Frequent Questions - Please READ

What is this course?

Will I get a Certificate?

How do I sign up for the Certification Exam?

How do I pass the course?

What materials do I need to do this course?

English Unlimited for Spanish Speakers Upper Intermediate
Other recommended materials :
Other resources

How do I study this course?

What is Moodle?

What about conversation practice?

What help can I expect from my tutor?

What is this course?

This course is equivalent to an EOI classroom-based course, but it is mostly taught
online.

Will I get a Certificate?

Not by just doing and passing the course. You will only obtain a valid B2 Certificate
after successfully completing summative assessment referenced against CEF
descriptors (B2 Certification Exam). You will need to score at least 60% of the
marks for each skill (L, W, S, R) to obtain the Certificate.
B2.1 (Continuous assessment) > B2.2 (Continuous assessment) > Certification
Exam > B2 Certificate
How do I sign up for the Certification Exam?
B2.2 students will need to register separately to do this Certification Exam. B2.2
students who fail the course and B2.1 students may also register for the Certification
Exam, but they might be asked to pay a separate fee.

How do I pass the course?

In order to assess your learning, we follow a process of continuous/formative
assessment, by which students will need a minimum of 60% of the total marks,
which are calculated as follows:

80% Assessment Exams:

20% Oral recordings, or class participation (Oral Expression) (EO): (Audio
Files, Links in Google +)
- 3 Monologues
- 3 Dialogues
60% 2 Online Exams with: Written Comprehension (CE), Oral Comprehension
(CO), Writen Expression (EE).
10% Unit Progress Tests (7 Units).
10% Participation. (Google +)

What materials do I need to do this course?

To do both B2.1 and B2.2 Courses you will need to obtain this pack before starting
the course:

English Unlimited for Spanish Speakers Upper Intermediate

- Coursebook with e-Portfolio

- Self-study Pack (Workbook with DVD-ROM and Audio CD)

- Class Audio CDs (3)

You can either buy or download the CDs here: CD1 CD2 CD3
Units 1 to 7: B2.1 Course
Units 8 to 14: B2.2 Course

Other recommended materials :

● a good monolingual dictionary, like Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English
Dictionary, Collins COBUILD, 4th Rev. Ed. edition (2003)
● a comprehensive grammar, like Grammar for First Certificate(this one has got
exercises), Cambridge University Press or Practical English Usage (no exercises, but
an extraordinary resource!), Oxford University Press
● a pronunciation guide for reference and practice, for example English Pronunciation
in Use Intermediate, by Mark Hancock, Cambridge University Press
● other supporting materials:

● English Vocabulary in Use (Upper Intermediate), by Michael

McCarthy & Felicity O'Dell; Cambridge
● Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English (very
useful for writing)
● Collins COBUILD English Words in Use: A Dictionary of
Collocations(very useful for writing)
Collocations in Use; Cambridge (very useful for writing)

Other resources
You can also make use of whatever resources you may come across, like Internet
dictionaries, blogs, webpages, etc.

How do I study this course?

Detailed instructions on what to do will be appearing in the middle section of the
Moodle screen on a weekly basis.

1. Work on the textbook materials (coursebook, workbook, CD-ROM and audio

CD's).
Do one lesson per week. You are strongly advised to follow the sequence of
activities as they are presented in the coursebook, paying attention to all the
instructions:
● vocabulary and grammar: do the activities and check with the
excellent Language Summary at the back of the coursebook; if
 still in doubt, you can get help from your mates or your tutor on
the Google Community.
● reading and listening: do the tasks and check with the texts and
scripts.
do the lesson's workbook exercises.
● prepare the speaking activities and either join the conversation
tutorials online (timetable here) or set up your own conversation
practice group (meet in person or on-line).
● do the lesson's activities in the CD-ROM
2. Send in your exam practice, your writings (Moodle), your oral tasks (Google+) and
other assignments on-line for correction and marking.
Every three weeks you will have completed one unit. Next you must:
1. Do either one oral or writing assignment. The writing assignment is included
in the third lesson of every other unit. For the oral assignment follow the
instructions of your tutor.
3. Take part in our Google+ community as part of your interaction in English
with your course mates.
4. Take part in the online video conversation practice sessions every week or
adopt an alternative method of practising conversation.
5. Take one online progress test after each unit (every three weeks), which will
be marked automatically by the system. It is included in the third lesson of
every unit.
6. Take two online practice exams (January and May).

What is Moodle?
Moodle is a learning management system (LMS) for online courses. We use it as our
virtual classroom, and you are advised to visit in everyday.
It is through Moodle that ...
● you will get detailed instructions from your tutor concerning what, how and
when to do the different activities, both online and offline,
● you will send in assignments and will get feedback,
● you will send your practice exams,
● your work will be assessed and marked; this includes the practice exams, the
online progress tests you will take after every unit and your assignments (both
oral and written).
Moodle is a very user-friendly system that allows students to access all virtual course
materials and activities in one common location. Moreover, it enables synchronous
and asynchronous communication among all classroom members, encouraging
learning interaction and thus promoting the exchange and growth of knowledge.
As you will see, using Moodle is quite easy. You may explore and navigate through
the whole classroom environment without any fears. You will always see where you
are if you have a look at the Navigation Bar / Path (upper left corner of the page).
You can also open more than one browser window.
Important technical notes:
● You may have to allow pop-ups in your browser (for the site
http://moodle.eoicastello.es) for access to many course resources and to be able to
use the chat properly.
● We recommend you to use Mozilla Firefox as your browser, as it has proved to work
better with Moodle.

What about conversation practice?

At present, online courses are getting better and better for learning languages and
help you work on every aspect of the language..., except for one: conversation. We
are quite aware of this and suggest a number of ways you can compensate for it.
The best choice, of course, is for you to join the conversation sessions held on
Google+ once a week (check the timetable here).
If you can't make it to those sessions, then, how can you do the activities in the book
that ask you to ... 'talk to five other students and find out ...', ' work in groups; take
turns to tell each other about your ...' , etc?
There are several options open to you:
● Join an online conversation site.
● Meet course mates online outside of online session hours.
● Another idea we have come up with is posting in our Google+
Community. Of course you won't be really speaking, but it will be your
voice and you can comment as much as you feel like. Every week your
tutor will post something in the community, usually materials dealt with
in the conversation sessions, so that all students can have access to
them.

What help can I expect from my tutor?

Apart from organising the whole course, conducting the online conversation
sessions, monitoring and occasionally posting in our Google+ Community, checking,
marking and sending you feedback on your work and your practice exams, your tutor
will be accessible in two ways:
● Private channels: e-mail and Moodle internal
messages.
● Collective channel: Google+ Community and webinars.
Note that private channels should only be used to discuss specific matters
concerning your personal learning situation.
Also note that your tutor will NOT answer the following:
a) questions which are already answered elsewhere in the system (EOI
Castelló main website http://mestreacasa.gva.es/web/eoicastello/eoicastello
or EOI Online Moodle http://www.eoicastello.es/eoionline);
b) doubts about exercises or the use of English, which must be submitted to
the Google+ Community;
c) questions about certificates, enrolment, etc, which are the domain of the
EOI's administration services (Secretaria): info@eoicastello.es.

Good luck and have fun with the course!