How It Works

This course is designed to be studied over a 6 week time frame. However, as long as modules are completed and passed successfully, there is no time restriction in beginning new modules earlier or spending more time on a module if you are finding it tricky; the course really allows you to work at your own pace! Each student will have access to the course for 6 months from their start date, allowing for time issues, busy lives and balancing acts!

The Crystal Clear English Programme is more than another online English Teaching Resource just designed to improve the learner’s English. Our programme intends to immerse the learner into what life might be like as a healthcare practitioner working in the UK.

We provide vital induction information such as ensuring students know about important organisations: NHS structures, policies and guidelines but we also discuss cultural aspects of the UK, and seek comparisons with students’ home countries to enable differences to be evaluated and assimilated. We believe this will lead our students to a better understanding of the British people, our beliefs, attitudes and values, and whee medical practice fits into this.
Our course also supports those coming from overseas to work here in the UK with their acquisition of Contextual English needed in order to practice medicine and nursing in the UK safely and effectively, and enabling clearer communication with both colleagues and patients alike.

By the end of the Crystal Programme, we believe our students should feel more confident with all four aspects of communicating in English: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. We lead them through a clear explanation of each of these aspects or skills, providing them with tasks to practice, feedback on how to improve and opportunities for discussions with both them, their peers and other practicing eminent doctors. We believe learners do best when learning is interactive and engaging and so as well as written and reading tasks we have included videos to watch, extracts to listen to and webinars to join in.

In addition, we have included some extra curricular tasks within the course for our students to undertake, adding breadth and depth to their studies. These take various formats such as poems, iconic paintings and music and we hope that our students appreciate and enjoy these, as we do.

Ultimately, the aim of our course is to make passing the English exams, such as OET or IELTS, an achievable end result for all of our students. But more than that, we hope it will support learners with understanding the cultural aspects of working in the UK and, therefore, have a greater understanding of the contextual English required to communicate with people, and practice medicine and nursing safely and effectively.

On joining the course most of our students will have some basic English acquisition. They should be able to hold a routine conversation with others in English, write and understand simple texts, make notes given in a lecture or even extract vital information from a longer, but straightforward text. These students understand that this is not enough to be able to practise medicine in the UK. They wish to become more fluent, efficient and accurate in both their spoken interactions and their writing too. Alongside of this, they obviously need to pass their English Tests too!

We can help lead, advise and support them with achieving this aim though our tailored English Programme. We can help them extend their English vocabulary and grammatical constructions, learn how to speak and write more fluently in English using an appropriate level of formality, and provide opportunities to practice the necessary skills for them to feel confident in passing their exams, for example achieving a Level B with the OET, by the end of the course.

So if you are one of those students and this is what you want and need, welcome!

As previously noted, there is much more to living in the UK and understanding our culture than just learning to speak English. During this course you will be given optional extra curricular activities to complete as you wish. These have been designed to broaden your knowledge base and help you understand the British culture in more detail. Each week you will be offered an iconic piece of art, music or literature to appreciate and discuss in the forum, or some popular cultural pieces to enjoy.

We do hope that you use these and find them interesting and stimulating.