General courses

The Language Centre offers a range of general English courses that will help you to gain confidence and practise the English you had in school.

Which level should you choose?

Courses start at A1.2 level, which is suitable for those who had only minimum English at school or who had English some time ago and have forgotten most of it. They go through to C2 level, which is native speaker level.

There is no placement test for general English courses. The following information might help you decide. The levels are based on the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR).

As a rough guide, the levels we offer are:

• A2 – You are almost a beginner; very little English in school or no practice since leaving school.
• B1 – You had 4-5 years English in school.
• B1/B2 – You had 6-7 years English in school.
• B2 – You did English as part of your school leaving certificate (for Germans - Abitur).
• B2/C1 – You focused on English in school (for Germans - Leistungskurs).
• C1 – You took extra English in school and achieved a good grade. You have used English since leaving school, possibly through time spent abroad or extensive travel.
• C2 – At this level you have probably studied in English or lived in an English language environment. It is the highest level on the CEFR scale.