In the framework of English Skill Up's mission to provide learning opportunities
to Syrians to improve their English, ESU has launched a project called Syrians Speaking
English SSE. It is like an English speaking Club that is hoped to be a great way to improve Syrians' English speaking skills.
Once you have developed a range of vocabulary of around 500 words and
studied the pre-intermediate level of English grammar , we will offer you the space to start
practicing English speaking. SSE project is the best available solution to practice English speaking
with other English language learners. At SSE project, we believe that the
biggest advantage of providing an English Speaking club as opposed to the
formal or traditional English language instruction methods is that SEE Project
will allow Syrians to practice speaking in an informal, relaxed environment.
SSE Project
Objectives
1. Place Syrians who are at an
equal level as much as possible In one group.
We feel that improving English conversation will be best achieved if we have at least 80-75 % of group members at an equal level in
English speaking proficiency. By doing so, we hope to make participants
comfortable to speak up.
2, In every group, we assign a qualified conversation moderator.
A Conversation moderator's role is to make sure all group participants get equal chances to contribute to the conversation. Also, the Conversation
moderator would have the responsibility to handle what topics to cover during
session as planned in the whole course.
3. We don’t urge participants to use Arabic
Using Arabic is a setback for the whole objective of starting an English
club in the first place. We try to make sure the group fully understands the significance
of sticking to only English. We make
this rule a fundamental one by making everyone aware of the fact that we are prepared
to remove any members who use Arabic during the sessions. We apply strict but
fair disciplinary system to maintain this rule.
4. We recruit volunteer native or native-like session moderators
ESU provides the best approach to get participant to be fluent in English by
practicing speaking with qualified and trained native-like English speakers to
increase the value of sessions by a great extent. We will allow the session members a great
opportunity to interact with natural English speakers and thus improve English.
5. Scheduling
ESU schedules group sessions to meet regularly and practice English two
hours weekly. Our approach is based on the notion that practicing English is
all about natural immersion, so the more time members spend, the better they
are going to be. When we start a new group, we ask them to commit to
participating regularly. We remove members who are inconstant and tardy after a
certain number of being absent from the sessions.
6. We limit the group to 5 members
Group size is very important for the success of SSE project. The ideal size
for a group is around 5. This is relatively a small enough group that would
hopefully allow everyone to get around fair amount of talking time during a session.
At the same time, we make large enough group to provide a rich, engaging discussion
on a topic. When making the group too large, this would discourage some participants,
specially the shy ones. At the same time, making the group too small would make
it uninteresting for others.
The next round of SSE sessions will be announced soon!