GENERAL ENGLISH

When you join MDA College, our professional teachers will help you to understand how you can help yourself to improve your study habits.

We use a variety of different coursebooks, which help you to study at home and organise your learning. Your teacher will also give you extra class work, homework, projects and activities to help you.

If you have any questions about our teaching methods or materials, please contact our administrator or our Operations and Academic Director.

LanguageCert exams are General English exams that are internationally recognised and will prove your language ability. Each level A1- C2 has two exams: a Speaking exam and a Listening, Reading and Writing exam.

We use these exams at MDA College to help you get an English language qualification at every language level. You will need to pass both LanguageCert exams at your level to move to the next level. 

LanguageCert exams are flexible and we can book an exam for you in as little as 10 days. If you want to take an exam, please speak to your teacher and they will help you. 

If you study at MDA College for 12 weeks or more, your exam fee will be included in your course fees. If you study less than 12 weeks, you will need to pay for the exams.

You can find more information about LanguageCert exams at languagecert.org

When you join a course at MDA College, we want to know as much as we can about you, your English learning history and your goals.
Before you begin a course, we will give you an Online Placement Test and a Speaking test. These will help us to understand the level you are before you start, what problems you have with English and help us to make some plans about how we can help you.

MDA Student Portal

All MDA College students will receive an online portal when they join one of our courses. The Student Portal is where you can find your attendance records, your weekly reports from your teacher and privately message your teacher.

You will get your log in details from your teacher or from Zahra at reception once you join the class. You can log into your Student Portal from here, or from the 'Sign in' at the top of this page.

The Common European Framework (CEFR)

We use The Common European Framework (CEFR) to find out your level of English and to help you to progress to the next level. This is also what almost all English exams (IELTS, Cambridge, LanguageCert, Trinity) use to test your level of English.

The CEFR is a list of what students at different levels can do in English. For example, you should be able to understand and give simple directions around a town at A2 level. You will see a copy of each list in your classroom.

For each level at MDA College, your teacher will help you to understand the CEFR for your level, and help you to improve in areas you find difficult. In each report, you will receive a score from our band system. Below Standard (BS) scores mean that you are failing the level. If you get a lot of Below Standard scores, you will need to move down a level. Exceeds Expectations (EE) scores mean that you are scoring very high results for this level. If you get a lot of Exceeds Expectations, you will need to move up a level so you have enough challenge.

To improve English language ability against the CEFR.

To improve confidence in using English in everyday life- teachers will teach positively, to encourage the students, and use real life contexts to help students to be able to use what they learn in the classroom outside. Teachers will aim to use the fact that students are living in the UK as much as possible to encourage integration.

To introduce students to British culture and customs and encourage them to share their own cultures- teachers will teach students about life in the UK and encourage students to share their cultures too.  

To introduce learning strategies and independent learning- students will use a variety of different learning strategies and learn about independent study techniques to help them to become better learners.

To help students to pass the LanguageCert exam for their level- students will develop exam skills and receive an Ofqual-recognised qualification proving their level.