In-sessional English courses

Improving your skills

Derby Language Centre (DLC) provides free, in-sessional language classes to help you perform better in your studies. You can take them at any point during your time at Derby, whether you are studying for an undergraduate degree or a postgraduate degree.

These sessions will boost your academic English skills and build your confidence, as well as helping you navigate the expectations of UK study. We can support you to give better presentations, improve your academic writing skills, help you to produce reports, essays and literature reviews or provide help with communication skills.

Courses and sessions run throughout the year to help you fully develop your skills. The courses are made up of blocks of one to four sessions.

Certificates are available on completion of each course. These courses are available for international students and/or any student whose first language is not English. Free individual support sessions for help with assignments and coursework can be booked in on Friday mornings, for either a face-to-face or online meeting.

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Communication skills and writing courses

Communication skills

The content of our communication skills classes includes a general overview of good communication skills for study and employment, conversation and discussion to improve spontaneity and fluency of spoken interactions, seminar skills and presentation skills.

Academic writing

We offer courses at two levels: Introductory Academic Writing and Advanced Academic Writing.

Introductory Academic Writing

The content of these courses includes referencing, citation, paraphrasing skills, improving academic vocabulary, and writing style, writing structure, common grammar errors and developing a critical voice.

Advanced Academic Writing and Independent Study Support

Content will include further development of referencing and citation, paraphrasing, academic vocabulary, and style, as well as further developing a critical voice and style, and writing abstracts and sections of your research report.

Join us at our Kedleston Road campus this February for face-to-face in-sessional English courses. Further information including how to book will be shared soon.

On-campus class timetable

Conversation skills

Course	What you'll learn	Details
Conversation skills for life and study in the UK	Improve and develop your conversational English skills for study and life outside of class. Each meet-up will be an opportunity to meet other students, chat about topical issues and learn some everyday English, e.g. phrasal verbs, idioms and colloquial expressions.	Wednesdays 11am - 12pm at Blends Café at Kedleston Road Campus. 4 February 2026 25 February 2026 15 April 2026 6 May 2026

An introduction to academic writing

Course	What you'll learn	Details
An introduction to academic writing	Referencing, citing and paraphrasing Structuring arguments and ideas (sentences and paragraphs) Academic style Critical evaluation vs description	4 week course Wednesdays 1pm - 3pm in N104, Kedleston Road campus. 4 February 2026 11 February 2026 25 February 2026 4 March 2026

Online class timetables

Advanced academic writing

Course	What you'll learn	Details
Communication skills	Improve and develop your discussion, presentation and overall communication skills	Tuesday 24 March 2026 4pm - 5pm
Using referencing and paraphrasing to develop your arguments and strengthen your structure	Develop basic referencing skills so that evidence and paraphrasing don't just appear in your work, but guide the arguments forward.	Tuesday 14 April 2026 4pm - 5pm
AI Research assistance and study support	Introducing positive use cases for integrating AI for ethical research and professional development.	Monday 20 April 2026 9am - 12pm
Becoming critically evaluative in what you say and write	Review how to move forward from thinking critically about what you have read to presenting the critical evaluation in your written and spoken assignments.	Tuesday 21 April 2026 4pm - 5pm
A review of academic skills, including structure and criticality	Review academic skills to act as a checklist before you submit your assignments.	Tuesday 28 April 2026 4pm - 5pm

An introduction to academic writing (online)

Course	What you'll learn	Details
An introduction to academic writing	Referencing, citing and paraphrasing Structuring arguments and ideas (sentences and paragraphs) Academic style Critical evaluation vs description	4 week course Tuesdays 4pm - 5pm 3 February 2026 10 February 2026 24 February 2026 3 March 2026

Structuring essays and reports in an effective and evaluative way

Course	What you'll learn	Details
Structuring essays and reports in an effective and evaluative way	An overview of structure and a focus on writing effective introductions and conclusions A look at how to take the notes and ideas from what you have read to create an essay plan to use to structure the 'main body' effectively	2 week course Tuesdays 1pm - 3pm 10 March 2026 17 March 2026

Individual support

Individual support is available to ask questions or for guidance with assignments.

Fridays 10am - 1pm

Either face-to-face, in the Language Centre (South Tower S203) or online.

Email englishsupport@derby.ac.uk to book an appointment.

More information

For more information, email englishsupport@derby.ac.uk

Please note that we are an advisory and support service and not a proofreading service.

We can offer feedback on things like structure, style and development of arguments and part of this could include some feedback on grammatical use and language accuracy. To do this, we will look at 1-2 pages of work. To get the most from this service, you should indicate which section you want us to focus on and highlight specific questions for us.