This series of classes, aimed at upper beginner or lower intermediate level students, is themed around travel – learning how to become a real travel agent! Students will develop their English skills and study travel related vocabulary, while also learning about different countries around the world.
Each class is designed to last 25 minutes and uses our interactive slide format – incorporating drag-and-drop activities, matching tasks and more.
- Designed for 25 minute lessons
- Suitable for one-on-one classes or small group classes
- Interactive slides format
- Suitable for students with an A2 English level
Curriculum structure
This series of lessons is still in development. They can be completed in any order, but it is recommended that they are taught in the order suggested:
Teaching tips
- You can use these classes as a stand-alone series on their own, or pick out individual lessons which link to recent core curriculum topics, thus providing more fun extension/ review opportunities.
- Link these lessons to your students’ own experiences, for example asking them about their local city or a recent holiday they went on.
- These classes are intended to be fun – enjoy it!
where and how can i find the b1,b2 and c1,c2 levels? As far as i can see here, i only have access to the A levels.
Hi Khalid, thanks for the message! This course is specifically designed for students with an A2 level of English. We have some other courses for higher levels, e.g. debating, English news reading, etc – you can find these from your member dashboard. Hope this helps! ~Katie
Hey Katie!
I appreciate your response. This clarifies my uncertanties a bit, I come from the iTeach mastercourse and basically have been looking into going into an exam based niche. I guess I assumed going for an “exam based niche” is smiliar to exam preparation which consequently sparked my interest to using the Abridge Academy curriculum. This question might be out of bounds (I hope its not) but would I then have to have a specific specialization for helping the students prepare for the exam after doing the extensive Abridge lessons with them? Or would I then just use the curriculum and end it there?
I have almost 3 years of experience in teaching ESL online but have never went into exam based niches.
Thanks again for your response!
Hi Jessica!
Sure, yeah so firstly I would emphasise that an “exam based niche” can mean very different things for different people.
For some teachers, it simply means using a curriculum like Abridge Academy which aligns well with the CEFR and Cambridge exams, helping their students make progress towards passing these exams over the longer term. Once you have got your students up to the required CEFR level, you can then use the free materials from the Cambridge website just to familiarise students with the format of the exam and boost their confidence before the test. I believe Jess has a training video somewhere in the iteach course where she discusses this. This approach works well for teaching young learners, who often like to work towards low-stakes exams such as the Cambridge exams, but also want a stable teacher who can support them over several years of study (not just intensive exam prep).
For other teachers, they instead focus on exam coaching – teaching students specific techniques and strategies to get the best marks in specific exams. This tends to require a higher level of expertise (e.g. being a former examiner) and you can often charge a bit more for these kind of classes, BUT tbh there isn’t much of a market for this for younger kids. It’s more for things like the IELTS exam which are big, expensive exams students take for a really important goal (e.g. an entrance requirement / visa requirement to study abroad). Also, with exam coaching it can be very seasonal (particularly if you focus on an exam which is only offered or commonly taken at specific times of year) and students may only be looking for a month or two of intensive classes before the exam (resulting in low retention and you constantly needing to advertise to bring in more students). I have done exam coaching myself in the past for the UK GCSE exams and university admissions exams – it pays very well, but just for two months of the year, and you need to have a lot of expertise on your CV to stand out.
This all being said though, it sounds like you have no experience with exam preparation or the Cambridge exams specifically? If so, I wouldn’t recommend promoting yourself as an exam prep teacher (whether that’s long-term general English aligned with the exams, or intensive exam technique coaching). Instead, perhaps focus on where you have existing expertise, qualifications, experience, etc to really stand out 🙂
I hope this helps! ~Katie
Hey Katie!
Thank you so much for the extensive response, it was very thoroughly explained. I apologies for my delay in response, I have been searching for the course where I asked the question for the past two days😅( I am still finding my way through the platform I apologise).
I believe I have a slighlty better understanding now. Yes, you are correct in that I don’t have any experience in cambridge exams, I just have almost 3 years of expereience in teaching ESL online. I have been learning about exam based niches through Jess’ course but I believe what you’re saying is an exam based niche for me, in this case, would be using the Abridge Academy curriculum to help students who wish to take the cambridge test improve on their CERF level so that they take the test? Is that where the exam based niche falls in? Or are you suggesting I completely leave out the Cambridge exam part? Kindly advice. I guess I am just trying to align Jess’ mastercourse with advertsing myself using your curriculum.
However, I will go back to the replay of the course about niches and curriculum in Jess’ course for more understanding. I believe my questions will be answered as I rewatch the videos. I really appreciate your help and prompt responses. I really love your curriculum and hope to subscribe soon as I gain students!
Thanks yet again!
Hi Jessica, thanks for the reply – I’m glad this helped!
Yes, I think in your case it would be difficult to specialise just in exam technique coaching. Instead, you would be best focusing on longer term English instruction, using the Abridge Academy curriculum as it aligns with the CEFR and Cambridge young learner exams. These exams are quite low-stakes for students, so they probably wouldn’t be looking for specialist exam technique training anyway – instead, once your students are at the level to be doing the final preparation for the exams, you can simply use the free materials from the Cambridge website to help build their confidence and familiarity with the format of the test.
I’m sure Jess’ course has some great training, but I would always recommend thinking how to adapt what a coach has taught you to your own situation. I believe Jess comes from a classroom teaching background and had existing expertise in the exams she focused on (which are UK grammar school exams, not ESL exams), whereas it sounds like you have a different background which may suit a different niche rather than exam prep specifically. It may be worth getting some different perspectives on this and analysing your own expertise to figure out where you could best position yourself in the market. I’ll add “how to find a niche” to my list of future webinar topic ideas, as I think this is something quite a few teachers struggle with and many coaches just push teachers towards one specific focus (e.g. exam prep, business English, etc) based on the coach’s expertise without considering each teacher’s background.
I hope this helps! ~Katie
Hello!I hope you are doing well.
Can the Abridge Academy curriculum be used when helping students prepare for the Cambridge tests? Or would I need external resources in order to successfully help them prepare for the exams. I am only starting out in having an exam based niche and I am really so lost in finding a curriculum that works throughout when starting out.
Please help. Thank you!
Hi Jessica, thanks for the message and interest in the Abridge Academy curriculum!
To clarify, the Abridge Academy curriculum is aligned with the CEFR framework. It is not intended specifically as an exam prep curriculum, but instead more to give students a comprehensive, step-by-step language learning experience.
After completing the appropriate levels of the Abridge Academy core curriculum, students would have reached the required English level for the corresponding Cambridge YLE exam (level 2 – starters / level 4 – movers / level 6 – flyers). You can then do more exam technique focused classes to prepare them for the exams and boost their confidence if you wish, e.g. using the exemplar paper materials available from the Cambridge website. I would not recommend seeing exam preparation as the main focus of students’ learning, instead it is important to get them up to the right English level first using a comprehensive English language curriculum such as Abridge Academy, THEN work on exam technique.
Alternatively, if you want to specialise in exam prep specifically as your niche (I’m assuming you have some background in this, e.g. as a former Cambridge examiner?) then you could offer intensive exam preparation classes for students wanting this in the run-up to their exam (i.e. they are having standard step-by-step ESL lessons in school or with another teacher, and just want a short series of classes with you to work on exam technique). However, I wouldn’t generally recommend this as you would have a high student turnover and need to be continually advertising for students. In this scenario though, you would be best using the official exam preparation materials offered by Cambridge.
I hope this helps clarify things. ~Katie