Robert Horsfield
With more than two decades of teaching experience in Japan, more than half of which at Simul, Rob is Head of Instructors, Curriculum Developer, and coordinator for the Preparatory Level Interpretation program.
At Simul Academy, we carefully craft materials that help our students develop the required English skills for pursuing careers in interpretation and translation, and other professional English settings. In an ever-changing world, it is important to keep up with the latest global issues so we use authentic news sources to expose learners to English in current contexts. Using BBC news reports as a starting point, the learner develops effective listening s trategies, incorporating retention and note-taking, so that they can correctly understand and ultimately summarize the key points.
This comes after a detailed look at the language contained within the reports' text and subtext. We encourage the learner to think critically about the content and learn new vocabulary and phrases through context so that they can be applied in other situations. Paraphrasing and shadowing tasks help to reinforce the ability to manipulate the target language effectively with a key focus on accurate reproduction. We provide ongoing feedback and detailed performance analysis of the learners’ production to help them focus on constant improvement, and to move a step closer to their English goals.