Courses

International House Porto offers a wide range of professional English courses.

These are courses with content and skills practice designed for specific professions, such as medicine, law, I.T., accountancy, engineering, military or hospitality.

What's your area of interest?

---

Top

Legal English

ILEC - International Legal English Certificate

This course covers the most important areas of commercial law, and develops students’ reading, writing, listening and speaking skills as they relate to these areas of law. Appropriate vocabulary is introduced and practised, and differences between general English and legal English are explored. The course covers the following areas of law:

International Legal English Certificate (Univ. of Cambridge) exam preparation

The International Legal English Certificate (ILEC) is an internationally recognised legal English qualification, rapidly increasing in popularity among young lawyers in the Porto area. Although a relatively new exam, ILEC is starting to be recognised as a key differentiating factor among law firms who are increasingly looking to recruit young lawyers with demonstrable English language competence.
Our course completely prepares students to perform successfully in the ILEC exam, as well as covering the most important areas of commercial law. Students are totally familiarised with the exam format, the important evaluation criteria and the key elements for exam success. We develop students’ effectiveness in reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, which are directly transferable to real work situations. For example, students’ quality of writing and clarity of speaking will undoubtedly become more effective.

---

Top

Business English

BEC - Business English Certificates

International House Porto is currently among the most specialized in the area of developing practical Business English language skills, giving a significant volume of training in well-known companies every week.

Our exam preparation courses not only allow students to have a high level of success on the Business English Certificate (BEC) exams offered by Cambridge ESOL, but also make them more fluent in the important contexts related to the field of business.

The BEC, essential for those who engage in business and financial negotiations on the world level, is currently one of the most sought after exams at our school.

The Business English Certificate exams (BEC Preliminary, BEC Vantage, BEC Higher) are internationally recognised and confer any one of three levels on the successful candidate, from B1 to C1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages scale.

According to the needs of course participants, we prepare courses that encompass one, many or all of the following topics:

---

Top

Financial English

ICFE - International Certificate in Financial English

For managers, auditors, economists, consultants, accountants and other professionals in the financial and banking profession, International House Porto can deliver a course of Financial English that strives to develop and perfect linguistic and lexical skills within the context of banking and accountancy.

This Financial English course opens up the possibility for students to take a Cambridge ESOL exam, the International Certificate in Financial English (ICFE), thus certifying their English communication skills, both oral and written.

Some of the topics to explore in this course are:

Training for the International Certificate in Financial English exam

Preparing for the International Financial English Certificate exam not only helps students to be successful at the exam but also makes them more fluent in the contexts related to the financial area. In International House Porto's training, students can develop and perfect their reading as well as oral and written skills, which all relate to this practical context. Students then may become more confident, productive and effective in their professional lives.

---

Top

Preparation for University Admissions Exams into Universities Abroad

IELTS - International English Language Testing System

TOEFL - Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOEIC - Test of English for International Communication

GMAT - Graduate Management Admissions Test

For those applying to university programs at the undergraduate and graduate level of foreign academic institutions, we offer specific, personalized preparation for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and/or the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), helping the candidate take the test with more confidence and obtain a higher mark.

The most popular model of course in this area is individual or small group class sessions of 2-3 students, where personal objectives of the course participants and the skills in which they are having the most difficulties can be developed intensively and on a more individual level. The courses also have a practical component, in which students have the opportunity to evaluate their progress through practice tests under exam conditions so as to guarantee both intrinsic knowledge of the linguistic demands of the exam as well as time limits, format (whether online or on paper) and assorted other pointers that will bring better results at the exam sitting.

---

Top

General English

FCE - First Certificate in English

CAE - Certificate in Advanced English

CPE - Certificate of Proficiency in English

For those students needing a firm base in grammar and an expanded vocabulary, we recommend a General English course. In this type of course, we will focus in detail on those areas of grammar and vocabulary according to student interest and need in order to build their confidence and make them more fluent in their linguistic expression.

Additionally, the fact that these courses can be offered not only in our school, but also in the workplace and with a flexible schedule helps them to fit in with students' availability.

For certification in General English by Cambridge ESOL, there are three available levels to prove a strong range of skills in English: The FCE (First Certificate in English), the CAE (Certificate in Advanced English) and the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English). These certificates confer on the candidate a level of English that allows one to live and work abroad with little difficulty, linguistically speaking. For this reason, this type of certification "opens the doors to the world".