac.uk or 01782 295928.
Academic Skills Support
Based in our library we have an academic skills support team to help you develop techniques to learn effectively, produce your assignments and improve your work on top of the support from your course academics.
They have online guides for specific subject areas or academic skills topics, taught workshops and one-to-one appointments. They are a great team to go to when you want to enhance and get feedback on your work informally as sometimes your lecturers may not have time to go through a lot of your draft work.
Independent Learning
Generally, in the UK universities, there is an emphasis on independent working which can seem a bit daunting at first but it's really not. You have full support from the lecturers and support staff but you are also expected to spend your own independent time outside of teaching hours to learn, understand and revise the material. The more effort you put in independently the more you will gain from your education!
Academic Structure
The academic structure here can be more holistic as opposed to just exam focused. You are assessed in variety of ways such as essays, presentations, oral exams, practical based activities and more, based on what course you are doing. It is important to participate in all the various assessments with your full potential and not just concentrate your focus on examinations to get the best learning experience!