International students can now learn English with the help of Barclays Premier League stars like Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez and Yaya Toure thanks to Premier Skills English, a program from the British Council that uses the global popularity of football to help students develop their English skills.
For football fans, Premier Skills English provides a fun and engaging platform for students to increase their reading and writing skills, with online activities centred on the most popular sports league in the world.
And it's free!
The activities on offer are accessible for English speakers of all abilities and gives students language skills for use 'on and off the pitch'. Premier Skills features match reports, player profiles and video packages that introduces non-native speakers to English football phrases. And in 'off the pitch', students are invited to learn about the work that Premier League clubs do behind the scenes, giving students the chance to get to grips with English in a business or educational context.
Premier Skills is an international partnership that now operates in 25 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. In addition to learning online, schools and colleges are invited to use Premier Skills material in classrooms too.
With the World Cup just around the corner, has there ever been a better time to mix football and language study?
Photography: Slideshow image by Ronnie Macdonald