Free language course for early birds

STUDENTS WHO register early with the Hong Kong Community College (HKCC) will be offered a free introductory course for the International English Language Test System (IELTS) in the new academic year.

The free course will be provided by the British Council under an agreement set up between the institutions.

HKCC, affiliated with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), offers various associate degree courses. Successful applicants who complete the registration procedures by Saturday can enrol for free on the course, which consists of 24 hours of class time to be conducted by British Council teachers.

IELTS is an increasingly popular test of English language proficiency, jointly managed by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations, British Council and IDP Education Australia. More than 500,000 tests are taken each year around the world.

IELTS measures candidates' ability to communicate in English across all four language skills - listening, reading, writing and speaking - and is geared towards people who intend to study or work where English is the language of communication.

Unlike TOEFL, which focuses exclusively on North American English, a variety of accents and writing styles are presented in IELTS text materials in order to expose candidates to as many different variations of English as possible.