English courses built for Mexico's technological universities

Mexico's technological universities follow national study programs for English. Until now, many of their groups used general English courses and matched them to the program as best they could. We wanted to do better, so we built a new series of courses starting from the study programs themselves.

The series covers both the Bilingual, International and Sustainable (BIS) option and the Traditional track. It is the same platform, the same teachers and the same groups. What changes is that the content now follows the program.

The BIS series

Each BIS course maps to one cuatrimestre of the subject and moves up the Common European Framework levels, from A1+ to B1.

• English 0 BIS (A1+): starts from nothing: the alphabet, introducing yourself, daily routine, the neighbourhood and a first real conversation. It covers the program's introductory unit and leaves the group ready for English I.
• English III BIS (A2): first impressions, negotiating, recounting what happened and explaining how things are made. It works through the third cuatrimestre's three units and closes on an extended report.
• English V BIS (B1): processes, news, work experience and building an argument. It covers the fifth cuatrimestre's five units and ends with a unit devoted to the assessment.

The units follow the thematic units of the program, in the same order, and grammar is taught where the program asks for it. Every lesson carries teacher notes with objectives and answer keys. English I BIS, English IV BIS and English VI BIS are being built for the January cuatrimestre.

The Traditional track

For universities not taking the bilingual route, we applied the same method to the Traditional program, with the scope sized to five classroom hours a week.

• English III (A2): plans, goals, abilities and everyday decisions, covering the third cuatrimestre's two units in its five-hours-a-week form.
• English IV (A2): the past, telling a story and describing a situation, matching the two units of the Traditional track's fourth cuatrimestre.

We are continuing to build out the rest of the Traditional series, guided by the cuatrimestres universities tell us they need most.

How we built them

Each course started with the official program: its units, its order, its grammar and its contact hours. From there, our curriculum team wrote lessons in a context students recognize, added practice that marks itself, and pointed the later courses toward the certification exams many graduates need.

Switching over is simple

There are no accounts to move and nobody to re-enrol. Groups, teachers and reporting all stay as they are. Universities simply assign the course that matches the cuatrimestre.

If you coordinate English at a technological university, contact our team and we will show you the courses from the inside, along with how each unit lines up with your program. The same approach is available to other larger institutions and public programs through Smrt English custom curriculum.