All courses are designed and delivered in such a way that they are in harmony with Bell Educational Trust's main goals, which are:

• providing high quality language training to consistently high standards
• increasing mutual understanding among people from different cultures / cultural backgrounds around the world and work towards raising the level of cooperation between them
• promoting self-development among course participants and staff

The Principles Underlying Our Courses

We believe that language education and training should:

• be part of a coherent programme with explicit aims within a clear curriculum framework
• involve learners so that they understand the aims of all activities and get regular feedback on their progress
• encompass the use of the language for meaningful communication in real life contexts and the study of formal aspects of language (grammar, semantics, phonology and orthography)
• be enjoyable and rewarding
• extend beyond the classroom and continue independently outside course hours
• encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning and enable them to continue their language development after their course at Bell has finished
• be delivered in a manner appropriate to the learner's level of language competence
• focus on the needs, wishes and interests of the learners based on systematic evaluation and on frequent consultation with the learners
• be subject to principled assessment and evaluation in order to measure learners' performance and obtain feedback on teaching effectiveness
• focus on improving learners' communication skills in the broadest sense, helping them to improve their linguistic, pragmatic and intercultural competence
• be aware and take account of the ever-changing nature of language over time and of geographical and cultural variety

Language Learners

We believe that we need to help learners to:

• be aware of their own language learning needs and goals  
• be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses as learners and their preferred modes of learning
• be aware of themselves as language users in social and cultural contexts, including that of their first language
• develop effective language learning strategies
• take responsibility for their learning, working independently to achieve the objectives they have set for themselves
• feel physically and mentally at ease in a comfortable environment