Cambridge Empower Overview

General Information on Cambridge Empower Second Edition

  • Description: A six-level general English course for adult learners, aiming for progress from beginner (CEFR A1) to advanced level (CEFR C1).
  • Components: Engaging materials combined with reliable assessment by Cambridge Assessment English.

Course Features

  • Can Do Objectives: Focuses on practical skills such as talking about past events, making suggestions, and writing opinions.
  • Engaging Content: Motivates learners through interesting materials and structured learning paths.

Writing Tasks

  • Future Food Opinion: Write about future food, e.g., preferences on eating insects vs. lab-grown meat, using phrases like "I think…" or "For me…".
  • Writing About Past Events: Users are guided to use past simple forms to describe events such as New Year’s celebrations.

Grammar and Vocabulary Highlights

Past Simple (Positive and Negative Forms)

  • Past simple forms of "be":
    • Negative: wasn't, weren't.
    • Questions: Was he?, Were they?
  • Example Sentences:
    • "I was in New York yesterday."
    • "We weren't at the party last week."

Vocabulary for Describing Events

  • Past Time Expressions: Words and phrases like "yesterday," "last week," and "two weeks ago" help to anchor time references.
  • Past Event Activities: Words such as music, dancing, shopping, and meeting friends can be used to describe festive activities.

Listening and Speaking Tasks

  • Engage in conversations about past events and present continuous actions, with a focus on making suggestions for future activities.
  • Learning how to ask for and provide travel information: "What time is the next bus/train?"

Understanding Present Continuous

  • Positive Form: "I am studying; she is working."
  • Negative Form: "I am not working; she isn't studying."
  • Question Form: "Is she studying?"

Future Plans: Using "be going to"

  • Express plans by using "be going to" in both positive and negative sentences:
    • Positive: "I am going to travel next month."
    • Negative: "I am not going to work on Saturday."

Examples of Common Actions

  1. Cooking meals together as a social activity.
  2. Going out for dinner or lunch with friends or family.
  3. Making invitations for gatherings.

Practical Application

  • Role-plays: Practicing asking and responding to invitations and suggestions with phrases like "Would you like to… ?" or "Can we… ?"
  • Use of verbs and their specifics, e.g., "to invite, to visit, to study" to enhance vocabulary.