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Cactus Foreign Language Courses

Cactus Foreign Language Courses

St Giles is pleased to work in partnership with Cactus Language Training to offer evening & part-time courses in some 13 languages at its schools in the UK.Cactus is the leading provider of language courses and language holidays in the UK and abroad. Their courses cover a wide range of topic areas, vocabulary, grammar and real-life communication skills. St Giles is pleased to have partnered with Cactus to offer courses in 13 different foreign languages at our centres in the UK and Canada.

Visit the Cactus website for course dates, prices and more details.

About Cactus

Cactus specialises in organising language courses for individuals and groups, having done so since 1999 for clients all over the globe and for diverse needs and budgets. With an extensive network of approved teachers and a strong in-house academic team, we are able to design our own courses and tailor a course to suit specific learning needs, anywhere in the world.

The Courses

All Cactus courses are carefully designed and structured to cover a wide range of topic areas, vocabulary, grammar and real-life communication skills. A Cactus Foreign Language Course includes the following elements:

  • Spoken communication to build your confidence in interacting with native speakers
  • Listening and reading to improve understanding
  • Grammatical and sentence structure so you can express yourself accurately
  • Everyday language you can use in real-life situations, both spoken and written
  • Written communication for use in texts, emails, and more traditional writing skills

All Cactus trainers are fully qualified and experienced foreign language teachers with a specialised background in adult education.

The trainers understand that different students have different needs. Their "learner centred" teaching approach ensures that individual needs are met. Classes are taught in small groups by qualified and experienced foreign language speakers, ideal for learning and practising all the 4 skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, with a focus on being able to communicate effectively in the language - the main requirements of today's modern language learner.

All Cactus Foreign Language Courses use a text book, which forms the basis of your study. This is supplemented by a variety of authentic listening, reading and practice materials. No hidden fees - all materials are included in the price of the course.

Click here for more information on our 10 week evening courses at St Giles London Central.

Course details

Languages: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Czech, Hebrew

Levels: Beginner to advanced

Start dates: January, April, July & September

Classes: One 2-hour class on one evening each week for 10 weeks (20 hours total)

Class size: Min 4 / max 12 students

Ideal for: Long-term learning, and those who want to learn the basics or brush up on an existing language before a holiday.

Courses are taught by fully qualified, native speaker teachers who focus on practical language for use outside the classroom. Classes are lively, fun and engaging, employing a variety of teaching methods to practise the main language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Above all they are social, and you are guaranteed to meet like-minded people and leave the classroom feeling confident and inspired!

Book at our specialist evening courses website: www.languagecoursesuk.co.uk.

The Levels

There are 12 levels offered by Cactus. You can use the guide below to see which level you should take:

Beginner 1

You are a complete beginner and have no prior knowledge of the language, with the exception of perhaps a few key words.

Beginner 2

You are a "false beginner" – i.e. you have some prior, but very basic, knowledge of the language, and find it difficult to produce more than a few key words and phrases. Maybe you haven’t used the language in a while and/or want to start at ‘the beginning’.

Beginner 3

You have a very basic knowledge of the language. Your vocabulary is very limited and you have no real understanding of the grammar. E.g. you can introduce yourself, ask simple directions and order food & drink in a café or restaurant.

Elementary 1

You can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and basic phrases, but your ability to communicate is limited and you find it difficult to understand everyday spoken language.

Elementary 2

You can use and understand simple sentence structures and have come across different grammatical structures, but are not confident in applying them correctly/consistently.

Elementary 3

You can produce sentences and formulate, and respond to, everyday questions. You have a basic knowledge of grammatical structures, including different tenses and word order, and have enough vocabulary to 'get by' in predictable situations.

Intermediate 1

You can use and understand simple structures fairly consistently, and can respond to a wide range of questions on familiar subjects.

Intermediate 2

You have a reasonable idea of how the verb system works and an active vocabulary of around 700 words. You can express yourself in familiar contexts, albeit with quite a few mistakes still.

Intermediate 3

You can communicate effectively, if not always accurately, in most everyday situations and could consider working in the country using the language (e.g. bar/counter work, service in cafés, basic office work).

Upper Intermediate

You can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. You can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. You can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. You can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions, and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Advanced

You can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in your field of specialisation. You can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible, without strain for either party. You can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Proficient

You can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. You can express yourself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. You can use the language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. You can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Take the Cactus language level test to find out which course is right for you.