Academic English language support

The Language Centre offers one-to-one support sessions for international students and home students who do not have English as their first language. Sessions are open to Edge Hill students from any of the University’s courses.

The support sessions are not open to home students whose first language is English. These students, however, can receive help with their academic skills by attending the UniSkills workshops provided by Library and Learning Services.

What is academic English language support?

During a one-to-one support session, you will meet online with an academic English language tutor to gain guidance and feedback on a university assignment such as a written paper or an oral presentation. The tutor can give you advice on academic communication and English language use as well as suggesting strategies and resources which can support your studies.

Prior to the support session, you are requested to email a sample of your work to the tutor to review. You may also find it useful to provide the assessment guidelines or assignment brief so that the tutor knows what you have been asked to work on. Samples of written work should be no more than 1000 words. Alternatively, a sample of work could be presentation slides or other assessment piece.

Submit your work sample

Guidance and feedback during support sessions can typically relate to:

• academic writing: structure, organisation, paragraphing, coherence
• integration of literature: synthesising from multiple sources, writer’s voice, citing and referencing
• analytic, descriptive and reflective writing
• academic style: formality, use of grammar and vocabulary
• argumentation and use of evidence
• presentation skills, planning, organisation, signposting, handling Q&A
• seminar skills; presenting, developing a clear argument, responding to arguments

Sessions are 50 minutes long and are limited to two per student per term. One-to-one support sessions take place online via Microsoft Teams.

How do I book a support session?

When booking, please indicate what you’d like to focus on during the session. You will receive a Teams link via email after you have completed your booking.

Remember to email a sample of your work (up to 1000 words for a written assignment) and the assessment guidelines if relevant a minimum of 24 hours before your scheduled session.

If you need any help with booking a session or want to speak about English language support please contact Dr James Wilby